Two reasonable hours on the Mersey River.
Another warm afternoon saw me head of to Merseylea for a late session on the Mersey River to see if I can add a few more trout to my seasons tally of 577 after yesterdays catch of four trout. When I arrived to where I was going to fish I spotted a car already there so I headed of to another spot at Merseylea only to find the same thing. I was thinking about just heading of home when I thought I would try a section of river on private property where I have gained the land owners permission to enter and fish there. I don't know why I didn't think of heading there in the first place as I always have this stretch of river to myself each time I go there.
- Glassy water, Mersey River
When I arrived at the river I spotted three trout surface feeding at the tail end of a long wide stretch of water. A quick flick ahead of them with a #00 gold black fury saw it taken in a matter of seconds by a small trout, and that's as long that small trout stayed on as well. Three leaps from the river that little trout tossed the spinner. After losing it I had several more casts in the area without a sign of a fish so I moved on to a nice fast water run. The same run where I caught my 42 cm brown trout during the Pirtek Fishing Challenge, I'm hoping for another one there today. It did take some time working that fast water before I finally had a nice medium size brown take the spinner while using my drift and spin method. It wasn't over large at all but still a nice well conditioned brown of around 300 grams.
- First trout of the day..
After that it was onto the next fast water run, this was a narrow and much faster run that had three flat water areas under the overhanging willows. It was here I decided to change from the black fury to a new little Daiwa lure almost identical to the small Atomic ghost gill browns lures that I normally try. It took a few minutes of continued casting and fast retrieves before that little lure was taken by one very solid brown. This was a much larger fish than the first of the day and it wasn't all that long before I had it in the net. Once in the net it tossed the hard body lure, so luck was on my side in catching this fish. This brown weight in at 490 grams after deducting 400 grams landing net weight.
- Second brown taken in fast water..
- Fast water that gave up the trout (above photo)
As I made my way upstream after releasing that brown I had quite a few casts in a long slow flowing stretch of river with the little hard body without a single follow from a trout. It wasn't until I had rounded the bend in the river when I flicked the lure in between a fallen tree on the river bank and a dead one in the middle of the river when I had another trout take the lure. Now this fish was large, much larger than the 490 grams brown that I caught some fifteen minutes earlier. It did everything to try and toss the lure as it made several leaps from the river while giving some massive head shakes. I was just hoping it was well hooked, this is one fish I want in the net that's for sure. I took my time in playing this trout while trying not to give him too much rein to go with. It took around four minutes before it tired and I managed to lead this brown into the net. It was a solid male brown in full spawning colour, a fish that topped the scales at 1.2 kgs. A quick photo and it was soon on it's way.
- Stretch of water where 1.2 kg brown caught..
- Solid 1.2 kg brown.
Over the next one hundred meters it was just cast and retrieve without a sign of a fish until I was nearly at the top end of this long slow flowing stretch of river when I finally had trout number four in the net. It too was a nice well conditioned brown that was soon released back into the river. From here on it was all quiet again with no sign of a trout taking the lure. I thought I'd just fish on for another couple of hundred meters before calling it a day. As I was slowly fishing my upstream the little Daiwa hard body lure became snagged two thirds of the way across the river in water that was just to deep to reach it. The little lures first day of use had suddenly come to and end and was going to rest snagged in the Mersey River for good. It was done for, what ever I tried it wasn't going any where and it wasn't long before the fine 4 pound mono parted ways with the lure. At least it did catch three nice browns and my first brown over a kilo since the 9th February this year. My session had come to and end with the loss of the lure, a day that was really slow going with just the five hook ups and four trout landed.
- Last trout of the day..
cheers
Adrian
