During the trout off-season I tend to spend a bit of time chasing bream, to continue getting a fishing fix, and spend time tying flies and dreaming about the trout season to come. It’s a time to spend doing tackle maintenance, stocking up on lures and dreaming up new challenges and goals for the trout season ahead. When the new season comes around I usually spend the first few months targeting sea runners. Sea run trout are simply brown trout that spend much of there lives out to sea and come in to the estuaries for spawning and to feed on whitebait and the other small endemic fishes that spawn in late winter through spring. Mixed in with the silvery sea runners you can also expect to catch resident fish that have the typical dark colours of a normal brown trout as well as atlantic salmon in some of our estuaries that are located near salmon farm pens. Living in Hobart it is quick and easy to do a trip on the Huon or Derwent and is a more comfortable proposition compared to a trip up to the highlands with snow and freezing winds to contend with.
Read more ...With Adrian Webb up our way for a few days, we decided to give the Elizabeth River a smashing session using the Mepps spinners. We arrived at the river at around about 2pm, where we got the gear out of the car, threw on the waders and started walking down the river. We walked a good 2.5km past the Weir, where we worked our way back up the river
The first 1.2km was unsuccessful, with only seeing 4 small trout that were easily spooked. Where I then swapped to a silver Aglia, and cast in to the faster running water where this little fish started playing up! First fish for the day, a nice little brown that was about 200grams. Back in the river he goes. We then walked through a heap of long grass, where Connor had caught a lovely brown that was about 340grams. A few photos and back in to the water he goes. In this time Adrian had caught a lovely brown around the 200gram mark as well.
After giving the elbow a two day rest since the acupunture last Friday I thought I would put it to the test with a short spin session on the Mersey River at Merseylea. I was on the water by around 10.00am which was really not the best time to be starting a session seeing it was warm, clear water and sunny. But I was only here to see how the elbow would hold up. The first run I fished was a long slow flowing section and I didn't spot a fish at all, not even a follow. So it looked like being on the river at this time of the morning exactly what I expected and if I was going to catch a fish today, then I was going to have to work for it. I noticed a chap watching from the bridge some 100 meters behind me and I was wondering if he had wanted to fish this area. The next time I looked around he was gone and I assumed he had gone below the bridge to fish a lower part of the Mersey.
With the wind coming from a variety of directions today I headed on over to the Meander River for a spin session. I arrived there at 1.20pm much earlier than I would normally hit a river, but I new the area I was going to fish would have good shade along most of the 1.5 kms of river from thick vegetation along the river banks. On my arrival I found the river was running around six inches higher than my last trip here as well. It just meant that some of the areas where I cross over will take a little longer than they normally do due to the stronger flow.
Read more: The Meander River fished well, but all small Brown Trout
After bombing out with my sweeps in the Melbourne Cup today I headed off to the Dasher River for a few hours in the hope that it would fair much better than today's sweeps did. Arrived at the Dasher around 3.40pm and after a 30 minute walk I was soon in the river casting the well used little copper black fury spinner into the very tannin coloured water.
Hi folks, I had one of those last minute moments where the moons had aligned and the boss was kind. I had been given a long weekend!!! So as you do, living on the East Coast, you plan a solo trip to fish a river on the West coast for the ever elusive sea-run trout (the grass is always greener they said). This was the time of year to go as the whitebait season is in full swing and willy weather had told me that the wind was going to be calm in the afternoon of Thursday and in the morning hours of Friday. It was on.
Today we were greeted with a medium 10 knot Sth Easterly breeze and another afternoon trip was on the the way. This time it was to be a stint on the Meander River above Deloraine. Once there I was happy to see the river level was down by around 125mms lower than my trip here a week or two ago and it was just about the right height.
Read more: Meander River slow going, plus disaster strikes 2014-10-23
After yesterdays beautiful conditions and an average spin session at Merseylea I thought I would give the area of Kimberley a go. The morning was another cracker a day but I couldn't go until the afternoon anyway not that it mattered too much. As the day went on there was a lot of cloud building up and it was becoming quite humid and these are the types of conditions that I love to fish in. I headed off to the Mersey River and was in the river at Kimberley by 4.45pm and there was not a breath of wind, conditions were perfect. There was the odd light sprinkle of rain but nothing to make one head for cover. I stuck with the little Mepps #00 copper Black Fury as it's been working okay for much of the season so far. There were quite a few fish jumping in most sections of the river and so I new it was going to be a tough session after seeing that. Even the fly fisher will often struggle when the trout are jumping.
Read more: ANOTHER FAIR SPIN SESSION ON THE MERSEY 2014-10-22
Read more: Small reward for the time spent in the Meander River 2014-04-14
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Recently Atlantic salmon seems to be a very hot topic amongst local anglers, especially those in the south of the state in the D'Entrecasteaux area. Northern anglers should take a close look at the Tamar as there are opportunities here as well.
The recent "great escape" has provided a perfect opportunity for fresh and saltwater anglers alike to experience some truly memorable sport. Tasmania's pristine, clean and cool waters are the perfect nursery for the Atlantic Salmon and as our local fish farms produce more and more fresh quality seafood it is a fact that there are going to be tangible consequences.