Brrr ... partial TR (of sorts) Tassie.

No pictures yet, not that I took many. The dashed weather
was appalling much of the time spent in Tassie this year,
and I didn't want to risk exposure of the camera (among
other ... err more personal items 8-)

However, the fish were out in the weather! Polaroiding
the lake shores was very difficult with the low light. Throw
in scudding rain, hail, sleet, antarctic blasts and conditions
could be described as challenging. Sure enough,
rather sickly-looking pale shapes could occasionally be seen
slowly cruising the margins and porpoising through the waves.

It shouldn't have been that surprising, the water
was a relatively warm 12 C compared with an a air temp of 4 C
- with wind chill thrown in I reckon it was -12 C. Certainly
the hoped for caddis hatches didn't eventuate but the fish
were moving and happy to take woollys and the like. Those
cleaned for the pot had a collection of scud and tiny water
beetles size #18 at most, more probably #20.

We were chuffed at getting a brace of fish in those
conditions - and never was the humble "Cup o' Soup" so welcome.
Eventually the enjoyment factor was completely washed away
or more likely frozen. One of my companions quaffed the last of
the hot water "neat" to help dampen his shivering. That done,
we struck out for the truck faster than an absconding lawyer.


It had been raining in one form or another continuously since our
arrival, and now, clear water is pouring out of the surrounding forest
into the lake - and not only in conventional streams, though they are
running hard.

Seeping from the buttongrass edges of the forest, sheets of crystal clear
water two to three centimetres deep flow down to the lake covering
sections of bank perhaps a hundred metres long and twenty metres wide.
The water, having washed away any mud and soil, completes its usual
tricks. While seemingly polishing and enhancing the colour of the
impervious rock and living plants, it penetrates and darkens the
unhealthy grey of long since fallen branches and driftwood. Grasses,
lichens, moss, pink granite rocks, pebbles and fallen leaves appear to be
set in liquid crystal, radiating their colours in a cheerful counterpoint
to the sombre tones of the black clay earth, sodden wood and leaden sky.

Anyhow ...

Steve