Meppstas

With the larger rivers still on the high side I decided to stick to the smaller streams until things settle down, as it turned out it was a good decision too with a few nice wild brown trout being caught and released. Even though this small stream was on the high side, it was still much safer to fish it than a large fast flowing river. A photo slideshow follows the video as well..
cheers Adrian..
 

Warmer water early in the season will certainly bring them into the metro areas earlier. I saw a post from Brighton Tackle claim they had been sighted locally.
As I have previously mentioned the ongoing heavy netting of this species over winter in the last few years is having a significant detrimental impact on the overall stock status. Hopefully they are resilient and bounce back.

That's one awesome write up Des, thanks for sharing it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and great photos to top it off..
cheers Adrian

The seasons are changing. The temperature is rising.
The water is warming. It is all happening a bit earlier this year.
Lizards are crawling on the roads. And “Lizards” (flathead) are crawling in the sea.
Water birds are gathering, lining up for a feast of baitfish from above.
The Flathead are lining up for a feast of baitfish from below.
In these ambient temperatures, food is plentiful in the shallows.
The ecosystem has had a great kickstart with the rise in temperatures and every thing comes alive and thrives on the sandflats.

Temperature is the biggest driver for a series of chain reactions, in the sandflats ecosystem.
I am forever monitoring the water temperatures.
The rise in water temperature is early this year.

A series of natural events occur, which results in delivering us fishers, some fine Yellow Fin Whiting and Flathead.
Stimulated by the rise in water temperature about now our local Prawns, the Western King Prawn, start spawning in their mid gulf grounds.
Also now, the Haswell Shore Crabs shrug off their cold weather torpor and also spawn in the inshore shallows.
Post larval Juvenile Prawns start migrating from mid gulf to the warmer, shallow, inshore waters of the upper gulfs.
The Haswell Shore Crab larval zoea, now abundant, provides food for the juvenile Prawns and schools of baitfish.
There is a boom in the population of Juvenile Prawns, Haswell Shore Crabs, and Baitfish in the inshore waters … And also their predators. YFW and Flathead, have moved in, enjoying this abundance of food.
Having experienced a sustained period of exposure to higher water temperatures, the YFW have now, increased their metabolisms and have developed voracious appetites. The larger predatory YFW that I like to target are now aggressively hunting on the sandflats. Devouring juvenile prawns and shore crabs.
So it is a perfect time to place myself at the end of these chain reactions and target some YFW and Flathead.

I took advantage of the warm weekend.
Given the tides, I selected an area that amplifies the small tide movement and works best on the slower tides.
I started with chasing Flathead on the falling tide. The Flathead are very active chasing the baitfish as they retreat to the shelter of weedy areas in deeper water.
Fishing for them in heavily weeded areas does present it’s challenges.

Lures with trebles catch too much weed. And when a Flathead is hooked they will head into the weed. All the exposed treble barbs, hook onto the surrounding weed and help the Flathead throw the lure.
I have recently started to use floating hardbodies like OSP Bent Minnows, with singles and assist hooks, for these areas. These hooks pull through the weed easily. So far, I have yet to have a Flathead throw these hooks.


Look for where the Herons are feeding to show you where the baitfish are and the Flathead will be holding just downstream.
I was able to extract 3 Solid Flathead that were hiding around the weed, terrorising the baitfish, before the tide slowed.

Next on the agenda were the YFW. A good depth of water was holding over the softer feeding sandflat areas. Usually you will find this substrate holds more food and fish.
Whilst not feeding as aggressively as when there is more water movement, the YFW were still keen enough to take a well worked lure offering over the sandflats. My usual favourites, Sugapen, Ecogear ZX and Zipbaits Skinny Pop, were the more successful lures.
However it is a new season and there are always a few new offerings to try out.
They did not get too much time in the water but both these new lures took fish.
The New Sugapen Splash, which is perhaps better suited to a choppier day still took a fish.
Daiwa’s Slippery Dog 80cm in the colour “Ebi” that I had not previously come across, I thought could work well in this area, had some success.

A drop in air pressure with a change in wind direction from North to SW, pushed water up into the gulf and provided a small wind tide. The water movement, stimulated the fish to bite late into the afternoon. “Bob the bag snatcher” is also making an early season appearance. I normally don’t see them on the sandflats till November.
I kept 14 of the better YFW. Most are over 35cm. And the best a very nice 42cm.

The Flats are Firing early this year !!! Hopefully we can look forward to a great season ahead.
The only downside is the heavy toll the professionals have taken over this winter as they increasingly search for alternative species to supplement their restricted and dwindling catches.

