Scamander River – Tasmania’s bream secret by Jamie Henderson
Have you ever been travelling down a coastal highway, boat in tow, family in the back, kayaks on the roof, you whiz through a quint little seaside village and often say to yourself, "I wonder if its worth stopping here?"
Well Scamander is one of those small seaside towns that is definitely worth throwing out the anchors for. Scamander is situated 15 minutes drive south of St Helens on the northeast coast of Tasmania and has always been a popular Tasmanian holiday destination because of its wide, white sandy beaches and fantastic views of the ocean.
In 1825 a European surveyor named John Helder Wedge was the first person to visit the area. He originally named the river Borthwick and the area in which the township would later be built Yarmouth, after the English port Great Yarmouth.
In the years that followed both the river and town were renamed Scamander.
As travel up and down the coast increased, so did the complexities of the many river crossings. The Scamander River mouth is wide and shallow, which posed many problems. It had been a challenge to bridge builders for many years to come up with a reliable solution, until 1865 when Richard Terry constructed a timber bridge; however it later collapsed when a large mob of cattle was driven across it.
A second and third bridge was successively washed away in floods in 1889 and 1911 and many of the following bridges also succumbed to flooding and shipworms with the last timber bridge collapsing in 1929.
A steel truss bridge was built in 1936 and still stands today more as a popular diving platform for the kids to jump off in summer, a great fish attracting structure and a handy place to cast a line from.
The newer concrete bridge that currently carries the Tasman Highway was built alongside this bridge and serves as a great haven for fish around its large concrete pylon bases.
Scamander has another attraction that up until a few years ago was kept as a bit of a local known secret, the town is also located at the mouth of one of Tasmania's premier bream fisheries, the Scamander River.
SCAMANDER RIVER
The Scamander River starts its life high in the hill country around 15km (in a straight line) north west of the township of Scamander. Here it is a small mountain stream alive with wild brown trout slowly winding its way down through the hills and valley slowly building in size until it hits a series of small weirs; the first being a freshwater collection point for the local reservoir supply and a great spot to cast for a trout or two.
The second weir is just above the Upper Scamander Bridge on the way to the Trout Creek Reserve and has been known to be a hot spot for whitebait to congregate and the odd large trout to be seen smashing the schools, the last one approximately 6km from town amongst private farmland and is long been destroyed by floods.
From here down, it's prime bream country and, although as the crow flies this point is only 5.8km from the coast, it offers over 12km of winding tidal river in which to fish. As the river flows down towards the coast it grows larger, deeper and wider all the time offering a wide variety of locations for anglers.
The upper half of the river is generally shallow with numerous small rock bars that flow into deeper holes and sheer rock walls. There are also plenty of fallen tree snags to play in, some even stretching almost right across the width of the river and change from year to year depending on winter water flows and flooding. As you head further down river it gets progressively wider, the corners get deeper and the rock walls become larger with plenty of lure-swallowing tree snags.
From about mid river down the topography changes slightly and overgrown shrubbery and rock faces give way to muddy shallow banks where the bream feed on small crabs and baitfish, these areas can put on some fantastic fishing at times.
