Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Back to the Tannin
Back to the Tannin
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
With the Mersey and Meander Rivers not fishing all that well it was a trip back to the tannin waters today, mainly because I know they have been fishing well in certain sections on them. The weather conditions were quite good, even though there was plenty of sun around and I knew there would be a lot of shaded areas on the water.
I was in the water by 2:15pm and noticed it had dropped close on three inches or so since my last trip. It's getting to that time of year now, when we don't get the spring rains like we used to, that kept these little stream topped up. It's a real problem for these small streams and more so for the fish that are in them. Without the backup rain to get them through the dry periods these small streams drop to a mere trickle and that's when the trout gather in what pools are left. With so many fish in what pools are left, plus the water temperature rising to around 25 degrees, the trout suffocate in them. Each year seems to be getting that little bit worse as the much needed rain never arrives.
In another month I doubt I'll be fishing these little tannin streams as they get too low to fish and unless we get 30mm or more rain I won't be going near them. Anyway back to the fishing. The lure of choice for this trip was the Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo Micropigments in Brown/Gold (brown trout colour) blade spinner because it's been one of the lures that's done very well in the tannin waters.
The first stretch of water that I fished was empty of trout. It was in the next stretch that I had a follow from a small brown. Seeing that fish to me was a sign that there may be a few around again today and I'd be quite happy if I can catch and release at least half a dozen today.
I was ten minutes into the spin session when I had my first brown take the spinner and it was a very aggressive strike. It was a small (300gm) brown that put up a good battle for its size, as do most of the fish in these small streams/rivers. Ten minutes later I picked up my second trout in a very shallow fast water run. It was a real little tiddler of a fish.
A little further up the stream and I was onto trout number three and this was the best fish (340gms) taken so far and it was just on ten minutes later than the last one that I had caught. The trout were coming in every ten minutes at this stage of the session and I was thinking, wouldn't it would be great if the fishing continued like this for the rest of the afternoon. I actually spotted the last trout caught, surface feeding near some debris to the left of me, so I flicked the spinner a couple of metres ahead of it and then retrieved the lure back down to where it was feeding. That did the job and it didn't hesitate to take the spinner.
With three trout already caught and released, I was feeling quite positive that I was in for another double-figure session and the confidence was running high. Well, after the release of that brown it took another forty five minutes before I hooked and landed my fourth trout. I did have a few hit and misses before that but the aggression had gone out of trout for one reason or another.
Then it went back to catching the trout at ten minute intervals, where I picked up another three trout. I had jumped from four trout to seven fish caught and released by this point. The seventh trout was the best fish of the day so far, a solid 480 gram, well-conditioned brown, that was picked up from a very small pocket of water.
The double figure catch was looking good once again, however that's where it ended. From here on it went dead, apart from having four hooked and lost fish plus a few hit and misses. I never caught another trout. So after the release of that seventh trout I had fished on for another hour without a fish being landed and my day was done.
I called it a day at 4:45pm. In all it wasn't what I'd call a top day chasing trout, though in saying that it wasn't a bad day either. It was just one of those up and down trout fishing days that come around every so often and that's just the way it goes when chasing trout.
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 6' 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma Helios Spin Reels - HSX-20 spinning reel
Mepps lures inline spinners
Platypus Super 100 mono lines.
Adrian (meppstas)