Mordialloc Pier

Date: 19 Nov 17
Weather: Sunny and 28
Crew: Toon & Jax
Target Fish: Anything, including toadies. 
Bait: - Really old pippis, metal slugs (bumpa-bar 25g, halco twisty 25g) blue squid jig
Gear Used: Fishing rods. 
Catch: 1 salmon
Report: Had to get Jax out there again. He was super excited. Got to the pier around 10am, change of tide was 10:30. Fished for about 1.5 hours, wanted to fish heaps more but kids were done. As soon as we arrived there was a monster school of salmon swimming up along the pier, big buggers!! Many other schools around. Had to get jax set up so quickly set him up with a small hook and running sinker rig with some pippis. Got the pippis at a local milk bar, they were old as fuck. Toadies didnt even want to eat it. Tried to just get jax catching anything, and couldnt even get him a toadie on his rig. Anyhow, as soon as we got him in the water i quickly set up my rig with a metal lure and first cast managed to hook a salmon. As i brought it up onto the pier he jumped off. Hooked another salmon and gave the rod to jax to fight, but slack line saw the fish get away. Saw some huge things what looked like cuttlefish so put on squid jig, but by that time they were gone. Many schools of salmon to cast in to and they all gave a look at the lure, some hits, some hook ups, but relatively slow day trying to help the little man figure it all out. His casting is coming good! Water was pristine. Bumpa-bar was most productive lure. 
Report: 7/10

Tagger

Date: 24 Sep 2017
Weather: Overcast/Drizzly
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Wolf #14, Pheasant tail nymph #14
Gear Used: Orvis Superfine Carbon 3w, 7'6"
Catch: 1 Brown
Report: River still flowing pretty hard. Was feeling very tired, and only put in an hour or so. Managed to land a cracking brown, typical of the bigger fish this stream holds. Had a Lyre Bird put on a 20 min show on the river bank - absolutely amazing.
Report: 7/10

Connie

Date: 2 Sep 2017
Weather: Sunny/overcast
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Wolf #14, Pheasant tail nymph #14,
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w, 9'
Catch: 1 Browns
Report: Season opener! Drove up Friday night and solo car camped. Head a pretty rubbish fire on account of some damp firewood. Had a quick flick in the Roys, before focusing on the Connie. Session was looking hot, with a nymph hook-up on the fifth cast. River was flowing very hard.
Only managed a couple of hours in the morning. Had a brief encounter with the fish police, a reminder to all to get a license!
Report: 7/10

Mary and Steve's

Date: 8 April 2017
Weather: Sunny/overcast
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Stimulator #14,
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w, 9'
Catch: 2 Browns, 1 Rainbow
Report: A really nice afternoon. Was hoping to hit a different section of the river but had been beaten to it. Dropped a few fish, including a line break - I think the key is 4X tippet. 

Report: 8/10

Tagogo

Date: 16 April 2017

Weather: Sunny
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Stimulator #14,
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w, 9'
Catch: 0
Report: I had an unsuccessful session at this spot a couple of years ago, and had thought for a while I should have another go. The low water suggested I'd left it too late in the season. Did see a couple of fish, including a very nice sized brown. Saw a turtle - a first! (see if you can spot in the pic). Will hit again.

Report: 6/10

Licola - Macalister River

Date: 16 April 2017

Weather: Partly Cloudy
Crew: Toon
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Celta Spinner,
Gear Used: Spinning outfit

Catch: N/A
Report: Headed up to Licola to camp a few nights. Fished the Macalister river that joins from the caledonia river. Some decent sized pools as you walk down the macalister. No insect action at all, no fish jumping. As a result, no bites or hook ups. Pretty quiet, but special area nonetheless. 

