After breaking my wrist I will be off work for a few weeks so I have decided to spend a week in the south west chasing trout and reddies in some of my favourite and secret spots. I will keep you guys updated on how I go every now and then.

EDIT: a mate got this brown on a zman grub sunday morning at the back of his farm where the river flows through. Just getting me more keen to go down.

I started the trip with a short drive to one of my favourite fishing spots where the river is skinny and the snags are nearly everywhere. while sneaking around the trees I noticed a decent rainbow of about 45-50cm just sitting nose into the current and minding his own business. it took me about five or so mins to sneek into a position where I could get a cast at him. the lure landed perfectly and the big buck rainbow came over for a sniff but quickly decided that he wasn't hungry and swam upstream making a huge bow wave. I chased after it but could not find him in the extremely snaggy structures that were lining the shallow banks.
I walked further down the river to another of my favourite pools but could see that there was no one home. I went to the next pool and saw what looked like a large brown in a deep sandy section. casting was not going to be easy here as the snags and reeds that lined the bank made it difficult to fish. I eventually barged through some fallen brush and made my way through the water and down to a rock ledge. casting down river with a lure wasn't ideal but it would have to do. it took a few cast but managed to entice the trout to have a look and I saw the big white flash of its open mouth going for my offering. he missed, and with that he was spooked swimming quickly from one end of the pool to the other before he was gone. I fished the river a bit more but with no more sightings or strikes it was time to re locate.

I drove further south down to pemberton and fished the warren for a small time before it got dark. there were a few trout rising and im sure if I had my fly rod with me I would have had more success. I pinged my small diving lures at every rise along the warren for the next hour with the only hookup coming from an average size redfin. I de-hooked him got a quick pic and launched him up the bank far enough that he couldn't kick back down into the water.
redfin are tough buggers and I have seen them still kicking after a couple of hours of fishing up and down a river.

the next day the old man wanted to take the boat down the Donnelly river for a look and maybe catch a few herring, so we loaded the boat up and off we went. when we got there the river was low and indicating to us that the mouth was open. shore enough it was. on our way down I thought I saw a snake crossing the river but on closer inspection we found it was just a lizard cruising from one bank to another. not bad swimmers I must say.
when we got to the beach the wind was howling and the waves were huge. not ideal for chucking small squid baits around for herring. we stuck at it for about an hour with not even one bite so I cruised up and down the beach with a twisty for a good hour with no result. on the plus side we had the river and the beach all to our self for the day.

Wednesday started off with a bang as I hit the rainbow trail for a flick. three average redfin in the first three casts and there mates following them all the way to my feet. I personally hate redfin perch while im targeting trout however if im actually trying for a feed then there welcome to eat my lures.
I moved further up river to one of my secret hard to get to spots. with no track in you just have to pick your line through the bush and un-tangle your rod and lure from the trees every two seconds.
when I got there I was greeted with more small to medium redfin that were thrown as far into the bush as I could throw them. so after hooking so many redfin and loosing an expensive lure to a snag on the other side of the river it was time to move to the cascades.

the cascades is one of my favourite spots to fish even though its one of the most heavily fished areas. I have some good memories of some good fish landed in the late afternoons and every time I drive down that way I have to stop and have a flick here.
I started of great with my first cast, watching my braid to mono knot part and my lure soring through the air landing exactly where I wanted it to. lucky it was a floating pins minnow and I ran down to the rapids grabbing it before it was lost forever. so carefully re-tying it this time I was ready to go. I fished all the usual spots with no success and after half an hour of use the pins minnow was lost to a snag.
I wasn't keen on swimming today so ill go back and get it next time. I walked down river and tied on a small cranka diver. this was a good move because first cast along a log saw a good 40-45cm rainbow dart out and grab it. it was a solid fat fish and it made me and my 1-3lb gear work overtime. the luvius was screaming as the fish took off down river and regularly took to the air. I had no way of chasing him as I was stuck on the log in the middle of the river trying to play the fish around some snags and fighting him against the current, eventually I got him within netting range but the fish was still going. I managed to net the fish as it was in the air, he basically jumped into the net.
I left the fish in the net while I set the camera up. getting a selfie with the fish is not an easy task with a 10 second timer and a slippery and struggling rainbow so Im sorry for the extremely bad hands covering fish pics. it swam off strong to fight another day.

i was on my way to big brooke dam when i noticed an over grown side road that needed to be checked out. i was on my own and the road was getting a bit sloppy but i thought i could make it... well i didn't make it and spent the next hour or so digging and shoving branches under the tyres to get some traction and get the hell out of there. on the plus side i did find a new fishing spot. i eventually got to big brooke dam but got a call from my wife just as i was rigging a lure, i had to get back to perth so my trip was cut a bit short. all in all it was a great few days and really got me keen to get back down there as much as possible.

i heard on the vine that gummys are still being caught from the beaches and the odd salmon too. the rivers have dropped a lot since last time i was there and the current has slowed enough that you can swim a lure almost everywhere. all the smaller rivers and tributaries have cleared up but the bigger ones like the warren and Donnelly are still a little dirty.

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