 
Tight lines all.
Cheers, Des

Yes, I haven't been on there for quite some time, too many argumentative comments on there and have been for quite some time. I have Russell Harris's  email address I send him a message, I caught up with him here in Tassie a couple of years ago. He's one of the nicer members on that site.. Hopefully will be catching up with Soobz when he visits Tassie soon..
cheers
Adrian..

Your being missed in Vic....

This was a trip from a couple of weeks ago into the new trout season, very cold conditions it was too..
cheers Adrian..
 

Smart thinking fellas and well done on picking the scam bastards  

I got suspicious and overcame my greed/glee !  ...   when there was no PayPal at checkout.
The prices were just too good to be true ... and free shipping to Australia ! 

Could all members add to a list of Scam Stores in this thread.
I recently came across this store:
https://www.shimanostore.com/spinning-reels-shimano-vanford-2500-hg-spinning-fishing-reel/
It just seemed too good to be true !  
A few checks on the web highlighted it as a scam store
 

RIP Gary.    Hopefully his heirs/successors will be as considerate.
 
As for 'cold' in Tassie...  the creeks in the Adelaide hills are turning in to glaciers...
Hence the new name for my suburb... 'Bridge-clacier 5155 "...

This was a trip from a couple of weeks ago into the new trout season, very cold conditions it was too..
cheers Adrian..
 

Thank You Adrian, that is a beautiful, peaceful looking place
Cheers
Yorky 

Spring has sprung with a couple of days of warmish weather getting it started.
It seemed a good chance to try Lure fishing Yellow Fin Whiting and kick off this season with perhaps a catch or two.
The YFW lure box has not seen daylight for awhile. It was time to freshen up the lures by replacing the now well rusted out assist hooks on them.
The reels have been greased and oiled up. Trying best to prepare them for a season of abuse and dunking that wading fishing will inevitably deliver them.
All prepared I set off for a couple of days in search of my first lure caught YFW for this season.
 
The plan was to fish both warmish days ahead, determined to get off the mark for the season. I had also planned on fishing two different areas on either side of the upper St Vincent Gulf, hopefully increasing my chances.
Day one, was a hard slog with barely a YFW sighted. But plenty of Flathead about. The other variety that comes to life in Spring on the Sandflats. I spooked a few.  I dropped a couple. I had not prepared my lures by replacing the rusted hooks. They certainly will be a focus of my next session.
I had to resort to bait to find a few YFW and keep me informed as to the whiting’s presence and whereabouts.
 
Day two, which I felt might be the better day, as a result of the water warming after a couple of warm days. It proved to be the day.
It did take some effort with fish finally taken later in the day on the incoming tide. Again, probably the warmest weather spell of the two days.
I did not experiment at all with any new lures and stuck to my old favourites of the Ecogear ZX and the Bassday Sugapen.
Only 2 of the 8 lure caught fish were taken on the surface. Their body temperatures and metabolisms are still low. Making them a bit lethargic to be aggressive surface predators. As in past seasons the sub surface lures usually starts the season more successful.
Another influencing factor is, awaiting the arrival into the shallows, of the new season’s juvenile prawns from their annual, mid gulf spawn. The availability of this seasonal food source will also stimulate predatory surface feeding behaviour.
 
There is a considerable difference in water temperature on the two sides of the St V  Gulf. The Eastern side being far shallower, is the first to warm up. The Western side was significantly cooler. However this will soon even out after a more prolonged spell of warm weather.
There are signs of a promising season ahead with some very hot conditions predicted.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

This trip goes back to the last couple of weeks of the trout season, seeing as I'm still out of action with Spinal Stenosis (something that I now have to live with) and now down and out with the flu I thought I'd slip this trout fishing video on the site.. 
cheers Adrian
 

This trip goes back to the last couple of weeks of the trout season, seeing as I'm still out of action with Spinal Stenosis (something that I now have to live with) and now down and out with the flu I thought I'd slip this trout fishing video on the site.. 
cheers Adrian
 

This was one of my better trips during the trout season while fishing a small tannin stream close to home on private property. This video is the short version..
cheers Adrian
 

Nice session there..  well done.

This was one of my better trips during the trout season while fishing a small tannin stream close to home on private property. This video is the short version..
cheers Adrian
 

This was one of my better trips during the trout season while fishing a small tannin stream close to home on private property. This video is the short version..
cheers Adrian
 

The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released.
It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too..☺️
cheers
Adrian
 

The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released.
It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too..☺️
cheers
Adrian
 

The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released.
It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too..☺️
cheers
Adrian
 

The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released.
It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too..☺️
cheers
Adrian
 

The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released.
It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too..☺️
cheers
Adrian