Report: 5/10

Bitwenjopit

Date: 8 April 2017

Weather: Sunny
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Royal Stimulator #14,
Gear Used: Sage Approach 4w, 9'

Catch: 1 Brown, 1 Rainbow
Report: Had planned on heading north east for the weekend, but the prospect of storms and heavy rains meant a rethink. The revised plan was to stay local - fish a few hours, then have a riverside fire and cook up with kellie. Managed to land an absolute monster brown, which I can only assume was an escapee from the nearby trout farm. Got the fire started, and then the mother nature unleashed hell.

Report: 8/10

Whooray

Date: 26 March 2017
Weather: Sunny
Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Parachute Adams Hopper #14,

Gear Used: Orvis Superfine Carbon 3wt, 7'6"

Catch: 1 Brown
Report: Fishing here supports my theory its not about numbers, but the quality of fishing. Only managed one brown, which required some delicate sneaky casting. Was the first session with my new prescription polarised sunnies, which were an absolute game changer. I reckon I'll give this spot a solid work over next season.

Report: 7/10

Tagger

Date: 19 March 2017
Weather: Suny
Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly: Royal Wolf #12

Gear Used: Orvis Superfine Carbon 3wt 7'6
Catch: 10+ Rainbows
Report: Was a bit frustrated with the low number of fish landed the previous week, so decided to have another go. This time around was much more productive. Have started working the Royal Wolf a bit more, seems to be a great high floating fly in the rougher water. Very visible too.

Had a quick flick at Glenlowren on the way home with no success, need to plan a session with Toon.

 

Report: 7/10

Glenlowren Top Dam

Date: 12 March 2017
Weather: Slightly cloudy and breezy
Crew: Toon, Jax

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly: Worms and rapala jointed

Gear Used: Jax's $15 combo from Anaconda + my sweet little outfit
Catch: 0

Report: Hit the damn with Jax for a good hour. Jax learning to cast his outfit. Getting better at it! Threw heaps of lures out, no fish. Did get one hit, and also saw  a monster trout swim with the lure up to the pier. He was the biggest trout i have ever seen. This damn just has monsters living in it.
Report: 5/10

Tagger

Date: 13 March 2017
Weather: Suny
Crew: Dave, Ross

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly: Royal Stimulator

Gear Used: Sage Approach 4wt 9', Orvis Superfine Carbon 3wt 7'6
Catch: 4 Rainbows

Report: Was a good session, managed to lose as many fish as we landed.
Report: 7/10

Taponga River

Date: 4-5 March 2017
Weather: Suny

Crew: Toon

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Green celta spinners, tassie devil, rapala jointed

Gear Used: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500, 1-3kg shimano raider
Catch: 1 Brown
Report: Rivers at this section saw too many big and deep pools. Fished every corner of them but no hits. Moved from the trusty green celta to a pink/purple tassie devil. Those are shit to use. I need to figure it out, they have a weird action, doesnt look natural. Couldnt bend it to improve, was too stiff. Need to work that one out. Ended up trying the rapala jointed just to play around with. Was awesome to cast, nice light weight balsa can hit spots with ease. Retrieve action beautiful. Ended up walking up stream for a small hour, to a running section, then out of the blue got hit by a nice sized brown on the rapala to my surprise. Afterwards saw some small redfin interested in the rapala but they were too small to engulf it. Fun times still. 

Report: 6/10

Hot Box

Date: 5 March 2017
Weather: Suny

Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly - Parachut hopper #14, Royal Humpy #12, Royal Stimulator #14

Gear Used: Sage Approach 9ft 4wt
Catch: 11 Rainbow 1 Brown
Report: Was a great session, with lots of good healthy fish. After running out of hoppers, the stimulator still proved effective. The one brown was the session highlight - took a tricky cast into a hard-to-get knook. Lost quite a few fish from broken leader, and broken tippet. This has started happening to me too often.

