Meppstas's Pirtek Challenge Report 2017..

[meppstas]

Finally a decent size trout for the Pirtek Fishing Challenge 2017. 19-3-17

It was a perfect morning to start off my spin session chasing a decent size brown trout to enter in the Pirtek Fishing Challenge today. Overcast and a little humid with hardly a breath of wind, just how I like it. Headed up to Weegena and was on the river at first light in what was very low clear water which will make for a tough few hours fishing. I'm hoping for a brown trout in the 40 cm to 50 cm range to have any show of hopefully picking up the mystery length prize. I have no chance of getting the longest trout as the river browns haven't been all that large this season. There are some big browns in the river but they're very cunning and even harder to catch with the low levels and warm water temperatures. I had been hoping we may have had a few inches of rain during the week but it didn't happen.

Water certainly looks fishy...

There were quite a few trout surface feeding and seeing this I new I would be struggling to get into a few trout here today. It looks like the fast water runs will be getting a good workout from me as that's going to be my best chance of getting into a few trout. Well, I fished three fast water runs at Weegena for just one small 260 gm rainbow. I had covered close on 500 meters for one small trout so it was time to get out of the river and try elsewhere. I headed down to the lower reaches of the Mersey River to Merseylea hoping I may do better there. Being a Sunday I was expecting there would be other trout fishers in the area I was heading to, luckily there wasn't a sole to be seen when I got there.
The first fast water I fished gave up a medium size 340 gm brown, still not big enough for my liking so it didn't make it onto the Pirtek brag mat. A little further upstream I picked up another small rainbow as well as another medium size brown. I changed the little aglia over for the Atomic shad 4 hard body as I felt it may attract a larger trout. It did a pretty good job over the next few runs in picking up six nice browns, but still not big enough for me to bother measuring. They were all close to the 40 cm mark but I wanted a trout over that length, it was all that or nothing.

Wide medium to fast water run..

Not long enough for my liking..

Another trout not measured..

As I approached a narrow fast water I noticed a fish break the surface close to the opposite river bank near and overhanging tea tree. A quick flick of the lure just ahead of where I spotted the fish and one turn of the reel It was taken by a solid brown. This was the fish I was looking for and finally I had one on. Once I saw it leap from the river the first time I knew it's in the size range I was looking for, now I just hoped it was well hooked. It made several runs and leaps from the river before I managed to lead it into a shallow flat water near me where I slipped the net under it. After quickly moving a few rocks out of the way so I could lay the brag mat as flat as possible I soon had the brown on it and photographed. This brown went 42 cms from what I could see, had I taken more time to straighten it out it may have made 43 cms. I didn't want to get this fish any more stressed than it already was so I marked it down as the shorter length. It did take me around five minutes to get this fish back to strength before I released it. I sat and watched it as it slowly built itself up a little more before it slowly swam off into the deeper fast water run.

Finally a decent size brown..

Hopefully it's the mystery length.. 42 cms

Brown trout, Mersey River.. (Custom) (Small).JPG (154.5 KiB) Viewed 517 times

Picked it up from close to river bank forward of the over hanging tree..

It's on it's way..

With the sun high now the clouds almost gone and it's getting quite hot so I fished another three medium to fast water stretches of river over 600 meters or so for just one more medium size brown from three hook ups. It was nearly 12:30pm and I was feeling very sore so I called it a day and started my one and a half kilometer walk back to the car. I had started the mornings fishing at 6:45 am and a with catch 10 browns and 2 rainbows in what was a very tough day on the river. Still, I did feel reasonably satisfied with the end result.

Last trout of the day..

Best brown of the session..

** My season tally is now at 545 trout.**

cheers
Adrian

[Lightningx]

Nice report Adrian. Always a great read with very nice pics. I'm glad you ended up with a brown trout in the size range you were after! It's a beauty :thumbsup:

[Nude up]

Great read and even better photos good luck in the pirtek challenge

[Sinsemilla]

Killing it Adrian!

Cheers, Anth