Lake Pedder
Strathgordon
Anglers Club
Tasmania
The Pedder Trout
A Brief History of Brown Trout
French naturalist De Quatrefages developed artificial fertilisation of fish ova. This was the beginning of the fish culture
1948
The first attempt to ship salmon ova to Tasmania was made by Mr Boccius. But the shipment failed to arrive.
1852
Another attempt was made to ship ova from England to Australia. This also failed.
1860
Twenty five tons of ice were taken on board the steamer Norfolk, together with 100 000 Atlantic Salmon ova and 3 000 Brown Trout ova. Unlike previous attempts, this time the ova were not disturbed during the voyage and seventy-four days later the first successful shipment reached Melbourne. 4000 Salmon ova were left in Melbourne and 400 of these hatched.
1864
On May 4th, at the Plenty hatchery located near New Norfolk, the first trout in the Southern Hemisphere hatched.
1864
A Lake Pedder Brown caught by Kim Cooper
1970s fish
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In September of 1972, 350 000 brown trout were introduced to Lake Pedder
1972
Rainbow Trout were never officially introduced into Lake Pedder. However club records and members photos prove there was a healthy population in various locations of the lake including Wilmot Bay and Strathgordon Bay for many years. It is believed that workers introduced them to the lake in the early years. The last known rainbow trout was caught in Strathgordon Bay in 2007 and in 2009 our own committee member Mick Corner reported catching one in Strathgordon Bay casting off the boat ramp.
2003
As of 2021, there have been no further reports of Rainbow Trout caught in Lake Pedder.
2021
Rainbow trout caught in 1983 in Wilmot Bay, Lake Pedder
Norm Huett and Graham Parker hold the club records for some of the largest trout
caught at Lake Pedder
Norm Huett holds the record from 1976-1977 with a trout weighing 11kg uncleaned (cleaned weight 9.35kg) and measured in length of 800 mm. It was caught from the shore on an over cast Saturday night of the 18th October 1976. It was a female fish containing three eggs and put up little resistance. As Norm said, "It was like winding in a log of wood". He caught it on a fishcake lure using 11IL breaking strain line. When asked what he was going to do with it, Norm said I'll eat her. But as it turned out he decided to have it mounted.
Graham Parker with his biggest catch an 11 kilo (24 Ibs) uncleaned weight) Brown trout caught from the shore of Lake Pedder.
Graham caught the fish at 9.20pm on Tuesday the 19th October, on a fish cake lure, it took him about 25 minutes to land. He said the fish stayed on top of the water and rolled about. The conditions were fine but overcast and he had only been fishing for 2 hours. When he hooked the 24 Ib-er. When asked for the location of the catch he said, "I'll tell you when I leave Strathgordon." The fish was a female and Graham estimates about 3Ib of eggs as she hadn't spawned. The fish weigh 8.2 kilo (18ib) cleaned and was 805mm in length.
