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300th Trout for Season 2021-22

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

Today's mid-afternoon trip was to one of my favourite tannin streams and my aim was to catch four trout to reach my 300th trout of the season. The conditions weren't all that good, with an easterly breeze, a warm day with plenty of sun and, a higher water level than normal. The one thing that I disliked about today was that it's a good day for snakes and I had to walk through a lot of high grass and fallen tree branches to reach my entry point into the tannin water.

It was 2:55pm by the time I hit the water and started to flick a small #00 Mepps gold Aglia spinner into a small section of dark tannin water. Here I had a trout follow the lure on the first cast and retrieve. It was on the second cast and retrieve that a small brown trout took a liking to the gold Aglia and the first trout of the session was soon in hand. Even though it was a small brown trout, this was just the start I was looking for and I was hoping it would continue.

A little further upstream I hooked another small brown and that little fish tossed the spinner on its first leap from the stream. From here on there was hardly a fish to be had, in fact all I had was a couple of soft hits and misses. It wasn't until I changed to a copper bladed #00 Mepps Aglia spinner that I picked up my second trout. This one was a nice, plump, medium-size fish and one that was in top condition.

A little further up the stream, after flicking the copper Aglia into a small flat water close to the left side of the river, I caught another trout. This fish was a little larger than the first trout caught early on. With only one more trout needed to reach the three hundred mark I was getting a little edgy and even more so when I hooked and lost a nice trout in a fast-flowing stretch of water.

Just ahead of where I lost that trout was another nice piece of water, situated on the bend of the stream. This water had given up trout on previous trips here. My fist cast was a little astray, however the second cast landed right where I wanted it. As soon as I started to retrieve the spinner a solid brown came out of nowhere and took the lure. This fish did everything it could to toss the copper Aglia and at one stage I thought it would.

Thankfully it didn't and I soon had it in the net. “You beautiful little fat thing”, was the first thing that came out of my mouth once it was in the net. The three hundredth trout of the season was landed, and I was pretty relieved it was over too. It was nice that the trout was a solid fish too. It's always nice to reach a season milestone with a reasonably good size trout, weighing in at 415 grams. After its release I went on to catch one more trout. That fish was only a small one, like the others caught early on.

With the trout being so few and far between and seeing as I did what I had set out to do, I called it a day at 4:27pm. Besides, it was very hot and humid which didn't help either. I have another record to achieve this season too and that one isn't all that far off either. Maybe one or two more trips will do it. When it happens, I will be very happy and relieved as well because it's something I never thought I would achieve in my twenty-two years of trout fishing in the rivers here in Tasmania. Hopefully that story won't be all that far away either.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment Used During My Trout Season:

Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma LRF Spin Rods – 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
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 Pulse Mono Premium Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Pre-test Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners