Tough introduction to trout fishing rivers..

[meppstas]

I had a father & son from Adelaide get in touch with me to see if I could take them trout fishing on a river here in Tassie. It was his son's 14th birthday and young Oscar has always wanted to catch a wild trout in a river. I told them I was only too happy to take them when they come down here. Now neither of them had ever done any spin fishing for trout before so it was going to be a challenge for both of them. They arrived here last week so two days were arranged on two different rivers with both days having a 6:00 am start on each river.

Light rain to start with..

Day one was a perfect morning with overcast skies and light rain on and off for the first hour or so and fish rising in most flat water stretches of river. I knew it would be a tough session as soon as I saw the trout surface feeding on midges. I had them start their trout fishing in the wide slow flowing run where the trout were rising mainly to give them a few lessons on where to cast the lures and how to work them in a river. They were pretty excited seeing the trout sipping the midges from the surface, but disappointed when I told them they wouldn't catch any surface feeding trout. After an hour of teaching them a few different cast and retrieves I said we would now move into the fast water as that's were we'll have the best chance of catching a trout and more than likely it will be rainbows.. Well we fished over a kilometer of river for just the five hook ups, one being a solid brown that I hooked and lost and the others were all rainbows with the best one going 510 gms. I managed to catch every fish today which was a shame as they both gave it 100% in trying to catch a trout.

Aaron having his first cast...

Oscar working the spinner..

Solid 510 gm rainbow..

Three rainbows hooked with two being landed..

Day two was another beautiful morning and we were on the river by 6.15 am in what was cool conditions to start with. The first stretch of river things were a little quiet, but the next stretch of medium flowing water fished really well. I picked up one rainbow and three browns in it while the father and son still kept trying as hard as ever to get onto a fish. We were all using the same spinners as well before I changed to the Atomic shad hard body lure which caught the trout. I did tell them to change to the hard body lure but they stayed with the spinners. we fished on for another couple of hours and managed to pick up a few more browns. I caught three browns one on hard body & the others on the copper black fury and Aaron (the father) caught his first ever wild brown trout and was stoked. I felt sorry for young Oscar not picking up a fish and it wasn't from not trying either. he listened and did everything I told him but luck wasn't in his favor on the day. They are returning to Tassie again in October for another crack at the trout..

Father & son giving it 100%..

Aaron with his first wild brown trout..

beautiful conditions..

One of the browns that I caught..

cheers
Adrian

[Lightningx]

Nice report Adrian! That 510g rainbow is a beauty. Hopefully young Oscar will get onto his first wild trout next time he visits. Really nice pics as always :thumbsup:

[happyfriggincamper]

Good on you for giving your time and effort to them both - really commendable of you and speaks volumes about your character.

Shame that the young bloke didn't get on and the father was limited in success. Makes you wonder if it's luck, or how much confidence and experience travels from the reel, through the line, lure and to the trouts mouth!

[meppstas]

I'm only too happy to help out with teaching and taking someone trout fishing as it's a great sport and a real challenge each and every trip one goes on.
The 510 gm rainbow that I caught was in a small section of water that Aaron had already fished but he didn't work it enough and was lobbing the spinner short of a bubble line that was running through it. So he was probably a little unlucky there, but that's lack of knowledge of working every bit of water. A couple of times the young fella was in to much of a hurry to get to the next section of fast water too. I did tell him to work every bit of water in front of him, but he's young and probably just wanted to catch his first trout. The same thing has happened with other young trout fisher's that I taught as well. After a few trips they soon settle down and it all starts to fall in place for them.
Being their first time in a river trout fishing had a lot to do with it as they didn't have the experience in casting a lure to within 10-15 cms from the opposite river river bank on the second day. That's where I picked up most of my browns from.

cheers
Adrian

[happyfriggincamper]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown as to why you think they missed out on fish, had some good take-aways from that myself :thumbsup: . Cheers, Chris

[meppstas]

Thanks for that, always glad to help anyone anytime..

cheers
Adrian

[barra mick]

Great read again

At least next trout trip there better off
Bm

[meppstas]

Yes Bm they will be, they came over with a couple of cheap telescopic combo's which I felt weren't right for trout fishing the river. I picked one up and it didn't feel right in the hand at all.. I had a couple of 6' rods in my shed that I use for bait fishing for trout every now and then early season so I set those up for them to use. I put a closed faced Daiwa gold reel on for the young fella as to make his fish trip to a river that much easier. Hopefully when they return they'll have listened to me and get rods & reels I told them too. Have to wait and see..

cheers
Adrian..