wrasseman

This is a little vid a couple of mates made fishing for trout with sps (bass minnows mainly). You can see the basic retrieve and a couple of fish. (higher quality) (low quality) Cheers Col.

Hi Ron, My normal spoon retrieve is as slow as possible whilst keeping a good action and at the same time giving the rod periodic slow twitches to speed and slow or stop the lure intermittantly. I've also found that following fish can most easily be made to hit by briefly speeding the retrieve then stopping dead. The fish accelerates with the "escaping" lure and then crashes into it when it stops. As far as the crystal fireline goes, it looks the goods though its a bit early for a real opinion from me. Its very fine though so casts very well and handles nicely too. It isn't really clear though so you still need a leader (probably need one to add a bit of stretch into the system anyway) and I don't think the real advantage is in the colour but rather the new thinner breaking strains. I did have a snag where I snapped my leader off at the knot with very little pressure, but the leader (4lb fluro) broke, not the fireline, I think it may have cut through the leader so a bit of extra care with knots may be required, certainly the next knot held up enough to land a fish and pull some hooks. The 1lb stuff looks awesome for many light applications and I'll be using that a bit in the future but for small streams I'll stick with 2lb as this is a very harsh environment for line, dragging over rocks etc. Hi Mondo. I tend to agree about the singles, I've been using gamakatsu "single lure hooks" on my lures for some time now and these great singles certainly don't suffer in the holding department, a slightly lower hookup rate (compared to trebles) is more than compensated by less casts wasted with weedups and snags and more repeat strikes. Despite this I like to use new lures "as is" at first before modifying them as hook changes can alter lure action. With the dismal holding performance of the trebles I'm going to have a play with #6 in this hook on these new spoons (as in pic) as it is the smallest I can get but it might be a bit big so I could have to find something else, have to wait and see. We certainly have some good trout water down here, that stream is only a few minutes from home (for a picture look at a Boags premium lager label) and where I was fishing is right in the suburbs of launceston. The more out of the way places and the central highlands are the real prime locations. Cheers col.

That's the plan for sure. col.

Hi all, I headed out for a quick sesh on the north esk this arvo, only managed a bit over 30min fishing but had to try out some new lures I bought on ebay that arrived today. Little micro spoons for small streams. I have also recently spooled up with 2lb crystal fireline which I was keen to test. Well I love the little lures, scoring 3 hookups, one small, one medium and one large, unfortunately only landed the medium one, pulling the hooks on the other two but still happy. Love the new line too. Cheers Col. Nice stream trouty.

Great report. Sounds like a good day even if a little quiet. Cheers Col.

Nice little sesh there good stuff. Where is Lady robinson out of interest? Col.

Nice little sesh. Looks like all tested lures worked though, so how will you know which ones to leave in the box next time? col.

I headed down to the North esk river in suburban launceston yesterday for a couple of hours hoping for one of the big sea-runners that head up there in the early season. I started off ok scoring 4 fish in the first 40min (1 every ten minutes) before having a bad run for an hour dropping 3 fish and missing a few more before finally getting number 5. Up until then the fish had been standard river sized fish of 35-40cm but all were typically silvery sea-runners. Number six was a better fish in the low 50s and fat as and I then hooked and dropped at my feet a very brown resident of about the same size and scored another smaller fish as well as dropping a couple more before I had to head back home and get ready for work. As I had accidentally left the camera at home so was going to rely on the phone but apparently I was deleting the pics as I took them instead of saving them - oops. Oh well, one at least got saved and now Iknow what I'm doing for future reference. cheers col.

Condolences mate, but thats fishing. I've been there myself, losing the big one due to some unrequired mid-fight drag tinkering after a lot of effort to hook it... It will make the victory all the sweeter when you land the big one though. Cheers Col.

Nice fish, how big? I've never fished wentworth falls lake, tending to fish the rivers and creeks up that way instead, is it generally a good spot or long time between fish? Cheers Col.

Well done on the PBs, love those little spur of the moment trips. Cheers Col.

Some nice fish there. Roll on spring. col.

Hi all, I headed out yesterday for a yak sesh on 4 springs lake but after several hours without even a touch and with other fishers I spoke too all saying the same (maybe due to the bright sun and complete lack of wind??), I pulled the pin and headed to a stream near my work. I started seeing fish straight away but in the low, crystal clear and still conditions (we haven't had our winter rains yet and the water level was more like late summer than august and the water was clearer than I've ever seen at this spot) I spooked quite a few - mainly due to dodgy casting as I'm out of practice - before i finally got one to take. I ended up with 3 fish before I had to pull the pin and I missed a thumper on my second last cast so I'll be back. Cheers Col. Still lake conditions: low water level: Fish. Time out.

