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Upper Mersey Hat Trick
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Finally, there was a break in the weather this morning and with more rain forecast later in the day, I headed off to the Mersey River for a short spin session below the Union Bridge. Once I arrived at the bridge, I got the wading gear on and arrived at my starting point at 9:35am. There was no need to be early because it was a little on the cool side this morning and the wind was from the southeast, which I hate.
The one thing that did stand out was the damage along the river. A very long stretch of the riverbank had been washed away during the floods we had just over a week ago, when we had over 200mm of rain in thirty hours. The Mersey River peaked at 4.5 metres, from what I was told and seeing the damage here, I believe it! There was also a tonne of debris everywhere.
The river itself was running high and fast, so the water was like black coffee... that's how dark it was. Being a heavy, dull overcast day didn't help either. The lure of choice was a Mepps #1 (3.5g) Aglia Fluo Micropigments rainbow inline spinner. The trout gear was the TT Red Belly 7' ULS 1-3kg rod, coupled with the Okuma Carbon ITX-1000 spinning reel, that was spooled with 4lb Platypus Pulse mono line.
With the river running as fast as it was, all I could do was to fish whatever flat waters I could find. Those that were on the opposite side of the river were narrow and they were flowing a little fast to be holding any trout. I did have a hook up early into the session, when a small trout took the lure as I let it drift with the flow. One head shake was all that it took for the fish to toss the spinner.
From there, I bypassed a short stretch of shallow fast water, then slowly made my way across another shallow, fast-flowing stretch of water, to fish a narrow flat water on the opposite side of the river. The first cast I had into it and a trout had a go at the Aglia rainbow spinner as soon as I started the retrieve. It missed taking the treble hook. A couple more casts and retrieves back into the same area saw another trout have a crack at the spinner and this time it took the treble. After a short tussle, I had it in the net.
After the release of that little trout, I made my way upstream so that I could reach a nice long flat water, on the opposite side of the river, with some long casting. The water there was perfect for casting and drifting the lure, providing I could lob it close to the high riverbank on that side of the river. The cast that I had to make from where I was in the river was close to thirty meters or thereabouts. It was spot on! I lobbed the spinner within a few inches of the riverbank.
A slow retrieve was all that I had to do because the fast flow of the water did the rest, taking the spinner and line with it. The spinner had only drifted a few metres when it was taken by a trout. Nothing big but it fought like one due to the strong water flow. The fish made several leaps from the river and played hard to get for a while, before I had it on the surface and eased it into the net. It was a nice, well-conditioned small/medium size fish too. No sooner was it in the net and out popped the spinner.
My next cast was back into the same area, where I repeated the retrieve, letting the spinner drift with the flow. The result was the same when another trout took the spinner. That fish also made it into the net and like the previous fish, it also tossed the spinner as soon as it was landed. After its release I was now on a hat trick. Would I get one or not... it's rare to catch three trout in the same area, three times in a row in any water, let alone a river.
I repeated the cast, back into that area once more, did the same thing as before and on the drift the spinner was taken again by a trout. I could feel that it was a smaller fish than the previous two that I had just caught and released. As small as it was it did fight hard in the fast-flowing water, before it soon tired. Once I had it in close enough, that's when I saw that it was a small rainbow trout. I took hold of it as fast as I could, eased the treble hook from its lower jaw and slipped it straight back into the river.
I had achieved a hat trick of trout, without having to move from where I caught the first two. This is something that I've never done before in my 57 years of trout fishing the rivers. I have caught more than three in a row on several occasions but never from one spot in a river. Achieving that made today's trip even more worthwhile. That was the last trout caught in that area, so I made the move downstream to where I could safely cross the river and then head off upstream to another fishable stretch of water.
The water there was much deeper, so I only stayed in water that was knee deep and continued the cast and drift method. It took several minutes before a very small trout took the spinner and tossed it as fast as it took it. I continued to slowly make my way upstream, sticking to the casting and drifting. Finally, after fifteen minutes, I hooked and landed the fourth trout of the morning. I couldn’t continue any further upstream because the water was too deep, and the flow of the river was very strong. It was too risky and like I say, no fish is worth drowning for. Always remember, ‘safety first at all times.’
As I made my way up the steep riverbank, a fine drizzle started. I could see that it wouldn't be all that long before the rain arrived. Early on I could see the hills in the distance and now I couldn't. It was time to head back to the car and I'm glad I did. The closer I got to the car, the heavier the rain became. Once at the car it was so heavy that I hopped in and drove home in my full wading gear.
Even if the rain hadn't arrived when it did, I was going to call it a day. The rest of the river ahead was running too high and unsafe to wade. With four brown trout and a rainbow caught and released, from seven hook ups, it was a reasonably good result given the conditions. The highlight of the trip was of course the hat trick.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
TT Red Belly Spin Rods – RBS701L 7’ 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono Premium Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader – 4lb
Mepps Inline Spinners –
Mepps Aglia Micropigments