Double figure trout day.
Unpredictable weather was forecast again today and with the major rivers still running high it was back to what's turning out to be my most reliable trout water, that's the tannin waters. Rain, wind and thunderstorms are what's on the forecast and I'm never all that happy being in the water when thunderstorms are forecast because graphite rods are a great conductor of electricity. This time I was in the water by 10:30 am in what was dull overcast mild weather, perfect conditions for trout fishing. The one and a half kilometre stretch of water I'm fishing today is one that runs hot and cold with the trout, they're either on or they're off. I reckon I've had more off trips here than on trips over the past couple of seasons, but when the trout have been on the catch rate is well into double figures. The water was running at a light to medium tannin colour and running marginally higher since my last trip to the lower reaches where I had a good few hours fishing a few days ago. The first small stretch of water I fished was in a well covered area, where I had a follow from a small half interested brown trout on the first cast using the #0 Aglia Fluo rainbo spinner. After having a few more casts & retrieves without a sign of a trout it was onto the next stretch of water where I didn't even see a trout. I was starting to think that this is going to be one of those off days with trout fishing.
- A deep stretch of tannin water.
- Just love fishing the tannin waters..
As I made my way into the next run I thought I would remove the Aglia rainbo spinner and go to a #0 Aglia Fluo brown pattern spinner, one that got the majority of trout on my last trip. The first cast and retrieve into the following water it was fish on, a medium size (290 gm) brown had snapped up the spinner in quick time. A couple more casts and retrieves in this short run didn't attract any more trout, but the first cast to the top end of it did. A small brown had darted out of nowhere and grabbed it, two trout in three minutes was more to my liking and the change of spinner was a good one too. The following couple of narrow fast water I did manage two hits for one hooked and lost trout before moving into a wide deep stretch of water, one of two deep waters not all that far apart in this stream I'm fishing today. It was in the first stretch of water and a long cast and retrieve to the left side of it is where I hooked and landed my third trout, another small (285 gm) fish. With this water being too deep to wade as is the next one ahead I had to hop out and bypass it, then hop back in at the tail end of the next deep stretch of water. Once there I started off casting and retrieving the lure to the right hand side of the stream and continued to work the stream in an arc by lobbing the spinner around a meter apart. It wasn't until I my last cast to the left hand side of the stream when a trout took the lure, trout number four was landed. This long stretch of water ahead of me was way too deep to wade, plus both sides of it were too high above the water to fish from. Once out of the tail end of it I had a three hundred meter walk to where I could hop back in and safely fish my way upstream.
- Always wet your hands when handling trout.
- Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo lure & wild brown trout.
Fishing the first few runs of medium/fast flowing water things were very quiet with no signs of trout, as good as they looked there wasn't a fish to be had. It wasn't until I reached a narrow piece of water when I picked up another trout. It had been holding out on the edge of a flat water that had a nice bubble line on it, the trout wasn't a large fish, just the average small/medium size fish that is common in small streams. As most trout fisher's know trout can bob up in areas you least expect, that's why I never bypass any small waters, especially those that have a flat water in them like the one I caught that trout in. I still had plenty of good trout water ahead, I was feeling very confident of breaking the double figure catch in consecutive trips to this tannin stream. Over the following fifty meters of water I hooked and lost four trout in a row with two of them being good size fish in the 400 gram range. For some reason they were tossing the Aglia Fluo lure, it wasn't from blunt trebles either because I regularly check them and run the sharpening stone over the trebles.
- How to cover a wide stretch of water.
- Just one of the hazards trout fishing small streams.
- Another one bites the dust.
I reluctantly made the decision to go for a change of lure, I went with a #0 White Miller Bug spinner. I didn't have any success with the Bug spinner at all which was unusual because it's normally a trout killer in these waters, today it wasn't. Another change of lure was made, it was on with my trusty old well used #00 gold Aglia spinner. This little Mepps spinner has more than done it's job on the trout over a very long time, off the top of my head I'd say it's caught around ninety trout. How much longer it will last, only time will tell, the treble hooks are showing a lot of wear and tear from so much use, today may be the day it breaks down and is placed into retirement. The choice to use the little gold Aglia turned out to be the right one, from here on I went on to catch another seven browns with the trout of the day being one of them. The trout of the day wasn't anything big at all, a fish of 345 grams was as good as it got here today and I was happy with that. So with a dozen trout caught today was just the session I wanted to lift my season's catch rate and with twenty six trout caught in the past two trips now has given my season catch rate a much needed lift. I did keep three of the biggest trout today for two young (9 & 11 yr old) lads who live on a farm nearby and they're always on the lookout for when I return to the car. I did promise to keep a few for them the last time I saw them here, I'm also teaching them the basics of trout fishing as they're wanting to learn how to catch trout. Their father (Reg who I've met) isn't into fishing so I'll help them out as often as I can. With a lot more rain forecast over the following week I'm not sure when I'll be back in a river or stream, let's home it's not too long..
- White Miller Bug spinner
- A well conditioned wild brown trout.
cheers
Adrian
