Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Tasmania Fishing Reports
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meppstas
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Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by meppstas » Mon Mar 23, 2020 1:46 pm

Pirtek Challenge, a day to forget.

Weather conditions this morning for the Pirtek Fishing Challenge wasn't all that flash with a gusty South Easterly blowing and a cool morning. To make the day worse for me was the fact my right hip was playing up, for some unknown reason it went on me last night when we went out for tea. I was determined it wasn't going to ruin my day so I headed off to Merseylea to have a fish in the Mersey River. The stretch of river I fished was the very same stretch of water that gave up a 56cm brown trout (on a #00 Mepps Black Fury) that gave me second place overall in the Tasmanian Freshwater section of the 2014 Pirtek Fishing Challenge. I know I won't go close to catching another trout any where near that length at Merseylea because it hasn't fished all that well few a few years now. This area is so different to what it once was due to the record June 2016 floods that hit this area and wiped out seven bridges along the river as well as taking away a lot of the river banks etc. That record flood changed the whole of the Mersey River system and once the water subsided it was like a new river system, the whole river from below Lake Paranga to Latrobe had changed. Today I'm hoping to catch a few decent trout of which the biggest one measured & photographed is good enough to win the mystery length prize, the longest fish will certainly come from the lakes or stocked dams.
IMG_2850 (Medium).JPG
Fished my way along the river bank for starters

It was around 9:30am by the time I hit the river, it was running nice and clear and at a safe wading height. I started the session off fishing from the river bank casting a Mepps #1 Stone Fly Bug spinner up and across a deep fast water run. I spent around ten minutes doing this as I slowly made my way along the right hand river bank without having a single follow, not a sign of a trout was had. I moved further up to a headwater, one that always gives up a rainbow trout or two as well as a brown trout, not today though. After spending another ten minutes or so flicking a #1 Aglia Furia & #1 Aglia Mouche Noire around without any success it was time to hop into the long shallower fast waters. The exact same area that gave up that 56cm trout, today I've gone for the #0 Stone Fly Bug spinner in the clear flowing water. With no sign of a trout over the first fifty meters of fast water things weren't looking all that good, not only that I was now struggling with the pain in my right hip. Fishing this river that has a very slippery rocky river bottom probably wasn't one of my best choices of rivers to fish today. Anyway I plugged on and finally had a hook up, nothing big, just a well conditioned solid 29.5cm brown trout that weighed 320 grams.
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The March Brown Bug spinner....
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This water always gave up trout, not today..
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The one & only trout caught..
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Not long enough to send this photo to the challenge..
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The one & only trout was caught here..
After it's release I started to make my way back to the centre of the river when I heard the clunking noise of kayaks bottoming out on the shallow river bottom. When I looked upstream there they were, two kayakers heading down the river, not what I wanted to see as it meant the water ahead of me wouldn't be worth fishing now. They did do the right thing, the lads waited for me to point to the side of the river I wanted them to head down in which they did. We had a bit of a chat for around ten minutes before they headed on down the river. I continued to fish on for another thirty minutes without a sign of a trout, the hip had become to painful in the end & I had to call it a day just on 11:00am. The walk back to the car was pure hell, by the time I reached it I was really hobbling.. Hopefully I won't be out of a river for very long, at this stage I reckon it will be around a week before I'm back in a river. One thing I do know is that when I do return to a river it won't be in this area that's for sure.. One thing I did see was a large flock of cormorants flying overhead which wasn't good, they have really knocked the trout fishing around in many rivers across Tasmania for several years now.
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Cormorants overhead, not a good sign for any river..
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End of the road for me..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrqeHjiO8c8

I'm still laid up at the moment, hopefully I may (all going well) get back in a river tomorrow.. :nw:
cheers
Adrian
Last edited by meppstas on Mon Mar 23, 2020 4:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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purple5ive
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Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by purple5ive » Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:17 pm

Thats a shame mate, hope you recover soon, stay safe !!

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meppstas
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Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by meppstas » Mon Mar 23, 2020 3:54 pm

Thanks p5, eight days of not being in a river nearing the end of season doesn't go down all that well with me, even more so this is when I often boost my catch rate up... :ft:

cheers
Adrian
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Bugatti

Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by Bugatti » Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:02 pm

My sympathies about your hip Adrian, and also the only catch of the lone trout.

It is always an adventure with your fishing trips, and a chat, in your hat, with two in yaks would have been a nice break to the slow angling results.


Adrian, I did some Numerology with your number

54484.JPG
54484.JPG (34.38 KiB) Viewed 1990 times

7.JPG


So with the result being 7, I thought you'd have a bit more success , , , , but seems the COVID-19 has even affected the trout , , , , a self isolating trout :-D


At least a consolation would be, another Pirtek Cap to add to your impressive collection :tu:


Cheers, Bill

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Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by happyfriggincamper » Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:38 pm

Bad luck Adrian, rest up the hip right - there is always next seasons to take on with well recovered hip

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Sebb
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Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by Sebb » Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:31 pm

Sounds like a tough day. You're still in for the mystery size.
Take care and rest up well Adrian. I still want to read your reports and see your photos for many many more years.
------------------------------
A fish is a fish :ft:
No fish is worth a life, stay safe

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meppstas
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Re: Pirtek Fishing Challenge, a day to forget...

Post by meppstas » Tue Mar 24, 2020 10:22 pm

Seb85 wrote:
Mon Mar 23, 2020 9:31 pm
Sounds like a tough day. You're still in for the mystery size.
Take care and rest up well Adrian. I still want to read your reports and see your photos for many many more years.
Thanks guys.. :tu:
Seb I didn't bother sending the photo in as I reckon it was way too small for the mystery length..

cheers
Adrian
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