# TAS - Houn River Trout Bashers



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

I have to start this one off apologising for the lack of Photos, I was loaned one of those el'cheapo Dick Smith "Water Proof Digital Cameras" the photos are so bad I will only post a couple of them and let you be the judge. Fortunately I had the foresight to take the photo of the fish with my mobile phone's camera. If anyone else who went has any shots please post them as these ones are shockers and don't do the beauty of the river any justice.










The day started nice and early, as it usually does at the start of the day :lol: , arrived in Huonville at about 6:45 and decided that having a coffee was my first priority. Also the bakery was a convenient locale from which to spy anyone else coming from Hobart to the Huonville boatramp with a yak on their car. I just finished my coffee when I saw Vertigrator drive by, so I ducked out the door and jumped in the car and headed off to the boat ramp.

The sun still hadn't quite made it over the hill to shine any light into the Huon Valley so it was still quite dark, but shortly after Vert's arrival James turned up closely followed by Robb and his Dad, Wrasseman and Baldy. No sign of Scott yet but it's a long way from Bruny Island to Hootersville (as it is locally known).










So seven of us hit the water and headed up stream at various speeds. For me it was the big test for the newly installed Fish Finder, the first big shock was that it worked :shock: , my track record with anything electrical isn't great so I was mildy satisfied that it was working. James and I kept pace with each other for a while, untill James found a particularly fishy looking stretch of water. I headed up stream a bit further trolling behind two Rapala lures one a Black over Gold (supposedly a local favourite) and the other in Red Fin colourings.

About 100 m from where I left James behind the drag went off on the Red Fin lure, I headed out into the middle of the river as I was over a lot of submerged logs near the river bank. As the Black over Gold was a sinking style lure I was madly reeling that in while hoping that the fish stayed hooked and came out from the snags. My good fortune held, with one rod in I concentrated on my fish, on 2lb fire line he put up quite a nice fight going air bourne twice, but he was well hooked as I could see he had both treble's hooked into his jaws. After a short but exciting fight he was brought on board, my first Trout from the yak 8) .










I think from memory everyone caught a Trout or two, except possibly Robb and his Dad (sorry guys). Which according to the guy who runs the Huon River Jet Boat is probably the best result he has seen out of there in many weeks. At about 12:00'ish we met up back at the boat ramp to stare at each other's fish and talk about the next trip. We were thinking Arthur's Lake for next month but it looks like we will miss out due to the close of the season (thanks AndyC for letting me know about that, I had totally forgottten about it)


----------



## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Ok lets get the bad news out of the way first  After John and James left Col and I went downstream a little for a 30min last look around and while reaching to grab something from behind me I managed to knock my rod into the drink and nope it wasnt tethered  It normally is when Im not holding it but I got slack and had just put it back in the holder after retreiving a snagged lure. If it were saltwater I might have gone in after it but not down there, its COLD and was a bit of flow. It wasnt top end gear but was the most expencive combo ive owned and was in perfect working order[Even tuned the drag so it was super smooth] About $200 when I got it a few years ago[penn applause and silstar hg graph 2-4], not much in the scheme of things but I liked that setup and it seems such a waste! Obviously this is the first bit of fishing gear Ive lost, never broken a rod, have broken a couple of $20 reels but im normally very carefull with my gear and really look after it.[I didnt break one of those reels but some bogan threw my rod/reel and tacklebox at me when I caught the lowlife taking it out of my old boat :twisted: ]

Right, now that Ive vented, onto the fishing....  :lol: :lol:

Thanks again to John for organising the trip, I can see this first weekend of each month trips becoming a real tradition, even though I enjoy a paddle on my own Im looking forward to the monthly GTG's.

