The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Tasmania Fishing Reports
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meppstas
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The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by meppstas » Tue Oct 16, 2018 3:43 pm

The creek out does the river... 13-10-18

After checking the BOM river heights I saw that the Meander River had dropped 50mms since my last disastrous trip there with just the one trout being caught. I thought with it now being lower plus the air and water temp being higher it was worth another visit. My only worry was the East/North/East winds that were forecast for most of the week, not a good wind direction for fishing. It's okay if it's just a very light breeze but once it picks up one may as well head for home. Today's weather conditions were ideal with it being a dull cool to mild overcast day & the lightest of an Easterly breeze. With it being so overcast I didn't hit the river until around 10:00 am and commenced to flick the Mepps Aglia Furia around in the clear cool flowing water. It was quite nice to finally be fishing the river at the perfect wading height for a change.
IMG_6912 (Medium).JPG
Still some nice flow in the Meander.. just no fish..
I was ten minutes into the spin session when I had my first follow from a medium size brown, that's as far as it went. Not one sign of aggression from that trout as it slowly came up behind the spinner before it turned and moved off.. A little further up I was fishing a fast water run that flowed over some long rocky ledges, it was there where I had a hit and miss from a medium size trout. From there on it was all downhill as I rarely spotted a trout over the following eight hundred meters of river and several changes of spinners & hard body lures. I was totally frustrated to why the trout are not here in good numbers any more. After having two more light hit & misses I made the decision not to fish on any further here, I was going to try another stretch of river a couple of kilometres further upstream. So I took a shortcut by crossing the river and bushing bashing my way up a steep incline that took me to a dirt road and back to the car. By hell it was a steep incline, half way up I was just about knackered, but I did eventually reach the road.
IMG_6915 (Medium).JPG
The last water fished before crossing over and heading bush & up the hill..


Once back at the car still feeling ticked off with how the river was so depleted of trout at this stage of the season I decided to head over to Western Creek and give that a fish on the way home. Knowing that it would more than likely be running low I still felt it was worth a shot any way. When I arrived there I was right, it was running low plus there was a lot of algae on the bottom which will foul the lures on the retrieve when the get close to the bottom. The water wasn't all that clear either which was probably due to run off from the dairy farm that flows into a channel & then into the creek some three kilometres away. With the creek being so low I went for a small 1.5 gram Mepps #00 gold Aglia, it was on the first cast and retrieve when I had my first trout of the day take the lure. It was a very small fish, but at least it was a fish which was more than I'd had all morning. After that I had a couple of follows from larger trout but they wouldn't take the lure. I tried several other different coloured black fury & aglia spinners all with the same results.
IMG_6923 (Medium).JPG
Saw this little fella in the water, means the creek is in a healthy state..
IMG_6924 (Medium).JPG
The channel that flows into the creek
It was now time to try a small hard body lure, I went for one that I had dobbed a few small red dots on to make it look like a small brown trout. I came to a large deep pool (actually it's the only one on the creek) and had a few cast and retrieves with the little lure when I had a follow from a small trout. Just a I was about to lift the lure from the water it had a go at it but misses the trebles. I had a few more casts into the pool and had that same little brown only followed it. Once past the pool I was back into the main creek, a cast to the top end of it resulted in an instant hook up and I had my first decent size trout on. It made a few short runs and leaps from the river before it tired and I slipped the net under it. It was a nice clean well conditioned 310 gram fish that was soon returned to the creek. The next run I hooked and lost another brown, two casts after losing that fish I had another one take the lure. This fish was a little bigger than the last one, it too was in top condition and went 330 grams.
IMG_6926 (Medium).JPG
The deep pool..
IMG_6928 (Medium).JPG
The first decent brown taken in the creek..
IMG_6934 (Medium).JPG
Solid 330 gram brown..


