Spin Fishing Championships
by Carl Hyland on 20 Mar 2012
The picturesque Meander River - Spin Fishing Championships Carl Hyland
The inaugural Fishtas spin fishing championships have been run and won at Meander in Northern Tasmania. The Meander is renowned for its pristine waters, head of fish and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, so it was with this in mind the organiser’s decided to conduct the event, at this location, the first of its type in Tasmania.
The initial event was designed to encompass the aspects of spin fishing, a very popular form of fishing the lowland rivers of Tasmania. The trophies were designed with this in mind and these coupled with some great lure donations by sponsors made the teams of two very keen to be involved with the competition.
Teams were drawn form with the ranks of the popular Tasmanian fishing website, Fishtas.Com and the criteria was simple, fish for a period of three hours, using the lures of your choice and see how many fish could be caught in that time frame. Contestants could decide whether to keep their catch or release, as there is a bag limit of 12 fish per day per person from this river. The fact that this river is so well stocked with fish was evident as organisers counted 23 fish from one pool off the bridge overlooking the river, and as it turns out, this part of the river was the most successful area which is from where the winners were decided.
On the morning of the Championships, it was a dewy overlay that saw grasshoppers lying dormant, with corby moths and caddis taking to the water. Water levels in the river were also low as a drawdown was from the Huntsman Dam was occurring due to some river works further downstream. The day itself was bright and clear.
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With water being so clear, fishing was going to be hard and this proved to be correct, with many good river fish being spooked or following the lure back to the angler and then fleeing once spotted.
The chaps who won the event were fishing in rifles that were fast running plus slightly deeper.
In total six fish were caught by the one winning team, chaps by the name of Coxy and Bigbucks who came from the North West coast of Tasmania.
Popular lures of choice were Mepps which are light and very easy to cast and are close imitations of the many species of moths that frequent these rivers. Mepps were involved as one of the sponsors of the event as were Hueys Lures, and Wigstons and Adrian Webb prints.
As there were only one winning team with fish, the runners up had to be decided and this was done with a casting competition after the actual event. Luke Cordwell was the eventual winner of this and his team took home some great prizes.
A full report and wrap up is available on the Fishing forum in Tasmania, Fishtas.Com.
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