yellow door 1

Gee... you got some good stuff at the dump !! 

Mate invited me down to check out the new joint he just moved into. Sounded great. We were going to have a BBQ, Go watch local footy and have a few beers.

That translates to - a few trips to the tip - few loads of furniture from the old place and spending the rest of the day building over head storage in his new car-port😀

Mate invited me down to check out the new joint he just moved into. Sounded great. We were going to have a BBQ, Go watch local footy and have a few beers.

That translates to - a few trips to the tip - few loads of furniture from the old place and spending the rest of the day building over head storage in his new car-port😀

Mate invited me down to check out the new joint he just moved into. Sounded great. We were going to have a BBQ, Go watch local footy and have a few beers.

That translates to - a few trips to the tip - few loads of furniture from the old place and spending the rest of the day building over head storage in his new car-port😀

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 weather has been poor so I haven't been fishing much. So what do you do when you're not fishing? Make stuff for fishing! I've been making some small assist hooks to replace the back trebles on lures. 

 
I bought some silicone lure skirts of Aliexpress to use for a bit of flash.

 
The cord is cheap 30lb braid. There is no need to use such strong braid, you could use a lot lighter. But I decided to use this braid, because the diameter is easier to handle and tie knots. I measure out 25cms which gives me long enough tag ends to easily tie each hook with a 5 turn snell knot. I tie one hook. then measure 6cm and mark the braid. Next I slide the second hook up to the 6cm mark and tie the hook on. When the knots are dressed and tightened, it gives me the length I want for the assist hooks, which is a tad longer than the pre-tied BKK Striker hooks I previously used. I decided to make them slightly longer after reading a post from Des who add extra split rings for length. I'll probably make some slightly shorter to replace the middle trebles like Des suggests. I've made some with split rings and some with snaps and I attach the hook lengths with a simple girth hitch. Then I thread the silicone flash through the split ring/snap, fold in half and tie off with a 5 turn uni knot using 210D flat waxed thread.



 
I used Owner 52084 fine wire split rings #0 and Decoy Round Snap #00. The hooks are Owner 5117-031 Mosquito Hook #8 and Shinto Octopus Beak #10, which are physically the same size. I prefer the Owner Mosquito Hooks, because they are very sticky (they cost $6 for 11 hooks). The Shinto hooks are still a good hook and and I picked them up for $9.60 for 24.

No way! 
Not one in all your fresh water fishing exploits?
Damn things are everywhere and have suicidal tendencies when it comes to a hook attached to line.
I reckon I've caught more of them than any other freshwater fish (best a measly 36cm in the torrens) and never once actually targeted them.
I'm also pretty sure you've done more fresh water fishing than me (not difficult) so to me this is an achievement almost the equal of those monster reddies.

Far out👍 Nothing better when something unexpected and big take the hooks - top effort

I was chasing trout recently, I tied a few ruff wooly buggers the night before. Free style.. and pretty happy with them too.. I also Tied on a brand new 4lb leader. 
About 12 cast into my session, I felt a real heavy weight load up on my 5 weight Fly Rod. "Wow that's a big trout". It sat on the bottom and held my there about 5 minutes. It was an impossible trying to turn its head. It finally turned, it came too the surface. F+++ me !. It's not a trout.. then there was several heavy runs. A 10 minute battle in the end. I finally got it to surface. I grabbed my trout net off my back. Took one look at it and threw it. Pfft.. useless. Somehow I managed to land this fish.
What it was doing eating a tiny wooly bugger?  I have no idea. How a size 12 (garfish hook) pinned it in the corner of the jaw and didn't fall out ? I have no idea. Why my 4lb line didn't snap. Again I have no idea. 
It was definitely my day. 


The fish measured 92cm. Estimate 30lb.
Also a PB for me. 

not sure how either of these will go but.....

These thin worms are a pain to rig - so I cut up some shrink tube to protect them from the thread - then lashed them on - with a dab of super glue on the securing knots

Just waiting to see if there is a reaction and the different plastic causes the "Zman Style" plastic to melt.

Also -  I was looking up Kayak nets and they are pretty exxy.  I can get a $10 replacement rubber net off ali expres - and I had the steel rod and pvc in the garage - just heated it up - and put a pencil in the middle of the wires and stepped on it - a bit of araldite will lock them in place - and bang - cheap net for little stuff.

not sure how either of these will go but.....

