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A Twenty One Trout Day
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
After having such a short spin session yesterday, I decided to put in a few hours chasing trout in the tannin waters again today, to see if I could finish up with a better catch rate, by the time I was ready to call it a day. The forecast was for more windy conditions, with a maximum of fifteen degrees, which wasn't all that bad. The wind was my main concern.
Today's afternoon trip required a thirty-five-minute walk to where I wanted to start the spin session, and once there (1:25pm) the water looked good. It was still running a little on the high side, which wasn't going to be a problem, and the water colour was a nice medium tannin colour, much like the water I fished yesterday.
I was using the same trout set up as yesterday, except for the Mepps spinner. Yesterday I finished the day with a copper #00 Mepps Aglia spinner, while today I went for the copper #00 Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire spinner. While I was standing there taking a photo of the stream, I noticed a small circle appear on the surface where a trout had just sipped something off the top. The area where I spotted the circle was on a small flat water, near the opposite river bank and that's where my first cast with the spinner went.
The water there was ideal for casting and drifting the spinner as well, so that's what I did. It only took a few seconds, and the lure was taken by a solid trout. It was a lovely brown that fought hard and made several leaps from the water, before I had it was close enough to slip the net under it. This was just the start I was hoping for, catching a nice solid trout on the first cast. It doesn't get any better than that. After a couple of photos, I weighed it in the net before releasing it, then deducted the total 310gm net weight and the fish went 435g.
The next cast I made was a couple of metres below where my first cast was and as the spinner drifted with the flow, ‘bang’, it was fish on again! This time it was a small brown that had taken the spinner and it also made it into the net. Two trout in two casts really put a smile on my face and the decision to walk the extra kilometre looked like it may have been a good one. From there I moved a few metres upstream and made a long cast directly up the stream. On the retrieve I had a couple of soft hits, but no hook up. Two casts and retrieves later, into that same area and I hooked and landed my third trout of the session. After three trout in ten minutes, I was feeling good. I knew at this point that I was in for a top spin session.
I continued to slowly fish my way upstream, getting the odd soft hit from small trout. Not one of them took the spinner, so I changed over to #00 White Miller coloured Mepps Bug spinner, another good lure that works well in tannin waters. Finally, at 2:00pm, I hooked and landed my fourth trout of the afternoon. That was the only trout that took a liking to the White Miller, so I went back to the copper #00 Aglia Mouche Noire.
It didn't take all that long before I had a couple of solid hits from small trout, however like before both fish missed being hooked. A few minutes later, when I flicked the spinner into a narrow flat water near the righthand side of the stream, it was taken by a lovely trout as soon as it hit the water. I barely had time to turn the reel handle before that trout took the lure. It was a beautiful fish too, that fought all the way to the net. After a few photos I also weighed it while it was in the net. It was only a few grams lighter than the first trout that I had caught at the start of the spin session.
From here on I was catching a trout every five to ten minutes and those fish ranged from small to medium size fish. I also hooked and lost a few on the way as well. As always, I kept a tally of the trout I catch as well as the ones I lose. The good thing was that I was well ahead in the trout caught, compared to those hooked and lost. At 3:45pm I had caught and released sixteen trout of various sizes. The best trout was still the first fish of the day so far, however there were several others that came close to that fish but just fell short.
All I wanted now was to catch one more trout to reach another season target. One more trout would be trout number 150 for the season, keeping me well ahead of last season's tally (114) for this time of the season. It took me quite some time to catch the seventeenth trout. I hooked and lost seven trout in a row! It was dead on 4:19pm when I finally had my trout number 150 in the net and what a relief it was too.
After its release I fished on for another twenty minutes and caught and released four more trout. The fish of the day was the twentieth trout caught, which weighed in at a nice 515g, surpassing the first fish of the session. At the end of the day, it was a ripper of a spin session, catching trout number 150 and finishing the day with twenty one trout caught and released, from thirty one hook ups. This made the session my best spin session so far this season.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used Today:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono Fishing Line – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader – 4lb
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Bug
Mepps Aglia
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire