First trout for 2020..

Tasmania Fishing Reports
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meppstas
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First trout for 2020..

Post by meppstas » Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:41 am

Bug spinner gets the first trout for 2020

Seeing as it's a new year and I haven't wet a line since the 24th December I thought it was time to go and have a session in a river this morning. I left home at first light and on the way I saw a fiery sunrise, one that was bright orange due to the air being filled with smoke from bush fires here in Tasmania as well as the mainland bush fires. Here I was heading off chasing trout in a river when there are people battling to save homes as well as their lives, it really makes one think how lucky many of us are. My thoughts go out to all of those people as well as the volunteers who have and are still being effected by those horrific bush fires around Australia.
Fiery sunrise. (Medium).JPG
Fiery sunrise..
I arrived at the Meander River just before 6:30am in what was a beautiful cool morning, the river was running clear and at an ideal wading height, all I needed was the trout to be here and in an aggressive mood. It wasn't that long before I was in the river flicking a Mepps #1 Aglia Furia around with the 6'6'' Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3kg trout rod that was paired up with a Okuma Helios SX20 spinning reel filled with Platypus Super 100 clear mono line. I love this outfit for spin fishing the larger rivers such as the Meander, Mersey & Leven Rivers, it's such a perfectly balanced light weight outfit that one can fish with hour after hour in any river.
Okuma trout gear.. (Medium).JPG
The lightweight trout gear


After close on thirty minutes without having a strike let alone seeing a trout I realized I was fishing a stretch of river that's been heavily fished over the past six or seven weeks. Each time I've driven past this area there's always been someone in this stretch of river, on top of that it was one of the beats used in the World Fly Fishing Championships, it was fished for five days in a row. Another thing, the access here is easy and being the holiday period now this river will be fished on a regular basis for several more weeks. I did think about turning around and heading back to the car then thought twice about it so I continued to fish my way up the river. It wasn't until I had reached the top end of this stretch of river when I hooked and lost three small browns in a row, something that didn't go down all that well. I came to a stretch of water that was way to deep to wade so it meant getting out and doing a little bush bashing to reach another fishable long stretch of river. No sooner had I cast the Aglia Furia to the left side of the river and started to retrieve it a bow wave appeared behind the blade spinner and that's as far as it went. No signs of aggression from that trout at all, it had sat a few inches behind the lure and followed it mainly out of interest. It was then I went for a change of lure, this time it was on with a Mepps #0 Stone Fly Bug spinner, a lure that's done the job in this river previously.
Going under the fallen tree.. (Medium).JPG
No fish here at all until I reached the top end..
The stone fly Bug spinner that did the job today.  (Medium).JPG
Finished up changing to the stone fly Bug spinner.


I was in waist deep water casting up and across the medium flowing river where I had a couple of follows, the second one that followed the spinner did have a light whack at the spinner and that's as far as it went. It wasn't until I was half way up this stretch of river when I had a long cast up and across the river and lobbed the Bug spinner close to the left hand river bank when the first trout of the day was well and truly hooked. It wasn't one of my better trout for the season but it was the first this year, a nice well conditioned 335 gram brown. It had taken one hour forty minutes to catch the first trout, way too long for my liking. That was the one and only trout seen until I reached the head water (25 minutes later) of this long stretch of water, a cast and retrieve up and across the head water was all it took for a small brown to take the lure. With some good looking trout water ahead of me I continued to fish on for as long as I thought was worthwhile. It was 9:10am when I finally gave up the chase for trout in this area, a lot of extra time had been wasted fishing on for just the one follow.
First trout of the morning.  (Medium).JPG
First of the morning.
Bug spinner & Meander River brown trout. 1944 (Medium).JPG
Another brown falls to the Bug..
Time to get out & move elsewhere.  (Medium).JPG
Time to get out and head elsewhere..


