Tassie Devils,

[AlbertW]

Hey Raiders,

Anyone have any tips on how to rig and retrieve tassie devils for trout? I have two 13.5g ones and a 7g one. I’ve been donuting so many sessions and my mates been catching big ones consistently on these so i bought a few just then to give them a try. *Will try them tomorrow*

Cheers,

Albert

Edited July 6, 2022 by AlbertW

[Drunkenfisho]

I've fished with them a bit, and there not bad lures in my opinion. Check out youtube for further info, all I can say is a slow roll with some faster winds thrown in was my standard retrieve. Also, I prefer to ditch the trebles and use single hooks behind a bead.

[Drunkenfisho]

44 minutes ago, Drunkenfisho said:

I've fished with them a bit, and there not bad lures in my opinion. Check out youtube for further info, all I can say is a slow roll with some faster winds thrown in was my standard retrieve. Also, I prefer to ditch the trebles and use single hooks behind a bead.

Also, (I'm not a trout fisho by any standards) but I would fish the 13.5g lures in deeper water ways like rivers, lakes, dams etc., and use the smaller ones in creeks and shallower pools. Though, they can catch trout anywhere.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Drunkenfisho

[frankS]

Albert. I have used the odd tassie here and there with some success.

Here is part of my collection

Although most of these are sold now.

I remove the treble ( if attached ) and replace with single hook, pictured is one set up for Flathead.

For trout use smaller hook, I use lead core line and troll ( sometimes with downrigger ) at approx 4 k's per hour OR 2 miles per hour I keep a close look at the sounder and adjust my depth accordingly .

When using tassie's from the bank I just cast as far as they will go and retrieve slowly.

Hope this gives you somewhere to go.

Frank

 

[Ganguddy Goodoo]

+1 for what Drunkenfisho said. Also vary the depth of your retrieves when fishing deeper water in lakes. 

[AlbertW]

Hey All,

the place I fish is very snagged and I have lost a lot of lures so should I use the lighter ones? Here is an image of the place I fish there are a lot of snags and the water varies from shallow to id say 3-4 meters, the main trout have been caught in the red circle area and that’s also where you can see the trout from the bridge above the water.

cheers,

Albert

 

[Volitan]

4 hours ago, AlbertW said:

Hey Raiders,

Anyone have any tips on how to rig and retrieve tassie devils for trout? I have two 13.5g ones and a 7g one. I’ve been donuting so many sessions and my mates been catching big ones consistently on these so i bought a few just then to give them a try. *Will try them tomorrow*

Cheers,

Albert

Are your mates actually catching fish in that particular spot?

what I’m thinking is that you’re in Queenstown I presume, and you’ve lucked upon a spot with a bunch of very confiding fish somewhere within the city limits or very close to it. There are lots of places in NZ like that - good spots for tourists to see trout but not to catch trout. The fish basically won’t touch anything. They have probably seen dozens of people try to catch them, so as soon as they see an interruption on the skyline they clamp their jaws shut and stay that way no matter what - it’s how they stay alive.

overthinking how you are fishing the Tassie devil won’t change anything.

my suggestion, give it a brief try very early or late in the evening to see if that changes anything. Or get out of town and find some wild fish.

apologies if I’ve read the situation wrongly.

[Hoods]

Try getting rid of the treble hook and using Dancing Jacks. Nothin escapes them. Tight lines

[AlbertW]

11 hours ago, Volitan said:

Are your mates actually catching fish in that particular spot?

what I’m thinking is that you’re in Queenstown I presume, and you’ve lucked upon a spot with a bunch of very confiding fish somewhere within the city limits or very close to it. There are lots of places in NZ like that - good spots for tourists to see trout but not to catch trout. The fish basically won’t touch anything. They have probably seen dozens of people try to catch them, so as soon as they see an interruption on the skyline they clamp their jaws shut and stay that way no matter what - it’s how they stay alive.

overthinking how you are fishing the Tassie devil won’t change anything.

my suggestion, give it a brief try very early or late in the evening to see if that changes anything. Or get out of town and find some wild fish.

apologies if I’ve read the situation wrongly.

