The Whole Kit

Everything you need for lure fishing rivers

Adrian Webb

Iwas asked some time ago if I could run through my trout kit from head to toe, such as specific clothing, waders, boots, glasses, camera, drinks, snacks, rod, reel, tackle and whatever else I have for trout fishing the rivers here in Tasmania. I was also asked about some memorable moments plus a few other things that may be of interest, it’s something I’ve never thought about really, probably something I’ve just taken for granted.

The wading gear

So let’s start with the waders and boots. Seeing as I only fish rivers/streams and creeks for trout the first pair of waders were Horne’s waist waders with the Blundstone boots. They were a tough long-lasting set of waders, but they were heavy and the boots had no grip on the slippery rocky river bottoms. I perservered for six trout seasons, then a friend told me to go for a pair of breathable waders and wading boots, so that’s what I did.

My first pair were a cheap set I bought online from China — they didn’t get me through the first season. The feet leaked as did the welded seams. I average 90 trips per trout season, so I needed something that would last. Each trip varies from three to five hours of wading a river. After quite a lot of research I went for the Redington breathable waders with the neoprene stocking feet. These waders are quality and lightweight waders that I hoped would get me through many trout seasons. They did and ten years on I’m still using those waders, but on my third pair.

The wading boots I went for were the Korkers with the interchangeable soles, sticky rubber, felt and studded felt. The soles I use on the majority of my river trips are the studded felt soles, they have excellent grip in the larger rivers that are very rocky and slippery. The plain rubber and felt soles are ideal from small streams and creeks that have small gravelly bottoms with the odd rocky sections in them, so that’s my wading setup. Most wading boots will be one size larger than your normal shoe size to allow for the thickness of the neoprene stocking foot. The main reason I went for a boot with an interchangeable sole is because of the number of kilometres I walk to get to and from a river which can be two to six kilometres a trip, that’s not counting the distance spent in a river fishing for trout. Korkers are no longer available in Australia but Redington do some great felt sole boots, readily available.

Clothing

I’m a believer in wearing clothing that blends in with the surroundings one’s fishing in. Most of the rivers/ streams and creeks I fish have fairly dense foliage on both sides of them, so the majority of my clothing is dark green and khaki coloured items. If I’m heading to the more open larger rivers and the grass-covered river banks have dried off, I’ll wear a beige coloured outfit. When chasing trout in clear waters on sunny days a dark colour will stand out in an open river, that will spook a trout in no time at all. If possible stay as close to the side of the river that has dense foliage on it. I have seen a trout sitting in clear open water and a small wagtail had flown over, the shadow of that small bird was enough to spook it. I prefer fishing in dull heavy overcast humid weather conditions with very light drizzle. One can wear dark or lighter colours in these conditions.

Fishing vests

I have a few of these, both in green/khaki, camouflage and light brown/beige, all have plenty of pockets for the many small lure boxes I carry. They are short vests as well, there’s nothing worse than wearing a long vest and getting them wet when fishing in waist-deep water. Not only that, the pockets that hold the lure boxes in a long vest fill up with water, which I found out from experience.

Rods, reels and line

The rods I use are Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3 kg, 6’, 6’6’’ and 7’ lengths, these are beautiful lightweight well-balanced spin rods, perfect for what I require when chasing trout in the rivers and streams. I can fish for four to five hours covering anything from one and a half to three kilometres without getting tired in the shoulders which is a real benefit when spin fishing rivers, how many casts and retrieves I would have over that time and distance would be in the high hundreds I would imagine. All reels used are Okuma spinning reels, the models are as follows: Okuma ITX-1000, Okuma Inspira ISX-20B, Okuma Helios HSX-20, Epixor EXPT-20 and Okuma Ceymar C-10 spinning reels, these spinning reels are nice lightweight spinning reels that are well suited to the Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3kg spin rods.

I only use one brand of line and have done so for many years, it’s the Australian made and owned Platypus line. It is strong and reliable and I am accustomed to it. It has come a long way since I first used it back in the 1960s. The Super 100 Ultra High

Tenacity four and six-pound monofilament is the main one I use in the clear and brown colour. The other Platypus line used is the Pretest Premium Grade four-pound monofilament, the six-pound leader is the Platypus Stealth FC 100% fluorocarbon line.

Lures

It’s Mepps, Mepps and more Mepps inline spinners that I have in my small lures boxes, they range from the smallest and lightest starting with the #00 (0.9gms)

Steamepps (black, gold, silver blades) #00 (1.5gm)

Black Fury (black, gold, copper blades), Aglia ( Plain, Mouche Noire, Aglia Mouche Rouge in black, gold, copper blades), Bug spinners (Stone Fly, March Brown, White Miller and Cherry), Comet (silver, gold blades). These small lightweight spinners are ideal for shallow small streams/rivers as well as some of the larger rivers I fish. Next is the size #0 (2.5gm) & #1 (3.5gm) inline spinners same models and blade colours as above but with a few different models included such as the Aglia Fluo tiger, rainbo, brown and phospho colours, Aglia Furia, Aglia TW and TW Streamer. So as you can see

I do carry a large variety of Mepps inline spinners, all of which I have caught trout on.

I also carry several small hard-bodied lures that get used on the trout when they are not in the mood to take the Mepps inline spinners which isn’t all that often because 98% of my trout are caught on the Mepps spinners. The hardbody lures are mostly in the 30 mm to 60 mm size, floating and suspending models, Pontoon 21, Daiwa, Atomic Hardz, Goldy minnow and Rapala lures are the most common hard bodies I have on hand. I carry a few Ghost and Switchblade lures as well, there’s nothing better than having a good mix of lures when trout fishing the rivers.

