Another trip to tannin waters. 18-4-17
With Easter now done and dusted I thought I would head of for a session in some more tannin coloured waters to the West of Sheffield. This time it was another of the small streams I was going to have a go in. Once I managed to find a spot to park the car I had a bit of bush bashing to do before I finally reached what was a small and very low stream. It was certainly a tannin colour and a dark one at that, but that's why I'm here and hopefully pick up a few trout at the same time.The area of water that I reached was very shallow and un-fishable, then as I made my way upstream I came across some deeper stretches of river that looked pretty good. The first cast and retrieve saw a bow wave appear behind the gold black fury, but I ran out of water before the fish really had a chance to hit it even though it was close enough to take it. Two more casts and retrieves into the same piece of water didn't result in anything, that fish wasn't coming back again.
- Not what I was expecting to see..
To reach the next stretch of river called for climbing up and over a log jam as there was no other way to get into it unless I climbed the bank and bush bashed my way round to it. I decided to scramble over the log jamb as it was the shortest way to the water. It was here I had my first hookup and on my very first cast into this dark tannin short stretch of water. Two leaps from the river saw that brown toss the spinner in quick time much to my disgust. The only good thing about it was that now I knew there were some trout in here to be caught and sooner or later I'll have one in the net.
- The log jam I climbed over..
- trout lost here..
Slowly & quietly working my way upstream as not to spook any fish I finally had my first trout on and soon in the net. Not as large as I was hoping for but a fish of around 280 grams and in good condition too. After releasing the little brown I decided to change the lure to a gold Aglia Mouche Noire spinner, this has a larger blade than the black fury and will put a little more vibration out as it moves through the water. That as well as having a red tag set up on the trebles hooks I'm thinking it will attract the trout a little more than the black fury will in these dark waters. This area I'm fishing is very similar to the other small stream I fished before Easter and it's just as tough to fish as with many if not more very tight areas for casting. In fact I'll say now, it is tougher than where I fished last time. So far I haven't found any fast water runs and where there is some good flow it's only a couple centre meters deep. So far the only water fishable is the short to medium stretches of water than varies from around 20 cms to 50cms deep on average. I notice that there's a lot of insect life hovering above the water too and then spotted a fish surface feeding between the river bank and a log that was in the middle of the next stretch of water. A cast some 1.5 mtrs ahead of where I saw that fish rise and a slow retrieve saw a bow wave appear behind the spinner in no time at all. It stayed behind the lure for a short time before it finally took it hard and fast. This was a bigger fish than the first brown and gave up one hell of a fight all the way to the net. This brown went 510 grams and was another beautifully coloured trout. It had engulfed the spinner as well and there was a little blood coming from the gill area. Good thing was it wasn't blood from the gills it was from the inside of it's mouth, I used the forceps to remove the lure and bleeding had just about stopped. I kept this fish in the water for a short time to see if it did bleed again and it didn't, it was fine so I sent it on it's way.
- First fish taken here..
- First of the session..
- Second brown caught here..
- Nice 510 gram brown..
Ahead of me was where a large tree had fallen across the stream, one that was to large for me to take so I had a bit of a bush bash to get around it. Even then I still had to climb over a large pile a small fallen trees and branches. I finally reached the next stretch of water where I hooked and lost two more browns which ticked me right off. It's really tough going here and losing two trout one after the other just isn't on in my books. The best thing about this little stream was the fact the river bottom was easy to wade, it was like a gravel pathway and not full of slippery rocks. I fished on for another hour and had four hook ups from six hits with only to more well conditioned browns landed before calling it a day at 5.30 pm. I would like to have fished on a little longer but I knew it would be near dark in another thirty minutes and I wanted to get back to the car well before then. It was a bit of an up and down session this time with the trout, they were there but getting to them in some sections of river was near impossible. As quiet as I was they still took off before I could even get a cast in. That's just one of the problems when fishing small streams in tight overgrown areas. But when there's trout in them and as tough as can be, it's always worth the effort not to mention the challenge in catching a few wild brown trout in those dark tannin waters.
- This fallen tree was just a little large for me to get over..
- So I headed through this to get back to the water..
- Another lovely coloured wild brown trout..
cheers
Adrian
only 9 days left of this one.. 