My 2020/21 trout season run down..

[meppstas]

** Sorry guys, have been meaning to put this on the site earlier..

'' The 2020/21 Trout season Report.''

The 2020/21 season seemed to go quick for some reason, it was one that had many ups and downs for me too. I had some top days in the Meander River and small tannin streams where I managed to have a few double figure catches, but not enough of them. The trout were always in good condition, there were also a lot of smaller fish caught by me this season too. It's good to see the smaller trout in the rivers, but I still feel the larger rivers could be stocked with larger fish to keep the river fisherman satisfied. I'm one that only fishes the rivers and it's very disappointing catching small trout all the time. I know the IFS only believes in self recruitment in the rivers, it still wouldn't hurt to place a couple of hundred large triploid trout in the rivers here in the North. It would be nice to fish a river and catch a few decent trout over the kilo mark for a change instead of 140 to 350 gram fish the majority of the time. Another thing that bugs me, is the fact that all the Fly Fishing competitions are mainly on the Meander and Mersey Rivers nowadays, these two rivers are being over fished now days because of all the promotion that being done on those two rivers. Surely it's time to have them on other rivers around the state such as the South Esk, North Esk, Macquarie Rivers more often or even some of the rivers down South for a change. It's time to promote other rivers around the state, not just the Meander & Mersey River. Anyway, like always, that's just my point of view on what I think could be done, below are my 2020/21 trout season stats.

Nice tannin water brown trout.

** Trips: 89 in total. ** Trout caught: ''Brown'' 443 ''Rainbow '' 58

** Total trout caught: 501 Seasons total average: 6.0 fish (actually 5.99)

* Mersey River: 26 trips, 81 brown trout & 58 rainbow trout caught & released.
Best days catch: 13 trout. (4 browns & 9 rainbows) best fish: brown trout 575 grams.
best rainbow trout: 545 grams. average catch rate per trip : 5.4 fish

* Leven River: 4 trips, 13 brown trout Best days catch: 4 Brown trout. Best fish: 415 grams.
average catch rate per trip: 3.25 fish

* Meander River: 18 trips, 127 brown trout .
Best days catch: 18 brown trout. Best fish: brown trout 975 grams.
average catch rate per trip: 7.06 fish

* Dasher River: 7 trips, 20 brown trout . Best catch: 5 brown trout. Best fish: 1.7 kilograms
average catch rate per trip: 2.9 fish

* Un-named Tannin streams: 32 trips, 197 trout caught with two being kept.
Best catch: 14 fish. Best fish: 535 grams average catch rate per trip: 6.2 fish

* Western Creek: 2 trips, 5 trout caught. Best catch: 3 fish. Best fish: 380 grams.

One of many browns caught & released during the season

As for the rivers, well the best of the large rivers was the Meander River, this season was the same as last season for me, it was mainly the fast waters that gave up the majority of the trout I caught. The biggest disappointment was I didn't catch any rainbow trout in the fast waters this season, I was hoping there may have been a few around this season. One good thing that did come out of fishing the Meander River, on the last day of the season it gave up my 500th trout of the season. Once again it was the small tannin streams that gave up the most trout for me with 197 trout being caught and released. I really love fishing these small out of the way streams, they're not the easiest of waters to reach, but they're well worth the effort.

Small tannin streams, always worth fishing.

Small out of the way tannin streams, always worth fishing.

The little Dasher River, I can't say all that much about it due to the fact I only had seven trips to it, low water levels has had a big impact on the trout in it. Hopefully it will return to a good little trout water in the next year or two. The Leven River, it didn't do any better than last season which was a shame as it's such a beautiful river to fish in. Another reason I only had four trips to it was due to it running high because of heavy rainfalls in the Black Bluff area. The Mersey River fished reasonably well at certain times of the year and I had some good catches in the Kimberley area early in the season with some lovely rainbows being caught. I did have a couple of trips to the Merseylea are which I found was a wastes of time with two small browns caught over three hours with just one other small trout being seen. The upper reaches fished the best for me with some reasonable catches of both browns and rainbows in the fast water runs. I didn't have much success in the slow flowing stretches of river, the water weeds are becoming a problem in most stretches of water now. I did have one trip above the Union Bridge at Mole Creek and managed to catch and release eight browns, most of them being small fish.

The 500th trout of the season.

The 500th ready for release.

It came down to the last day to reach my season target of 500 trout.

500th trout was caught here.

The 500th trout of the season was caught here, Meander River.
** Equipment used during the trout season: Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3 kg trout rods, Okuma Helios SX20 ,Okuma Inspira ISX20B & Epixor EPXT20 spinning reels, Mepps inline spinners, Platypus Super 100 UHT mono lines, Platypus Pretest premium grade mono, Platypus Stealth FC lead line & Boomerang Tool Products.


Adrian's (meppstas) Trout Seasons 2000/01 – 2020/21

Here's my stats since moving down to Tasmania back in March 2000. The first 4 years were a little on the low side (catch rate) due to me getting to know the rivers and where I could get in and fish them. After that and getting to know several farmers, land owners and the purchase of a better pair of waders the fishing really went up from there on. Having access to many more sections of rivers and wading them really opened up some great fishing seasons for me from then on that's for sure.

2000-01 Season : Trips: 76.. Total Fish : 57 browns..

2001-02 Season: Trips: 54.. Total Fish: 63 browns.. 2 rainbows..

2002-03 Season Trips: 66.. Total Fish: 93 browns.. 13 rainbows..

2003-04 Season Trips: 48.. Total Fish: 98 browns.. 2 rainbows..

2004-05 Season Trips: 96.. Total Fish: 347 browns.. 35 rainbows.. 1 blackfish..

2005-06 Season Trips: 107.. Total Fish: 652 browns.. 24 rainbows.. 1 blackfish..

