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Adrian Webb's Trout Tips

My name's Adrian Webb and I'm known on many fishing sites as meppstas, mainly for the reason that I've been using the Mepps spinners since day one on my very first trip to a small river to fish for trout. That was back in 1964 at the age of 18, when I lived in South Australia. That trip was to the Finniss River, some 70 kms south of Adelaide, where I managed to catch my first ever brown trout on a size 1 (3.5 gm) Mepps Black Fury spinner.

From that day on I was well and truly hooked on trout fishing and chased the trout every weekend when possible. I was also a very keen saltwater fisherman too and fished quite regularly for KG whiting in and around the Outer Harbour during the day and then chased snapper three to four nights a week.

Trout fishing in South Australia wasn't easy, due to very hot summers and low water levels, plus it wasn't really a fish that a lot of people fished for. The rivers I fished were all small, narrow and well lined with heavy foliage, which over the years helped make me the trout fisherman that I am today. What I mean by that is that the tightness of the small rivers I fished tuned my skills for accurate casting of the Mepps spinners and low water levels taught me how to approach a spot on a river as not to spook the trout. I always wade the rivers when trout fishing, that way one has more access to trout holding areas on a river which results in a good catch rate.

My wife and I left South Australia and headed over to Tasmania in March 2000, where we purchased a house in the beautiful town of Sheffield, 30 kms south of Devonport. Here is where my trout fishing really rose to great heights and that was due to beautiful rivers that have quite a lot of wild brown and rainbow trout in them. The first couple of years it was a little on the slow side, until I got to know the area and land owners who thankfully gave me permission to enter their properties to fish some very nice stretches of river.

I eventually joined an Angling Club here half way into the 2006/07 trout season and since then have won the Angling Club trophy for most trout caught in rivers and streams for the past twelve years. I did a very dumb thing in a river one day when I called it a day after catching and releasing 49 brown trout on a Mepps #00 Copper Black Fury spinner. The reason I called it a day then was to set myself the challenge of catching 50 trout on another trip... that never happened, so that 49 still stands as the most trout I've caught in a spin session in a river.

My time spent in a river each trip can vary from 2 hours up to 5 hours. I occasionally keep a trout for the smoker, while the rest are always released. Only 1% or 2% of my seasons catch is kept. I owe a lot of my success to the use of the Mepps spinners that I use for around 85-90% of the time I'm in a river chasing trout. They have a great range of sizes, colours and models, all of which catch fish.

So, 54 years on, since my first trout fishing trip in a river back in South Australia, I'm still at it here in Tasmania and loving it as much today, if not more than when I caught my first trout.

Cheers

Adrian (meppstas)