TCD

[Spearer1]

Hi All,

During a recent deer hunting trip in NE Vistoria I took the spinning gear and some celtas and tassie devils to have a go for a trout in the beautiful Mitta Mitta River. After walking up the river for 5 minutes I'd caught my first Rainbow in about 15 years and needless to say I spent most of the rest of the trip fishing. The freshwater bug has bitten and I feel my destiny now is to learn to fly fish.

I have purchased a fly reel and am trying to workout what rod to get. So, I figured there was no point in seeing good fishing / exploring opportunities go to waste while i gear up so did a trip to TCD with the spinning gear yesterday. It was hard work! Not a rise was seen all day (we left at 1pm), but after covering some ground I shot my longst cast for a while across a small bay at some flooded bush structure. I let the Tassie sink and then started a dead slow retrieve followed by a fast retrive burst for a few seconds then slow again. On the second speed retrieve burst i felt a strike and the rod buckled over. The fish went nuts with numerous jumps and drag tearing runs. I walked back up the bank and beached my best trout to date, a beautiful Rainbow of 40cm. I was stoked.

After a couple of photos I put the fish back in and waited for it to kick off, instead it turned belly up and floated. I spent ten solid minutes trying to revive it to no avail. Disappointed at the failed release the trout came home for dinner.

There were quite a few guys out there fishing lures and fly. Of the guys we spoke to only one other bloke had success and that was on a similar tassie to the one I had success with. I did see a couple of injured fingerlings and after talking to one of the other blokes he confirmed fisheries had just done a new release.

I'm looking forward to learning the art of fly fishing and hitting the sweet water again.

Photo tomorrow!