2006-07 Season Trips: 87... Total Fish: 354 browns.. 83 rainbows.. 2 blackfish..

2007-08 Season Trips: 109.. Total Fish: 629 browns.. 74 rainbows.. 1 blackfish..

2008-09 Season Trips: 106.. Total Fish: 599 browns.. 67 rainbows.. 2 Atlantic Salmon.(7 kgs/15lb 7ozs)

2009-10 Season Trips: 126.. Total Fish: 1167 browns.. 89 rainbows.. 2 blackfish. 1 Australian Grayling

2010-11 Season Trips: 91.. Total Fish: 819 browns.. 52 rainbows..

2011-12 Season Trips: 81.. Total Fish: 481 browns.. 33 rainbows.. 1 Atlantic Salmon..(9kgs/19lb 13oz)
'' '' '' 1 brook trout ( Meander River)
2012-13 Season Trips: 75.. Total Fish: 318 browns.. 52 rainbows..

2013-14 Season Trips: 65.. Total Fish: 320 browns.. 77 rainbows..

2014-15 Season Trips: 91.. Total Fish: 405 browns.. 78 rainbows.. 1 redfin perch.. 1 Aust Grayling..

2015-16 Season Trips: 106.. Total Fish: 744 browns.. 78 rainbows.. (same last season)

2016-17 Season Trips: 79 Total Fish: 575 browns.. 71 rainbows..

2017-18 Season Trips: 92 Total Fish: 586 browns.. 62 rainbows..

2018-19 Season Trips: 76 Total Fish: 549 browns.. 24 rainbows..

2019-20 Season Trips: 63 Total Fish: 407 browns.. 12 rainbows..

2020-21 Season Trips: 89 Total Fish: 443 browns.. 58 rainbows.. ( 1 Australian Grayling )

** Less than 1% of my catch is kept, all Blackfish & Aust. Grayling caught are released. ** Only trout are counted in my total catch & averages. ** Biggest trout: Brown @ 3.85 kg (8lb 8oz) on 27th April 2018.
** Since moving to Tasmania to live (March 2000) and trout fish I've had 1783 trips to rivers for a total catch of 9706 brown trout, 986 rainbow trout, 1 brook trout, 3 Atlantic Salmon, 6 blackfish, 6 redfin perch & 3 Australian Grayling. * ** Average for trout caught ( 10,693 in total ) over the 1783 trips = 6.00 (5.99)**
** Since moving to Tasmania in March 2000 I caught my 10,000th trout on 3rd November 2019 **
cheers
Adrian

[Sebb]

I'm amazed at your record keeping skill Adrian.
Well done, great stuff

Whenever I read your reports/articles, I feel like going fishing in Tas.

Many more seasons to come and for us to read your reports.

[Charles7]

Some great statistics here mate. How do you keep track of your trips? I have a fishing diary that I write my catches in but it doesn't offer the capacity to be this detailed.

[meppstas]

Thanks Sebb & Charles..

Charles, I have a Angling Club trout catch form that I fill out each trip on how many I caught on it, the fish weight etc.. I also takes heaps of photos, video's and once home I write up the day's spin session. Like you, I keep a diary (A4 size book) as well that I do as soon as I get home. I used to hand write them in the diary back in the day before I got a computer, now I print out the report and paste it into the dairy, I also keep copies of each report I write, they're called the 'Trout Stalker Reports". The Angling Club sheets are handy to count the total fish caught and how many trips to each river I've had, plus the weight of the heaviest fish on each trip.
cheers
Adrian..

Angling club form.

Diary-trout report..

Trout report diary.

The Trout Stalker Reports

[Lightningx]

Some amazing stats there Adrian!
It’s awesome how you keep track and have all your seasons trips recorded. Very impressive mate
Cheers

[meppstas]

Some amazing stats there Adrian!
It’s awesome how you keep track and have all your seasons trips recorded. Very impressive mate
Cheers

Thanks Lx, keeping records and stats come in handy as I regularly look back on them to see when & where I fished at certain times during a
trout season, and it certainly pays off with some good catches too..

cheers
Adrian

[denis barden]

Top results.If you put in the time you get the rewards
Well done

[Kimtown]

Good reading as always

Got any pics of that 9kg salmon by any chance?

[meppstas]

Good reading as always

Got any pics of that 9kg salmon by any chance?

Thanks Denis & Kimtown..

Kim,
No I never bother to photograph Atlantic Salmon that have beed raised in pens, pellet fed and dumped into lakes around Tasmania during the closed season.. That 9 kg fish was caught in Lake Barrington near Sheffield, it did take sometime to land that's for sure, but to me it wasn't worthy of a photo. I actually gave it away. When the IFS deliver them to the lakes there's a line up of fisho's already there waiting to catch them.. I used to wait until the following day to have a fish for them. Some fisho's used to throw handfuls of gravel onto the water to attract the fish into the area, the fish being pellet fed used to rush to where the gravel hit the water, then there was a bombardment of lures hitting the water followed by a heap of tangle lines that had fish on them.. Quite hilarious and well worth sitting back having a good laugh at the mayhem that followed..

These are what I used on the Atlantic Salmon.

Mepps Giant Killer 35 & 45 grams..jpg (23.22 KiB) Viewed 1469 times

cheers
Adrian..

[Sebb]

Some fisho's used to throw handfuls of gravel onto the water to attract the fish into the area, the fish being pellet fed used to rush to where the gravel hit the water,

Ooo what a trick. Those IVF fish be so use to it and fall into the trick as a habit.

then there was a bombardment of lures hitting the water followed by a heap of tangle lines that had fish on them.. Quite hilarious and well worth sitting back having a good laugh at the mayhem that followed..

Haha I can imagine it would make quite a show to watch