Meander Musings

There are hills we're willing to die on, and hills we're willing to fish on. On every one, we plant the same flag: We stock exclusively barbless flies. Not because it's trendy, but because we've seen the truth play out on the water—better hook-ups, cleaner releases, and healthier fish. Learn why barbless is the future of fly fishing.

In January 2019 I was in a small sports store in Deloraine looking through the fly patterns before heading up for an overnighter on the Western Lakes. My attention was arrested by a thick Scandinavian accent as a fellow sojourner inquired of the store attendant if the Meander had been fishing well and what fly patterns they would suggest. I couldn’t help but chime in, having recently caught a few good fish and always keen to yarn with a fellow angler. As it turned out, the angler was Santeri from Fly Fishing Team Finland and cutting a long story short,...

Tasmania is a place that gets in the blood. I’m fortunate enough to spend a fair bit of time in the Apple Isle at my Mum’s place in Deloraine. If it wasn’t for the fact that my youngest has a condition that means he needs to be in the close vicinity of medical specialists in the big smoke, it’s probably the place I’d call home. I try to travel there often with the family, so most fishing trips are sorties that last a couple of hours between lunchtime and dinner, or in the early morning or late evening when the...

So there I was. Standing in my jocks and sock on the side of the Tumut River trying to dry out in the winter sun on opening week of trout season.        I was drying out because moments earlier I had fallen in while wading. Which for fly fishermen is a matter of when, not if. My waders were full, but my spirits were high.  I am sure it was a sorry sight to see (if anyone had) but I couldn’t get the smile off my face. Maybe the smiling face of a semi-naked, middle aged man on...

It was in the early 2000s when we began embarking on our annual ‘Mancation’ to the Snowies to spend a few days in the high mountain streams together, learning the nuances of fly fishing, the blind leading the blind. Amazingly, we managed to bumble our way along and learned a bit as we went. We even caught a few fish, enough to keep us coming back anyway. It started out with just Steve and I. We met as teenagers and quickly discovered a shared love for fishing. I’d grown up fishing the saltwater of the NSW South Coast in places...