South Esk

[wrasseman]

I've been hitting one of the local rivers a bit lately, actually headed out to a very similar spot 3 days in a row.

On Wednesday, I went out with the yak after work and had a bit of a drift spin downstream before working back upstream. Though still pretty,

the river was quite low with places like this root system which would normally be under several feet of water exposed.

Nonetheless there where a few fish around though it was certainly a day of small fish. I scored a few trout,

as well as plenty of these.

And I even scored a tiny rainbow, a first for me from this river.

On thursday I met up with a mate for what was intended to be a more extensive sesh, this time on foot as the river was really borderline as a kayak proposition. Unfortunately, unco here managed to somehow bugger up his first cast putting a lure into the back of my head with the hook going through my hat and into my head past the barb and somehow also snapping my rod in the process. (I'm really not sure what happened though I suspect I clipped a branch on the backcast and that rediected the lure into my head instead of over it). Thankfully Will was there to pull the hook out as I couldn't get at it in the back of my head (the trick with the string does work) however I then just sat and watched as he went for a quick fish (scoring a heap of small reddies and another tiny rainbow) while I cursed myself for snapping my favourite rod.

After this failure on thursday, I was keen to redeem myself so on Friday I managed to sneak out for an hour before work.The river was even lower than previously, starting to show exposed gravel bars in mid stream that should be well underwater.

The fish were still about, with several spotted lying in the shallows, though most were spooked.

A couple came to hand though, this one was first cast with a new lure.

As usual at this time of year, the little reddies were again out in force.

And I added to my south esk rainbow tally with another 2 babies (there must have been a recent farm escape or release nearby I reckon, could be good next year once they've grown).

So a couple of nice sessions and a shocker, and now in the market for a replacement ultralight spinning rod before the flyrod I was planning on.

Cheers

Col.

Edited February 3, 2007 by wrasseman

[slayer666]

nice catch of brown trout and the perch nice looking fish welldone

cheers joe

[johnno]

Wrasseman

Lovely photos mate i love the first pic

Looks and sounds like you had a productive few days

[troutboy]

Hi Col, sorry to here about the incident with the rod, hope it didnt get you down too much May I suggest a worthy replacement, I have a little ripper of an ultra light purpose designed trout stick that I have had for a few years now, perfect for casting everything from superlight soft plastics to hardbodies up to 7grams no problems.Wont mention the name of the maker now but pm me if you want the details, cheers troutboy