Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Wild Tasmanian Trout Number 12000!
Wild Tasmanian Trout Number 12000!
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
As the title of this trout report shows, yes, I finally reached my trout number 12000 today. It's something that I was hoping to do before the New Year and thankfully the trout decided to come good for me, just when I needed them to. I must admit, the trout did play hard to get for quite some time and at one stage I was starting to wonder if it was going to happen. Here's a rundown on how the spin session went and how long it took before I finally caught the 12,000th trout.
The weather forecast was for rain later in the day, with gusty 20-25 kph south easterly winds with it. It wasn't an early start today, as for some reason I was struggling to get my act together and even my wife questioned how long it was taking me to get organised. In the end it was 7:35 am by the time I arrived, got into the wading gear, and headed off on the fifteen-minute walk to the stream. This was the same tannin stream that I had fished a few days earlier but a kilometre further downstream.
When I reached my entry point, I could see that the water level had dropped quite considerably, compared to what it was a few days ago. It was much lower than I had expected. Seeing that the water level was so low, I wasn't sure of how many trout I'd catch today. I only needed four trout to reach my target, so after that it didn't matter if I didn't catch any more.
I started the spin session off with a Mepps #0 March Brown coloured Bug spinner, mainly because it's a lure that's been doing a good job on the trout throughout the season and I was hoping it would do the same today. Well, it didn't start off all that well when I hooked and lost the first two trout, before finally, after thirty minutes, a small trout decided it liked the March Brown Bug and I had the first trout of the morning in hand.
After the release of that little trout, I continued to have quite a few trout sit behind the lure without taking it. After trying a #0 White Miller Bug and a #00 gold Aglia with zero result, thirty minutes later it was time for another change of lure. This time it was a well-used #00 copper Mepps Aglia that I thought just may turn things around for me. This is another lure that has saved the day for me more often than not.
Well, it didn't take all that long at all before I hooked and landed the second trout of the morning. That trout was a little bigger than the last one too, which was good. A little further upstream, while retrieving the spinner downstream with the flow, I hooked and lost a small trout. That didn't bother me all that much as I felt that the fishing was about to improve, and it did just that.
A few minutes later, while working the lure down with flow, a medium size trout fell to the little copper Aglia, before a little further upstream another trout was hooked and landed. With three trout now caught and released I was in reach of catching my trout number 12,000. Just when I thought I had it, after hooking a small trout, I lost it. That small trout tossed the spinner.
Ten minutes later (9:25 am) and a little further upstream it all fell into place when a small/medium size trout took the spinner! This fish was well hooked and after a short tussle I eased trout number 12,000 onto the riverbank. It really felt good too, even though I would have loved it to be a 600 gram plus trout, I was quite happy with what I have achieved since we moved to Tasmania back in March 2000. Keeping records of every fishing trip that I go on has been awarded many times over, so I say to all of you out there, keep a record of every trip you go on, it's not that hard to do either.
Now that's out of the way I felt more relaxed and, funny as it may sound, the fishing improved out of sight. As I continued to slowly fish my way up the shallow stream, I continued to catch small/medium size trout on a regular basis. Several times I was going to call it a day as my lower back was killing me, but as bad as the pain was, I pushed on and went on to catch and release another thirteen trout from fifteen hookups in the following two hours. There were still several good runs to be fished but the time had come when I knew enough was enough and I just had to call it a day.
The little Mepps #00 copper Aglia inline spinner did its job well and saved the day for me once again. Thank you Mepps for producing such a great variety of high-quality inline spinners, that have served me well for over fifty years of river and stream fishing for trout. This trip was also my best spin session of the 2023/24 trout season so far, with the previous best dating back to September 30, when I caught and released fifteen trout. It's also taken my season tally to 223 trout as well, which I'm reasonably happy with too.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used Today:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rod – CE-S-662UL-1, 6'6”, 2-6lb
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono Premium Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Aglia
Mepps Bug