South Esk

The South Esk is a very long river, which changes remarkably through its course. The headwaters have a relatively large number of smaller fish which, like their North Esk counter parts, love eating dry flies and small nymphs. As the river flows towards the city of Launceston, it flattens out and provides exceptional sight fishing.

It’s a very clear river, which has good mayfly hatches and well-conditioned fish. Summer floods provide real ‘red-letter-day’ fishing, as fish tail and feed in the newly-created backwaters and side channels.

Autumn usually sees fish feeding heavily on spinners in the calmer conditions of March and April.

Parts of the river have excellent nymphing water, while other areas are slow and deep.  Last season, a client landed a fish of over five pounds which, having been polaroided, accepted a dry fly. This is a very fishy river that screams ‘trout’ at every corner.

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