Only yingina/Great Lake is more popular than Arthurs Lake and then only occasionally. This lake is the bread and butter destination of many Tasmanian trout fishermen. The reasons for this are simple; it has lots of fish and offers lots of way to catch them.

After being closed for three months those with shacks and visiting anglers look forward to the opening of the season with great excitement. Arthurs Lake is a fishery that produces the goods early in the season.  Snow and ice are not unusual for opening weekend at Arthurs and these wintery surrounds make it a special place to fish.

At the moment the fish are waking up from winter.  They’ll be moving slowly searching for food close to the bottom of the lake. It is best to fish deep if you’re out in a boat either casting soft plastics or a sinking fly line and fish slowly. Trolling anglers should try lead core line or deep diving hard bodied lures. Don’t be afraid to try different depths, lures or flies until you find the combination that catches the attention of the fish.

Whether you are drowning a worm or grub, casting a lure or fly or trolling quietly around the timbered shoreline you are in with a chance to catch a fish at Arthurs Lake. There is good access to shorelines around the lake and great boat ramps at Jonah Bay, Pump House Point and the Arthurs Lake Dam wall. For more information, see our Angler Access brochures.

This year we took less than 500 fish from Arthurs for stocking into other waters. Most of the fish trapped were tagged with two plastic tags each. These tags are white and have “IFS” and four-digit number printed on them.

If you catch a fish that has been tagged please get in touch on 1300INFISH or email infish@ifs.tas.gov.au.  We’d really like to know:

• the tag numbers
• whether there is one or two tags on the fish, and
• if you kept or released it

This study will help us start to work out how many brown trout call Arthurs Lake home. Next year, we hope to do a bigger tagging study. We want to count the trout in the lake to make sure we’re doing the best we can for this premium fishery.

Arthurs Lake opens on Saturday 6 of August 2016 until Sunday 30 April 2017.  You can fish with bait, artificial lures or fly.  There is a bag limit of 12 and the minimum length is 220mm.