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A Successful Plan B

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

Cool overcast conditions this morning had me heading off to fish the fast waters of the Meander River, however halfway there I started getting back pain and so decided to turn around and head to the Mersey River at Weegena. The reason I did that was because the longer drive to Meander wasn't worthwhile if I couldn't fish the fast water with the back pain. It just wasn't worth the risk. Not that the Mersey River at Weegena is all that easy, with its slippery rocky river bottom, however it is much better on the body than the fast waters of the Meander River.

I was in the river by 7:15am and the conditions were perfect. The water was like glass and there was just the odd trout surface feeding at this stage. While there was only a few trout surface feeding it meant that I may have a chance of catching a few before they all started taking insects from the surface as the air warmed up and more insects were out and about.

I thought I'd start off with a Mepps #0 Stone Fly coloured Bug spinner, seeing as it worked on the trout on my last trip here. The water weed in the river was the thickest I've ever seen it here, covering at least two thirds of the river. The first medium/fast water that I fished, that usually gives up a trout, didn't give up anything... not even a follow from one.

It wasn't until I moved into a deeper, slow stretch of water, on the right hand side of the river, that I hooked a nice rainbow trout. This fish made several runs and leaps from the river, then tossed the spinner. I would have liked to have fished further up this narrow stretch of water, however the further I moved upstream the deeper it became.

To my left was a massive spread of water weeds that I couldn't get through, so I had to go back to where I could cross to the left side of the river, which was much shallower and safer to wade. The water depth along this side of the river varied from knee deep to waist deep, which is more to my liking, plus it generally holds plenty of trout as well.

The first thing that I noticed, once I had reached that side of the river, was the trout surface feeding. They were everywhere! The water was like glass and there were circles appearing on the surface everywhere as the trout were sipping insects from it. As soon as I saw that I knew I was in for another tough spin session here, just like the last trip. I had several cast and retrieves with the Stone Fly spinner and all I managed was the odd follow from a trout. The fish were not on today.

After trying a March Brown, White Miller and a couple other Mepps spinners, with the same result, I finally went with the old #00 Gold Mepps Aglia as the last resort. On the second cast and retrieve a brown took it. It was fish on at last! It had taken an hour to catch the first trout.

From here on it was pretty quiet. Still the trout were surface feeding everywhere that I looked and it was frustrating to see so many fish gulping insects from the surface, while ignoring my lures. The faster flowing water further upstream was my only chance of having a successful day on the trout. The first fast water that I fished was one that gave up a rainbow and a brown trout on my last trip here, while today it didn't give a yelp. Not a sign of a fish in it, which was disappointing.

Ahead of me then was a long, wide stretch of medium flowing water that had plenty of water weeds in it. I bypassed the first one hundred and fifty metres of it because of the weed. Once past most of it I could then fish a nice deep stretch of water that ran close to the opposite river bank. It was here that I went back to the Mepps #0 Stone Fly Bug spinner. No sooner had the spinner hit the water and a beautiful rainbow took it.

The battle with this fish didn't last all that long and after a couple of solid leaps and several runs up and down, it tossed the lure. I did the wrong thing again, like I've done before several times, I messed around getting the camera out to video the fish instead of bringing it to the net like I should have done. A few mores cast and retrieves in this same piece of water drew the attention of a nice brown and that's as far as it went.

It was time to try a small unbranded hard body in the deeper water, so I went for a 50mm floating silver/olive coloured one. A cast up and across the river and a slow twitching retrieve was all it took to get a hook up in quick time. This was a solid fish, it pulled hard and stayed deep. I wasn't sure if it was a brown or rainbow trout for a minute, until it broke the surface. It was a nice well-conditioned (390g) rainbow that played hard to get for a while, before it tired and I had it in the net.

My second trout of the morning was landed, seventy-five minutes after the first one had been caught. With fifty metres or so of deep water left, before I reached the shallow fast waters, I decided to stay with the small hard body until I reached the fast waters. It wasn't until I was close to the fast waters, twenty minutes later, that I hooked a solid brown trout. This was the fish of the day so far. It was like the rainbow, staying deep and pulling hard, making several runs every which way. Thankfully it tired and was soon in the net. It wasn't as large as I had thought either, however it was still a beautifully coloured, well-conditioned fish that went 545 grams. The fish was released for another day, as are all of my fish.

Once in the fast water a change of lure was had and this time it was a Mepps #0 Stone Fly coloured Bug spinner that went on the line. Shallow, fast water that was now full of water weeds wasn't what I was expecting up here. This was the first time that I've come across it this far up the river here, which is normally clear of weeds.

What I did was to stick to the right hand side of the river and fish the shallow, narrow and rocky areas that had water flowing through them. There were a few nice looking runs, with a bubble line that I felt could be holding trout. Three casts and retrieves was all it took in the first run and I watched a nice brown race up behind the Bug spinner, before grabbing hold of it. I really love it when my instinct of where a trout should be falls into place. This trout, like the others caught and released so far, was in top condition and a reasonable size fish too.

There was another narrow, shallow run just ahead of the one that I had just caught that trout in. This one was much narrower too and it looked good for holding trout as well. This time it only took the first cast and retrieve and a brown snapped up the spinner in one fast run at it. The fish made quite a few leaps and short runs, before I had it in the net. Two nice plump trout caught, five minutes apart, was more like it and there was still plenty of water ahead of me to fish. My only problem now was that the sun was overhead and the river was in full sun, which is not ideal for shallow water fishing.

Looking back downstream I could see that the trout had stopped surface feeding in the slow flowing, glassy water and it looked like they had shut down for now. A light north easterly breeze had arrived, which was another reason that they may have gone deep. A little further upstream I picked up a brown from a small pocket of flat water, close to the river bank. After that I had a few follows. It looked like the trout in the shallow water were shutting down and it was time to move into some deeper water again.

I went back to the small hard body lure and forty minutes on I caught a medium size rainbow in a fast water run. From here on it was pretty quiet, until I reached a very deep stretch of water and it was here that I hooked a large brown and after a brief battle it spat the lure. That was the last strike I had from a trout, calling it a day at 12:05pm.

My day was done and all I had was a long, thirty minute bushwalk back to the car. I was a little disappointed again today with the lack of trout caught and released, however I was also satisfied in catching and releasing seven trout all up from eleven hook ups.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment used on various trout trips:

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