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A Few Trout Come Out To Play
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Currently my trips to the rivers really depend on what the weather is doing as we've had such a wet time over several months. It's certainly been tough finding what river is at a safe wading height. With more rain forecast again later in the day and a low pressure system moving in, I thought I would play it safe and head off to the Dasher River as it’s closer to home than the other rivers I fish.
Once there it was on with the wading gear, then a twenty-minute walk to my entry point. Once there, I started to flick a #00 Mepps Bug inline spinner around at 10:35am. The water was dark tannin colour and a good wading height, all I needed now was to catch a few trout before the weather turned sour.
It only took two casts and retrieves, into a narrow deep run, before I had my first hook up of the session. Sadly, the trout tossed the spinner on its first leap from the river. The Bug was one that I used a week ago and I lost several trout on it, so I decided to replace it with a brand new one to see if I could break the curse. Well, it didn't matter one bit and I hooked and lost another trout in quick time, while casting in the next short stretch of water. When that happened, I knew it wasn't the well-used Bug that was the problem, it was just what happens when trout fishing… some stay hooked when others don't.
Before moving into the next stretch of shallow, fast water, I made another change of lure. This time I went for a gold #00 Mepps Aglia Mouche Rouge, to see if that would change my luck. It did and on the very first cast and retrieve the spinner was taken by a small trout. When I say a small trout, I mean it was a very small trout and close to being my smallest fish of the season so far. Thankfully this little trout was only hooked in the jaw, so it was easy to remove the treble hook and send it on its way. That was the last trout that I saw for close on twenty minutes, until I spotted a lot of caddis moths hovering above the water and went back to the White Miller Bug spinner.
All it took was one cast into the top end of a medium deep stretch of water and no sooner had I started to retrieve the Bug spinner, it was snapped up by a medium size brown trout. A short tussle took place before this fish tired, and I had it in the net. The Bug spinner had done its job.
From here on it was pretty quiet and it wasn't until I had fished well over fifty metres of river that I finally picked up my third trout of the morning. This fish was landed after I had changed to a copper #00 Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire. The reason I had changed to the copper #00 Aglia Mouche Noire was because the cloud was breaking up and the sun was now on the river.
With three trout caught and released in just over an hour it was slow going. Even though I had hooked and lost a couple, I was hoping the river would have given more. Then it all turned around for a while. The following stretch of water was open and running knee deep, with a nice bubble line down the left side of it. My first cast was long, within a couple of feet from the riverbank and on the retrieve a trout had a couple of goes at the spinner without taking it.
The same thing happened on the next cast and retrieve as well. On the third cast the result was much different. This time a trout had two goes at the spinner, the first a soft hit and the second go was aggressive. The fish took the spinner and was well and truly hooked. It then made several runs and leaps from the river, at one stage heading for some reeds close to the riverbank. It never reached them though, but it did make it into my net.
With four trout now caught, I was feeling much happier and I wanting more before I called it a day. It wasn't all that long, in fact it was only eight minutes later that I picked up another trout, a medium size fish that took the spinner just as it hit the water. The change from the Bug to the copper Aglia Mouche Noire, when the sun hit the water, turned out to be a good one for now.
I was now within fifty metres of where I had parked the car and I decided that once I reached there, I would call it a day. All I wanted was a few more trout to end the season on a good note. After the release of the fifth trout, I moved into a narrow, rocky, and picturesque stretch of water, that had moss covered boulders in the middle of it. To the left of them was a nice little flat water, that was well shaded and that's where my next cast went. Two turns of the reel handle and a small trout took the spinner. It tossed and turned, trying to lose the lure. It didn't and I soon had it in the net. The following fifteen minutes there wasn't a sign of a trout, until I reached a wide and shallow run, on a bend in the river, where I finally had a hit from a small trout.
The last time that I fished here this same stretch of water gave up a nice medium size trout, however today it gave up nothing. What did happen was that I had five hits and misses from small/medium size trout, with not one of them managing to take the spinner. My day was done here. As I neared the riverbank where the car was parked, I had a few casts into a deep pool under the road bridge.
The third cast was right up and under the bridge and on the retrieve, I let the spinner drop into a deep wash out, then lifted the rod tip, while at the same time twitching the rod. That was enough to see a trout come out of nowhere and take the spinner hard and fast. It was fish on! This fish was a well-conditioned brown, that did all it could to make a break for freedom. I reckon it must have made five leaps from the river before it tossed in the towel, and I slipped the net under it. Now, my day was done. With seven trout caught and released in two hours, it was a much better result than I had anticipated that's for sure.
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
Mepps Bug Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire