Reasonably good two hours on the Mersey River...

[meppstas]

Reasonably good two hours on the Mersey River.. 28-8-17

Beautiful conditions at Liena..

Weather conditions were ideal again this morning so I headed up to Liena to giver the Mersey River a go. The main reason I decided to head up there was because the lower reaches were still running a little too high for wading, where as the upper reaches were lower in level and prefect for wading. Once there I was greeted with ice covered ground from overnight frost and very clear cold water. It was 9:40 am when I arrived and after getting the waders & boots on plus a twenty minute walk I was finally in the river flicking a little gold #00 Aglia around. The river bottom surprised me too, it was covered in a brown slimy algae and was very slippery, so much so it was making wading near impossible. Even with the plain felt soles I couldn't get a grip on the rocky bottom, I should have put the spiked felt soles on the boots.

Brown slimy algae covered rocks on the river bottom..

Any way, it only took six casts before I was onto my first brown, a nice solid fish it was too. It made quite a few runs and leaps from the river before it twisted the 4 lb mono around it's body and came to the surface. As I slowly bought it to the net tail first (due too it having the line around it) it gave a kick and the line became untangled. The fish then made one more leap from the river, then with a big head shake it tossed the spinner.. Of course I had a few choice words to say after losing it. I carried on with the fishing which was a very quiet over the next one hundred meters without a single touch or follow before it gave up a few fish..

First trout lost here...

The next twenty meter run gave up a small (310 gm) but legal size brown that was soon in the net and back in the water. Then the following stretch of river I picked up two more solid browns in four casts with the best one going 560 grams.. They were both returned in good knick back into the river after a quick photo before I moved onto the next run which was a wide medium to fast flowing piece of water. That water also gave up two browns, these were both around the same size as the first brown landed. It was poor over the following three hundred meters without a sign of a fish, not only that my lower back and hips were now giving me hell so I called it a day. I wasn't going to push on any further in a slime covered and slippery rocky bottomed river. It was still a good couple of hours spent on the Mersey River today with five browns being caught & released.

Finally caught & released a trout here..

First one landed today..

Two browns taken here..

Solid brown..

Second solid brown of the session..

Last stretch of water fished..

Tough walk back to the car...

cheers
Adrian

[Nude up]

The cold water would be doing your hammy good. Great pics as always. Love tassie

[barra mick]

Nice day fishing...some sun out also

[Lightningx]

Nice work as always Adrian!
Great pics :thumbsup:

[Thomassssss]

Beautiful conditions.

What make of net is that?

[meppstas]

It's one I had sent to me to test out from Fishingsir.com last season, perfect for trout up to 1kg, I have a deeper one that I normally use on this river and the Meander River.. They organized it to be sent from Amazon USA.. plenty of them available on Ebay from around $18-00 free postage (china).. great little landing nets a fish friendly too, I bought one four years ago and it's still as good as ever..
cheers
Adrian

$17-96 on Ebay free postage...

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[davek]

:good: as always Adrian, cheers davo :thumbsup:

[Thomassssss]

It's one I had sent to me to test out from Fishingsir.com last season, perfect for trout up to 1kg, I have a deeper one that I normally use on this river and the Meander River.. They organized it to be sent from Amazon USA.. plenty of them available on Ebay from around $18-00 free postage (china).. great little landing nets a fish friendly too, I bought one four years ago and it's still as good as ever..
cheers
Adrian

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Thanks for that Adrian, I had seen those on eBay and was wondering if they are any good. Might have to order one now, pretty good price for something that you've been using for years.

Cheers.

Tom.

[meppstas]

No worries Tom, and mine gets used any where from 3-5 days a week as well and it's lasted very well..

And for around $18-00 for a good quality net, can't really get better than that..

cheers
Adrian

[Broomstick]

Nice report Adrian. Good to see the leg is feeling better.