Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » A Twenty Trout Spin Session

A Twenty Trout Spin Session

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

I wasn't sure whether I should head to the Meander River this afternoon, given that there was hardly a cloud in the sky and the river would be in full sun. Seeing as I was going to fish the fast water, I decided to take a punt and give it a go. I knew the river was still running at 65cm, so the height was still fine for wading. With the sun being fully on the water, majority of the trout would be in the shaded areas on the river.

The fast water that I was heading to has a lot of foliage and tall trees along both sides, so there would be plenty of areas that should be holding trout. It was 2:10pm when I entered the river, in fine, warm conditions. The river was running clear too and the river bottom was still the same, with hardly any slime on the rocks.

The lure that I started the spin session with was a #0 March Brown coloured Mepps Bug spinner, reason being that the sun on the clear water. Anything brighter I doubted would work on the trout in these conditions. My first two casts and retrieves were to the opposite side of the river, which didn't attract the trout.

The third cast was straight up the left side of the river and that resulted in a small trout taking the spinner. On the next few casts and retrieves, into open sunny filled water, all I could manage was a couple of follows from medium size browns. Those trout that were in the sun-filled water were non-aggressive fish. I would just have to concentrate more on the shaded waters on both sides of the river from here on.

I also noticed a few black spinners, hovering above the water, which made for a change to the #0 Stone Fly coloured Bug spinner. From here on that's what I did, as I fished my way upstream, I continued to work the shaded waters along both sides of the river. Doing that worked a treat and I started to catch both small and medium size trout in most of the shaded areas.

I hooked and lost quite a few as well, but the numbers were adding up at a steady rate, which was good. It didn't seem to take all that long before I had reached the double figure mark, which was only my third one for this season. The trout continued to take the Stone Fly Mepps Bug spinner as I fished my way up the river. The shaded flat waters, close to the riverbank, were real hot spots for trout.

A few more trout were picked off from flat water behind large boulders in the middle of the river as well. I know I was relieved when I passed the thirteenth trout too! It wasn't long after that I had reached my sixteenth trout. My seventeenth trout was the best trout by far. It was a beautiful well-conditioned brown, that tipped the digital scales at 510 grams. After its release, I hooked and lost the next two trout, before catching a small brown and taking my catch to eighteen fish for three hours in the river.

My body was also feeling it now and I was getting sore, so I sat on a rock in the middle of the river and had a five-minute rest. There was more shade from the large trees on the river now, as the sun was lower and more to the west. Once rested I was back into chasing the trout. After hooking and losing another nice brown I reached number nineteen. One more trout was all that I wanted now and then I would call it a day.

Well, catching that trout took much longer than I thought it would. I lost a small brown in quick time and then hooked another solid trout that I thought was well hooked and deserved to be trout number twenty. It turns out it wasn't to be and after a good tussle it made one massive leap from the river and tossed the spinner. Just when I thought I had it in the bag, it did the dirty on me.

I was ready to call it a day, then I had one more cast into a small pocket of water, close to the riverbank where I was about to get out of the river. It was in that little piece of flat water that a small brown took the Bug spinner. The fish did all that it could to toss the spinner, darting every which way. It stayed on and finally, at 5:33pm, I had my trout number twenty. Now, my day was done. The last time that I reached the twenty fish mark in a river was back on January 10, 2020, when I caught 26 trout and that was in this same stretch of water too.

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 Bug Inline Spinner – March Brown & Stone Fly