Slow start, but a good finish 2016-03-08

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Sea run trout tactics – Craig Vertigan

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.

Slow start, but a good finish 8-3-2016

Humid conditions again today saw me heading off to the Meander River this afternoon in the hope of adding a few more trout to my season's tally. I thought I'd try a different area today, one that's fished reasonably well on other trips. Started off using the copper black fury without any success, then tried a Rapala, and after that a black bladed black fury. All I could manage over the first 600 meters of river was two follows and one light hit & miss. Things weren't looking all that good and I'm thinking it's not going to be a good day on the river.

I changed over to a gold black fury and it all turned around, the fish came straight on to it. I soon had four browns caught & released over the next thirty meters of river. It just kept getting better in each section of fast water I fished. I was really starting to feel the effects of the five hours in the river from yesterday and I thought I'd give it away at the next open space in the heavily overgrown river bank. I kept on catching a few more fish as I made my way to an opening where I finally got out of the river. My tally for the 2-1/2 hour session was fifteen browns from nineteen hook ups in what turned out to be a reasonably good session after all. It was a slow start, but a good finish at the end of it.
** This takes my seasons tally to 597 trout....

Good run of fast water