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Although Christopher was born in South Africa, he has been living in Tasmania since the 1980's. He spent his senior school life at Launceston Church Grammar, where he was a champion cricketer and hockey player. He later gained an Applied Science degree from the University of Tasmania.
In recent years, Christopher has been indulging in his passion for cricket. He’s played at first class level in both Tasmania and in the UK, turning out for county side Derbyshire. This has enabled him to be involved in fly fishing and guiding for twelve months of the year since the early 1990's.
He has now returned to his beloved Tasmania, with the intention of focusing more fully on the multitude of fishing opportunities it offers. Christopher lives on the banks of the St. Patricks River, one of Tasmania’s premier trout streams.
He has an excellent local knowledge of the extraordinarily numerous and diverse Western Lakes, situated in the unspoiled Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. This remarkable system, with its vast number of lakes of all shapes, sizes and depths, offers the opportunity to sight-fish for trout which may extend into double figures in weight. Christopher has spent many years unlocking the secrets of these challenging waters – and has photographs of many trophy trout to show for his efforts.
However, Christopher’s knowledge of fishing in Tasmania isn’t limited to the Western Lakes and the rivers. He’s also dedicated an enormous amount of time to catching trout in other Highland waters and has set out to catch a fish from every waterway inhabited by trout in Tasmnania.
He has also fished in locations all over the world – from the English rivers to Irish Loughs, the sand flats of the Bahamas and Seychelles, mangrove swamps of the Everglades and Northern Australia to the roaring, snow-fed waters of Eastern Europe and New Zealand. This global knowledge of fly fishing tackle and techniques is just one of the qualities that led to Christopher being invited to assist the Australian Fly Fishing Team at the World Championships in Portugal in 2006.
Fly tying is another of his passions and he enjoys nothing more than catching fish on flies that have been designed 'at the vice'. Salt or Fresh water, size 24 to 6/0, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge has resulted in fish falling for his 'own' patterns all around the world.
At home in Tasmania, he has access to some of the best stretches of river including the St. Patricks. This wonderful, free-running gravel-bed stream is lined with majestic willows and features classic streamy runs and great riffles and pools. The St. Pats really fires in summer and through into autumn, with some sublime fishing in late February and early March as the grasshoppers fall onto the water.
More recently, he has been involved in guiding and fishing for Bream. Although often more easily caught on soft plastics, fly fishing for these hard fighting, uncompromising fish can be both challenging and rewarding in the many east and south coast estuaries.
He has appeared on several television fishing programmes over the past few years and has now produced the highly entertaining and informative, 'Tasmanian Fly Fishing Techniques' DVD - the first of its kind in Tasmania.
Christopher is a fisherman in the truest sense of the word. No matter what the species or technique, his relaxed attitude, easy smile and quest for fun means that any day out with him is both educational and entertaining.
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