After a short bit of bush bashing my way back to the road and a fifteen minute walk to the car, a short drive up the dirt road to another favourite stretch of river I was back to the fishing by 9:35am. It only took a few casts close to the right hand river bank that drew the attention of a small/medium size brown, like early on that's as far as it went. I thought by using a small 40mm hard body lure may work on the trout seeing as they're not all that aggressive towards the blade spinners this morning. I used a couple of different designs and coloured hard body lures without even attracting a trout so it was back to the Mepps blade spinners. A copper Aglia Mouche Noire worked well in this stretch of water some time back so that's what I went for, even that little lure couldn't attract a trout, it was back to the #0 Stone Fly Bug spinner. Seeing as this long stretch is mainly all fast water it was also perfect for the cast and drift method and I could fish it from one side (left) of the river for the whole length of it.
Fast water that gave up a few trout.   (Medium).JPG
Fast water that gave up a few trout
Best trout of the day.  (Medium).JPG
Best brown of the spin session.
Last trout of the day. (Medium).JPG
Last trout of the session..
So that's what I did for the whole stretch of this fast water, cast and drift and like always it worked beautifully catching five trout, another was caught with a cast & retrieve directly upstream. Following that I did have a couple hit and misses and one hooked and lost trout before calling it a day at 11:30am. This trip did turn out better than I thought it would with eight trout caught & released from a dozen hook ups. Before writing up this report I checked my records from last season (2018/19) to find I had 38 trips for 306 trout caught, this season (2019/20) I've had 34 trips for just 228 trout caught, well down in the catch rate. Just goes to show that the rivers here in Tasmania aren't fishing all that well this season, not only that the trout are mainly all small to medium size fish. Only six of the trout I've caught this season to date have been over the 500 gram mark with the best fish going 705 grams. Last season wasn't much better for the same period either with nine trout over the 500 gram mark, one being 1.4kgs and one at 710 grams.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqmaHrxGAzU&t=3s

cheers
Adrian
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purple5ive
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by purple5ive » Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:52 am

Nicely done adrian, such good scenery down there..
cheers

Lightningx
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by Lightningx » Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:44 pm

Great report and pics Adrian!
Always enjoy reading your reports and looking at the pics.
Still not a bad session at all with 8 fish caught :)
Cheers :tu:

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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by HarisPilton » Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:16 am

I enjoyed reading this. Great detail and pictures. Cheers!

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meppstas
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by meppstas » Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:56 am

Thanks guys, it was a beautiful day to be in a river.. I was hoping to catch a few more than I did, eight trout for for the first trip in 2020
was a reasonably good start..

cheers
Adrian
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by Texas » Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:30 pm

You seem to have started this year a bit late, everything ok ??
8 by your standards is acceptable, I'd be wrapped
All released ? One lure appears to be too deep.
Great read & photos as usual, Adrian
Cheers Gra

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meppstas
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by meppstas » Sun Jan 12, 2020 3:54 pm

Texas wrote:
Sun Jan 12, 2020 1:30 pm
You seem to have started this year a bit late, everything ok ??
8 by your standards is acceptable, I'd be wrapped
All released ? One lure appears to be too deep.
Great read & photos as usual, Adrian
Cheers Gra
All good Gra, just the usual lower back & hip problems.. the lure was a little deep but not enough to cause any gill damage or bleeding from the trout,
I also use surgical forceps to remove the hooks, much better than pliers.. :tu:

cheers
Adrian
Surgical forceps.jpg
Surgical forceps.
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by Sebb » Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:40 am

Very nice Adrian.
Sounds like a slow start, you got some in the end. There's still plenty of time of the season to catch more, a lot more!
I like that surgical forceps, much more gentle and precise.
------------------------------
A fish is a fish :ft:
No fish is worth a life, stay safe

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meppstas
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by meppstas » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:05 am

Seb85 wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:40 am
Very nice Adrian.
Sounds like a slow start, you got some in the end. There's still plenty of time of the season to catch more, a lot more!
I like that surgical forceps, much more gentle and precise.
Thanks Seb, some rain as you'd know would come in handy too..the small streams near home are really struggling and there's a few dead trout in them.
That's why I'm hitting the large rivers now, trouble is they're got a lot of fishing traffic on them at the moment due to the holiday period..
The forceps are a lot easier to use on the fish, can see what you're doing too.. I used to use small bent pointed nose pliers which weren't too bad, but they were also a little large especially on the smaller fish.. Good thing is the forceps are stainless steel & they're only around $5-00 to buy.. well worth it.

cheers
Adrian
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Re: First trout for 2020..

Post by Sebb » Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:16 pm

meppstas wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:05 am
Seb85 wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 6:40 am
Very nice Adrian.
Sounds like a slow start, you got some in the end. There's still plenty of time of the season to catch more, a lot more!
I like that surgical forceps, much more gentle and precise.
Thanks Seb, some rain as you'd know would come in handy too..the small streams near home are really struggling and there's a few dead trout in them.
That's why I'm hitting the large rivers now, trouble is they're got a lot of fishing traffic on them at the moment due to the holiday period..
The forceps are a lot easier to use on the fish, can see what you're doing too.. I used to use small bent pointed nose pliers which weren't too bad, but they were also a little large especially on the smaller fish.. Good thing is the forceps are stainless steel & they're only around $5-00 to buy.. well worth it.

cheers
Adrian
That's sad. We do need the rain, a lot of them.
I have forceps but the straight tip. Use them when fly fishing. Much easier to take off tiny hook. I should get one with bent tip like yours, easier to see. Yes definitely worth it.
------------------------------
A fish is a fish :ft:
No fish is worth a life, stay safe

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