Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » A Great Start to 2022

A Great Start to 2022

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

With a 29-degree day forecast and wanting to get a New Year's Day spin session in, I was up early and on my way to the Meander River by 4:20am. I knew exactly where I was going to fish on this trip and once there, I had a fifteen-minute walk to my entry point. I was in the river by 5:45am. The conditions were perfect; cool and calm weather and not a breath of wind to be had. The river was still running at 68cm, which was ideal for the area that I fished.

I started off fishing a long, wide, medium flowing stretch of water, using a #0 Mepps March Brown coloured Bug spinner during the first ten minutes, without a single touch from a trout. It wasn't until I reached the fast-flowing water and changed to a #0 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigment brown spinner that I hooked and lost three trout in a row.

Not all that long after the loss of the third trout, I finally hooked and landed the trout number one for the spin session at 6:10am. This was a nice, medium-size fish to start off with too. The following two short, narrow, fast water runs didn't do all that much, with just one small trout hooked and lost in the second run.

From there, I moved into a long, wide, knee-deep stretch of river and it was here that the fishing picked up, with several small brown trout caught in quick time. Between 6:35am and 7:10am, I hooked and landed four trout from six hook ups. They were all small fish and very aggressive with their attack on the spinner.

As I neared the top end of the wide stretch of water, the water was much deeper, and the flow was a lot faster. It was perfect for casting and drifting the Mepps Aglia spinner. It was on the third cast and drift that I noticed a nice size trout following the spinner as it drifted with the flow. A light twitch of the rod tip, to make the spinner blade flutter, was all that it took to entice the trout to take it.

This was a beautiful, solid brown trout, that made several runs and held itself side on in the strong flowing water. Finally, it tired and broke the surface. That's when I was able to lead it into the landing net. No sooner was it in the net, out popped the Aglia Brown spinner. After a couple of photos, then weighing the fish while it was in the net, the brown weighed 585 grams after deducting the net weight.

From here on the river was a mix of medium/fast flowing water, with most of it being knee deep, much like the other stretches of river that I had fished. This was also the perfect water for casting and drifting the Mepps inline spinners. After hooking and losing a couple more trout, I was stuck on seven caught and seven lost. Not something I was all that happy with.

From here on the fishing picked up and I caught three nice browns from four hook ups, with the last trout being the tenth fish of the day and the biggest fish as well. This trout weighed 605 grams and like the last large trout, it also tossed the lure once it was in the net. Two hours since I hopped in the river and I'd caught ten trout from seventeen hook ups, as well as having several hits and misses.

As much as I dislike hooking and losing fish, I was quite happy now that I was in front with the number of trout being landed. From here on the fishing was even better, with more trout being caught than lost. The casting and drifting technique was really doing the job on the trout. What helped was the fact the trout were in a very aggressive mood today, something that's been lacking at times throughout the trout season.

As I continued to fish my way upstream, I did use a couple of different Mepps spinners, those being an Aglia Mouche Noire, which caught a nice trout, and I also gave the March Brown Bug another spin. That too caught a few more trout. By nine-thirty I was out of the shaded area on the river and fishing in full sun. It was much hotter now, being in open water. The fishing became a little tougher too. The trout were still hitting the lure but missing the hooks.

To date I had caught and released nineteen trout and hooked and lost fourteen others. All I wanted to do was catch trout number twenty. Finally, after hooking and losing another three trout, I hooked and landed the twentieth trout of the day. It was time to call it a day. It was 10:30am when I hopped out of the river and started to make the long walk back to the car.

On the way I came across a small irrigation creek, that I just had to flick the Bug spinner into. It only took one cast and retrieve with the March Brown coloured Bug spinner, and it was fish on! A small brown took the lure in no time at all. I would have liked to fish a little more of that water, However I was hot and tired, plus I had a twenty-to-thirty-minute walk back to the car. That's where I headed. Catching that last trout was a good result and it took me to twenty-one trout for the day, making it the best total number of trout caught in a day for the season. My previous best being twenty trout, back on the November 29.

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