This article will hopefully be of some help to those of you who chase trout in the rivers & streams there in South Aust, the tactics I use here in Tasmania are the same that I taught myself when I started trout fishing there in the Finness, Light, Torrens, Okanparinga & Sturt Rivers as well as Sixth Creek plus a few other small streams. The only difference to back then when I first started trout fishing (mid1960's) is the tackle is way better now days..
cheers
Adrian
Adrian's Trout Kit plus...
I was asked sometime ago if I could run through my trout kit from head to toe, such as specific clothing, waders, boots, glasses, camera, drinks, snacks, rod, reel, tackle and whatever else I have for trout fishing the rivers here in Tasmania. I was also asked about some memorable moments plus a few other things that may be of interest, it's something I've never thought about really, probably something I've just taken for granted. So let's start off with the waders & boots etc...
* The Wading gear: Seeing as I only fish rivers/streams & creeks for trout my first pair of waders were the Hornes waist waders with the Blundstone boots. They were a tough long lasting set of waders, but they were very heavy, the boots had no grip on the slippery, rocky river bottoms, after six trout seasons of using them it was time for a change. A friend told me to go for a pair of breathable waders and wading boots, so that's what I did. My first pair was a cheap ($120-00) unbranded set that I bought online, they came from China, that pair didn't get me through the first season, the neoprene foot leaked as did the welded seams. I needed a pair that would last a lot longer than that because I average 90 trips a year during the nine months of each trout season, each trip varies from 3 to 5 hours of wading a river. After quite a lot of researching some of the more expensive brands I went for the Redington, Compass & Bassdash breathable waders with the neoprene stocking feet, the reason I went for those waders was because they're all quality lightweight waders that I knew would get me through many trout seasons. They did and ten years on I'm still using those waders, actually I am now on my third pair. A friend of mine gave me a brand new pair of the cheap unbranded waders which I now use in the small streams & creeks, I do this to save the wear and tear on the more expensive waders.
Remember, always safety first when fishing a river, even more so when it's a fast water.
** The wading boots, I went for were the Korkers with the interchangeable soles, sticky rubber, felt & studded felt. The soles I use on the majority of my river trips are the studded felt soles, they have excellent grip in the larger rivers that are very rocky and slippery. The plain rubber & felt soles are ideal from small streams & creeks that have small gravelly bottoms with the odd rocky sections in them, so that's my wading set up. When buying a pair of wading boots you must order them one size larger than your normal shoe size to allow for the thickness of the neoprene stocking foot, eg: your shoe size 10, wading boot size 11. The main reason I went for a quality wading boot with an interchangeable sole is because of the amount of kilometres I walk to get to & from a river which can be 2 kms to 6 kms a trip, that's not counting the distance spent in a river fishing for trout.
** Clothing: I'm a believer of wearing clothing that blends in with the surroundings one's fishing in. Most of the rivers/streams & creeks I fish have fairly dense foliage on both sides of them, so the majority of my clothing is dark green & khaki coloured items. If I'm heading to the more open larger rivers and the grass covered river banks have dried off then I'll wear a beige coloured outfit. When chasing trout in clear waters on sunny days a dark colour will stand out in an open river, that will spook a trout in no time at all. If possible stay as close to the side of the river that has dense foliage on it. I have seen a trout sitting in clear open water and a small wagtail had flown over, the small shadow of that small bird was enough to spook it. Actually I prefer fishing in dull heavy overcast humid weather conditions with very light drizzle, one can wear the dark or lighter colours in these conditions.
Spin fishing the Mersey River in full wading gear.
** Fishing vests: I have a few of these, both in green/khaki, camouflage and light brown/beige, all have plenty of pockets for the many small lure boxes I carry. They are short vests as well, there's nothing worse than wearing a long vest and getting them wet when fishing in waist deep water. Not only that, the pockets that hold the lure boxes in a long vest fill up with water, this I found out from experience.
** Rods: The rods I use are Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3 kg, 6', 6'6'' & 7' lengths, these are a beautiful light weight well balanced spin rods, perfect for what I require when chasing trout in the rivers and streams. I can fish for 4 to 5 hours covering anything from 1.5 kms to 3 kms without getting tired in the shoulders which is a real benefit when spin fishing rivers, how many casts and retrieves I would have over that time & distance would be in the high hundreds I would imagine.
