First trout of the 2021/22 season..

[meppstas]

Nearly three weeks after the trout season my back has finally improved enough for me to have hopped back in a river today and it felt great to be back in one too. With the larger rivers still running high I headed to one of my favorite small tannin streams for starters, even this stream was running around 8'' higher than I liked.

Plenty of water in this small stream

Anyway, to cut a long story short it was a reasonably good spin session, eleven hits, six hookups with just the four browns caught & released. The water temp is still a very low 4 degrees at the moment and the trout were a little slow on the take, other words they weren't all that aggressive when they hit the spinner. I tried out a new idea of mine today as well, instead of the anti kink setup I made added a small ball bearing roller swivel to the main line & added a small snap to it. It worked a treat, no line twist at all and a much better setup than having the added weight of the anti kink 16-20 inches up the line from the spinner. Not that I had any trouble with the anti kink as it did a great job stopping line twist in all the years I've used it. I spent two hours in the stream today without a problem, I pulled up quite good. All going well on Friday after my last daily treatment at the medical center (at 10:00 am) I'll be off for another spin session.. (YouTube video of the spin session below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox3VsyiwpkE&t=108s

cheers
Adrian..

Trial & error, worked a treat..

The first of the season

The white miller did well today..

Another one makes it into the net.

Nice flow here too..

The forth trout of the spin session..

[Sebb]

Good to head you back in action Adrian

4° sounds a bit too cold for their comfort. What's the ideal river temp in Tas for them to go crazy?

[meppstas]

Thanks Sebb, was nice to be back in a river too.. I found that water temps in the 11-17 degree range are ideal for trout..
Overcast humid days are what I prefer when fishing for them as well, but we don't get a lot of those conditions down here all that often.

cheers
Adrian..

[Sebb]

Thanks Sebb, was nice to be back in a river too.. I found that water temps in the 11-17 degree range are ideal for trout..
Overcast humid days are what I prefer when fishing for them as well, but we don't get a lot of those conditions down here all that often.

cheers
Adrian..

I'd imagine so too, since Tas is generally cooler than in Vic in average.
I like it when it's 10-15° here in Vic, but we get a lot more fishing pressure, so even during ideal temp, the fishing can be hard.

[Lightningx]

Good to see you back in the water Adrian!
Nice session and nice start to the season.
Great pics as always
Cheers

[Thomassssss]

Fantastic to hear you are back in the rivers, i look forward to following you for another season.

Just in regards to that new setup, is that your 4lb mainline tied straight to the swivel? As in no leader? And if you wouldn’t mind could you link to the swivel in question? I’ve always had the best luck just doing exactly as you do. Hahaha

[meppstas]

Thanks Thomasssss, yes tied directly to the 4 lb Platypus super 100 main line.. Back in days gone by (60's)when nylon line was all that was available I used to tie the lure to the main line and never had line twist. When monofiliment line came out I did the same and put up with line twist with the finer line.. Then came across the anti kink and used them without any hassle.. any way here's a link to the ball bearing swivels, the small snaps can be found on Ebay as well..

https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_fro ... h&_sacat=0

SNAP SWIVELS:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/11370558216 ... ctupt=true

cheers
Adrian

[Seniorfisho]

Hey Adrian, love your post's, very informative. Do you ever cast to the little shady spots under tree's or do you have more luck casting to eddy's and bubble lines?

[meppstas]

Hey Adrian, love your post's, very informative. Do you ever cast to the little shady spots under tree's or do you have more luck casting to eddy's and bubble lines?

Thanks Seniorfisho,
I do cast into the shaded areas when the suns on the water and catch trout on a regular basis in them especially during the warmer months, also fish the bubble lines in every stream/river I fish, flat water pockets along the edge of fast water runs are also great spots for trout as are flat waters behind
large rocks/boulders in rivers. There's not too many places in a river or stream that I don't cast a spinner onto, photos below will give you some ideas of the trout holding areas to look for...
cheers
Adrian..

** click on photo to enlarge..

Trout zones.

Flat water areas that hold trout.

Perfect trout water.

Trout taken from flat water close to river bank.

[Seniorfisho]

Hey Adrian, love your post's, very informative. Do you ever cast to the little shady spots under tree's or do you have more luck casting to eddy's and bubble lines?

Thanks Seniorfisho,
I do cast into the shaded areas when the suns on the water and catch trout on a regular basis in them especially during the warmer months, also fish the bubble lines in every stream/river I fish, flat water pockets along the edge of fast water runs are also great spots for trout as are flat waters behind
large rocks/boulders in rivers. There's not too many places in a river or stream that I don't cast a spinner onto, photos below will give you some ideas of the trout holding areas to look for...
cheers
Adrian..

** click on photo to enlarge..

Hard fast water, Meander River (Medium).jpg
upstream at Weegena (Medium).jpg
Perfect trout water (Medium).jpg
The backhand cast was spot on here.. (Medium).JPG

Thank's for that informative info. I am hoping to be able to fish the Otway streams in November this year, I usually spend a week down there doing just what you are doing. I haven't tried any mepps there but they do like small paddle tail soft plastics. The bottom photo is very much like most of the streams in the otways