After being out of action for a week due to lower back pain and a pulled muscle near the left shoulder blade I finally had a two hour session on the Mersey River this morning. It was mainly overcast with a light Easterly breeze, quite good weather conditions to be on the river even if the wind was from the East. Once at the river it wasn't all that long before I was in it flicking the little gold black fury around in the crystal clear water. Every now and then I noticed a trout on the rise in a long medium flowing stretch ahead of me so the trout are about which was good to see. Now it's just a matter of trying to catch one. As good as the two fast water runs that I fished first up looked really good they never gave up anything which was disappointing.
- Not one fish here at all..
As I moved onto the next run I flicked the spinner through a couple of small flat waters that were behind a few large boulders and picked up two small (260 gm) browns. I was now halfway into fishing the next fast water which up to now had been pretty quiet when the little black fury was taken by one very solid fish. This hooked fish was some twenty five meters away so I wasn't sure if it was a brown or a rainbow that was hooked. Being a wide shallow fast water I was thinking rainbow trout, but still not sure. It did break the surface some distance away but I still couldn't see what it was. It was putting up one hell of a fight and I new it was a decent trout what ever species it was. When I it was around six meters away it made a leap from the river and that's when I could see it was a nice size rainbow. Another two leaps from the river and several more runs every which way it was slowly starting to tire which was a relief. But with any river fish they're never beaten until they're in the net, even then they still carry on. It took me another couple of minutes before I managed to lead this beautiful rainbow into the net. This was one very solid fish and my best rainbow taken this season as well as being my second best wild river rainbow trout. This fish went 740 grams which is a good 'bow for a river here in the North of Tasmania. After a couple of quick photos then five minutes spent getting it back to full strength it was on it's way.
- Fast water...
- My second best wild rainbow trout taken in the Mersey River..
- Rainbow taken here..
- And it's back in the river..
- The little black fury that did the job today.. (it's actually and Aglia that I stuck a black fury sticker on)
- Two meter high grass, not over keen walking in it..
cheers
Adrian