Okuma Celilo Finnese 6'6'' ULS 1-3kg trout rod, Okuma Helios HSX-20 spinning reel, a well balanced set up.
One of the rewards of small stream fishing.
** Reels: All reels used are Okuma spinning reels, the models are as follows: Okuma ITX-1000, Okuma Inspira ISX-20B, Okuma Helios HSX-20, Epixor EXPT-20 & Okuma Ceymar C-10 spinning reels, these spinning reels are nice lightweight spinning reels that are well suited to the Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3kg (2-6lb) spin rods.
** Fishing lines: There's only one brand I use and have done so for many years, it's the Australian made & owned Platypus line which has come a long way since I first used it back in the 60's. The Super 100 UHT & Pulse Mono 4lb/6lb monofilament are the main ones I use in the clear & brown colour. The other Platypus line used is the Pretest Premium Grade 4lb monofilament, the 6lb leader is the Platypus Stealth FC 100% fluorocarbon line.
A nice mix of lures used for the larger rivers.
** Lures: It's Mepps, Mepps & more Mepps inline spinners that I have in my small lures boxes, they range from the smallest & lightest starting with the #00 (0.9gms) Steamepps (black, gold, silver blades) #00 (1.5gm) Black Fury (black, gold, copper blades), Aglia ( Plain, Mouche Noire, Aglia Mouche Rouge in black, gold, copper blades), Bug spinners (Stone Fly, March Brown, White Miller & Cherry), Comet (silver, gold blades). These small lightweight spinners are ideal for shallow small streams/rivers as well as some of the larger rivers I fish. Next are the size #0 (2.5gm) & #1 (3.5gm) inline spinners same models & blade colours as above but with a few different models included such as the Aglia Fluo tiger, rainbo, brown & phospho colours, Aglia Furia, Aglia TW & TW Streamer. So as you can see I do carry a large variety of Mepps inline spinners, all of which I have caught trout on. I also carry several small hard body lures that get used on the trout when they are not in the mood to take the Mepps inline spinners which isn't all that often because 98% of my trout are caught on the Mepps spinners. The hard body lures are mostly in the 30mm to 60mm size, floating & suspending models, Pontoon 21, Daiwa, Atomic Hardz, Goldy minnow, & Rapala lure are just some of hard bodies I have on hand. I also carry a few Ghost & Switchblade lures as well, there's nothing better than having a good mix of lures when trout fishing rivers & streams.
A good mix of lures etc that I use in the rivers/streams.
** Other items that I have with me when trout fishing the rivers: One of the main items is a landing net, the ones I used are all wooden framed with a soft plastic mesh that doesn't damage the fish. The good thing about using a wooden landing net is that it floats and I have mine attached to my vest with a two meter alligator strap. That way if I drop it while fast water fishing it floats and I just pull it back in with the strap. Other items I carry in the vest are: Small plastic containers with snap swivels, anti-kinks in it in case for some reason the main line breaks, you'll need them for replacement of the lost anti-kink set up. Small sharpening stone to keep the lure hooks sharps at all times, a small pair of pointed nose pliers that are used to pull a treble hook from a finger or hand, accidents do happen when handling a fish, it's quite easy to have the lure fly from the fish and lob in the finger or hand when it tosses the spinner/lure. Also one can get a hook in the hand when trying to take hold of a fish that's playing up in the net, the pliers are ideal for when you need to remove the hook. The pliers are also used for setting the treble hooks off center, I'm not a fan of straight trebles.
My fishing vest set up.
Digital scales are essential if you wish to weigh your catch as I do, I weigh the fish in the net then deduct the weight of the net from the total weight which gives you the fish weight. That way one's not handling, damaging or stressing the fish, if you are keeping the fish then it doesn't matter. A set of forceps is a must for removing hooks from the mouth or throat of the fish, it's much easier and less damaging to the fish than using bulky pliers. Another item that you should carry is a good fold up pocket knife, handy for gutting a fish if you intend on keeping it. A Boomerang duo zinger that has a line cutter attached to it for cutting fishing line. Another item I carry is a small first aid kit, it's compact and only carries a dozen or so small to large band aids, hay fever tablets and a dozen Panamax- Panadol tablets in case of headache or some other pain that may occur. A pair of polarised sunglasses is a must when fishing, they take the glare off the water and one can see the river bottom as well as the fish. My snacks I carry in my waders pocket are usually three Cadbury's chocolate Freddo frogs or a couple of small Mars bars, my drink is a can of Pepsi Max that I have once back at the car. My fishing camera is a Canon SX620HS compact camera a small reliable quality camera that takes a great photo & video, it's a must have when fishing to take a photo of what maybe your catch of a lifetime.
