Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

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meppstas
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Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by meppstas » Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:19 pm

Upper Mersey gives up a few.. 5-11-17

Well, I finally had an earlier start on a river for a change when I hit the Upper Mersey River just on 7:30 am in what was very cool conditions. Not that it was overcast with a cold breeze, it was because we had a frost overnight and being in the upper reaches made for a very cold start. Now I know why I've been having the late starts to a spin session. There wasn't a breath of wind and I could see the mist rising of the river as the sun slowly hit the surface. The air was cool and crisp and the river was like glass which made the early start all worthwhile. I'm fishing a stretch of river that I haven't been to for close on two seasons, I noticed the massive changes to the river up here since the June 2016 floods. What once was a great stretch of fast and medium flowing water is now a very wide stretch of medium to slow flowing water. There's hardly any vegetation along the river banks and the river bottom wasn't in the best of condition with it being covered with a slimy brown algae that made for some very difficult wading.
Mersey River at Weegena. 4945 (Medium).JPG
Fast water in the upper Mersey..
Tough crossing over here, Mersey River at Weegena. _4948 (Medium).JPG
Tough crossing over here..
I started of with a gold #00 Algia and had a hit and miss on the second cast which I thought was a good sign as it meant there may be a few fish up here to be caught. Shortly after that when I moved into a small fast water run of river I had my first hook up from a nice brown, it tossed the spinner on the second leap from the river. A little further up in a wide medium flowing stretch of water I hooked and lost another nice brown. I moved upstream a little further where I had my first fish well hooked and in the net, it was a small 260 gram brown and not long after that I picked up a small 270 gram rainbow. Slowly working my way upstream I had several hit and misses but just couldn't get a hook up. After making my way up a fast water run I came to what was a very long, wide and deepish stretch of river that was more suited to the fly fisherman than my style of fishing. I'm not one for fishing that type of water if I don't have too so I headed on back to the car to try another area further downstream at Dynan's Bridge. It's a tough area to fish, but it is also the type of water that I like to fish.
Mersey River at Weegena.. 4946 (Medium).JPG
Wide stretch of river..
View from Dynan's Bridge at Weegena.._4954 (Medium).JPG
View from Dynan's Bridge..

When I arrived at Dynan's Bridge I spotted around eight or nine cars parked near the bridge, then I saw a group of future fly fishers in the river. They had an instructor with them teaching them the art of fly fishing which was good to see. They were on the upstream side of the bridge right where I was going to start my session, I knew they would probably be fishing their way up the river shortly. I decided I would fish a sixty meter stretch of fast water downstream then head for home after that. It is a stretch of water that has always given up a few fish every time I've fished it. I started off using the gold aglia and had a hit and miss in no time at all. After that hit and miss it was off with the spinner and on with the small Daiwa bleeding tiger hard body lure. I had two hook ups in three casts with both fish being lost as quick as they were taken, it wasn't what I wanted and I wasn't all that happy either. Not long after that I had a rainbow take the lure, that fish made it into the net. It was a nice well conditioned 330 gram fish that was soon released back in the river after a quick photo. I had now fished half of the fast water stretch and the following half of it gave up two more 300 gram rainbows and a small brown, plus hooking and losing three others much to my disgust. With only four rainbows and two small browns caught was how my early morning start ended up. The next time I head up this way wont be on a holiday weekend unless I'm there at 5:30 am which is a good time to be in a river once the weather gets a little warmer.
Fly fishers, Mersey River at Weegena.. _4955 (Medium).JPG
Fly fishers well up the river now..
Rainbows & browns caught here, Mersey River, Weegena.. _4949 (Medium).JPG
Rainbows & browns caught here..
Two trout lost here, Mersey River at Weegena._4953 (Medium).JPG
Two trout lost here..
Rainbow, Mersey River, Weegena..JPG
Solid rainbow..
Wild Mersey River rainbow trout, Weegena.._4951 (Medium).JPG
And another well conditioned 'bow..
cheers
Adrian
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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by Paulanderson » Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:31 pm

Hi Adrian you certainly had quite a few fish get off this trip. Are the Rainbows wild or stocked fish? Thanks again for the great pics and report.

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meppstas
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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by meppstas » Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:52 pm

Paulanderson wrote:Hi Adrian you certainly had quite a few fish get off this trip. Are the Rainbows wild or stocked fish? Thanks again for the great pics and report.
Thanks Paul, yes I've had a problem with them staying on lately, the majority of them have tossed the lures while tail dancing and jumping from the river.. But that's trout fishing.. had a ripper of a session today in the river, big turn around.. ;-) .. will post it in a few days..
And the rainbows are all wild fish..
cheers
Adrian
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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by hornet » Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:58 pm

Adrian have you found the rivers you fish are back to normal and conducive for the trout or are they stuffed for good after the huge floods you had..
He who has the most fishing rods WINS ! :ts:

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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by Lightningx » Wed Nov 08, 2017 9:14 pm

Enjoyed the read.
Great pics as always :thumbsup:

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meppstas
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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by meppstas » Wed Nov 08, 2017 9:48 pm

hornet wrote:Adrian have you found the rivers you fish are back to normal and conducive for the trout or are they stuffed for good after the huge floods you had..
The rivers have really come back well and I feel they are a little better now to what they were before the floods.. They seem to be in much better condition now which is good. There's still a lot of flood damage along the rivers that's left many of the river banks clear of foliage or shelter for the trout, but it doesn't seem to have had that much of an impact on the trout really which is good. I do know that the brown trout spawning season was ruined by the floods, but in a way it may have been a good thing in the end as the fish have come back quite well. They have also had a reasonable spawning season earlier this year too.. There is only the one river that's struggling to come back and that's the Leven River in the North of the state. It has never recovered since the dry season we had back in 2012/13 and with the influx of cormorants it went down hill from there. it could take a few years for that one to come back, the IFS may take some spawning wild browns from Great Lake later next year and put them in the river to help increase future stocks in the river. I have spoken to other fisho's around the state and they have all had a reasonably good season so far which is good news.

cheers
Adrian
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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by smile0784 » Thu Nov 09, 2017 10:41 am

Great pic

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Re: Upper Mersey gives up a few trout...

Post by happyfriggincamper » Thu Nov 09, 2017 7:20 pm

Nice one mate

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