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Closures & Cormorants
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
With most rivers still running high and fast, I had no choice but to head back to the upper Mersey River and fish the same stretch of water for the third time in a week. The weather today was much better than the past two trips here. Once again it was a midday spin session because it's much warmer than an early morning start. Today was even better than the previous two trips because the river was in full sunshine and the air temperature was twelve degrees. The downside was the fact that the water temperature was still only six degrees.
Once there, I noticed that the IFS Angler Access was gone, then I came across a sign saying, ‘new owner, no access allowed, trespassers will be prosecuted’. So, after fishing up through there for the past 25 years, it looks like I won't be fishing there anymore. I think one could still enter the river and fish upstream, then once you're finished you would just have to tough it out by wading back down stream, in what is a very tough, slippery, rocky stretch of river. I could fish my way up the river okay for a few hours, however there's no way I could make my way back down the river for 1-1/2 to 2km.
Now that my plan to fish above the bridge was over, I had no choice but to head below the bridge and fish the same stretch of river for the third time. As I made my way along the side of the river, I spotted two large cormorants sitting on a fallen tree on the opposite side of the river. Being large birds meant that they were originally from the mainland and not a good sight to see on the river at all. These large birds can eat up to three times their body weight each day and that's a lot of fish that can be taken from a river daily.
It was 1:05pm when I hopped into the river and had my first cast into a narrow side water. I was using a Mepps #1 Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown inline spinner, which was the same lure that caught three trout on the second trip of the season here, a few days ago. After working the spinner in the small side water, without a sign of a trout, I moved into the main stream which was running reasonably fast, so care had to be taken when I slowly fished my way upstream. The river itself was ideal for casting and drifting again today and that was the only way that I would catch a trout here given the fast flow that I was fishing in. I also changed lures once I was in the deeper flowing water.
I went for a Mepps #1 Aglia Fluo Micropigment rainbow spinner, the same one that worked well here back on the tenth of August when I caught and released five brown trout. With the river running several inches higher than that trip there weren't as many flat water sections along the opposite side of the river, so I knew I was in for a tough time here today. After ten minutes of casting and drifting the Aglia Fluo rainbow spinner a medium size brown trout took the lure. After a short tussle I finally had the first fish of the trip in the net. No sooner was the trout in the net and out popped the spinner. I don't know how many times this has happened over the years, but thankfully lady luck has been there to help me out.
A little further up the river, while continuing the casting and drifting with the rainbow spinner, I picked up the second trout of the afternoon. This brown was a smaller fish, not that I cared because they all add up on the day. After its release I had to get out of the river, due to the water ahead of me being too deep and unsafe, so I returned to the river one hundred metres further upstream.
The stretch of water that I moved into was the same one I had fished a few days ago, when I caught and released three medium/small brown trout. Well, what a waste of time it was too. After forty minutes of fishing the area and trying several different spinners, without a sign of a trout, I hopped out and moved into another small side water. That wasn't any better. Not a sign of a trout there either, so I called it a day. My body was really starting to ache... it felt like I had been in the river for three hours. When I checked my watch, I was quite surprised to see that I had only spent one hour and thirty-five minutes in it. Once I was out of the river I only had a ten-minute walk back to the car, but that was a killer too as it was uphill all the way.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment used during my trout season:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma LRF Rod - 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Pulse Mono
Platypus Super 100 Mono
Platypus Pre-Test Mono
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader