Gard Saxon, shares his tips and tricks for kayak fishing one of Tasmania’s best mixed bag rivers.
The Swan River, on Tasmania’s east coast, is a waterway well worth exploring, and most, if not all, can be effectively fished from a kayak. Just don’t expect to fish all of it in a day.
The river is easy to access, about 1.5 hours’ drive from Launceston via the midland highway and Lake Leake road. Add a little extra time if coming from Hobart though. There is informal camping at the top ramp, but no toilet or freshwater. Bring your own, and take your own back out.
The seaside town of Swansea is about 10 minutes away, and has shops, a pub, bakery and accommodation including caravan parks, cosy cabins, a modern, cheap backpackers as well as more upmarket rooms or holiday homes to rent. A good range of eateries exists in the small town, again catering to all tastes and budgets.
To the east, and only 15 to 20 minutes from other river access is the township of Coles Bay. This also offers a range of accommodation and eating options, from camping grounds to luxury 5-star resorts. Within kayak carting distance is another campground off River and Rocks road near the mouth of the river.
FISHING OPTIONS
While I haven’t encountered any myself, I’ve read reports of some big sea-run trout from the Swan. Trevally are often caught, as are salmon, mullet and flathead. Flounder are also targeted, usually with a spear. However, if you go to the Swan especially to fish, you’re probably there for the bream.
This river holds good numbers of big Tassie black bream. The only place where my average size would be better is the Derwent in Hobart, but that can be tough fishing with few trips yielding high numbers of fish caught, and fishing in the middle of a capital city isn’t really my idea of getting away for the weekend. If you want to catch a good bag of bream, with a very good chance of some 40-plus cm donkeys among them, the Swan is the place to be.
OPTIONS GALORE
The navigable section of the river is about 18.5 km long, but there is no need to paddle that far. From the campsite at the ramp you can go about 4 to 5 km upstream, and much of it is prime bream water. When conditions are right you may not need to go more than 200 m from the ramp. One of my best trips saw close to 90 bream hit the deck of my kayak over the weekend, all within sight of our campsite. If you prefer to explore a bit, ‘The Cut’ starts about 3.3 km downstream from the ramp. If you enjoy flats fishing you’ll love it downstream from here. There are navigable channels and more shallow water than you can poke a stick at.
This area is called King Bay. It’s almost two kilometres across to the river proper again. Upstream from here the tidal flow is hardly noticeable. It’s probably only 30 to 40 cm between high and low, making for easy kayaking regardless of whether it’s ebbing or flowing. That changes downstream from here, as entering the main channel of the river from the north exposes one to Moulting Lagoon, which is known for large expanses of weed, bream and ducks. Although shallow, this covers a large area, and a lot of water flows in and out of it with the tides. While it holds plenty of bream at times, be prepared to work hard for them in the shallow, weedy water.
Staying in the river itself, as you head further downstream you will come to another obvious area to have a cast. I am of course talking about the many oyster racks, home to delicious entrees and hungry bream. I’m not a big fan of fishing racks, and don’t claim to be any kind of expert. If I do fish them though, it’s with relatively heavy rods and line (up to 12 lb), a 2500 size reel with a near locked up drag, and soft plastics so I don’t cry when a big bream busts my favourite hardbody off.
When the fish are in the racks, they tend to be right in among the structure. Position your kayak so the tide is flowing towards the racks from where you are and allow it to take your lightly weighted offering right into where the bream stalk their prey. A stakeout pole is really handy in this situation. Don’t let your lure go through the other side of the rack you are targeting though as you’ll have no hope of landing your fish.
If I am targeting this area, I launch from the ramp at Yellow Banks road, (via Dolphin Sands road) and only have to go a hundred metres or so to the nearest set of racks. It’s a five minute drive instead of a 6 to 7 km paddle each way.
From Yellow Banks ramp it’s another six kilometres to the mouth. This whole section can be productive, but the tidal flow is strong. If you can’t time your trip to coincide with the tide, consider driving a few kilometres and launching further down. There is beach launching on this side and a ramp on the opposite side at Swanick. Close to the mouth offers a great variety of fish and fishing, with sandy flats, weed beds, deeper channels and back eddies, but it also gets crowded with swimmers and all kinds of watercraft during the holidays.
LURES AND GEAR
Over the 18 or so kayak-fishable kilometres of this river (and many square miles of lagoon) there is a tremendous variety of fishing opportunity on offer. Gear and lures will depend on what you want to do.
Those with adequate skill catch some great fish here on fly gear, using mostly minnow or shrimp patterns. Soft plastics are another good option in the shallower and weedier sections of the river and lagoons. Vibes and other hardbody lures can also be highly effective on the sandy flats near the mouth. Mr Steer’s crabs are popular and can be productive. Above ‘The Cut’, where the tidal flow is gentler and the river gets deeper, vibes and blades can be deadly, especially in the deeper parts, while deep minnows fished close to the edges can also yield some excellent results.
A sounder can be really helpful here in locating fish. People who say, “Teabagging is boring” probably never spent most of the day with the top half of their rod underwater. Further up the river gets shallower and narrower. Vibes will still produce fish in the deeper holes, but minnows or plastics fished hard toward the edges and into the snags tend to find the bigger fish.
If you get sick of catching dozens of 35-plus cm bream (as if that’s going to happen) you can always launch into Great Oyster Bay itself, and catch a feast of calamari and flathead without having to paddle too far. Buy some of the freshest oysters you could want from the oyster guys at Yellow Banks road and whip up a seafood feast that will have your significant other granting a leave pass to came back here any time you like.
What are you waiting for?
Gard Saxon has lived in Tasmania for most of his life. Gard has fished on and off for 40 odd years, but has really been bitten by the angling bug in the last few years since buying his first kayak. Gard fishes almost exclusively with lures, and is learning the art of fly fishing. Gard’s main targets species are bream and trout, although he will chase a feed of flathead and squid to keep the boss in his life happy.