The Canon SX620IS camera, it's small & packed with plenty of punch.
** As for some of my most memorable moments, well this has really got me thinking as there's been quite a few over my 56 years of trout fishing, hopefully I can remember most of them. There's two that always come to mind, the first time I went trout fishing to the Finniss River at Yundi in my home State of South Australia back in 1966. My rod was a 6' solid fibreglass one, the spinning reel I can't remember what brand it was, the lure was a brand new Mepps #1 silver Black Fury that I bought from Adelaide Fishing Tackle, silver was the only colour available back then. On that first trip trout fishing in the Finniss River I caught my first trout on the Mepps Black Fury, a trout that weighed 3 lbs, from that day on I was hooked on trout fishing. Another memorable moment was when I used to do a lot of salt water fishing in South Australia when I caught a 36 lb snapper (gutted weight) during a night time fishing trip in my boat back in 1973. I have a lot of very good memorable moments of my fishing adventures when I lived in South Australia, too many to mention in this article.
Here's a few memorable moments since we made the move to Tasmania back in March 2000. I remember the first trip I had on opening day was to the Dasher River and being keen to get an early start I was at the river just as the sun rose. It was a very frosty morning, in fact it was so cold as I retrieved the spinner the water that came off the line onto the rod eyelets froze up and made it impossible to retrieve the spinner, I have never fished at first light in August since that day. From there I went down to Lake Barrington where I caught my first trout of the 2000-01 trout season on a Mepps gold #1 Black Fury spinner, it was a 1.5kg brown trout.
On the last day of the 2017/18 trout season I caught a PB brown trout in a river, it went 3.85 kgs (8lbs 8ozs) and was caught in the River Leven at Gunns Plains. On the 3rd November 2019 I caught my 10,000th Tasmanian trout, something I never thought of achieving. Another winner on the Leven River was back in 2009 when I won the World Grasshopper Championship in the Carnival of the Grasshopper, I captained the two man team that day, I also won the Lord of the River for most trout caught as well as the heaviest fish. It was back in 2006 when I joined the Ulverstone Angling Club and to my surprise the first season with them I won the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for most trout caught in rivers and streams with 437 trout being caught. Since that time I have gone on to hold the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for the past 16 years (2006-2022) in a row. So there you have it, these are just a few of many memorable moments I've had over many years of fishing. Hopefully before it comes to a time when I have to call it a day, I can add a few more memorable moments to it.
My PB wild brown trout, 8lb 8ozs, it was released back into the river as are all of the trout I catch.
One other thing and this isn't a most memorable moment, it's just a little something extra for you to take in if you're just starting to fish the rivers. The more often you fish a river you'll get learn a lot more about it, like pockets of flat water behind rocks in the river, narrow flat waters close to the river banks, they are all fish holding areas, so you won't bypass them like you may have done to start with, you will flick a lure into them. You'll also get to know where it's safe enough to wade, where it's safe to cross the river, most of all, remember safety must come first, it must be a priority when fishing any river. No fish is worth drowning for, so please do not take any risks while fishing in any river, stay safe & tight lines. If and when you do catch a trout, remember to always wet your hands before handling the fish that way you don't remove it's protective slimy coating. I know a lot will keep a trout for a feed and that's fine, if you're not keeping it and just want to take a photo of yourself and the fish, be careful how you hold it. Don't take a vice like grip behind it's gills because that's where the heart & liver are and you will damage them, the fish will swim off, but it will more than likely die soon after it's release. Handle the fish as short a time as possible, even more so in hot weather when river trout are under stress due to warmer water temps. If you really don't need a selfie holding a fish, take a photo of it in the landing net and release it ASAP.
The anti kink set ups I use when spin fishing for trout with Mepps inline spinners.
