Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Upper Mersey Browns & Rainbows

Upper Mersey Browns & Rainbows

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

We had a friend (Mark) over from South Australia for a week, who we hadn't seen for around 35 years and who loves trout fishing. So, today I took Mark on a trip to the Mersey River. Mark is a fly fisherman, who fishes streams/rivers and dams in South Australia, so he was looking forward to fishing a river like the Mersey.

I'm originally from South Australia myself and I know how tough it can be chasing trout in the rivers back there as they are mainly small and reach very low water levels during the dry season. Fishing the rivers in South Australia helped to make me the trout fisher that I am today because the conditions are so much tougher and finding trout in a small stream is much harder than here in Tasmania.

Anyway, we headed to Wegeena and on our arrival I could see that the river was still on the high side. It was still okay for wading, providing we took it slow and easy. Once we were in our waders Mark went to get his fly fishing vest out of the car, only to find that it wasn't there. He had left it back in his car in Sheffield, so unfortunately, he wasn't able to fly fish today.

For some reason I had put an extra Okuma Celilo Finesse 6'6'' ULS 2-6lb trout rod and Okuma Helios SX spinning reel in the car. I must have had a premonition as I rarely take two rods with me when I'm fishing a large river. So, there you have it, Mark now had to spin fish for trout. Not only that Mark also had to wear the other fishing vest, kept in the boot at all times. Today he was a spin fisher. The forecast was for mainly overcast conditions, with a chance of rain later in the day, and the breeze was supposed to be a light South Easterly of 5-8kph.

We were in the river by 8:30am, in what was cool to mild conditions. The river was a light tannin colour and the flow was a little stronger than I preferred, however safe enough if treated with care. My lure of choice was the Mepps TW Streamer, because it was already on the rod from my last trip here back in October.

Mark started off with a Mepps Orange pattern #1 Aglia-e Bright. One that was already on the trout rod setup. We were only in the river for five minutes when I was onto the first trout of the morning and it was a nice, medium size rainbow. A couple minutes later Mark also caught one. This was just the start that I was hoping for, unfortunately that's where it ended for quite some time.

The trout had disappeared as fast as we caught them. Then we noticed the trout were on the rise, surface feeding on small midges. From what I could see there weren't any masses of them in the air or on the water, however there must have been enough of them on the water to bring the trout on the rise. This is when Mark was cursing himself for leaving his vest full of trout flies in his car back in Sheffield. I couldn't help myself in saying how he could have gotten onto a few trout had he had it with him.

I tried the following Mepps spinners, including the Gold #1 Aglia Mouche Noire, March Brown Bug, White Miller Bug, Stone Fly Bug and a Gold Black Fury, as we fished our way upstream and not one of them attracted a trout. Mark was having the same problem until we were half a kilometre upstream, a light breeze sprung up, followed by a light sprinkle of rain and then the clouds opened up and the sun broke through. That's when I said to go for a Mepps Aglia Furia spinner. Once the sun was on the water the fishing seemed to pick up for a short time. Mark caught two small rainbows in reasonably quick time, while I landed one small brown for three hook ups.

The fishing then slowed down again, when a breeze sprung up from the southeast and it wasn't until we reached the fast water that Mark caught his fourth fish of the day, a small/medium size brown trout. Not long after that I had a solid hit and hooked a well-conditioned brown, that had the spool of the Okuma Helios going in reverse as the brown ran with the fast water, taking line with it.

At first, I thought this fish was around the one kilo mark, the way it took off. Then, as I managed to retrieve some line and had it closer to me, I could see why it was peeling line from the reel. What had happened was that when the trout had grabbed the Aglia Furia it must have hit the spinner as it turned, like they do when taking a lure, however this time the tail of the trout had hit the spinner and a treble hook penetrated the trout's tail! After a decent battle with that trout, I finally had it close enough to slip the net under it. It was still a nice size fish that weighed 525 grams.

Thirty minutes had passed by until I finally hooked a brown in another fast water run. That fish tossed the spinner as fast as it took it. The following cast was back into the same stretch of water and this time it was fish on, when another small brown took the spinner. This fish stayed hooked, and I landed my third brown trout of the session.

We continued to keep on fishing for another twenty minutes, without seeing a fish. That's when we called it a day. We both finished the spin session with four trout. Mark caught three rainbows and one brown, whereas I caught three browns and one rainbow. Overall, it was a little disappointing that the trout were few and far between. Then again, it was good to see Mark catch a few Tasmanian wild trout.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment Used for the Season:

Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma LRF GEN2 Spin Rods - 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Okuma Inspira Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Pulse Mono Premium Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Aglia Furia Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia-E Brite Inline Spinner