Other essentials

One of the main items is a landing net, the ones I used are all wooden framed with a soft plastic mesh that doesn’t damage the fish. The good thing about using a wooden landing net is that it floats and I have mine attached to my vest with a two-metre strap. That way if I drop it while fast water fishing it floats and I just pull it back in with the strap. Other items I carry in the vest are: Small plastic containers with snap swivels, anti-kinks in them in case for some reason the mainline breaks, you’ll need them for replacement of the lost anti-kink set up. Small sharpening stone to keep the lure hooks sharps at all times, a small pair of pointed nose pliers that are used to pull a treble hook from a finger or hand, accidents do happen when handling a fish, it’s quite easy to have the lure fly from the fish and lob in the finger or hand when it tosses the spinner or lure. Also one can get a hook in the hand when trying to take hold of a fish that’s playing up in the net, the pliers are ideal for when you need to remove the hook. The pliers are also used for setting the treble hooks off centre, I’m not a fan of straight trebles.

Digital scales are essential if you wish to weigh your catch as I do. I weigh the fish in the net then deduct the weight of the net from the total weight which gives you the fish weight. That way one’s not handling, damaging or stressing the fish, if you are keeping the fish then it doesn’t matter. A set of forceps is a must for removing hooks from the mouth or throat of the fish, it’s much easier and less damaging to the fish than using bulky pliers.

Another item that you should carry is a good fold up pocket knife, handy for gutting a fish if you intend on keeping it. A Boomerang duo zinger that has a line cutter attached to it for cutting fishing line. Another item I carry is a small first aid kit, it’s compact and only carries a dozen or so small to large band-aids, hay fever tablets and a dozen Panamax- Panadol tablets in case of headache or some other pain that may occur.

A pair of polarised sunglasses is a must when fishing, they take the glare off the water and one can see the river bottom as well as the fish. The snacks I carry in my waders pocket are usually three Cadbury’s chocolate Freddo frogs or a couple of small Mars bars and a can of Pepsi Max. My camera is a Canon SX620HS compact camera a small reliable quality camera that takes a great photo and video - a must-have when fishing to take a photo of what may be your catch of a lifetime. It’s small and packed with plenty of punch.

If and when you do catch a trout, remember to always wet your hands before handling the fish that way you don’t remove its protective slimy coating. I know a lot will keep a trout for a feed and that’s fine, if you’re not keeping it and just want to take a photo of yourself and the fish, be careful how you hold it. Don’t take a vice-like grip behind its gills because that’s where the heart and liver are and you will damage them, the fish will swim off, but it will more than likely die soon after its release. Handle the fish as short a time as possible, even more so in hot weather when river trout are under stress due to warmer water temps. If you don’t need a selfie holding a fish, take a photo of it in the landing net and release it ASAP.

My memorable moments

There’s been quite a few over my 56 years of trout fishing, and I can remember many of them. There’s two that always come to mind, the first time I went trout fishing to the Finniss River at Yundi in my home State of South Australia back in 1966. My rod was a 6’ solid fibreglass one, the spinning reel I can’t remember what brand it was, the lure was a brand new Mepps #1 silver Black Fury that I bought from Adelaide Fishing Tackle, silver was the only colour available back then.

On that first trip trout fishing in the Finniss River, I caught my first trout on the Mepps Black Fury, a trout that weighed three pounds, from that day on I was hooked on trout fishing.

We made the move to Tasmania in March 2000. I record all the fish I catch in a diary and I recall the first trip I had on opening day that yeaar was to the Dasher River and being keen to get an early start I was at the river just as the sun rose. It was a very frosty morning, in fact, it was so cold as I retrieved the spinner the water that came off the line onto the rod eyelets froze up and made it impossible to retrieve the spinner, I have never fished at first light in August since that day. From there I went down to Lake Barrington where I caught my first trout of the 2000-01 trout season on a Mepps gold #1 Black Fury spinner, it was a 1.5kg brown trout.

On the last day of the 2017/18 trout season I caught a PB brown trout in a river, it went 3.85 kgs (8lbs 8ozs) and was caught in the River Leven at Gunns Plains.

On the third of November 2019, I caught my 10,000th Tasmanian trout, something I never thought of achieving. Another winner on the Leven River was back in 2009 when I won the World Grasshopper Championship in the Carnival of the Grasshopper, I captained the two-man team that day.

I also won the Lord of the River for most trout caught as well as the heaviest fish. In 2006 I joined the Ulverstone Angling Club and to my surprise the first season with them I won the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for most trout caught in rivers and streams with 437 trout being caught. Since that time I have gone on to hold the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for the past 15 years (2006-2021) in a row. So there you have it, these are just a few of many memorable moments I’ve had over many years of fishing. Hopefully, before it comes to a time when I have to call it a day, I can add a few more memorable moments to it. My PB wild brown trout, 8lb 8ozs, was released back into the river as are all of the trout I catch.

One other thing and this isn’t a most memorable moment, it’s just a little something extra for you to take in if you’re just starting to fish the rivers. The more often you fish a river you’ll get learn a lot more about it, like pockets of flatwater behind rocks in the river, narrow flat waters close to the river banks, they are all fish-holding areas, so you won’t bypass them like you may have done to start with, you will flick a lure into them. You’ll also get to know where it’s safe enough to wade, where it’s safe to cross the river, most of all, remember safety must come first, it must be a priority when fishing any river. No fish is worth drowning for, so please do not take any risks while fishing in any river, stay safe and tight lines.

Adrian Webb