Report: 9/10

Tassie Streams

Date: 23 - 27  February 2017
Weather: Varied
Crew: Dave, Easty
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly: Parachut hopper, parachute adams
Gear Used: Sage Approach 9ft, 4 wt. Orvis Superfine Carbon 7ft6 3 wt, Sage One 9ft 6wt, Stalker 9ft 4wt
Catch: 15 Brown
Report: Was a good trip, didn't bag as many fish as we had hoped for. The hopper session on the Cambden Rivulet was a highlight - sight casting to feeding fish. Pulled an absolute monster out of the same drain as last time too!

Streams hit include:

Mersey - Fished really well

Iris - Pulled the pin after 1hr - was freezing cold

Hellyer - Nice river, managed a few fish

Leven - A little disappointing

North Esk - A little disappointing

St Pats - A little disappointing

Cambden Rivulet - Fantastic!

Managed to lose the GPS, break a rod, and break a tent pole 

Report: 8/10

Taponga River

Date: 18 February 2017

Weather: Overcast 

Crew: Toon
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Celta Spinner Green

Gear Used: Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500, 1-3kg shimano raider

Catch: 1 Rainbow 1 Brown
Report: Hit a couple of parts of the taponga, but didnt venture too far. 2nd cast of the day caught a nice little rainbow. Caught him in the eye poor bugger! Then snagged a brown later on. Pristine rivers all around, too much fishing to be had up here.  

One bad thing with this spinning are the treble hooks. Once you've hooked a fish often they're in a bit of a painful situation and unhooking them can be a little nasty. May look to squish in the barbs so that removal is easier, or transfer to single hook. Not sure how this will impact strike rate, as i already have a number of hits and misses, but thats better than one f'ed up trout. 

Report: 8/10

Whooray River

Date: 18 February 2017

Weather: Overcast

Crew: Dave
Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Parachute Adams Hopper #14, 

Gear Used: Orvis Superfine Carbon 3wt, 7'6"

Catch: 2 Browns (1 other solid hookup, and two takes)
Report: On the way to my many trips to the Bitwenjopit I'd often noticed, if the sun was shining, a section of the Whooray that looked worthy of a stop. Today, time was not on my side and I needed to hit somewhere close. This possibly fishable section of the Whooray seemed a worthy candidate.

I found a good spot to pull over, and bush bashed through to the stream....yes, definitely fishable! Was hard not to notice the hoppers on the walk down and back to the car, making my first fly choice for the day an easy one. 

First cast just downstream from a submerged log produced a nice little brown. All other 'should hold a fish' targets came up with the goods.

Will hit again, a good alternate to the Royal Bird. 

Report: 7/10

Tangip

Date: 12 February 2017
Weather: Overcast and rainy - rubbish

Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: - Fly - Parachute Adams #14, Royal Stimulator #12 with Copper John #12
Catch: 5 Rainbows, 2 Browns

Report: Drove up the long way and had a quick look at the upper reaches. A long drive, but looks like its worth a crack. 

Action on Tangip was pretty consistent. Patience and mixing up the offering was key to pulling in a few fish.

Water was quite warm

Report: 7/10 

Young Buck/Keys

Date: 4-5 February 2017
Weather: Hot and clear Sat, overcast and rainy sun
Crew: Dave, Kellie, Mish
Target Fish: Trout
Bait:  - Fly - Parachute Adams #14, Royal Stimulator #12 with Copper John #12

Catch: 5 Rainbows, 1 from buck, 4 from keys

Report: Have always struggled to find trout on the Young Buck. This time, I hit the regular good looking runs with no success, then came up to a nice looking pool. I decided I'd sit down for 5 minutes and if I didn't see a fish, I'd head back to camp. One minute later a fish started rising. I slowly crept upstream to a good position, and threw my first back cast into a tree. Crept back, untangled and crept back again. Cast again, and BANG hit...strike...nothing. Pulled the line up and found the line had snapped right at the leader-tippet knot. I reckon the line was damaged in the snag.

Continued the same approach further upstream and managed one good sized rainbow.

