Sad Parting: A Special Bolg Entry.

It is worth a special mention concerning the loss of my best and most faithful lure, my original Huey, which I brought about 5 years ago. The action on this lure was the best and we caught many fish together over the years. On Saturday night while trying out a new spot, a trout hit this lure with such immense force and took off like crazy. In an effort to try and control this fish the line broke and the lure lost. Now there is an empty spot in my tackle box where you used to be. You will be sadly missed and never replaced.

Thanks…..

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Amazing Weather & Fishing!

Weather Stuff:

Sounds like I missed an awesome storm on Friday. Reports so far indicate that the storm activity started around 21:30 and continued until 02:30.

The current pattern is quite interesting with what appears like 2 small lows forming from the cold front which passed over us during the last couple of days. As these lows form, they are pushing cloud back towards Tassie from the east while an active trough system moves in from the west. The is a slight chance that if these systems combine with a little help from some more topical airflow, we could see some more storm activity later this week. The BOM have made no such prediction at this stage, but watch this space.

Fishing Stuff:

Fishing is a funny game. I failed to catch even one fish during October, but so far in November I have caught 14 in two trips. I was able to land another 6 trout on the weekend at Arthurs and Dad landed 4. The fish we managed to get on to were in super condition and fought like nothing else, awesome fun. It was good to see Dad in amongst the fish this time and it wasn’t looking too good for me to start with. Dad had two before I got started. In the last two trips, 22 trout have been caught! Amazing stuff. I spoke to Simon via UHF on Saturday night and he a caught 2, but I don’t have his final tally as yet.

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Fishin' with Me' old Mate, Simon....

Weather Stuff:

A weak upper-level trough is crossing today causing some instability but not enough to create any rain worth mentioning. It still looks like Friday will be quite wet and there may be an outside chance of some storm activity for the NW, especially considering it is Devonport Show weekend. Saturday may see some showers moving thru but things should improve through-out the day as a high moves in.

Fishing Stuff:

Fished the Mersey near Bells Parade on Tuesday night with me’ “Mate” Simon. There were fish moving but not with the activity I’ve seen in the past. All the rain in recent times has produced a poor whitebait run which has affected the sea-runner fishing. Me’ “Mate” managed to hook into what appears to have be a resident trout and not a sea-runner, but we will need to confirm this with AJ, who now has shown some interest in this area of fishing. Spoke to JC and he had no action at the Forth on the same night.

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"Flang"

Weather Stuff:

The progs are indicating that Friday could see some significant rainfalls as a trough interacts with some tropical air moving down from the North. The picture for Saturday is not clear, but I suspect some showers will be present.

The weather word for today is “Flang”: this is when a lightning strike is in close proximity to you and the thunder clap is heard almost instantly after the strike – also known as a “flash-bang” and often equates to “oh crap, take cover!”….

Fishing Stuff:

Hopefully tonight I will get an opportunity to head out and have a go at the sea runners before the rain comes, that’s if they are still about?

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Crook

Weather Stuff:

A weak cold front will move thru tonight turning the winds southerly. But the easterlies will be back by Wednesday and will hang around until Friday at this stage. Conditions have remained relatively stable over the last few days with no weather of significance.

Fishing Stuff:

I have been off sick since the last trip to Arthurs and have not been able to get out for a fish. Simon has been crook as well which has slowed him down. Had an e-mail from Dave the trout hunter and he has this week off. He is heading to Arthurs for 2 nights then to Hobart, after that he’s heading up to Echo, Bradys then onto the comp at Burbury. So it will be interesting to hear the report from this trip. Dave commented that he had heard about the 8 pounder from someone else and that was the reason for the Echo part of his adventures.

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"Arthurs is fishin' well...."

Weather Stuff:

There has been a slight cooling off and a return to a westerly airstream over the last few days. A front will cross tonight followed by a large high which should produce some fine weather until Friday when another front is due.

Fishing Stuff:

Well I made it to Arthurs over the weekend and all caught fish. The combined total for the trip was 12. Dad and Andrew K both caught 2 each and I caught 8 – which is a record breaker for me. Andrew K lost a few through less experience and older gear. He has also learnt about the advantages of a landing net. Dad found the going tough and this created some soul searching but finally he landed an nice trout just under 2lb. Cockroaches seemed to be the bait of the weekend with 8 trout from the 12 being caught on this little black bug. The conditions were ideal with west to south-westerly winds.

With the high moving in mid-week it may be worth heading out in search of a sea runner before the next lot of rain moves in.

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"A Surge in the Flow"

Weather Stuff:

It’s been an interesting period weather wise. The long weekend seen warm, humid, sunny conditions followed by another area of low pressure bringing heavy rain and thunder. It appears that trough will cross tonight which may pick the winds up a little. A high pressure ridge should cross the State tomorrow bringing settled conditions until Saturday arvo when a front is due to cross.

