Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Tasmania Fishing Reports
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meppstas
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Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by meppstas » Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:40 pm

Spent three hours in the river this morning chasing trout number 400. Only needed three to reach it, thankfully I did reach it and what beautiful fish number 400 was too.. Couldn't have worked out any better than catching and releasing a 1.3kg brown, which was the 400th trout for the season.. Still well down to last season by around 120 plus trout.. still a fair day spent in the river.. I tried out a new hard body lure a friend of mine makes,
it's a 55 mm shallow floating lure, I wasn't sure how it would go but it did very well with seven hookups for five browns being caught.. was stocked that it also did the job in catching the big brown too.. He' sells them for $8-00 ea, cast a long way & they have a great action too.. :thumbsup:

cheers
Adrian
IMG_9055 (Medium).JPG
Freezing cols in the river early this morning, one minus 1 degree to start with.
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Much better when I tried else where and the sun was on the water later in the morning..
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First brown taken on the green lure..
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Close up of the first brown
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Trout No 400 for the season..
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Close up of the best trout & No 400.
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The brown being released..
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The green lure..
here's a video of the spin session..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JZTVmVQRXA
Last edited by meppstas on Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by Marty.A » Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:21 pm

Awesome milestone Adrian 400 is what most guys would dream to get that in one season so well done mate.

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meppstas
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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by meppstas » Wed Mar 13, 2019 9:16 pm

Marty.A wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2019 8:21 pm
Awesome milestone Adrian 400 is what most guys would dream to get that in one season so well done mate.
Thanks Marty, it was great to finally reach the 400 mark, even though I'm well down on last season it's still a reasonable tally.. hopefully I can hit the 500 by the end of the trout season on the 29th April.. At the start of the season I had set myself a target of 600, won't get close to that now..
The rivers have fished poorly this season, so it will be interesting to see if I can reach 500 too.. :-D

cheers
Adrian
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Bugatti

Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by Bugatti » Wed Mar 13, 2019 10:41 pm

Great achievement Adrian, congratulations on the 400th :thumbsup: (and the upcoming 500th :) ). A very solid looking fish, seemed nice across the shoulders. Great looking lure too, good that you put your faith behind it.

You would of felt like a Spartan landing the 400th and a solid unit that it was , , , , and 100 more than what the Spartans had too.

300 Spartans.jpg
300 Spartans.jpg (25.54 KiB) Viewed 2461 times


Always love your reports, great photos of the awesome countryside to go with them as well.

Good luck this Sunday for The Pirtek Fishing Challenge :water: , hope you (and Jim) have great news to tell Sunday night)

Cheers, Bill

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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by Lightningx » Wed Mar 13, 2019 11:14 pm

Top report and pics as always Adrian!
Congrats on your 400th trout! Well done :thumbsup:

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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by Kimtown » Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:10 am

400.. that's crazy

I wonder how many of those you have caugh multiple times

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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by rb85 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:07 am

Kimtown wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 3:10 am
400.. that's crazy

I wonder how many of those you have caugh multiple times
You should give it a go in Gippsland Kimtown there’s lots of streams loaded with brown trout.

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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by April Fool » Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:27 am

Still an outstanding effort Adrian in what you call a slow season. What has attributed the most to the lower numbers...heat and lack of rain?
Cheers
Jim

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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by meppstas » Thu Mar 14, 2019 12:28 pm

April Fool wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:27 am
Still an outstanding effort Adrian in what you call a slow season. What has attributed the most to the lower numbers...heat and lack of rain?
Cheers
Jim
Thanks for the positive comments guys...

Jim, I feel it's slowly been getting this way since we had a couple of very dry Winters (back in 2011/12/13) with no follow up rains through Spring & even Summer like we used to have. The large influx of cormorants had a big effect, then that was topped of with the record 2016 June floods. The floods wiped out that seasons spawn as well as the yearling (and probably larger fish too) trout from the previous season and it's now showing the effects of the 2016 floods.
I'm sure the rivers will come back in time, but it will take several more years before they're back to what they were.. The IFS know there's a problem but won't admit it, they dropped the daily catch (keepers) from 12 fish down to 5 fish per day, so that tells you they know something isn't right. Problem is they didn't up the legal size of the trout, they left it at 22 cms a size that is below spawning size any way, it should have gone up to at least 30 cms in my book. They're just a few of the things that I feel have contributed to some of the rivers I fish being down in fish stocks.. The Mersey River is the river that has fished the worst of all the larger rivers I fish and that was the river that was hardest hit by the June floods as well.. It is very heavily silted in the lower reaches, there's also several large dairy farms along it in the lower reaches too so there could be run off from them. Then there's all the hardwood plantations that line the river in the lower area around Kimberley through to Weegena some 10 kms upstream. The ground was poisoned when new trees were planted, then as they grew they were aerial sprayed, now they've been harvested and a new lot of trees have been replanted so the cycle goes on again. These are only my opinions though Jim.. but that's how I see it..
The Meander River is improving slowly, it's a river that is popular & now very heavily fished all throughout the trout season. It is also a river that is used for Australian, state (men's & women's) fly fishing & club comps too.. In December 2019 it & the Mersey River are the two rivers that will be used for the World fly fishing championships too.. I heard that the IFS will be making those two rivers catch & release when the 2019/20 trout season opens in August..

** actually just came across this on the IFS website regarding the World fly fishing championship..

These temporary regulation changes apply to the following locations:

The lake venues of Little Pine Lagoon, Penstock Lagoon and Woods Lake, will be closed to recreational fishing for the duration of the event from midnight on Sunday 1 December to midnight on Friday 6 December 2019 inclusive.
The competition sections of the river venues will be closed to recreational fishing, from midnight on Sunday 24 November to midnight on Friday 6 December 2019 inclusive.
** The Mersey River downstream of the Olivers Road (on the C 138) bridge to Hoggs Bridge (on the C 153).
** The Meander River downstream from the Huntsman Lake dam to Barretts Bridge, Long Ridge Road (on the C 166).
The competition sites along the Mersey and Meander Rivers (see above) will close seven days before the competition starts. This decision was made as the river venues are small and accessible and wild fish take some time to resume normal behaviour after disturbance from angling effort. Fishing along the non-competition sites will be unaffected.

cheers
Adrian
Last edited by meppstas on Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:59 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Trout number 400 finally reached,,

Post by smile0784 » Thu Mar 14, 2019 4:32 pm

Great effort mate
Awesome fish to hit the quadruple century

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