A beautifully coloured Mersey River wild rainbow trout.
cheers
Adrian
This trip was on the 11-9-21
I finally had a reasonable spin session today before the weather turned sour as well as taking a plunge in the water. 10 trout caught & released from 11 hook ups, all taken on the Mepps #00 gold Aglia Mouche Noire & gold Aglia Mouche Rouge inline spinners. I certainly gave the new Okuma ITX-1000 reel a good workout during my three hours in the water too, it did it's job to perfection. As soon as I caught the first trout on the first cast I knew I was in for a good spin session. On the walk back to the car I decided to give one more stretch of water a go, big mistake that was. As I made my way up in waist deep water I trip on a submerged log, Yep!! I took the plunge in the drink, drowned another camera (my third now) too.. Thank you my brain was engaged and I pulled it from the inside of my waders in quick time, it was wet and went a little hay wire when I turned it on. I rushed back to the car and dried it off with the car heater, it's back in good working order again.. Not only that, while heading back to the car I took the camera battery & memory card out to dry them off. After walking some 40 yards or so I couldn't find the memory card, I had dropped it somewhere. I back tracked and was lucky enough to spot it in the grass.. Was it luck or pure arse that I found it, I didn't really care, all that mattered was I found it, plus it had all of the mornings spin session on it as well as 2,600 other photos.. It was still a top few hours spent chasing trout anyway even with the little mishap..
cheers
Adrian
I'm with Jimbo - buy yourself a cheap vice online and get stuck into it. Heaps of info on youtube. Things like nymphs, adams parachutes and clousers are so simple you'll be able to do them straight away and go catch fish. Worthwhile investment
I'm with Jimbo - buy yourself a cheap vice online and get stuck into it. Heaps of info on youtube. Things like nymphs, adams parachutes and clousers are so simple you'll be able to do them straight away and go catch fish. Worthwhile investment
I'm with Jimbo - buy yourself a cheap vice online and get stuck into it. Heaps of info on youtube. Things like nymphs, adams parachutes and clousers are so simple you'll be able to do them straight away and go catch fish. Worthwhile investment
I did this a few years ago. Used my farmed tiger worms as bait and food for my pet goldens/silvers.
I used a black crate. "The great Aussie crate... mate!" - one of them. A flat piece of timber became the lid, which I weighed down with a brick.
Drilled a few holes in bottom for drainage, line the bottom with a hessian sack to stop your friends escaping. Stapled hessian sack flat.
Fill crate/tub/trough with potting soil. Buy a large pack of tiger worms from bait shop - Got One St Marys managed to get me a thousand relatively cheaply when they were open.
Feed them food scraps, but never citrus. Keep them moist - a drop of water every so often will help this. Keep in the shade to stop them overheating and can't go wrong. They breed like.... worms.
I did this a few years ago. Used my farmed tiger worms as bait and food for my pet goldens/silvers.
I used a black crate. "The great Aussie crate... mate!" - one of them. A flat piece of timber became the lid, which I weighed down with a brick.
Drilled a few holes in bottom for drainage, line the bottom with a hessian sack to stop your friends escaping. Stapled hessian sack flat.
Fill crate/tub/trough with potting soil. Buy a large pack of tiger worms from bait shop - Got One St Marys managed to get me a thousand relatively cheaply when they were open.
Feed them food scraps, but never citrus. Keep them moist - a drop of water every so often will help this. Keep in the shade to stop them overheating and can't go wrong. They breed like.... worms.
As the comments here sum up very well, this appears to be a narrowly focused initiative, with scant regard for the likely ecological and fishery productivity impacts.
I spoke with Cr Bill Jamieson yesterday to try to better understand where the proponents are coming from and to make sure that the media had not muddied the waters. Unfortunately it does seem rather accurate that they want to do this just for recreation and it seems they have entirely dismissed any hope of restoring any freshwater flows to the Onkaparinga estuary.
I informed the Councillor that despite the low freshwater flows, the river ecology is very important/significant and has been appearing to improve in recent years. Also that the best ecologists in Australia advocate for restoring tidal flows (not limiting them) as a means to improve river health and that in fact, there is a direct link between estuary productivity and tidal flow/exchange. I also let him know that fishers have secured a grant of $20,000 to improve river habitat and that he should think it reasonable that the sizable angling community will be against this proposal as it appears.
The Councillor has sent RecFish SA his report and we will be responding appropriately.
Great to see so many on here and elsewhere on social media who have a really great understanding of the importance of natural river processes and who are ready to stand up to protect this wonderful and unique South Australian Estuary.
at one point of Hardwicke there is a flat rock section, that makes a good platform to fish off at low tide. Chuck some squid jags around and get some tommies with some burley.
I did find that side of the peninsula to be pretty average landbased TBH, tho had a kingie take a hooked tommie at the Turton jetty.
