Christopher Bassano
Fishing guide Christopher Bassano explores his favourite fishing-and shares a few tips that will help you discover the world of trout near the sea.
Today is the day I'm going for my 10,000th Tasmanian wild trout since we moved here back in March 2000 & I'm going to catch it in one of my favorite tannin waters. Looking through a few of my past trout seasons records I found that these tannin waters fished extremely well at this time of the season so that's a good enough reason to head there. It proved correct yesterday when I fished a new tannin water, the trout were there and pretty aggressive and with cooler weather and recent rains they'll be on the take today.
After having around 5-6 mms of rain and with the morning being quite humid I thought a trip to tannin waters would be well worth it this morning. I was just about to leave when the rain arrived again so I had to sit around for an hour before heading off. This trip involved a long walk and plenty of bush bashing to reach a new tannin water, one I came across while looking around on Google Earth. With nineteen trout still needed to be caught for me to reach a milestone of 10,000 Tasmanian wild trout I thought the change to a new water may help bring it that much closer and maybe a little quicker.
More lousy weather forecast for the next few days I thought I would get a few hours of trout fishing in today seeing most of the day was going to be reasonably good before the change arrives later on. I was in two minds whether to head over to the Meander River at Meander or to the shorter trip to the Mersey River at Weegena, I chose to head to the Meander River. I was originally going to fish at Weegena then after checking the BOM site to see that the water level at Meander had dropped to a decent wading height helped me decide where to go.
With poor weather forecast over the next few days I thought I would get one more trip into the tannin water before the change arrives, at the moment the conditions were perfect for trout fishing. I wasn't sure how much lower the water level had dropped in the small stream until I arrived (11:45am) to find it was very low and it was going to be quite a challenge chasing the trout. In low water levels the trout are very alert and will dart off with the slightest bit on movement, even when using a lightweight 1.5 gram Mepps spinner is enough to send them heading for cover.
It's been a week since my last fishing session due to a trip to the hospital & today I was finally well enough to head off in the hunt for some wild brown trout. The weather was sitting on 17 degrees when I arrived at my destination, once in the water I knew that I would get a few trout seeing as the water temp was touching seven degrees. The water level was down by around three inches since my last visit but it still had enough depth and flow for a spin session. The Okuma Finesse ULS 6' 1-3kg trout rod couple with the Helios SX20 reel was already set up with the small Mepps #00 gold Aglia spinner and that's what I started the session with.
A light breeze and a forecast temperature had me heading off to fish another tannin water, it's one I had partly fished sometime ago but really would like to fish a lot more of it. Today was the day because that's the area I felt would fish well and give up a few wild brown trout. The water level was around the same as last time, running at a medium to low level and a good rich tannin colour with a water temp of four degrees. There's been some more snow falls in the highlands and we've also had some heavy frosts, that's why the water temperature had dropped two degrees since the last trip.
Beautiful warm (17 degrees) conditions saw me heading off for another spin session in a small stream this afternoon. This trip was one to a stretch of water I haven't fished since the 12th August so with the warmer temps I felt it was time to give it another go. The last trip this area only gave up two small browns, today I'm looking for a big improvement with the fishing. I had a twenty minute walk to where I started the spin session off and found the water was still running at a nice wading height. The water temp sitting on six degrees, a rise of three degrees which was good, three degrees doesn't sound a lot but it is when chasing trout.
The conditions for trout fishing today couldn't have been better with a clear sky and hardly any breeze, it was a beautiful day. I had a few things to do during the morning so I couldn't get to the water until after 2:00pm, I was in it by 2:35, it was still running on the high side and a cool 3 degrees. This trip as like all my trips so far this season was to a small tannin stream, mainly because they're the only ones that are low enough to hop in for a spin session. Not only that, they're giving up a few trout where as reports from those fishing the larger rivers aren't all that flash.
Very cold blustery conditions today and again tomorrow had me thinking there wouldn't be any trout fishing going on for me until around Thursday or Friday. At 1:30pm the wind was only blowing around 10 kph & the air temp was hitting 11 degrees so that was enough to get me off my backside, grab the fishing gear and head of to a small tannin water for a spin session. The large rivers were still running on the high side so really the small streams are my only alternative for now. No sooner had I hit the water at 2:00pm up came the wind, and it hit with force, very strong hard wind gusts that would have been in the 25-30 kph range.
I only realized a few days ago that during the 2019/20 trout season I will be going for my 10,000th trout since we moved to Tasmania back in March 2000.
With a total catch of 8,956 brown trout, 914 rainbow trout & 1 brook trout (total 9,871 trout) to the end of the 2018/19 season I only need 129 trout to reach it.
With 16 trout already caught & released in three trips I hope to catch another 113 by the end of October- early September providing the weather improves.
I have also set myself a target of 600 again for the 2019/20 trout season, same as I set last year & fell 27 short of the target. Will I reach it, who knows but I'll certainly be having a good crack at reaching it. Look forward to getting back into the rivers once the levels drop to a safe wading height and become a little warmer too.
Adrian Webb
PS - If you want to read Adrian's complete tally sheet, click HERE
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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.