Another season is coming to an end and the fishing opportunities are getting less and less. There are many good late season fishing destinations, especially in the lowlands. Two great lowland late season lake options in the north, include Four Spring and Blackmans Lagoon. These lakes are well known for their early and late season fishing opportunities. Now is the time!
Four Springs;
Weed growth is slowly dying back and the mayflies are well and truly getting about with some reports of the best mayfly hatch seen in years (in the right conditions). Over cast warmish 12-20 degrees Celsius with a bit of rain and 5-10km/h wind is what you are looking for.
A variety of mayfly emergers and parachute patterns will work in this scenario. With this, we have had some good reports and catches with small Hi Vis CDC deer hair shaving brushes. It gets a bit frustrating in a thick dun hatch when you cannot tell your fly apart from the thousands of naturals on the water. This is where the Hi Vis CDC on the front of the brush really helps (Some may even say that it makes your shaving brush stand out to the fish, helping them hone in on it). There is a good variety of small local designed Hi Vis CDC shaving brushes in different sizes available online and in store. We also have shaving brush flies tied with Dark CDC post. A glary day on a lake, you may think that a Hi Vis FL. Orange or Pink sighter would stand out. This is not necessarily always the case. A dark contrast is often much easier to see on a glary reflection.
Check the flies out here.
Some fish can also be found early morning in and around the edges chasing water boat-man and smelt.
Good to keep in mind to fish some heavier tippet material as there is still some weed growth about and the fish will run you into it. Also the average fish size is definitely on the bigger the side, around 3-6lb.
Blackmans Lagoon
Blackmans Lagoon in the north east is starting to fire up again. Some fantastic quality fish getting about as per usual. Fish can be found on dusk and dawn mooching around the edges. Then as the sun gets up they can be found in the deeper channels between the weed beds and on the drop offs.
I have found the best fly line for land based fishing at Blackmans or any other lakes with wets, is to use a heavy weight forward sink tip line. The Scientific Anglers Titan Sink Tip lines from Sink 5 to intermediate are a great choice. Check out our range here.
Much the same goes for a lot of the highland lakes this time of year. However, by far the best fly choice this time of season, all over the state, is likely a wet fly / Woolly Bugger.
Pop in store or give us a call to get the latest info on what’s working and were its happening.