Yeah he pulled out two 45cm rainbows in front of me in probably about 5-10 minutes of arriving there with me, I was fishing spinners and soft plastics which didn’t even get touched.

[Volitan]

Does the situation otherwise match my description ?

If not then I would be inclined to throw some fish egg imitations at them - being that this is spawning season and trout that aggregate like that are probably spawners. Because rivers generally don’t provide enough food to maintain large populations of trout, then aggregations of big fish are usually lake-resident fish on their spawning run up the nearby rivers. Trout generally don’t feed on their spawning run, but stress levels are high and they will snap at things out of reflex - especially little clusters of fish egg. It makes for frustrating, inconsistent fishing.

if I were there I would use a fly rod, cast an egg fly upstream on a floating line and let it drift back through the group. Keep going gently so as not to alert the fish to your presence, and you might get a response. I don’t know what the spinning rod equivalent of that is these days - maybe an egg fly under a little float with a couple of pieces of split shot.

Generally though, s9metimes we just have to accept that there is a lot of luck in fishing - and keeping on trying the same thing without result is generally not the best way to approach trout fishing.

[Volitan]

Thinking about it a bit more

another thing I would try is a little celta in orange or orange-red.

That lure would have several advantages

1. it’s orange, so the same colour as salmonid eggs, so invoke the reflex ‘smash the eggs’ response.

2. Celtas start their action the moment you start to retrieve them, unlike a lot of lures which need a metre or so of travel before they get their action right. This is important in smaller rivers as it allows bank to bank action.

3. they look like little buzzing insecty things. Spawning trout defend their egg laying environments from anything that might eat eggs. The fact that something can’t simultaneously be an insect and a fish egg is something a spawning trout doesn’t care about - they are not deep thinkers.

I think most of my lure-caught trout have been on red celtas - although mainly because I prefer to fish small rivers and streams.

 

 

[AlbertW]

Ariel view of the place, I’m here right now and I’ve seen fish around 50cm in the water

[AlbertW]

FARRR OUT. I just lost a 40ish cm trout

[AlbertW]

2 hours ago, Volitan said:

Does the situation otherwise match my description ?

If not then I would be inclined to throw some fish egg imitations at them - being that this is spawning season and trout that aggregate like that are probably spawners. Because rivers generally don’t provide enough food to maintain large populations of trout, then aggregations of big fish are usually lake-resident fish on their spawning run up the nearby rivers. Trout generally don’t feed on their spawning run, but stress levels are high and they will snap at things out of reflex - especially little clusters of fish egg. It makes for frustrating, inconsistent fishing.

if I were there I would use a fly rod, cast an egg fly upstream on a floating line and let it drift back through the group. Keep going gently so as not to alert the fish to your presence, and you might get a response. I don’t know what the spinning rod equivalent of that is these days - maybe an egg fly under a little float with a couple of pieces of split shot.

Generally though, s9metimes we just have to accept that there is a lot of luck in fishing - and keeping on trying the same thing without result is generally not the best way to approach trout fishing.

The fish are biting volitan, I just lost a good sized trout which jumped out of the water

[Little_Flatty]

57 minutes ago, AlbertW said:

FARRR OUT. I just lost a 40ish cm trout

To quote @Scratchie...JUST KEEP CASTING! 😎

If they're biting, then you're doing something right!

Looking forward to a pic with your catch, or at least the story from the trip. Preferably both!

[Volitan]

9 hours ago, AlbertW said:

FARRR OUT. I just lost a 40ish cm trout

Fishing and posting in real time. Great stuff.

[AlbertW]

26 minutes ago, Volitan said:

Fishing and posting in real time. Great stuff.

Go read my fishing report for today 

[Volitan]

Thanks. I hadn’t seen your report.

the jack is post-spawning. You might be lucky. If there are a lot of post-spawning fish they will be ravenous - trying to recover spawning related loss of condition.