From the Archives ...
Sea runners - Early Season Excitement - Christopher Bassano
Presented from Issue 100
Considering the world class quality of our sea trout fishery, these fish are not sought after by enough anglers. Sea runners live in the salt water and run up our estuaries and rivers from the start of August to the middle of November. At this time of the year, they are here to eat the many species of fish that are either running up the rivers to spawn or are living in and around the estuary systems. Trout, both sea run and resident (Slob Trout) feed heavily on these small fish which darken in colouration as they move further into fresh water reaches.
The majority of these predatory fish are brown trout with rainbows making up a very small percentage of the catch. They can be found all around the state but it would be fair to say that the east coast is the least prolific of all the areas. They still run up such rivers as the Georges (and many others) but their numbers along with the quality of the fishing elsewhere make it difficult to recommend the area above the larger northern, southern and western rivers.
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I headed on back to fish the dark tannin waters of the Leven River again yesterday.. The river was at the perfect wading height & the weather was spot on, overcast & humid conditions. It was another slow start once again with just the one soft hit on the gold Mepps #1 black fury from a solid brown. It had taken close on twenty minutes when the brown followed the gold black fury from a cast and drift from the opposite side of the river.
I could see the silhouette of a large fish following closely behind the spinner as I let it drift with the flow. I gave the rod a couple of twitches to see if it would get the trout to take the lure. That didn't work until I had the lure and the trout within three meters of me when I gave the lure another light twitch then let the black fury drop which made the gold blade flutter. That did the job the trout took the lure side on, I felt weight on the line as the large brown took hold of the spinner, I quickly raised the rod to set the hooks but missed setting them. For one reason or another it hadn't taken full hold of the black fury, it must have just had the tip of the hook on it's outer lip. All that fish did was give a soft head shake and it was gone.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Leven River
- Hits: 149
I headed off to the Meander River to catch trout number 500 today, something I thought would come nice and quick in the river. Thing is I was pretty slack in getting up to start with and I wasn't in the river until 9:30am after a 1.5 km walk, the sun was well up and full on the clear water. Still feeling confident that my favourite river would give up the fish required I was quick in starting the session of with a Mepps Aglia Furia in a nice free flowing medium stretch of river. Twenty minutes later I still hadn't seen a fish, no follows, just nothing, there wasn't a fish in that beautiful stretch of water. I tried a variety of spinners & even hard body lures, still nothing. I continued spin fishing my way upstream giving the Okuma Helios SX20 reel & Okuma Celilo 6'6'' ULS 1-3kg trout rod a good workout all to no avail, still no signs of any trout. It wasn't until 10:30am when I drew a nice brown out of a shaded area on the left hand side of the river, that trout was only half interested before it turned and moved off. Seeing that trout did give me some hope of catching one here today after all.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 222
After having quite few injections in the lower back and hips this morning I was feeling quite good so decided to head back to the Leven River for another shot a picking up a few more wild brown trout in the afternoon. I had arranged to meet a friend at Gunns Plains who's just made the move from Queensland to Tasmania to start a new life here. It's been 35 years since he last had a fish for trout so today was a big day for him & one he'll remember for some time too as you'll find out when you get a little further into this report.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Leven River
- Hits: 271
Calm, mild overcast conditions had me heading back to have another crack chasing trout in the rocky fast waters of the Meander River. I hit the river at 7:40 am to find it was a little lower than my last trip here, it still had plenty of water coming down. Like most of my trips of late I started off with the lure that keeps on keeping on even though it's now very much worse for wear, the copper blade Mepps #0 Aglia Mouche Noire was the lure.