I feel like people love to read too far into squiddingthey're bloody stupid things :whistle: Last summer I caught half a dozen on a whole slimey, on 2 12/0's under a balloon with 150lb wire trace! So much for how to work a squid jag Let along type of line used Use mono or Fluoro with a decent jag off the rocks and you'll do ok
I use Berkley Vanish as well, and find that it helps.Not sure about 9/10 squid you see wont touch a jag AFF - I find maybe only 1/10 won't touch them... Had a session off Brighton almost 2 years ago and we caught a boat limit and the last 30 were sitting in a big school on the bottom - we only saw them cause we drove over them and they were all angry buggers!! Not sure how big the school was but we stopped fishing once we got our 45 and didn't look like the school had got any smaller!
Out for a day’s fishing on the Hampshire Avon with my son Jared (age 17). Jared is looking for that illusive 20lber and makes contact with a 17lb Avon Pike. The monster pike was taken whilst fishing a dead bait in a large back eddy near Ashley Bends. Jared removes the single circle hook and after weighing his new PB safely returns the fish to the pool.http://youtu.be/iXnfbOspzZA
Your joking right? there is more than enough "average fisherman" using the metro jetties that ignore or dont even understand simple bag and size limits!and you want a couple simple signs outlinning how to catch and release fish that even experts such as yourself cant be 100% sure survive? Who would police this? The signs will be tagged within weeks, and the only fish being released ( and only by some ) would be the Moonlighters and Rock Cod, anything else would be treated in the same way as per every other metro jetty!! why would this one be any different?Not to mention, I (like many other recs) sure as hell wouldnt want to be releasing a 30kg King, hed be in my freezer after taking 50 photos from every angle and posting it on every forum known!!Only chance of it remotely happening would be if the thing was privatised, and run/managed by a group responsible for sustainable fishing, of course this would incur a fee for all to use, and who knows Brett, you could work the on this release platform teaching all the kids and grandpas on how to realease these trophies back into the deep!!!
i hear ya rollcast...this was taken years ago.....and unfortunately the"friends" of this creek and conservation team electrofished the whole system e few seasons back....suburban and all other trout who were residing here at the time of this photo are long gone. was one of my favourite little spots up till then as its where we broke our teeth. funny tho....i revisted it last season....used to be full of mostly browns...and now there cousins have moved in.......... u jus cant stop immigration...and we call this a multicultural country....bahahahahhahhahahahaaaahdefinately not gonna intentionally blow the lid on any spots.and sorry if i have...peacejohn
I bought a shrimp net - around 2 foot square, with a handle around a metre. Fine mesh, which when wet sees fish released in great nick. Only ever use a net when I'm bait fishing, so not real bothered by trebles etc get caught in it. It was $10-20 from gotone
garfish are reportedly pretty well stuffedhttp://www.strikehook.com/forum/98-sarfac/207884-sarfac-agm-2011-report#207884also note the commercial closure of 3 weeks coming through winter of this yearhttp://www.pir.sa.gov.au/pirsa/media_list/fisheries/fisheries_move_to_protect_garfish_stocksSurely a reduction of the generous recreational bag limit of 60 will likely follow?
MarsOne reacted to Meppstas in Adrian's Trout Kit Plus..
MarsOne got a reaction from SaltyFlyer in WTB: Flies for bream, carp, redfin etc.
MarsOne got a reaction from jimbojames in WTB: Flies for bream, carp, redfin etc.
MarsOne got a reaction from reelfun in Where to take the young fella LB?
MarsOne got a reaction from Alexsfishin1 in WTB: Flies for bream, carp, redfin etc.
MarsOne got a reaction from jiron in Worm farm
MarsOne got a reaction from Tinker in Worm farm
MarsOne got a reaction from snapper15.4kg in Kangaroo Island Trip 2016!
MarsOne got a reaction from southie THE BANGA in Just a couple photos down yorkes!
MarsOne got a reaction from Kuerschie in Hardwicke Bay Landbased Tips
MarsOne got a reaction from paulgreenacre in Jared's 17lb Pike off Hampshire avon - age 17
MarsOne got a reaction from Just Me in Squid Line type
MarsOne got a reaction from The Bream Reaper in First ever fly fish.... accidentally caught a fish
MarsOne got a reaction from afishyfish in whats the best landing net for a reasonable price??
MarsOne got a reaction from crispy in Dabbing for gar