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Areas of the lake vary in depth with the deepest water being along the road shore, boat launching area and dam wall and shallower bays, and therefore most productive fly fishing bays, being located either side of the picnic area and along the southern shore of the lake.

How to get there

Huntsman Lake is around an hour south of Launceston and can be reached by following the A5 south from Deloraine and then the C167 to Meander. Continue through Meander and just a couple of kilometres down the road the dam reveals itself. There is a very good concrete double lane boat ramp, a 50 vehicle parking area and toilets which are well signposted and located along the northern shore of the lake and just to the west of the dam wall itself. If your using a boat on Huntsman Lake keep in mind that a 5 knot speed limit prevails thought the lake at all times.

There is also good foot access along the road shore leading to the boat ramp and via the "Dairy" picnic area which is on the north western side of the lake. The "Dairy" picnic area is popular with families and has a good aspect over some of the best fly fishing water on the lake and has some tables chairs and also toilets. Camping is not permitted in the picnic area which has locked gates from around sunset to dawn.

For detailed maps search Falls Creek on Google Earth.

Open season

From the first Saturday in August to the Sunday nearest the 30th April.

Services & facilities available

Other than some picnic facilities and toilets at the "Dairy" picnic area there are no services available at the lake itself. Nearest services including telephone, accommodation, fuel and supplies are at the town of Meander just 4 kilometres down the road.

Target species

When the dam was first established it was electro fished by The Inland Fisheries Service so as to remove the fish that to that time had existed and had been populated in the upper Meander river. The main intention here was to ensure that as the lake was progressively stocked with Brown Trout it would at least initially only be a Brown Trout fishery only. This process has been very successful and to date there are no reports of rainbow trout or other species such as Redfin being taken in the lake even though they still exist in the Meander River below the dam wall. The lake has large numbers of trout and perhaps a little too large as it is increasing producing fish in smaller sizes. The biggest problem is of course available food and it seems that with weed beds limited basically to the areas described as hot spots that growth rates are destined to be slow and limited.

Food chain

Good yabby populations exist in the dam and the dam hosts good hatches of mudeyes and damsel flies. Mayflies are less dominant here than many other Tasmanian lakes but some good hatches do occur. Tadpoles and frogs are prevalent at the margins at times of stable or rising water levels in summer. Caddis exist in good numbers both as nymphs and on the wing and a broad range of terrestrials including: beetles and hoppers find themselves on the trout's menu.

Techniques

Huntsman Lake has been reserved a an artificial lure and fly only lake and has a mixed reputation for producing fish. Whilst on many days results can be outstanding on other days you can struggle to find a fish. Best days seem to be those with either full or broken cloud coverage and when a steady wind of 10 to 15 kilometre prevails. Because of it's protected and slightly more temperate weather conditions the lake is particularly popular in early and late summer when weather conditions on the highland lakes are much more challenging. Having said that keep in mind that Huntsman Lake is almost in the cusp of the Highland ridge line and as such can be very cold particularly when the prevailing wind is from the south or west.

Fly suggestions

It's a complex and evolving fishery where a wide range of flies have proven successful. You could do a lot worse than trying the following techniques and flies as a starting point:

1. Single fly techniques particularly from the shore. Use any of the flies below, match the hatch with emergers, dries or nymphs - try a range of lines and retrieves.
2. Washing line and pulling boobies. Black booby on point or top dropper with smaller buggers or nymphs in the team.
3. Nymphs on point and middle dropper - try slow retrieves - try floating, sink tip and sinking lines.
4. Loch teams made up of the following flies - fast jerky retrieve normally works best but try various retrieves - type five lines normally work well but try other line options.

Top Dropper (smaller than point flies)

Black sparkle bugger
Bibio bugger
Plain black woolly bugger
Mallard and Claret if mayflies around
Kate McLaren if hoppers around

Middle Droppers:

Sunset Tom Jones
Gold Cormorant
Black MK2 woolly bugger
Olive MK2 woolly bugger
Shrek
Fiona
Blob with attitude
Silver surfer

Point flies

Bead head woolly bugger variants:

Black woolly bugger with purple flash
Olive woolly buggers with green flash
Black skirted woolly bugger
Olive skirted woolly bugger
Root beer / black tailed woolly bugger
Shrek
Fiona
Magoo with orange bead
Magoo
Tassi bugger

Other Flies:

NZ Dynamite fly
Black or olive yeti

Hot spots

Hot spots for fly fishing are the bay just south of the picnic area several of the bays along the south west shore of the lake, particularly those with small streams of soaks and of course where the Meander river enters the lake about half way along the southern shore. During beetle hatches tree lined shores and wind ward bays also fish very well. Lake Huntsman has a very good emerging reputation as a top "tailing fish" fishery with any of the shallower shores being worth a look early in the morning or during that period between an hour before and after sunset.

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