I got there about 8am I think, most of the fellas were just about to launch or were on the water allready, had a bit of a yarn, copped some flak about me living up to my nickname :lol: :lol: And then setup the yak and got ready to roll. Today for the first test of some new paddle gear I got just before easter, a paddle jacket and pants combo, made by MTI adventurewear[same lot that make the PFD's] I had been looking at drysuits but found them hard to get in Oz and after trying on the top and pants combo I decided that was the way to go, alot more versatile than a full on drysuit, they wernt that much cheaper than a US priced drysuit,retail was 200 for the pants 310 for the jacket[3yr warranty] but I got a %15 discount, just for my stunning good looks I imagine ;-) ;-) The woman at the shop was very helpfull and kept it open for me when I rang and said I was on my way[1hr] She didnt try to SELL me anything and was patient with my line of stupid questions! Anyway worth a plug I reckon, Roaring 40's at Kettering....kayak tours, shop, small Tassie outfit run by a husband and wife team who are keen yakkers themselves, and it shows as she was the only one who knew what the hell I was talking about out of all the places I visited in Hobart. Thats enough pluggin, more than happy with the gear....I just need to work out how much insulation I need for a given temp, I had a bit too much yesterday and got a bit hot. Also got a new pair of waterproof "ninja" booties...they look a bit odd but with the seal on the pant leg my feet were dry after launching.

I know, I know....you want me to talk about fishing :lol: Well I did a little of that, tried some gulps for no love, threw a little HB around for a while and did a bit of slow trolling up stream[basicly padding into the current while sitting in the same spot having a smoke and talking to Col] I took the flyrod to cast at any surface activity, I didnt feel like just flogging wets in the current so it never got used, never saw a rise. Well it did get used but that was to save a spoon :lol: I didnt have the heart to ask Col how in the hell he got it over a branch 15ft above the water  :lol:

Ok if you have read this far you deserve some photos, theres nothing real good and wasnt many to pick from, I keep telling myself to take more photos but never seem to do it.

Anyway, heres a few..








Heading upriver









Looking back from the same spot at the Huonville bridge, we launched just down past there.









Tinderbox's number 1 yak taxi.....aka.. Robbs dad Tony 8)









With those rocket launchers on the back I think Robb has declared jihad on trout :shock: :lol: :lol:









Col workin the snags, he did a good job to paddle at all, had been wrestling seals at work or something and his arm got a nice whack and had a fair ol egg on the forarm :shock: :lol:









Number1 yak taxi and son in distance, it really is a great place for a paddle down there.

And thats it!!....no other photos to post....none at all.....I did catch a fish but I let it go because I dont eat trout....yeah thats it....theres no photo.................oh bugger it, here it is.....bet im making DaveyG proud with this one :twisted: :lol:









Please dont eat me mister... :roll:

So there ya have it, my day on the water, was really enjoyable right up untill I saw my rod in slow motion going over and down  It was good to meet James this time and catch up with everyone else again.

As for the next one, there are plenty of places to chase Trout all year round, even some lakes are open all year.

Cheers
Baldy....aka butterfingers..


----------



## Robb (Nov 9, 2007)

G'day all,

Was a very nice morning to hit up the Huon, but a small breeze made the fly fishing difficult. So I stuck to the placcies. Anyway not a productive day for dad or I but enjoyed watching some of the guys land a couple nice trout 8) Had one large strike which I missed, reason being I was watching Craig ( vert ) pull a nice little trout out of the fallen timber from Wednesdays storm. Unfortunatly we had to leave early due to other commitments 

Anyway managed to get out today ( Sunday ) for a fly fish on the little Denison. Mate and I all up got 7 troutskis and a couple missed hook ups.
Managed 4 myself, and my mate hooked 2 little 'bows. Keeped two for the pan but realeased the other residents. Loved every minute of it and enjoyed landing my first couple on fly 8)

Anyway here are some pics of the Huon on Saturday.....

Getting ready...









Vert ready to roll


----------



## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

It was great to catch up again. Thanks for organising it John. 8)

As for future options chasing trout out of season, I can recomend Meadowbank Dam. It's open all year round, and is a beautiful lake for paddling. There are some big fish in there, although I've only got smaller ones so far, although I have connected to and spotted some of the bigguns. Some Atlantics of decent size too.

