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Trout Return to a Favourite Stream
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Not that I was getting tired of trout fishing my favourite two small streams, however today I decided it was time to check out another stream that I fished many years ago. It was one of the best little tannin waters I have ever fished here in Tasmania, where trout in the 450-500 gram range were plentiful, and catches of a dozen or more fish were common.
It all changed once hardwood plantations were started here in Tasmania and as the trees matured they sucked every bit of moisture from the ground. This little stream relied on the small spring fed creeks that flowed into it throughout the dry summer period and the hardwood trees took that away from this small stream. Those small spring fed creeks dried up and so did this little stream, with hundreds of trout dying during December, January and February. The river was dead and there wasn't a trout to be had after that.
I did head back to it on and off, a few times over the years, with just the odd trout spotted. Today I made a return after five or six years of not being near it. It has certainly changed from the river I once knew, with plenty of fallen trees and log jams in quite a few areas. Off road users have also been tearing the fire tracks up and the river banks are eroded where they have gone into the river with their bikes and ATVs. Then there's the burnt out car bodies that are stacked in a heap. At least thirty of them are piled on top of each other. This was once pristine grassed area and was now a shambles.
Disappointed in what I had seen, it was time to head off to the stream. After a ten minute walk, along a torn up fire track, I found a spot where I could enter the river. The water level was quite good for wading and the colour was a nice medium tannin colour, which was good. My lure of choice was the old Mepps #00 Gold Aglia.
Once in the river (3:05pm) a lot of good memories came back to me of the great spin sessions that I had in this stream and the beautiful trout I used to catch here. My main hope today was to catch a few trout, however just seeing a few would make me happy and catching one would be a bonus.
The first couple of runs and there wasn't a sign of a fish. It wasn't until I had been in the river for twenty minutes that I had my first hit from a trout, in a medium flowing stretch of water. Having a hit from that trout gave me lift in confidence... I may be in with a chance of catching a fish or two after all. I continued to fish some beautiful stretches of water, without a sign of a trout. It wasn't looking all that good and perhaps I may have missed my only chance of catching a trout here.
I reached a small pocket of water and it was one that I remember well. It's the same one where I was struck on the hip by a six foot tiger snake at 7:00am in the morning, back when I used to fish here on a regular basis. Thankfully my waders would have stopped any penetration from the snake's fangs. It's the arms and hands that are more open to a bite. I think it was only a warning strike, as it was only a light bump from its head to let me know it was there. I can still picture the snake as it was in an upright position, with its neck flared out, before it dropped to the ground and moved off.
From that day on I have always been on the lookout when fishing rivers and streams. It is okay once I'm in the river, although I have seen them swimming across a river before. I'm really alert when walking to my entry point and when I get out the river to bypass a deep stretch of water. It doesn't have to be a sunny day either.
So, let's get back to trout fishing. This small pocket of water always gave up a fish, every time I fished it back then and it did again today. The second cast up and across the narrow, fast flowing piece of water was a good one and on the retrieve the Gold Aglia was taken by a small/medium size trout. After fifty five minutes fishing this stream, I had finally caught my first brown trout. Not that I minded it had taken all that time, in fact it was a relief to finally catch one in this little stream.
The big question, was there more to be caught as I continued to fish upstream. There wasn't in the area that I had been fishing and ahead of me the river was closed off with massive log jams that made it impossible to continue on here. I hopped out, walked a few hundred metres up a fire track and found a clear spot where I could get back into the stream.
This was another of my favourite areas to chase trout and I remembered catching some beautiful solid fish here and seeing the odd freshwater crayfish (protected species) as well. I wasn't in the water all that long when I had my first hit from a trout, in a tight stretch of water. Sadly, I missed hooking it. A little further up, where the stream was divided, I had a follow from a reasonable size trout, in a wide shallow piece of water. That's as far as it went with that fish. Not long after that, while fishing a deeper stretch of water, I had another follow from a reasonable size non-aggressive brown.
As good as it was to see the trout, it was disappointing that they weren't in an aggressive mood. I did try a few different coloured Mepps spinners, as well as a couple of hard body lures, without any luck. Actually none of those lures attracted the attention of a fish, so I went back to the old Aglia Gold spinner. No sooner had I gone back to the gold spinner and I hooked a trout, while fishing a short narrow run of light tannin coloured water. Trout number two was well hooked and after a brief tussle it was in the net. It had taken another fifty minutes to catch this trout and it was well worth it. Just seeing several trout here had made my day.
I continued to work my way upstream and had another hit and miss, before picking up the trout of the day in a deep, wide piece of water. It was from a cast downstream too, something I rarely do. Seeing as there was a massive log jam at the tail end of it though, the flow was very slow. It took a couple of slow retrieves to suck this trout in. Lifting and lowering the rod tip during the slow retrieve, to make the spinner blade flutter, did the trick.
I decided to fish a few more narrow shallow fast water runs before calling it a day. It was a good decision too. I caught and released two more small/medium size browns from three hook ups. My day was done and I went home a very happy man, with five trout caught and released. The trout were back in my favourite stream. Not in big numbers but enough to get me back there and fishing further upstream one day in the not too distant future.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment used on various trout trips:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rods
Okuma LRF Spin Rods - Split Grip 1-3kg
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Boomerang Tool Products