These thin worms are a pain to rig - so I cut up some shrink tube to protect them from the thread - then lashed them on - with a dab of super glue on the securing knots

Just waiting to see if there is a reaction and the different plastic causes the "Zman Style" plastic to melt.

Also -  I was looking up Kayak nets and they are pretty exxy.  I can get a $10 replacement rubber net off ali expres - and I had the steel rod and pvc in the garage - just heated it up - and put a pencil in the middle of the wires and stepped on it - a bit of araldite will lock them in place - and bang - cheap net for little stuff.

not sure how either of these will go but.....

These thin worms are a pain to rig - so I cut up some shrink tube to protect them from the thread - then lashed them on - with a dab of super glue on the securing knots

Just waiting to see if there is a reaction and the different plastic causes the "Zman Style" plastic to melt.

Also -  I was looking up Kayak nets and they are pretty exxy.  I can get a $10 replacement rubber net off ali expres - and I had the steel rod and pvc in the garage - just heated it up - and put a pencil in the middle of the wires and stepped on it - a bit of araldite will lock them in place - and bang - cheap net for little stuff.

In this particular system I've caught alot of rainbows this season, which I've never caught here before. Even took one home and ate it. Brined it. Put some fine dining chef skills on it. Still tasted like shit 🤣
Also I've noticed alot of baby's getting around. In schools. Between 20-50 fish in certain pools. Which is great to see. I've been told our trout eggs don't hatch here in s.a because they don't have the prop substrate (stones) to attach there eggs too.. so I assume there stocked fish. Which is great to see. Or somehow the fish have got lucky.. 
Thanks for all your comments. Cracking Male Buck.. very happy with the catch and release. 
 

Awesome fish! Interesting fly that, so rewarding to catch on your own tied fly. Cheers on the release.
Those rivers are great at times, but the amount of fertilizer washing into them is a bit of a problem regards weeds, reeds and algae. I'll be up there on the weekend to do some remedial work on one of them.
Historical Adelaide Hills river data says Browns will spawn from the end of May until June or July, Rainbows are later up until Sept. For that reason we don't fish the cooler months as we are no longer allowed to stock those rivers, so if the trout don't replace themselves on their own they will be gone forever.

Caught this decent Brown in the hills recently. In the Mid 50's. Went all arabattic on me jumping several times. Released well. Caught on own ruff tied fly. 

 

 

 

20230314_113820_1.mp4

Took 2 casts to pass the micro perch test. Then 2 more to pass it again.……..
 
on the down side the trebs don’t like rough treatment and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the brisk arse first sink on the pause. 
 
I haven’t used sinking bibbed minnows before. Is the arse first sink pretty standard?

Took 2 casts to pass the micro perch test. Then 2 more to pass it again.……..
 
on the down side the trebs don’t like rough treatment and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the brisk arse first sink on the pause. 
 
I haven’t used sinking bibbed minnows before. Is the arse first sink pretty standard?

Took 2 casts to pass the micro perch test. Then 2 more to pass it again.……..
 
on the down side the trebs don’t like rough treatment and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the brisk arse first sink on the pause. 
 
I haven’t used sinking bibbed minnows before. Is the arse first sink pretty standard?

just coloured in the t-track in with a grey lead pencil - then transferred it onto a bit of paper - to save me some mucking around when choosing fittings

Got a hot tip from Mazman that I could be utilising the "T-Track" on the Rhino racks.

Bash the ends of some metal pipe flat with a hammer and its almost done - just have to driil some holes and buy some bolts, lock nuts and washers.

just coloured in the t-track in with a grey lead pencil - then transferred it onto a bit of paper - to save me some mucking around when choosing fittings

I may have cranked up the saturation a bit to bring out the purples

It looks different depending on which device I use to view the photo - on my phone and laptop  it looks almost normal - but on the work laptop, it looks like I way over cranked the saturation.

Just going to post the original untouched to see if theres a difference

Picked up the new yak today
 first piece of business involved  some pvc pipe and a heat gun

So after testing both colours combat will land bream 

All the Pro Lures are fantastic. I have used them and done pretty well on bream with a slow roll. Throw in a pause here and there on the retrieve as well. I favour the prawn coloured ones but black is also a great colour.

They do make three versions of that lure; an Extra Shallow, Shallow and Deep. The deep diver works very well during wintertime on deeper structure like poles and rockwalls etc.