Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
This Gone Fishing Day, Tasmanians are encouraged to pick up a fishing rod, get out, explore and join Australia’s biggest fishing event.
Tasmania is recognised as having pristine local environments and Gone Fishing Day marks the beginning of warmer weather and the lead up to the new sea fishing licensing year.
While there won’t be as many organised events this year due to COVID-19, there’s still plenty of ways Tasmanians can celebrate fishing today and over the coming months.
The Inland Fisheries Service is offering a free fishing day today where an angling licence will not be required to fish in inland waters, which is a great opportunity to grab a friend and try trout fishing.
Anglers Alliance Tasmania (AAT) and the Inland Fisheries Service are also coordinating a free state-wide Junior Angling Day as part of Gone Fishing Day. There will be a number of junior angling venues across Tasmania stocked with fish by AAT and run by local angling clubs for juniors 17 years of age and under.
The Tasmanian Tagged Trout Promotion is also on now, giving anglers the chance to catch one of five $10,000 tagged brown trout that have been released into lakes around Tasmania.
Gone Fishing Day is also a time to reflect on the importance of recreational fishing to the Tasmanian way of life.
Tasmania has some of the best recreational sea fishing in the world with over 100,000 recreational fishers, and to help shape our recreational sea fishing future, we are developing the State’s first Recreational Sea Fishing 10-year Strategy.
Tasmanians are invited to have their say and I encourage all Tasmanians to download the Strategy Discussion Paper available at www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au/rec-strategy and provide feedback by 25 October 2020.
