Trout Run A Little Hot & Cold Today

Post by **meppstas** » Thu Dec 26, 2013 10:09 pm

'' TROUT RUN A LITTLE HOT AND COLD TODAY.'' 26-12-13

Thunderstorms may have stopped me from doing some painting today but it did give me the chance to head off to the Meander River for a four hour spin session today. Humid conditions and hardly a breath of wind was what greeted me when I arrived at Montana around 2.30 pm and the river was the perfect height too. So all looked good for some quality fishing. The second cast with the little (yes again) Mepps #00 copper Black Fury spinner and I was onto a small (290gm) brown that quickly came to the net and then released. A couple of casts later and I had another small brown on but lost it on it's first leap from the water. Still this was a great start with the browns being aggressive right from the start of the session.

The next stretch of river that I moved into was probably seventy meters in length and slow moving, but I thought it would still give up a few fish seeing they've been so aggressive to start with. Well they weren't, as a matter of fact they went the opposite and just sat behind the spinner and followed it right up to where I lifted it from the river then casually turn and moved off. This happened for the whole length of the run until I reached the head water where it was running hard and fast. In eight casts into several sections of this fast water I had five hook ups from three rainbows and two browns of which I managed to land two rainbows and one brown with the best fish being a 630gm rainbow which was released after a quick photo as were the other fish.

What lay ahead of me now was a run of fast water that was close on a kilometre in length and it's a run that I have fished several times before too. It's got to be the toughest stretch of river to fish on the Meander as it is just covered with every different size rocks you could imagine, and this is one stretch that really takes it's toll on me. The only reason I do continue to put myself through the punishment is that it usually gives up a lot of trout. Today wasn't one of those days as this stretch only gave up two browns and these were only small fish. It wasn't because the fish weren't there either as they were. They had gone back to just following the spinner through the water or just having a quick go at the lure and missing it, then darting off not to be seen again.

I had now worked around three quarters of this tough stretch of river before deciding to get out of it and move on to another another area a kilometre or so further upstream. This area I was going to was much easier to wade as well, and so off I went. Once in the river and after a few casts I had a couple of follows from small browns again, and they just sat back behind the lure before turning and moving off. So they're not going to be any different here either I thought to myself.
The next cast I lobbed the little copper Black Fury upstream next to a fallen log and then spotted this nice solid brown following it and I could see the white of it's mouth opening behind the spinner.

Now I wasn't sure whether this fish was going to attack the lure or not and so I slowed the retrieve down and then let the spinner drop causing it to flutter. This is when this solid fish took the lure and boy did it take it!! As she (it was a female too) hit it she really gave some hard head shakes with it as she made a run downstream with the fast flow. Then she turned and headed for some submerged logs and debris along the river bank and I thought I'm in trouble here if she gets into it. Just keeping enough pressure on the rod I managed to turn this fish two or three times and finally moved her into a deeper section of river. After a minute or so I finally had her in the net which was a relief I tell you.

Once this solid fish was netted the spinner fell from it's mouth and so that's how close I was to losing this trout. It wasn't as big as I thought it was when I weighed it as it only tipped the scales at 820gms. It too was photographed and then released. Well I fished on for another hour for only the one (480gm) brown and then thought time to give it away. Then I thought I'll just give the next fast water a go before calling it a day. This stretch of water was only a thirty meter stretch which turned out to be a good one in the end as it gave up four small browns which averaged 270gms. So it was worth giving that final stretch of river a spin. The day turned out to be quite a reasonable one in the end and helped to keep up my catch rate once again, even though they did run a little hot and cold today.
Cheers
Adrian