Spending a couple of weeks in Ulverstone with my old man. It's located between Devonport and Burnie on the North coast. Trout are the favoured fish around here, well, all over Tassie for that matter and the saltwater options are a bit limited compared to the East coast. St Helens is famous for its game fishing and the estuarys between Launceston and Hobart are starting to get a fair bit of exposure for the thumper bream they pull from them but the North coast is pretty tame when it comes to saltwater options.

I guess the fishing around Ulverstone is best summed up by a quote from the fishing column in the local rag - "Cocky Salmon and Blackback are still moving on the coast with some 600gm plus cockies being taken in the Leven estuary". When they are talking about the big ones in terms of grams you know you're not going to get your arms ripped out!!

The Leven is the river that runs through Ulverstone, so with thoughts of tangling with some of these "monsters" i headed down to the local tackle shop and set myself up with a 2kg spin stick and a handful of lures. i've spent a couple of afternoons down on the breakwall now and must admit it's been a whole heap of fun, picking up 3 or 4 fish a session and jumping off dozens of others. .

The fish in the photo is the first one i caught and while i was taking a shot of it a young fella walked by and said 'nice fish mister - what are you going to do with it?" I told him i was going to take a photo and let it go and he looked a bit shocked and asked if he could have it. I was happy to give it to him but after that noticed that most fish of that size were being kept by the other fishos. Must admit that most stuff i've read about the eating qualities of salmon hasn't been too flattering but i've got to say that bled straight away and cooked that night they're OK on the fang . Not something you'd eat instead of a threadie but not bad tucker all the same. A little bit dry, probably the closest i could think of in taste and texture would be a small Trevor up our way.

Going to try and chase some trout next week but for now i'm having a ball slipping down to the breakwall each afternoon - 23 degrees, cloudless sky, daylight till 8.30 pm and feisty little fish -all's good in Tassie



Melv

Nice report Melv, Makes you realise why we live in Darwin....

Eh Melv while ya wondering around down there doing bugger all, which is nothing unusual Ya may as well catch a heap of em and bring em back the mackies would probably smash em. But it's still better than working
PS: At least it's SILVER

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