2015-10-31-Good-Mersey-River-rainbow-WeegenaFishing In Other's Footsteps 31/10/2015

Well wasn't I a fool today as I forgot it was a holiday weekend here when I headed off this afternoon for a session on the Mersey River in what were perfect conditions for trout fishing. It was a very dull humid overcast day, conditions that I love to trout fish in. My first stop was at Kimberley just ten minutes from Sheffield. Once there I saw there were campers set up next to the river, that's when it hit me..''HOLIDAY WEEKEND.'" that meant most access areas are going to be busy for the next three days and won't be worth fishing at all. So I headed on up to Weegena only to find both access areas had cars parked there as well.. I knew of one more spot that may be okay so off I went once more in the hope of finding a spot to fish.

Finally I found an area where I could access the river and there was not a car in sight, that's because it's a long walk to the river from here. After a bit of bush bashing and a long walk through a few open paddocks I was nearly at the river when I noticed a 4wd Ute parked at the base of a steep gravel road.. I couldn't believe it, somebody has Snuck in through the back door.. I wasn't sure if there was just the one fisherman or a couple of them. Upstream or downstream, which way do I go to start my session I thought to myself. Well bugger it, I'm starting right where I am now at the river. I'm going to work my way upstream and hope it's been the right decision. I had only been in the river for ten minutes when I noticed two fly fishermen walking back to the Ute, they had fished this stretch of river that I was just starting to work. Oh well I'm not getting out now and I have fished a river before after it's been fly fished and I've still done okay. That day I caught eleven trout.
I was using the same black fury (black blade) and I had a few non aggressive light hit and misses
On it in the fast water run that I was fishing which was a good sign. I thought with it now being much duller as the cloud had become heavier and lower I decided to change to a copper blade black fury spinner. Good decision it was as I picked up two rainbows in two casts but lost one after it had leapt from the river tossing the lure with a single head shake. These weren't large "bows but at least I had one in the net. It wasn't long after that when I had a small (270gm) brown in the net. This is much better three hook ups in a matter of some fifteen minutes of working the fast water. By the time I had reached the end of this run I had caught and released another two (340gm) browns.
Now I'm into a long wide stretch of medium to slow flowing water, I thought I would just stay in the middle of the river and work the deeper side of it with the little spinner. Another good decision as I caught another two browns and a solid rainbow in this stretch of river. One of the browns went 750gms and was in great condition too, while the other brown went 420gms and the rainbow 430gms. This has turned out to be quite a good session so far, one I'm pretty stoked with.
I had finished with the long run and was now into another fast water run of some 100 meters and here I picked up another brown (380gm), two more rainbows (360gms), hooked and lost three other trout by the time I had reached the end of it. It was now 5.10pm and I'd been in the river for three hours so it was time to head back to the car. In all when I thought my session may be on the poor side, it worked out that "'Fishing In Others Footsteps'" wasn't all that bad after all with having caught and released 6 browns and 3 rainbows plus hooking and losing several other trout.

Adrian


Overcast Conditions

 2015-10-31-Heavy-overcast-conditions-Mersey-RiverWeegena

 

750gm Mersey River brown

2015-10-31-750gm-Mersey-River-brown

 

Good Mersey River rainbow, Weegena

2015-10-31-Good-Mersey-River-rainbow-Weegena

 

Medium size Mersey River brown, Weegena

2015-10-31-Medium-size-Mersey-River-brownWeegena