HOME »
Saltwater »
Barra
» Trout 300 for the Season
Related Products...
Trout 300 for the Season
Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Needing only ten more trout to reach my 300th trout for the 2020/21 trout season and with the larger rivers still running high after 47mm of rain three days ago, I had no option but to head back to my favourite tannin waters. The weather was fine, with no wind to worry about, plus I had an earlier start to the day than I normally do. I was in the water by 8:20am. At this time of the year the sun rises much later than last month and is lower in the sky in the morning. Not that it mattered all that much as the area that I was fishing has a lot of dense foliage on both sides of the stream.
The water level was much higher than I had expected. It was at least four to five inches higher than my last trip here three days ago, having not dropped off as fast as I thought it would have done. It was still at a decent wading height, just running a little too fast in several areas that I like to fish. It was just a matter of flicking the Mepps spinner into the small flat waters along each side of the stream, where the trout would be holding out. I also fish the bubble lines (food carrying water) that the trout sit next to, where they can pick up a feed. With the water being a little murky I was in two minds whether to start off using a gold blade spinner or stay with the Mepps March Brown coloured Bug spinner. I chose the latter.
There wasn't a sign of a trout in the first medium deep stretch of water that I fished and I did have a little trouble seeing the March Brown spinner on the retrieve. I went for a change of lure and it was a Mepps Gold #00 Aglia Mouche Noire that I went for as I felt it may stand out a little better in the murky water.
It wasn't until I moved into the fast water runs and flicked the spinner into the narrow flat water next to the river banks, that I had my first couple of hits from a small trout. From here on most of the stream was medium flowing water, knee deep and a little above the knee, so I went back to the #00 March Brown Bug spinner.
The first stretch of medium flowing water that I moved into had a nice long flat water on the right hand side. A cast and retrieve into it and I had the first hook up of the morning. A small brown had taken a liking to the Bug spinner and this little brown stayed on and was the first trout landed.
A little further upstream, after a cast into a nice large flat water, I had a follow from a medium size brown before it turned and moved off. Opposite that flat water, on the bend of the stream, was another small pocket of flat water, situated behind a rocky outcrop next to the river bank. The water was moving fast and swirling past the rocky outcrop, but that pocket of water was worth flicking the lure into.
The first cast into it had to be spot on as a missed cast or poor cast into it would spook any trout that was holding out in it. Before I cast into it I had a practice cast into the stream, several metres ahead, to make sure I got the distance spot on. The cast was good and the distance was spot on.
My next cast was to the flat water, behind the rocky outcrop, and it was perfect. The spinner lobbed within six inches of the river bank, behind the outcrop and I couldn't have done it any better. In an instant the Bug spinner was taken and the water boiled as a solid trout hit the lure. It was fish on! The trout ran straight into the fast water and pulled hard, before hitting the surface and jumping several times. It eventually tired and I had it in the net.
The next trout caught was a small brown and it was taken in a small, narrow flat water that had fast water on both sides of it. I continued to keep on catching trout every ten to fifteen minutes, right up until when I caught my ninth trout, which was the best fish by far. The ninth trout was caught in a narrow, waist deep stretch of medium flowing water and it took a while to land it. I had to keep it from running into several snags that were under the surface, which I did manage to do before it tired and was safely in the net. After weighing it in the net and then deducting the net weight from the total weight, that beautiful brown finished up weighing 535 grams, which is a decent size trout for such a small water.
I did have a total of eleven hook ups and several hit and misses too, which was disappointing because I was now back (11:20am) to where I had parked the car. The stream above where the car was hasn't fished all that well over the past few trips so I decided to fish another stretch of water a kilometre away. There I was certain to catch the tenth trout.
It wasn't long before I was back in the river and on the hunt for that one trout. Once I caught it my plan was to head for home. It took a little longer than I had expected and after having a couple of follows in the first two narrow runs it wasn't looking good. It wasn't until I moved into a wide, waist deep stretch of water and one that has never let me down in terms of catching a trout, that I felt confident of heading home in a couple of minutes.
This stretch of water has never let me down and it didn't today either. After a long cast into a shaded area, on the right hand side of the stream, the March Brown coloured Bug spinner was hit hard and fast on the retrieve and the tenth trout was on. After a short and nervous battle with this trout I eased it into the net and my day was done. Trout number three hundred was reached and I was on my way home feeling very satisfied in what I had set out to do.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During the Season:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rods
Okuma LRF Spin Rods - Split Grip 1-3kg
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Boomerang Tool Products