Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » 400th Trout of the Season
400th Trout of the Season
Adrian (meppstas) Webb
After five days of not being able to fish, due to windy and wet conditions, today I headed back to the same little tannin stream in the hope that the trout may be out and about, especially seeing as the river was running a little higher than my last visit. The weather today wasn't all that bad either, with plenty of cloud and patches of sunlight every now and then. The cool air temperature (9 degrees) was also bearable for a change.
It was a late morning start as well, just on 11:10am when I finally hit the water, after a nice long walk to get there. Seeing as the little, well used Gold #00 Mepps Aglia did the job a few days ago, I stayed with it to start off the spin session. With the water level running a little higher and faster, I did think about going for the larger #0 Gold Mepps Black Fury spinner before deciding to wait and see how the little Gold Aglia performed first.
After several cast and retrieves to start off the session, I did have a follow from a trout which was good to see. That was as far as it went for the first few minutes. A little further upstream, and only a few minutes later, I had my first strike and hook up. It was fish on! This was a quality fish too and one that was in pretty good condition. Not only that, it was also trout number 399 for the season, which was even better.
After its release, I slowly continued working the flat waters along both sides of the stream, as that's where I felt I would pick up my 400th trout of the season. It only took another nine minutes before I was onto another well-conditioned brown and this one was bigger than the last fish. I was feeling a little worried that it may toss the spinner, as it kept leaping from the water. Thankfully it stayed on all the way to the net.
Finally, with only five days left of the 2019/20 trout season, I reached the four hundred mark. This was well down on last season's catch that's for sure. I had set myself a target of 600 trout for this season and then realised at the end of December that I was not going to reach it. I then thought that I'd go close to the 500 mark... before I wrote that off in March. Reaching the 400th trout was a good consolation prize in a way, which I was quite happy to accept. Anyway, from now on every fish caught was an added bonus to my season's tally.
After a quick photo, the trout was soon back in the water and I was back into working my way up what was left of this long stretch of medium flowing water. Five minutes on and I was onto another nice brown. The idea of staying with the little old Gold Aglia was proving to be a good one after all. The next couple of runs were a little quiet, though I did have a couple of hits and I missed hooking them. It took around fifteen minutes, after having those hits, and I was onto another trout. This one was a smaller fish and was soon in hand.
No sooner had I released that fish and two casts later I had my fifth trout of the session landed. These were all bonus fish now and I was hoping that they would continue to keep on coming. Then there was a lull in the fishing. The trout seemed to have changed from being aggressive, to just nipping at the spinner. It took another thirty minutes before they came on the take again and they were back into taking the Gold Aglia spinner.
Most of them were small to medium size trout, not that it worried me at all. The main thing was that they were back with aggression once more. It wasn't all that long and my fish count was into double figures, with ten on the scoreboard, before it dropped off again not all that far from where I had parked the car.
It was just on 1:30pm when picked up another trout and not long after that I caught another two trout, just before 2:00pm or there about. My day was done, with thirteen trout caught and released, along with one very sore body. It was time to call it a day. With more poor weather forecast over the next few days I was still hoping to get at least one more spin session in before the season closed for three months. The good thing was that my season tally had jumped from 398 trout to 411, which I was pretty happy with. Better still, it was the small tannin waters that really built my catch rate up from what it was mid-season, when I was struggling to hit double figures.
Another good thing that came out of today's spin session was the fact that I caught a lot more trout than I lost, for a change and I didn't have to change the spinner. I reckon the small tannin streams have gone close to giving up half of my total catch for the season. I will know more when I sit down and go through my season's stats on the rivers and streams that I've fished over the past nine months.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rod - ULS 1-3kg trout rods
Okuma LRF Split Grip Spin Rod - 1-3kg
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reel - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reel - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reel - C-10
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament fishing line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament fishing line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Boomerang Tool Company Products