I only intended to fish a five/six hundred meter stretch of river then move to another area two or so kilometres further downstream. The area I fished was perfect for the cast & drift method and it wasn't very long before I had the first trout hooked and landed. The trout were here but they weren't overly aggressive to start with, they were just nipping at the spinner. I stayed with the copper Mouche Noire lure and by the time I had reached the area I was finishing up I had caught a total of six small browns from nine hookups.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 366
After having around 50 injections in my lower back, hips and left shoulder blade I felt good enough to hit the fast water on the Meander River. Before I left home I put several stick on heat patches on my lower back & took a couple of pain killers as well. Any way I arrived at Meander in thick fog, got the trout wading gear on and headed off to the river. When I arrived at the area I was going to fish I found the river was running a too little high and fast for my liking.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 334
I just love this time of year with it's cool nights & mornings that slowly turn into beautiful still mild Autumn days. It's also a great time of the trout season for chasing trout in the rivers for me as well. It was another cool morning when I arrived at the Meander River for another spin session with the river still flowing at a nice wading height. I started the session off with the lure that has done well on the trout over a few trips and that was the copper Aglia Mouche Noire spinner. The water temperature has now dropped to a cool ten degrees, I'm hoping for more good results like I had in this river on my last trip when I caught & released 15 browns. I was in the river by 7:20 am and it wasn't too long before I had my first trout take the spinner which was good, it was a nice 280 gram brown.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 405
Given it was a beautiful cool & frosty morning I decided to head off for an early spin session to see if I could catch three more trout to reach the 400 mark for this season. It's been a tough one for me so far and being around 120 or more trout down for the same time last season, reaching the 400 mark will make up for my poor season.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 509
With poor weather forecast later on this afternoon & with the conditions being overcast & cool this morning I thought a trip to the upper Mersey River may be worth the trip. Half way to where I was heading I came across some light fog which I didn't mind as it meant there wouldn't be any sun on the water for an hour or two. I hit the river at 7:10 am and the first thing I came across was water weeds & plenty of it. Not the ideal thing one wants to see when lure fishing that's for sure as it restricts the fishing quite a lot.
I was starting the session of with the Mepps #1 March Brown bug spinner to see if it may attract a trout or two, it did the job in the Meander two days ago so why not try it here. The water was clear and glassy, there were plenty trout feeding on a massive hatch of midges that covered the wide slow flowing water ahead of me. With thousands of these small midges floating on the surface as well as in the air, the trout were going to be hard to catch this morning.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Mersey River
- Hits: 313
Read more: Surface feeding trout, not ideal for spin fishing
Seeing as we had a Angling Club fishing day at Huntsman Lake at Meander I thought I'd get a few hours of fishing the Meander River in before heading to the lake. I was still dark when I arrived & headed off through the paddocks on a 1.5 km walk to where I was starting the spin session in the river.
By the time I reached the river it was light enough to hop in and start fishing where I had a couple of follows from a solid brown at the tail end of a long slow flowing run. I tried several different lures but that fish just wasn't in an aggressive mood. The next stretch of river gave up nothing and it wasn't until I reached a nice narrow medium/fast flowing run when I had my first take. A small (280 gm) brown took the Mepps Aglia brown spinner from a cast & drift under the willows close to the river bank, I had my first trout of the morning.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Meander River
- Hits: 256
With some light cloud around this morning I thought I would head over to the Mersey River and have a short spin session before the sun burnt the cloud off. Conditions were quite nice with hardly a breath of wind and the river was at the perfect wading height. As I entered the river (7:40am) I noticed a few trout on the rise just ahead of me so I flicked the Aglia Furia well past the fish and retrieved the spinner back a little faster that the flow.
- Written by Stephen Smith - Rubicon Web and Technology Training
- Category: Mersey River
- Hits: 346
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Hello everyone, I thought it would be a good time to introduce myself.
My name is Stephen Smith and I have been managing the website tasfish.com since May 2009.
It has been an epic journey of learning and discovery and I am indebted to Mike Stevens for his help, support and patience.
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From the Archives ... (last chance)
Tiny creeks and sea run trout - Christopher Bassano
Presented from Issue 105, August 2013
Christopher Bassano fishes over 250 days a year. This interview was recorded just before he headed off to fish for Australia in the World Fly Fishing Championships in Norway 14-17 August 2013.
I live on a small stream and at the start of the season I like to go off on a bit of a discovery mission and fish the headwaters of the creeks and rivers I feel an affinity with.
These small rivers include the St Pats, Meander, Forester, Little Forester and others. The further up you go on these rivers the clearer and lower the levels. They are often less affected by the rain and runoff and you get some good opportunities. Get as close to the source as you can and you will find some good dry fly fishing. Don’t limit yourself to those I have mentioned. Most headwaters will hold trout.
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