After driving through the showery conditions to Huonville, the sun came over the hill, the clouds blew away and we had a beautiful day. This was my first time on the Huon so I was happy to just have an explore, but as a bonus I did manage a well conditioned trout of about 1 pound.

I had a chat with the jet boat guy too and he said the river has been quiet for the last 5 years, although it still produces the goods at the start of the season when the sea runners are on. So lets all GTG again in October or November for some 10lb sea runners. 8)

So did you manage to salvage the spoon guys? Col was probably trying to catch himself a sea eagle up in the branches. :lol:

Unfortunately I had family commitments again, so had to shoot off early. Next time I'd like to put in a full day at one of these trips.

The $40 camera was too good to be true then John. ;-)

Here's some pics of the action.


----------



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

leftieant said:


> Great photos guys.
> 
> Brrr damn it looks cold!


Nah Lefti, it was a balmy 19 degrees in Huonville on Saturday, positively tropical :lol:


----------



## jimmy34 (Apr 20, 2007)

Had an excellent day on the water with a top bunch of blokes and the Tassie yakking scene is definately gaining momentum. The Huon River is one of those places that you hear of the occasional big catch, the local heroes doing all the work and getting results, the sort of place that local knowledge will go a long way it seems. I was stoked to land two browns both 40 cm exactly. After launching and finding my space alongside John Blaen, not far past the bridge I hooked a decent fish in a nice eddy where the current petered off, that fight only lasted about 10 seconds and the fish dropped the hook. Not long after I lost that prized lure to a snag an swapped over to a rapala shad wrap (I think it was) and then hooked another fish trolling along a dropoff that went from about 6 feet down into the deeper channel. Any legal fish I usually put in the keeper box especially when I know the fishing will be slow. The next few hours only saw a couple of hits but no fish, then another hookup of a small brown that spat the lure as it launched clear of the water a couple of metres in front of the bow. No great loss it was only a baby. After doing a uey a couple of k's up the river I trolled and spun my way back down to the bridge, not much peddling this time round that current was moving swiftly. Quite a few more snags and lost lures and decided to pack it in. As I was heading back to the ramp I had another hookup under the bridge, and thus boated the second brownie to add some cred to the day. It is such a fishy looking river it deserves more time, and as you say John, perhaps the sea-runners would provide some fast action on the right day. I would go back there just for the tranquility and the screaming white cockatoos.

I took a couple of pics of the fish before they went on the pan, will post them tomorrow night. Strangely, I did a gut contents analysis and found one fish empty, and the other chockers full of small brown crabs about the size of a 5 cent piece. I counted 15 crabs all the same, and then a couple washed down the sink. They looked like saltwater crabs so I suspect this gluttonous fish had been feeding down stream a bit. Would be good to fish there with bait next time.

Photo's to follow.

I like the idea of fishing Meadowbank, only an hours drive so a good day trip. I was a bit turned off the place when I first saw it there was a dead bloated festering sheep in the water and the water looked like it was putrid. But I probably got it on a bad day. Willing to give it a bash soon if thats the next outing.

james


----------



## Thelittlefisher (Jan 24, 2008)

Blaen said:


> leftieant said:
> 
> 
> > Great photos guys.
> ...


Damn straight! In Tassie, 23 is boiling point :shock:


----------



## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

James my fish was full of brown crabs too.


----------



## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Hey guys, sorry I never made it, it seemed like a good day out. I left my park lights on when loading the yak on the car the night before and awoke to a dead battery in the car.

Catch ya Scott


----------



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

No worries Scott, just glad to hear all is well.


----------



## jimmy34 (Apr 20, 2007)

here are the two brownies shortly before gettin fried......


----------



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Nice fish James, was that lighter coloured one the one with crabs? :lol:


----------

