Tough going chasing trout on the river.. 2-10-17
At last we have a fine sunny day with a light breeze with a top temperature of 19 degrees forecast, so I headed off to the the river once again. The reason I headed there was because all the other rivers that I fish are still running too high and fast making them are unsafe for wading at this stage. I thought I would fish further upstream to where I did the last time I fished this river, mainly to see if there was a good number of trout in the upper reaches. When I arrived the river was running at a nice wading depth but it was also dirty which surprised me because it's always a nice tannin colour. It wasn't clear enough to fish here so I headed further upstream past an area that was being logged and that's where the river was being stirred up. Log trucks were crossing a section of river and this was the cause of the dirty water.
I found a small area where I could park the car, then it was only a matter of some bush bashing to reach the river, I felt it wasn't all that far to the river so I was on my way. Well the river was further in than I first thought, the first 300 meters was reasonably thick bush until I reached a massive wall of tea trees. From there I had to crawl on hands and knees for around 70 meters before I finally came to a small opening and spotted the river. It was well worth the effort I put in to reach the river too because it was such a beautiful scenic area and I felt I was the first human to have set foot here. The one thing I noticed straight away was that there was the need for some accurate casting as there's certainly some tight areas ahead of me and plenty of fallen trees too.
- A tough point entry to find the river..
- Hands & knees through this for around 70 meters..
- Finally reached the river..
The fishing isn't go be all the easy this trip, so I'm hoping I'll be rewarded with a few wild browns over the next few hours. As usual I started off working my way upstream with the little #00 gold bladed Aglia spinner all to no avail for the first fifteen minutes. Not a sign of a trout so far, things weren't looking good at this stage. Was all that hard work of getting to the river going to be a waste of time and effort or not. Still it was only early into the session, besides I wasn't ready to bush bash my way back out of here yet. Just when I was having a few negative thoughts about catching a fish I had my first take on the gold Aglia. First thing that came to mind was for this fish to “please stay hooked” until it's in the landing net. After a couple of runs and leaps from the dark tannin water it was in the net, the treble hook held firm in its bottom jaw. All that hard work of getting through the thick bush then crawling on hands and knees to reach the river has been worth it. It may only be one 360 gram wild brown trout that I caught, but to me that's the best reward for making it to an area I have never fished until today..
- No trout here..
- At last the first trout is caught..
- First trout caught here..
I kept on working my way upstream and had a few very light touches on the spinner from some very non aggressive medium size trout. The sections of river I fished all looked good for holding fish too, but if they were there they weren't in the mood. The further upstream I fished the tougher it got, just so many fallen trees and branches across the river in many stretches of the river. I can't recall how many times I had to get out of the river and make my way around the tangled mess of trees and branches. In between the log jams there were some nice little runs of river to fish, I did pick up two more browns over five separate stretches of water. Those two 350 gram browns that I caught and released didn't attack the spinner either, all I felt on the retrieve was a light weight on the line as though the spinner had picked up some algae. The trout had mouthed the spinner and swam along with it, that's when I gave the rod a light jerk at the same time raising the rod to set the hooks..
- Second brown..
- And the third one, ready for release..
- No way through here..
I had been in the river for over three hours before I decided to call it a day after fishing one more small stretch of river. That stretch of river did give up a nice brown but it tossed the spinner on the first leap from the river. My spin session had now come to an end, a tough one it was and also one I thoroughly enjoyed. With just the three wild browns caught & released today, will I do it again, you bet I will... It was a great feeling of satisfaction today in taking a punt on trying another area that I've never fished before. On the walk back to the car along with a little bush bashing to get to it I spotted one very plump Tiger snake.. A reminder it's now time to be alert and keep a look out for them..
- Last trout hooked and lost here..
cheers
Adrian..
