Great decision to chase trout....
- meppstas
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Great decision to chase trout....
** This trip was from last Thursday..
Great decision to chase trout....
I wasn't sure whether or not to go fishing this afternoon with the Mersey & Meander Rivers still running high, plus I thought it was time to give the small tannin waters a rest for a while. Seeing as I was heading to Ulverstone for the monthly angling club meeting I decided a trip to the Wilmot River may be worthwhile as it does fish reasonably well early season. I had no idea if it would be too high to fish seeing there's been quite a lot of snow and rainfall in the upper reaches, I'm hoping it will be at a safe wading height. I arrived at the river close on 3:30 pm and found it to be the perfect height for wading, not only that it was a nice light tannin colour too. I did start off flicking a small #00 gold Aglia around then decided it would be best if I used the hard body lures here today mainly because the river is wider and deeper than the small tannin streams. I could have gone to the larger #0 Aglia but still reckoned the hard body would be the better option for this river today.
I went with the Daiwa ghost brown for starters and it did take a some time before I had my first take on it. This was a solid fish too and I'm thinking it's a good solid brown until I saw it leap from the river only to see it was a rainbow trout. Now I have never caught or even seen a rainbow trout in this river until today, so I want this fish to stay hooked. After a minute of playing this fish it was finally in the landing net. This was a first for me here, it was in top condition and a beautifully coloured fish. A quick photo then spending a little time making sure it was okay for release, it was on it's way. This was a great start to the session and I'm hoping it will continue with a few more trout being caught & released over the next couple of hours. I had only moved some ten meters upstream when I had another trout take the little ghost brown lure, not a big fish but a nice 360 gram brown. Two casts later I had another solid take but missed setting the hooks with that fish. It was actually a smash and grab by the trout, they either stick or they're gone and not seen again.
It was pretty slow going over the next two stretches of river until I came to a long slow flowing stretch of water. It was here I had several follows from some medium size browns that just sat back from the lure, they were non takers. A couple more casts and I had trout number three hooked, netted, photographed then back in the river, it was a nice 390 gram fish.
That was the last sign of a trout until I had rounded a bend in the river and moved into a very long stretch of river that had a mix of fast water and some long medium flowing runs. This stretch of river has produced a quite a few fish on past trips here early in the season, I'm very confident it will again today. I went for another change of lure for this stretch of river, it was on with a gold/black Rapala f3 lure, one that's worked well on the trout in tannin water before. A great choice of lure it was, it only took three casts up and across the fast water with a slow retrieve when I had trout number four on the line. This fish gave a good run for the money too as it made several runs back and forth in this fast water before it finally tired and was in the net. It was the best trout so far for the session, a nice 610 gram well conditioned brown. This long stretch of river that I fished for the next hour and a half I caught and released another five nice browns from six hook ups. The decision to head over to the Wilmot River for a few hours spin fishing turned out to be a good one.. cheers
Adrian
Great decision to chase trout....
I wasn't sure whether or not to go fishing this afternoon with the Mersey & Meander Rivers still running high, plus I thought it was time to give the small tannin waters a rest for a while. Seeing as I was heading to Ulverstone for the monthly angling club meeting I decided a trip to the Wilmot River may be worthwhile as it does fish reasonably well early season. I had no idea if it would be too high to fish seeing there's been quite a lot of snow and rainfall in the upper reaches, I'm hoping it will be at a safe wading height. I arrived at the river close on 3:30 pm and found it to be the perfect height for wading, not only that it was a nice light tannin colour too. I did start off flicking a small #00 gold Aglia around then decided it would be best if I used the hard body lures here today mainly because the river is wider and deeper than the small tannin streams. I could have gone to the larger #0 Aglia but still reckoned the hard body would be the better option for this river today.
I went with the Daiwa ghost brown for starters and it did take a some time before I had my first take on it. This was a solid fish too and I'm thinking it's a good solid brown until I saw it leap from the river only to see it was a rainbow trout. Now I have never caught or even seen a rainbow trout in this river until today, so I want this fish to stay hooked. After a minute of playing this fish it was finally in the landing net. This was a first for me here, it was in top condition and a beautifully coloured fish. A quick photo then spending a little time making sure it was okay for release, it was on it's way. This was a great start to the session and I'm hoping it will continue with a few more trout being caught & released over the next couple of hours. I had only moved some ten meters upstream when I had another trout take the little ghost brown lure, not a big fish but a nice 360 gram brown. Two casts later I had another solid take but missed setting the hooks with that fish. It was actually a smash and grab by the trout, they either stick or they're gone and not seen again.
It was pretty slow going over the next two stretches of river until I came to a long slow flowing stretch of water. It was here I had several follows from some medium size browns that just sat back from the lure, they were non takers. A couple more casts and I had trout number three hooked, netted, photographed then back in the river, it was a nice 390 gram fish.
That was the last sign of a trout until I had rounded a bend in the river and moved into a very long stretch of river that had a mix of fast water and some long medium flowing runs. This stretch of river has produced a quite a few fish on past trips here early in the season, I'm very confident it will again today. I went for another change of lure for this stretch of river, it was on with a gold/black Rapala f3 lure, one that's worked well on the trout in tannin water before. A great choice of lure it was, it only took three casts up and across the fast water with a slow retrieve when I had trout number four on the line. This fish gave a good run for the money too as it made several runs back and forth in this fast water before it finally tired and was in the net. It was the best trout so far for the session, a nice 610 gram well conditioned brown. This long stretch of river that I fished for the next hour and a half I caught and released another five nice browns from six hook ups. The decision to head over to the Wilmot River for a few hours spin fishing turned out to be a good one.. cheers
Adrian
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- meppstas
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Few more pic's ...
Adrian
cheersAdrian
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Very scenic and you had a good outing - interesting that most of the Browns did not have the bright red spots of your usual fish from the smaller streams.
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- Bluefin
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- meppstas
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Thanks guys,Paulanderson wrote:Very scenic and you had a good outing - interesting that most of the Browns did not have the bright red spots of your usual fish from the smaller streams.
Being a larger river that runs from dark tannin colour after heavy rains, it then runs clear once it settles downs and I reckon that has a lot to do with it Paul.. This trip it was a medium to light tannin colour due to recent rainfall.. Good thing is that most of them still have that beautiful golden colour in them.. :thumbsup: I was all set to go again today until I woke to 35-45 kph winds.. hopefully tomorrow will be better.. more wind & rain forecast for Weds/Thurs too...
cheers
Adrian
Last edited by meppstas on Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Nice session mate, and a rainbow as well! I remember from your post about your seasonal tallies, they are like hens teeth in the rivers - I presume it's a stocky from seasons past that has managed to hang on in river living?
- mazman
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Fantastic looking water adrian and some lovely trout. I haven't worked out what exactly makes trout have red spots but I think the amount of silt in the river and the colour when it's clear (gin vs tea tree) has a bit to do with it.
Cheers Alex
Cheers Alex
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing
- meppstas
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
Cheers for the replies guys..happyfriggincamper wrote:Nice session mate, and a rainbow as well! I remember from your post about your seasonal tallies, they are like hens teeth in the rivers - I presume it's a stocky from seasons past that has managed to hang on in river living?
The rainbow from what I've been told after checking with the IFS is that it would have come from Paloona Dam that spills into the Forth River, the Wilmot River that I fished flows into the Forth River.. talked to a few others who have fished here and they've also caught several rainbows in this area..
cheers
Adrian
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- Sinsemilla
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Re: Great decision to chase trout....
That looks like a great stretch of water. Great report!
Cheers, Anth
Cheers, Anth