Fishing + Hiking in the Walls of Jerusalem

[desley1]

Hi,

I'm heading to the Walls for 5 night 6 day solo trip next week and would greatly appreciate some itinerary tips. I want to split the trip up with both fishing and hiking and so would be happy to spend more than one night in the same place if there is enough fishing and day walks to be had..

I've got plenty of hiking experience and will be taking the 1:25000 Ada and Cathedral maps + compass..

Basic itinerary, order to be decided

Dixon's to explore the walls - 1 or 2 nights?
Lake Ball
Possibly head east a bit to lakes solveig and lake sally, great fishing I hear!
Lake Meston

As you can see, the plan is very vague at this stage, so any help with an itinerary would be great!

[alanoutgear]

There's a lovely old hut at lake Ball which you can camp near and it looks like a great fishing spot.

Any of the lakes downstream of Lake Ball should be good too - Silver Lake and Lake Sonja, down to Lake Antimony and beyond. Easy walking too if you stay on the western side of the river below Lake Ball, otherwise it's a bit of a scrub bash around Sonja. Hut 5 is on the northwest tip of Lake Antimony and is used by trout fisherman. The hut usually has trout fishing publications in it like FHM and Ralph (something fishy anyway).

Once there, you aren't that far from Lakes Ada and Augusta which are trout waters of world renown and there is a foot pad from Hut 5 to the junction of the Lake Fanny track that will take you Lake Ada and you could get picked up from there if you wanted to.

[philm]

Hi
Have done a bit of research on the Walls and about to do a trip there.If you are heading in from the car park then heard Wild Dog creek camp is not much.
Perhaps head to Tiger Lake - a little out of the way but meant to be great.

We are heading into Dixon's Kingdom - camp for 2 nights and day pack explore for a full day - King David's Peak, Mt Jerusalem etc.

Then going to Lake Meston - camp Northern end
Then Junction Lake and onto Lake Artemis

It depends on how much time you have.

[desley1]

Thanks guys, I was originally looking at making my to lake Ada and then finishing out through Augusta, it really does seem preferable to walking all the way back to Mersey forest rd.. The other issue is getting transport in or out. I've been quoted a not so small fortune by a few companies to be dropped off or picked up from the car park, so for the way in I was planning on taking a bus from Launceston to Mole Creek and then pay someone to take me to the car park.

The way out is a bit more problematic.. I'd hate to have to walk all the way from Meston to Mersey forest rd.. If I was to finish at Augusta is there enough through traffic to reliably hitch out of there?

[alanoutgear]

I'm not a trout fisherman, but if it is in season, they will be everywhere at Ada, Augusta and just about everywhere else if the weather is OK, and sometimes even when it's not. Many do day trips in and out.

There won't be through traffic until you get to Liaweenie as the road into Ada and Augusta via Liaweenie and Bernacchi (where the old Antarctic Training Station is) is a dead end. Depending on the weather (ie if it's good), there should be at least some through traffic on the Highland Lakes road.

I contracted one of the Launceston taxi companies to take me to Lake Ada last year, and yes it was expensive, but not that much different to going into the Walls at Mersey Forest. Phone a couple and get a quote.

[Christine Dennis]

Hi desley1 pleased to hear you are going to walls area soon on a walk/fish trip. going into the walls myself end march with local walk club.
i have just been into lake myrtle to camp o/night. wet drizzly weather saw us walk to lake meston for a look around as we all fish as well. back at our lake myrtle camp, 3 fishermen went to meston just on dark to camp in the great hut which sleeps 4. meston is surrounded by lots of bush, but is shallow, so good for wading. we climbed mt rogoona next morning, and as we were packing up our tents to head out, the 3 fishermen walked back out past our camp and told they had caught 6 nice trout, one being 5lb, on ashley spinners and tassie devils, on spinning rods, and advised us to take our waders if we went in to fish. so just passing on this useful fishing info if you make it to meston. lovely fagus near the hut and really beautiful surrounding bush. enjoy your trip. regards Granny