Next day, Kellie gave me 'no longer than one hour' on the Keys. I was literally running upstream, bypassing good water to focus on 'water that definitely contain fish'. Managed to land 4 rainbows, and lose a couple more. The Keys is one of my favourite rivers ever.

Report: 8/10 (most likely would have been 10 if I had a few more hours on the keys)

Lagoon Pier

Date: 29 January 2017
Weather: Mild & Calm. 
Time: 3am - 8am.  
Crew: Toon, Ross, Willo Huggett

Target Fish: Snapper, Gummy, Garfish
Bait:  Pillies, Squid, Silverfish

Catch: 1 flathead

Report: About time we organised a boys fishing session. Wound back the clock and hit up a pier. We remembered how boring and slow pier fishing is! Pretty much no action all morning. 

We hit the incoming tide in conjunction with sunrise. No action at all, until the sunrise began. Lots of pinkies were being pulled up by the locals in what was about a 45 minute hot session which then died down. Thats when we landed the flathead and decided to pack up shop and roll home. 

We berley-ied hard using weet-bix mixed with tuna oil, and then also pulled out the oldschool method of crucnhed up twisties to entice garfish. Nothing. What a waste of good twisties in the end. 

Cooked the flattie for lunch. Was the typical awesomness that flathead is. 

Report: 6/10. Its fishing. Still fun, therefore 5 +1 for one tastie flattie. 

Pyhätunturi

Date: 6 January 2017
Weather: Cold. -35 degrees. 
Crew: Toon & extended family

Target Fish: Anything
Bait:  Small lures with a tiny bit of worm on the end

Catch: 1 tiny little guy! And 2 massive pikefrom the net

Report: Went ice fishing in northern Finalnd. Got there at 4pm, and it was already pitch black dark. Fished for two hours in freezing cold temps, but managed to pull up a fish after 1.5 hours. The nets were out for 3 days prior and we pulled in a couple of monster pike. Epic adventure!

Report: 8/10

Glenlowren and Bitwenjopit

Date: 22 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave, Toon

Target Fish: Trout
Bait:  - Celta Brown Trout 5g, Rapala CD5 Rainbow - Fly - Every combo I have!

Catch: 0 - See report

Report: Had a quick flick with Toon at Glenlowren top dam. Toon had a hit, and a hook-up that ended with a busted line and an aerial display from a 6lb rainbow.

Tried a few old and new stretches on the Bitwenjopit. Tried every dry and dry/nymph combo in my box and didn't even get a look. Did see two platypus on two separate sections of water.

Looking forward to getting back to Glenlowren. There are some absolute crackers in there!

Report: 8/10

 

No photos this time.

Little Tagger

Date: 15 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave

Target Fish: Trout
Bait: Fly - Royal Stimulator #14, Parachute Adams (High Vis) #14

Catch: 3 browns, 3 rainbows ??
Report: I hit the lower reaches of this stream quite a bit a few years ago, and discovered today I had been wasting my time. The upper reaches are excellent. Nice and open, and holds plenty of solid size fish. Adams seemed to work best. Need to get a net. 

Report: 9/10

Naughty Mick - West Branch

Date: 8 January 2017
Weather: Hot and sunny
Crew: Dave, Easty
Target Fish: Trout

Bait: Fly - Royal Stimulator #14, Parachute Adams (High Vis) #12, Klinkhammer #14

Catch: 2 browns, 4 rainbows
Report: After a 6.5 km hike we arrived to find the west branch a little uninspiring, and thought 'perhaps we should have hit some of the glorious water we passed on the drive up'. Had a bite to eat, geared up and jumped in. Easty had a keen look in the first pool hit with the Royal. The smaller Klinkhammer did the trick on the next pool. Ended up a cracking session, with solid action at every pool we hit.

Saw a (red belly black??) snake on the walk in, and a wild dog and lyrebird on the drive out. All up an absolutely cracking day. 

Report: 9/10