The decision to give the creek a fish was the right one after all. As I worked my way up the shallow creek the algae was fouling the lure on a regular basis and was becoming quite annoying. I wasn't quite ready to give it away while I was still having several follows from trout plus a couple more hooked & lost fish. In the end I did catch and release two more medium size browns before I called it a day, the water level was just too low the further I went. In the end I finished up catching and releasing five trout with four of them being in the medium size range, I was happy enough with that.
IMG_6935 (Medium).JPG
Two trout hooked & lost here..
IMG_6938 (Medium).JPG
Another brown caught here..
cheers
Adrian
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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by StarrangerAU » Tue Oct 16, 2018 5:11 pm

Very glad that I read your report there. Earlier today I watched the video with the closed captions on and it was interesting, humorous, and baffling mostly all at the same time. So reading the report after makes far more sense. :-D Take a look if you haven't done so already.

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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by Texas » Tue Oct 16, 2018 6:47 pm

Thanks Adrian, you do write a great report
The photo's of course are grouse
Cheers Gra

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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by Sinsemilla » Tue Oct 16, 2018 10:33 pm

I also enjoy a well written report Adrian. Your grammar and punctuation are just as good as the photos, which is very refreshing!

Cheers, Anth

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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by Lightningx » Wed Oct 17, 2018 12:26 am

Top report and pics as always mate :thumbsup:

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meppstas
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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by meppstas » Wed Oct 17, 2018 6:53 am

Thanks guys, I do enjoy writing up a report after a trip to a river.. for one that used to hate reading and writing for years it's only the fishing that got me into it when I started to keep a diary of my trips & catches... since I got my first ever computer (that my daughter talked me into) back in 2011 is when I started to write trout reports, now they three times longer than when I used to put the details in the diaries.. Any way, I'm glad you enjoy the read as well as the photos.. you can also read other full reports & plenty of pic's of mine on the home page of Tackle Tactics too http://www.tackletactics.com.au in the tips & techniques on the forum.. any one that loves using soft plastics, well there's some great info on them..

cheers
Adrian
Last edited by meppstas on Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:46 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by Stumpjumper » Wed Oct 17, 2018 9:29 am

Good stuff as usual Adrian. I notice most of your trips begin fishing mid morning or later....I'm usually on my way home by then and all action is usually shut down. Is it the cooler weather that allows the later starts in Tassie?

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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by meppstas » Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:43 am

Stumpjumper wrote:Good stuff as usual Adrian. I notice most of your trips begin fishing mid morning or later....I'm usually on my way home by then and all action is usually shut down. Is it the cooler weather that allows the later starts in Tassie?
From the start of the trout season (always the first Saturday in August) I never hit the rivers all that early due to it being so cool & the water is still running at low temps between 2 degrees to 5 degrees, at the moment they have warmed up to around 10-11 degrees which is good. Not only that the body is always very stiff & sore in the morning and it takes me a couple of hours to loosen up. When I start the early spin session and like to be on the water around 5:00 am - 5:30 am (mid December onwards) I have to get up around 3:00 am as to get the ol' body going, have found heat patches or the Red Tiger Balm ointment followed by a couple of Panamax helps heaps for my lower back & hip joints...So for now I don't worry about real early starts, though I'll soon be hitting the rivers at 7:00 am in a week or so.. I don't mind the late afternoon session (4:00pm onwards) during the Summer months either.. What I have noticed so far this season is the lack of insect hatches on the rivers, normally there's heaps of midges hovering over the water, hardly seen any so far.. the other day I did see a few duns about, but not in big numbers. Caddis moths have also been few and far between too, though once the tea trees flower they'll be out in force.. have seen more Cormorants on the rivers than insects lately.. :(

cheers
Adrian
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Re: The creek out does the river.. (the full report for Texas)

Post by Stumpjumper » Wed Oct 17, 2018 10:47 am

Cheers mate, hehe.....seems I'm not alone in creaking and groaning in the mornings. Usually takes me half an hour huffing up a hill looking for Sambar before I loosen up.

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