Although most SPs will take trout, IMO you'll have a very hard time beating 3 inch bass minnows for lake fish and they're great in the streams too. Just stick to the natural colours and you can't go wrong. Fished deep over weedbeds or amongst the trees or anywhere else you find trout, these are deadly. Nymphs (especially sight casting or stream fishing), single tails, and shads will work too, but bass minnows rule. Cheers Col.

Sounds like you'll be heading to the shop for some heavier gear, to good an oportunity to miss more than once. At least you got something though. Cheers col.

Great going RB. Thats a real nice blue. Well done for releasing it too (after diving with them they're one fish I couldn't ever keep). Sounds like a good day with some nice fishies. Cheers Col.

Cheers Fellas. For the record it was 48.5cm fork length, weighed exactly 2.5lb on the kitchen scales (imperial scales??) and took a trolled tango spoon (blue). It was only a baby though especially considering a 10.6kg one was taken from the same lake on saturday - now thats a big fish. No guilt about keeping it despite the relative small size as they are only stockies (ex brood stock) and don't do real well after release, losing condition and not breeding, most starving if not caught and besides they're ferals anyway. Still fun though: a good fight and good on the plate I'm told. I don't eat fish myself as I just don't like the taste or texture - wish I did - (almost all my fish are released) but the inlaws loved it. Salmon are becoming increasingly available to anglers down here with some farms donating excess stock to the IFS for stocking as well as the escapees from sea cages in the south. Now I want a big one. Cheers Col.

Hi all, Well the tassie trout season finally started again on saturday and despite the best laid plans, I ended up quite sick and had to make do with just a very quick sesh on the south esk instead of my much more extensive plans. Still I managed a fish on opening day so it could have been worse. First fish of the season, 35cm lure eating brownie. So after a bit of a fizzer on open day I was keen for a pre-work sesh now I'm feeling better. As a result, I took the yak out on a local lake this morning and managed a nice little 2.5lb atlantic salmon - a first for me from the yak. Should be tasty. Cheers Col.

I got 2, but aren't the canary islands in the atlantic? Cheers Col.

Trout season starts this weekend for me so I know what i'm doing. Just gotta decide where?? Cheers Col.

Yeah the wrasseys were good fun, several landed and several roastings, all good fun. First time I've been snotted in a rock pool too. Hands all good, nothing a bit of anaesthetic and plier work and stitching couldn't fix. Note to all: If you hook yourself, pop it out quick as it comes out much easier if you get to it before it swells (about five min). Cheers Col.

Great stuff, what a sesh. Sadly my leatherjacket sessions don't ever seem to go like that. Cheers Col.

G'day all, I headed out for a bit of a wrasse session with a mate on the weekend with the hope of maybe a salmon or squid as well. It was a bit slow to start with the fish a bit hesitant. We'd gone to a new spot so I went for a bit of an explore. I found a broad, sheltered embayment with a nice reefy bottom and my first cast was hammered by an unexpected (in this shallow water) medium salmon which I pulled the hooks on at my feet. The next couple of casts drew surface hits from salmon but I couldn't get the hooks in. I then scored a big hit on the surface which turned out to be a nice wrasse (about 45cm) so I had a good fish for a pic. I placed him in a rock pool and went to get Nik. Upon my return I discovered that the fish had managed to wrap me up in some weed in the rock pool and snap my leader but he still had nowhere to go so I got my fish and lure back. After putting this one back It was niks turn and i think his first cast produced another blue on a gulp grub. We went on to score several more wrasse though the salmon had moved on. We also brought out the fly rods for no luck. Finally some strengthening wind, a rising tide and heavy rain forced a early finish. On the way back I managed to score the biggest hookup though, tripping and falling onto a fly box (which spilled its contents) and embedding a stinger treble in my left hand and splittin my right thumb open. Should have popped the out straight away as by the time we got back to the car and swelling had set in it wouldn't budge so I had to go to emergency to get it removed and get my thumb fixed up. Still, at least we caught something. cheers col.

Thanks for that but I'm afraid I don't even enter the local site's photo comp. Check out (some of these guys are awesome): http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3457 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3237 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3192 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3098 cheers col.

Hi guys, It looks like a pretty normal small "cocky" salmon to me. Spots fade as they grow (particularly once over 40cm) and the back gets very dark hence the name "blackback" for fish over 1.5kg or so. The only small salmon I caught in sydney - all but 2 of my sydney salmon have been "blackbacks" (though they looked more green than the big tassie fish which are very dark)- looked the same. Cheers col.