2010 Liawenee Trout Weekend Report

The weather was perfect for this year’s Trout Weekend in the Central Highlands at Great Lake. The weekend event, which is based on the annual spawning migration of the well-loved wild Tasmanian brown trout, drew a good crowd of about 4000 people over the two days.

Key organiser, Senior Inspector Stephen Hepworth, said that the event had achieved the right balance in terms of the number of people attending and what was being offered in the way of food, facilities and entertainment. There are not many events today that offer such excellent value, useful information and great entertainment that can be enjoyed by the whole family – for free.

Although the weather was cold with temperatures plummeting to well below zero overnight, the sky was clear on both days and the air still. This made conditions ideal for the activities on offer, particularly a helicopter ride over Great Lake and to spot spawning trout from above. The kid’s fish out ponds, which were extended this year, were very popular with at least 500 children having a turn to catch and keep a trout. Over 450 trout were caught over the weekend, which means that not too many of these young anglers went home disappointed. The Service also had two buses operating continuously in a round trip tour of the Canal. Around 1000 people took the 15 minute bus tour down to the fish trap where the Canal empties into Great Lake to see the natural spawning behaviour of the trout.

The Trout Weekend is a unique Tasmanian event, which is a tradition amongst the angling community but over recent years it has been attracting increasing numbers of tourists. The event began informally about 40 years ago with the involvement by anglers as onlookers and volunteers for the Government’s harvesting of wild fish stock. This activity – the harvesting of eggs from wild trout and growing for restocking the public fishery – has been going on for nearly 150 years (since trout were first introduced in 1864) and its legacy is Tasmania’s world renowned wild trout fishery.

The Service would especially like to thank those people and organisations that supported the event this year, including angling clubs, the local highland community and the fishing tackle businesses. We look forward to seeing everyone back again next year.