Presented from Issue 105, August 2013
Christopher Bassano fishes over 250 days a year. This interview was recorded just before he headed off to fish for Australia in the World Fly Fishing Championships in Norway 14-17 August 2013.
I live on a small stream and at the start of the season I like to go off on a bit of a discovery mission and fish the headwaters of the creeks and rivers I feel an affinity with.
These small rivers include the St Pats, Meander, Forester, Little Forester and others. The further up you go on these rivers the clearer and lower the levels. They are often less affected by the rain and runoff and you get some good opportunities. Get as close to the source as you can and you will find some good dry fly fishing. Don’t limit yourself to those I have mentioned. Most headwaters will hold trout.
Read more ...Seeing that the day was nice and fine with just a light Nth Easterly I headed on over to the Mersey River at 5.00pm for a late session. It wasn't worth going any earlier as it was to bright plus the sun was still on the water, so by around 5.00pm there is usually plenty of shade on the river from the masses of willows that line the banks.
After having a few good showers of rain this morning and with the cloud now high overhead I decided to go on over to Merseylea for an afternoon spin session. There wasn't a breath of wind, but the air temperature had dropped quite a few degrees from earlier in the day but that wasn't a problem any way.
Day One, 18/11/2014
Headed on over to Lake Leake to catch up with Samuel and Connor who are also well known as the "'Lake Leake Boys'" to have a couple of days spin fishing the Elizabeth River. I checked in at the Lake Leake Inn with mine hosts Jan & Walter Milner who always greet their guest with a warm and friendly smile. After lunch (which was great & very filling) I headed on over to catch up with the Evans family and was met with another warm welcome at their household too. It was good to see them once again as well. Samuel wasn't around as he's working two days a week now with his Uncle in the building trade doing work experience as a carpenter which is a great trade to get into.
With Adrian Webb up our way for a few days, we decided to give the Elizabeth River a smashing session using the Mepps spinners. We arrived at the river at around about 2pm, where we got the gear out of the car, threw on the waders and started walking down the river. We walked a good 2.5km past the Weir, where we worked our way back up the river
The first 1.2km was unsuccessful, with only seeing 4 small trout that were easily spooked. Where I then swapped to a silver Aglia, and cast in to the faster running water where this little fish started playing up! First fish for the day, a nice little brown that was about 200grams. Back in the river he goes. We then walked through a heap of long grass, where Connor had caught a lovely brown that was about 340grams. A few photos and back in to the water he goes. In this time Adrian had caught a lovely brown around the 200gram mark as well.
After giving the elbow a two day rest since the acupunture last Friday I thought I would put it to the test with a short spin session on the Mersey River at Merseylea. I was on the water by around 10.00am which was really not the best time to be starting a session seeing it was warm, clear water and sunny. But I was only here to see how the elbow would hold up. The first run I fished was a long slow flowing section and I didn't spot a fish at all, not even a follow. So it looked like being on the river at this time of the morning exactly what I expected and if I was going to catch a fish today, then I was going to have to work for it. I noticed a chap watching from the bridge some 100 meters behind me and I was wondering if he had wanted to fish this area. The next time I looked around he was gone and I assumed he had gone below the bridge to fish a lower part of the Mersey.
With the wind coming from a variety of directions today I headed on over to the Meander River for a spin session. I arrived there at 1.20pm much earlier than I would normally hit a river, but I new the area I was going to fish would have good shade along most of the 1.5 kms of river from thick vegetation along the river banks. On my arrival I found the river was running around six inches higher than my last trip here as well. It just meant that some of the areas where I cross over will take a little longer than they normally do due to the stronger flow.
Read more: The Meander River fished well, but all small Brown Trout
After bombing out with my sweeps in the Melbourne Cup today I headed off to the Dasher River for a few hours in the hope that it would fair much better than today's sweeps did. Arrived at the Dasher around 3.40pm and after a 30 minute walk I was soon in the river casting the well used little copper black fury spinner into the very tannin coloured water.
Hi folks, I had one of those last minute moments where the moons had aligned and the boss was kind. I had been given a long weekend!!! So as you do, living on the East Coast, you plan a solo trip to fish a river on the West coast for the ever elusive sea-run trout (the grass is always greener they said). This was the time of year to go as the whitebait season is in full swing and willy weather had told me that the wind was going to be calm in the afternoon of Thursday and in the morning hours of Friday. It was on.
Today we were greeted with a medium 10 knot Sth Easterly breeze and another afternoon trip was on the the way. This time it was to be a stint on the Meander River above Deloraine. Once there I was happy to see the river level was down by around 125mms lower than my trip here a week or two ago and it was just about the right height.
Read more: Meander River slow going, plus disaster strikes 2014-10-23
After yesterdays beautiful conditions and an average spin session at Merseylea I thought I would give the area of Kimberley a go. The morning was another cracker a day but I couldn't go until the afternoon anyway not that it mattered too much. As the day went on there was a lot of cloud building up and it was becoming quite humid and these are the types of conditions that I love to fish in. I headed off to the Mersey River and was in the river at Kimberley by 4.45pm and there was not a breath of wind, conditions were perfect. There was the odd light sprinkle of rain but nothing to make one head for cover. I stuck with the little Mepps #00 copper Black Fury as it's been working okay for much of the season so far. There were quite a few fish jumping in most sections of the river and so I new it was going to be a tough session after seeing that. Even the fly fisher will often struggle when the trout are jumping.
Read more: ANOTHER FAIR SPIN SESSION ON THE MERSEY 2014-10-22
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by Sarah Graham
Many anglers are preparing for the opening of the new angling season on Saturday 7 August and it's shaping up to be another good one with the fishery in excellent health as a result of last year’s drought breaking rains. There are many great fishing locations around the State from which to choose for the opening weekend and early season fishing but here are a few suggestions.