If you manage to get outside on a clear night over the next couple of days, keep ya eye on the sky. The Taurid meteor shower is producing a high number of fireballs, which is unusual for this event.

Fishing Stuff:

I spoke briefly to Simon and he didn’t worry the scorer over the long weekend. He did see 2 trout caught from Arthurs on the brown bomber. I think he mentioned that some gum beetles were present. God willing, I’m heading up to Arthurs tomorrow arvo for a couple of nights and God willing I can catch a fish. JC reported a 2lb sea runner being caught from the Turner Beach side of the Forth Monday night. The fellow caught it on a cobra wobbler of some description.

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The weather bureau says conditions will ease....

Weather Stuff:

I have put my report thru to the BOM regarding the storm on Wednesday night. They are reviewing the all data, so it will be interesting to see if this storm was a supercell or a multicell squall line.

The low deepened dramatically yesterday from 1000hPa to 988Hpa and this caused the strong winds, which affected the south more than the north. Report for the ABC: “Winds have been packing a punch in southern Tasmania overnight and this morning. Wind gusts of up to 93 kilometres an hour around Hobart have brought down trees and blown tiles off roofs”.

A high pressure ridge should cross us Saturday and be in the Tasman by Sunday creating the next NE flow. A low is expected to form over Adelaide and move towards us by Monday. I wonder if this will bring some more storm activity?

Fishing Stuff:

Simon is heading up to the Great Lake over the long weekend. I guess he will be focussing mainly on the Great Lake so it will be interesting to see if the recent rains have brought the fish on? I’m not sure if I will get a chance to fish, I guess I’ll see how things pan out.

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Conditions remain favourable for further severe thunderstorm development.

Weather Stuff:

Well…. what can I say? Last nights storms were excellent! The warm and moist tropical air dragged down from the NT by the trough produced some awesome weather. Here is a dot point description of my obs for last night:

21:45 - I first observed lightning to the NW and West of my position. The frequency was around 1 flash/strike per 10 - 20 seconds. The wind was clam. I observed only infrequent light showers.

22:00 - 23:20 - Observed lightning in all directions including directly above my position at a simular rate as mentioned above.

23:20 - 23:30 - The observed lighting rate dropped and become only apparent to the direct west of my position. Towards the west I observed a "line" type feature in the cloud that was illuminated by the lightning. The line feature stretched from the north to the south of my position. I continued to observe the feature until almost over head. I also observed very low scud cloud to the south-west of my position moving very rapidly from the south-east towards the approaching feature.

23:30 - 23:50 - By about this time as the cloud feature I explained above moved over, the wind turned from light easterly to a strong and gusty westerly in an instant. My wind vain was almost stationary pointing east then with one strong gust it immediately swung to the west. At this time very heavy sheets of rain began hit my position. Hopefully I have this event on video.

23:50 - 00:20 - The lightning rate increased dramatically to a flash/strike every 2 - 4 seconds. Some lightning had multiple pulses that hung in the air then decayed away. Several of these strikes appeared so 'large' that covered much of the observable sky in my position. The thunder did not cease during this time. The rain rate was intense, I have heard something along the lines of 16mm in 10 minutes. This caused some flash flooding in the streets.

00:20 - early hours - The odd rumble could be heard and at times very loud thunder would occur sounding like an enormous explosion - not much sleep to be had.

Some more interesting details are, King Island received some 3.5cm hail – Devonport’s min temp was 17c – Dev’s rainfall ‘till 9am was 33mm.

Today has seen 3 Severe Thunderstorm warnings so far and it’s not over yet, mainly for the south of the state.

Fishing Stuff:
Who’s worried about fishing with all this weather goin’ off? :-)

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Unstable Weather Pattern.

Weather Stuff:

It appears that this unstable weather pattern will continue until at least Friday. The humidity along the NW Coast it rather high, sitting around 95% and last nights min for Devonport was 15C. The BOM is still forecasting thunderstorms for the State, but at this stage the fire has gone out of the current system, but it may heat up more late this arvo.

Fishing Stuff:

"The best time to go fishing is when you can get away". - Robert Traver

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Devonport area had its wettest-ever October!

Weather Stuff:

The stats for October make for an interesting read. The Devonport area had its record highest total rainfall for October: 140.8mm. The previous highest was 126.5mm in 1971.

There is still hope that this next low pressure area will bring some interesting weather. The BOM have forecast thunderstorms for tomorrow arvo and by the looks of the lightning tracker, there is some chance of that happening. Things appear to be warming up ahead of the front with Hobart’s max being in the high twenties tomorrow. I wonder if my summer prediction is going to be wrong?

Fishing Stuff:

Here’s a tip: avoid Lamberts Dam. The Dam contains quite a large amount of algae at the moment and doesn’t look that great.

I can now kiss October goodbye with out catching a single fish for the month!

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