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Chasing Number 100 for the Season
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
As the title reads, that's what I set out to do this morning and five trout was all that I needed to reach the trout number 100 of the new trout season. I was hoping to reach it before the end of September but just fell short of doing so. Had I not hooked and lost eight trout two days ago, I would have done it... but it wasn't to be.
So, today I headed off to one of my favourite small tannin streams and when I hit the water the conditions weren't all that good due to the water level being low and in full sun. With only the five trout required to reach the 100 mark, I felt that it wouldn't take all that long to reach it. How wrong was I to think that!
No sooner was I in the shallow, light-coloured tannin water and I had a nice solid trout follow the Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown inline spinner for a short distance, before it lost interest and moved off, not to be seen again. I was quite confident that the Aglia Fluo brown would do the job on the trout, however when that happened, I wasn't all that sure it was the go-to lure for today.
So, I changed over to a #0 March Brown coloured Mepps Bug spinner, another lure that works well on the trout in this stream. As I slowly made my way upstream, I happened to spook a few trout that were in a shaded stretch of very shallow water. So, the trout were here, it was now just a matter of getting them to take the March Brown spinner when I reach some deeper runs.
I decided that I would mainly concentrate on the fast-flowing runs and shaded waters, not bothering to fish the sun filled open water. I came to a well-shaded stretch of water that had two nice flat waters on it, one on each side of the headwater which was even better as it gave me two chances of a trout holding in the area.
The first cast was into the one on the left side of the river, and no sooner had the March Brown hit the water it was taken by a trout. Once hooked, the trout darted downstream and headed into the fast-flowing water, that had a lot of debris in it. Lucky for me that trout was only a small fish, and I was lucky enough to keep it clear of the debris and soon had it in the net. Four trout to go, that shouldn't take all that long, was what I said to myself.
My next cast was into the flatwater on the right side of the stream and the same thing happened, an instant hook up! That trout was a little bigger than the previous one. I was grinning from cheek to cheek now and with only three more trout to catch, I'd reach the trout number 100 in the next ten to fifteen minutes. Any trout after that would be a bonus.
A little further up the stream I had a soft hit and miss, in a shallow fast flowing run, just before I entered a narrow knee-deep stretch of water. This is a stretch of water that has always given up trout. The first cast and retrieve into it and I had a solid hit but missed hooking the fish. The second cast and retrieve was better when a trout took the spinner well.
This trout was a good size fish too and it put up a great fight all the way to the net. Not that this fish had much to beat, so it was certainly the trout of the day so far. After taking a couple of photos of it, I weighed it while it was in the net and after deducting the 310g net weight, that trout weighed in at 445g. This is a nice size fish for such a small stream.
From here on, it all went downhill. A cold north easterly wind arrived and once that happened, I never had another hit from a trout. So, I called it a day. Once I was back at the car and headed off for home, I was feeling pretty disappointed with how the session had gone and I made the decision to try another small stream on the way home.
The closer that I got to where I was heading, I noticed that there were a lot of clouds moving in. This was good to see as it meant that the river would be well shaded by the time I arrived. Once there, I only took a short ten-minute walk to where I hopped into the river and started fishing for trout. I could have gone further downstream; however, I was sure that I would get the two trout required, plus a few more, in the stream that I was about to fish.
This stream was also very low in water level and not only that the river bottom was also covered in a green cotton like algae. The positive side of things was the fact that the north easterly wind had virtually disappeared, and it was also a well-sheltered area that I was familiar with. Before I started fishing, I made a lure change to a small #00 Mepps Aglia with a copper blade. This little copper Aglia has rarely let me down when fishing this small stream.
The little spinner did foul up a few times when I fished a wide and shallow stretch of water, so I moved into a knee-deep run that has rarely let me down. It didn't today either as it only took a couple of casts and retrieves to hook and land a small trout. That left only one more to go, was the first thing that came to mind. Well, thinking that I would hook and land another trout in quick time didn't happen at all.
I hooked and lost two trout, before I did finally manage to hook and land trout number one hundred for the season. Twenty-two minutes on from when the last trout was caught. That's how long it had taken me to reach the target that I set out to reach today. From there on I went on to catch and release three more small brown trout, before I reached the area where I had parked the car. Not everything went to plan today, but thankfully the result turned out for the better. Now it's a matter of how long it will take to catch the trout number 200! All going well, I'm hoping to reach that target before the end of December, body health and weather permitting. Only time will tell.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used Today:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rod – CE-S-662UL-1, 6'6” 2-6lb
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono Premium Nylon Monofilament
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments Inline Spinners
Mepps Aglia Inline Spinners
Mepps Bug Inline Spinners