Browns, rainbows and the big 400. 30-1-17
With a storm and rain forecast for later in the day I had another early start on the river this morning. The conditions weren't all that bad with overcast & humid conditions something I love fishing in. Once at the river I noticed it was a little lower than yesterday at Merseylea but still plenty of fast water to fish which was the main thing. I was feeling very confident of doing well today as I'm fishing well up the river today in an area that doesn't get all that much heavy fishing due to having to walk a couple of kilometers before reaching the river. The last time I fished up here I had a pretty good few hours of trout fishing and that's why I'm confident of doing well again today.
- Great sunrise this morning
- Had to do a bit of bush bashing on the way..
Once at the river the first water I headed to was a small fast water stretch where I started off with the ever reliable little #00 copper Aglia. Flicking it around and using the drift and cast method I hooked and lost a small rainbow before I had a small (240gm) brown take the spinner. I didn't bother taking a photo, just quickly released it. I kept working this fast water for another five minutes without any more hits then decided to head onto the next fast water run some three hundred meters further upstream. One thing I did notice was that there weren't any trout on the rise today like there was yesterday in the lower reaches of the Mersey. I was half way to the next stretch of fast water when I though I would try a Shad40 hard body in a slow flowing run before reaching the next fast water. This turned out to be a good decision because it was here I picked up two very nice browns on it with the best one going 560 gms and the smaller one 510 gms.
- Solid brown caught here on hard body..
- The other well conditioned brown..
- Best brown of the session
I was now at the next fast water and it was back to the copper Aglia once again. It was here I picked up three rainbows from four hook ups all in ten minutes of fishing. They were all nice solid fish and one that was a very special fish too. The second of the three just happened to be the biggest rainbow (490 gms) and was also my 400th trout of the 2016/17 trout season. To catch a beautiful fish of that size to reach the 400th trout was a good feeling as there's been many times when I've reached a milestone with small 240-260 gm fish. As I moved my way upstream working the fast water I noticed some unusual storm clouds drifting across the sky. They looked very angry and I'm thinking the weather is going to turn sour pretty soon. The wind hadn't arrived yet so I was still going to fish on for as long as possible.
- One of many rainbows for the session..
- Number 400 for the season..
- Rainbows taken in this fast water ..
By the time I had reached the top end of the fast water I had caught and released another brown and two more rainbows. It was now starting to rain only lightly but they were big raindrops and the sky was getting much darker. I upped the pace I the next fast water where I picked up two more browns and three rainbows before I decided to call it a day. The rain was getting a little heavier and I was getting wetter, plus I had a long walk back to the car. I did make it back before the rain really set in which was good. The three hour session on the river today was another good one in the end with 8 rainbows & 6 browns caught and released. This took my season tally to 409 which I'm reasonably happy with, the only downer was my little copper Aglia's treble hooks were past their use by date.
- Last 'bow of the day..
- Storm moving in, time to head for the car..
cheers
Adrian
