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Big River, Small Trout
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
On checking the river level at Kimberley this morning, I saw it was still sitting on 75cm, which was still a little higher than I preferred, but I was tired of waiting for it to drop to a better and safer wading height. I decided to head off and check it out. I've been wanting to fish this area since September as it's the best time to fish it. It's the time of the season when some solid rainbow trout and browns can be caught in the river. The excess rainfall, that we've had since the start of the trout season, has really messed up trout fishing in this area, as did the flood that we had early on in the season.
Once I arrived at the river, I could see it was still a little high for my liking, however it was still safe enough to be able to cross over and make the twenty-minute walk downstream to where I wanted to start my spin session. It was 1:05pm by the time I arrived at my entry point and found the river was running nice and fast, which was perfect for casting and drifting a Mepps inline spinner. The first cast and retrieve that I made with the #1 March Brown coloured Bug spinner did draw the attention of a medium size brown and that's as far as it went.
After crossing a knee deep run of water, to reach another area on the river, I went for a change of lure to fish it. The lure that I went to is the #1 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigment brown spinner, a lure that has done a good job on the trout here on previous trips. The choice was a good one too and I managed to catch a small rainbow trout on the first cast and retrieve. This was followed up on the next cast with a small/medium sized brown trout being caught. Even though the trout were only small to medium size fish, it was a great start to the afternoon spin session. Two minutes later, while fishing the same stretch of water, I picked up my third trout of the afternoon, another small brown... which was a little disappointing.
From there I moved into a deeper, fast-flowing stretch of water. This was one that was perfect for long casting and drifting the spinner with the flow. As it turned out that beautiful, and one of my favourite stretches of water, turned out to be a real fizzer today. All I managed was one solitary hit and miss from a trout.
The bottom end of that run was another nice fast water run. One that is also a good cast and drift water. This time I did manage to catch a medium size brown in it, before heading back upstream to fish another good long run of fast and medium flowing water. The lower run was deep, medium-flowing water and the further up the river you go it shallows off to a fast-flowing run that usually gives up some nice trout. Well, today it didn't. The deep run gave up a small/medium size brown, whereas the faster flowing water gave up a small rainbow and small brown.
With a mix of small to medium size trout being caught and released, I felt that I was wasting my time here today, so I crossed the river and started to make my way back to the car. On the walk back to the car I thought it was worthwhile fishing a small section of a little stream that flowed into the river. It turned out to be a good decision and I caught and released two brown trout. The first trout being the best fish of the afternoon. Not a big fish, just a nice plump 320g brown trout.
So, my short afternoon spin session ended with seven browns and two small rainbows being caught and released, which wasn't all that bad in the end. Yes, it was pretty disappointing that the majority of the trout caught were small fish today. Later in the season (mid-February onwards), once the water level drops in this area, I know I will get onto some bigger trout here. The fifth trout caught today was also trout number 300 of the season and the main reason I went fishing today.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During My Trout Season
TT Red Belly Spin Rods - RBS702L 7’ 1-3kg 2pce
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods – 6’6” 1-3kg 2pce
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reels – CHD-1000HA
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono
Platypus Super 100 Mono
Platypus Pre-Test Mono
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners