Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Tasmania Fishing Reports
Post Reply
User avatar
meppstas
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:32 pm
Location: Sheffield, Tasmania
Has liked: 903 times
Likes received: 444 times

Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by meppstas » Mon Oct 30, 2017 8:43 am

Trout on & off in the Mersey River today..

Another warm day had me heading over to the Mersey River for a few hours chasing trout.. I didn't hit the river until 10:20 am not that it mattered all that much as it was mainly overcast conditions for now. The river here was running at a medium height and fairly clear so I'm hoping to catch and release a few browns today given the conditions were just right. I started of with the Daiwa ghost brown seeing as it worked well on the browns up at Liena yesterday in what was pretty tough fishing conditions. Well the first couple of stretches of water were very quiet, though I did manage to have a follow from a very small brown trout. It wasn't until I was half through fishing a back water when I finally caught my first small (270 gm) brown for the morning. That was the only brown taken in that long back water run, I did have several follows without any signs of aggression at all from them.
Mersy River back water, Merseylea,_4862 (Medium).JPG
Back water that gave up a small brown..


I headed back into the main stream and started working a long & wide 600mm deep stretch of medium flowing water. I stayed in the middle of the river and worked the lure down both sides of the river and that's when I picked up three nice browns in five minutes, all of them from the right hand side of the river. After catching and releasing those three browns it was all quiet again until I reached the top end of the next stretch of river forty minutes later. It was there I caught another three browns, one of them being the best brown so far (550 gms) and was taken in 300mms of water close to the right river bank. After that I had several browns follow the lure but they had gone off the take again. Talk about them being on and off, still it's good when they're on, much better than them being off all through the spin session.
Mersey River, Merseylea, _4858 (Medium).JPG
Three browns caught & released here..
Mersey River wild brown trout, Merseylea. _4859 (Medium).JPG
One of the three browns..
Solid brown taken from near the river bank, Mersey River at Merseylea.. _4864 (Medium).JPG
Good size brown taken from close to river bank..
Very solid brown, Mersey River, Merseylea, _4863 (Medium).JPG
Very solid brown..


I was about to call it a day when I thought I would try another stretch of river some four hundred meters further upstream, a stretch of river that has given up a few browns in it's day. I bypassed a long stretch of slow/medium flowing river then re-entered the river, I had also changed over to a Rapala F3 gold/black hard body lure. It didn't take very long at all before I had a brown take the lure, this was another solid brown that peeled quite a bit off line from the spool as it made a couple of hard runs with the flow. Twice I nearly had this fish in the net and both times he made that dash for freedom, rolling several times and wrapping the light 4lb mono line around itself. Then it came to the surface flapping around and I was certain this would see the line part ways which can happen from time to time when they wrap the line around themselves. Then it rolled in the opposite direction and unwound itself, it had also tired so I slowly led it into the net. This was the best fish so far beating the other brown by 30 grams.
Trout of the day caught here, Mersey River at Merseylea. _4870 (Medium).JPG
Fish of the day caught here.. another one lured from the river bank..
Quality wild Mersey River brown trout, Merseylea.._4868 (Medium).JPG
Best fish of the session..
Another solid brown, Mersey River at Merseylea.. _4867 (Medium).JPG
Another solid brown..

Two casts later I picked up another brown, this was just a small 280 gm fish which I didn't bother photographing. One more cast towards the river bank and I had another solid brown take the Rapala, after a bit of a tussle it was soon in the net. This fish was a little smaller than the other two and went 530 grams, a quick photo and it was soon on it's way. I fished on for another half and hour and never sighted a fish so called it a day at 1:15 pm.
Funny, after catching the first small brown they came in three lots of three all being caught in quick time. The trout were certainly on and off in the Mersey River today.. I'm just glad they had a few ons and not all off's..
Tranquil water, Mersey River at Merseylea.._4866 (Medium).JPG
Tranquil water on the Mersey River, bypassed this stretch of river..
Platypus coming up for air, Mersey River at Merseylea.._4873 (Medium).JPG
Spotted this little Platypus on my walk back to the car..
cheers
Adrian
'' Brand Ambassador for Mepps Lures in Australia '' Tackle Tactics, Okuma, Mepps & Platypus lines Pro Team Member

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClk58e ... m8yelCSKCw

User avatar
meppstas
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:32 pm
Location: Sheffield, Tasmania
Has liked: 903 times
Likes received: 444 times

Re: Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by meppstas » Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:51 am

Here's a few more pic's taken on the day..
Mersey River, Merseylea,,_4857 (Medium).JPG
Crossed over here, shallow fast water..
Mersey River, Merseylea, _4861 (Medium).JPG
Looking downstream, Mersey River.
Three more browns caught here, Mersey River at Merseylea.. _4869 (Medium).JPG
Three more browns picked up here..
Two browns caught here, Mersey River at Merseylea. _4865 (Medium).JPG
Two trout caught here, lured from opposite side of river..
Mersey River, Merseylea.._4860 (Medium).JPG
More of the back water..
Scenic walk back to car, Merseylea._4872 (Medium).JPG
Scenic walk back to the car..
View of the Mersey River on way back to car, Merseylea.._4874 (Medium).JPG
Another view of the river on the way to the car,,
cheers
Adrian
'' Brand Ambassador for Mepps Lures in Australia '' Tackle Tactics, Okuma, Mepps & Platypus lines Pro Team Member

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClk58e ... m8yelCSKCw

smile0784
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:16 pm
Has liked: 39 times
Likes received: 356 times

Re: Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by smile0784 » Thu Nov 02, 2017 2:41 pm

Great pics

User avatar
Sinsemilla
Rank: Gummy Shark
Rank: Gummy Shark
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2016 2:35 pm
Location: Northern Subs
Likes received: 272 times

Re: Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by Sinsemilla » Thu Nov 02, 2017 3:13 pm

Its such a good looking river. Great photos as always. Thanks for the report Adrian.

Cheers, Anth

Lightningx
Bluefin
Bluefin
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 4:21 pm
Has liked: 72 times
Likes received: 976 times

Re: Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by Lightningx » Thu Nov 02, 2017 3:14 pm

Top report as always mate! Great pics :thumbsup:

User avatar
meppstas
Rank: Premium Member
Rank: Premium Member
Joined: Sun Sep 08, 2013 8:32 pm
Location: Sheffield, Tasmania
Has liked: 903 times
Likes received: 444 times

Re: Trout on & off in the Mersey River..

Post by meppstas » Thu Nov 02, 2017 4:20 pm

Thanks guys, it was certainly a topsy turvy day that's for sure.. finished up being a good session in the end..

cheers
Adrian
'' Brand Ambassador for Mepps Lures in Australia '' Tackle Tactics, Okuma, Mepps & Platypus lines Pro Team Member

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClk58e ... m8yelCSKCw

Post Reply

Return to “Tasmania”