Meander river

2010 Nationals session 3. 

Beat 10 below the road bridge. The river was up over a meter from the second session and was basically unfishable.

Rav and Mark Youngman instead on trying to fish their beats up near the gorge insisted or being relocated.

I am sure my beat was equally dangerous and just as unfishable. My whole beat was straight, my access was on the deep side of the river and my controller was not willing to take me even in my time to the opposite side of the river which was over much shallower ground and logs etc which were being swept down were coming down tight into my access bank.

Just before the session started we watched a 20 tree of probably 40 cm diameter trunk wash down the river tight along the deeper water which was my only access.

There was only about 10 meters of the river that I found which was below the top of my waders and you couldn’t venture from the relative safety of the bank side vegetation because the water lifted your feet and you needed to hold on the vegetation to avoid being washed away.

There was no access to the river where you were not dropping into water up or over top of waders. I used such access at 3 positions along the beat but had to fish right under the riverside scrub and hold onto that with one hand and fish as best I could by lobbing up and allowing team to swing below me into the bank under the vegetation.

Also held rod under at different depths so could get right under the bank and vegetation. Got 2 fish doing this both undersize 19 and 19.5 cm.

At the pump house there was a pile of rubble that the farmer had pushed into the river and was able to stand on the foot of that and fish where John Fisher described the river as dropping into a pool.

I did get two hits fishing buggers roll cast across and swung down on type 7 line. My controller was very worried for my safety and very nervous for the whole session. So was I but I had inflated by moth my PFD and I was holding onto vegetation  at most times.

I was not unhappy with how I fished even though my waders were literally full of water by the end of the session. Very extreme and uncomfortable fishing.

Meander River (Tasmania  Nationals)

As the name implies the Meander river meanders or sometimes rips through a pastoral plane. Generally easy wading at lower levels it can be a nightmare when the huntsman dam is overflowing or if water is being released. Bottom is over relatively slipper moss covered free stones.

Wading in my beat, which was beat 5, was no problem at all. The 100 beat consisted of a 70 meter glide/run which was skinnier on the access side and dropped of to around 1 meter on the opposite bank. Over all width was around 14 meters in this deeper water. There was no holding water per say on the beat but holding water along a deep chute on the access side and just below the beet. The bottom 30 meters of the beet flattened out to a riffle and was where the few fish that hadn’t moved down to the holding water below the beet were holding. Had two hits there swinging flies and got two fish one of which was 22 the other a undersized fish of just 17cm. With the value of 20/20 hindsight would have been better going to the trouble of approaching the beat from below (which would have been quite difficult) and putting 70 of my time in the riffle by fishing small BH pheasant tail nymph with a unweighted nymph longer leader style peppering that water. There would have been a difficulty however in that the controller would not have been able to access from below because of the difficulty and fish caught would have to be taken up through the target water for measuring . . . comp fishing is full of compromises. If access for the controller from below was possible, after fishing the riffle could have then spent some time fishing the shallow margins on the access side the same way and then perhaps put heavier flies on to fish the glide/run either short line up or spiders down.

The Meander River is a river located in the central north of the state of Tasmania, Australia.

It flows from the Great Western Tiers, past its namesake town, Meander, through the major regional town of Deloraine, then eastward, where it flows into the South Esk River.