Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Clear Water Wild Trout
Clear Water Wild Trout
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Finally, after a week of strong gale force winds, today was perfect. Hardly a breath of wind and clear skies, with a maximum temperature of around 19 degrees. So, today I headed off to the Mersey River for a spin session, seeing as it's been quite some time since I fished one of the larger trout waters.
Going by last season's diary, the area where I was headed to fish fished well at this time of year. Last season I caught and released twelve browns and one rainbow trout as well as hooking and losing fourteen others, another reason to head there.
On my arrival I could see the river was running at a safe wading level and very clear, which meant I would be using the darker coloured spinners today. Seeing as I had a #1 Aglia Furia already on the trout rod, from a previous trip, I started off (8:05am) using it in a deep stretch of medium flowing water. It didn't take long (8:16am) before I had my first strike and hook up on the Furia, at the head water. A nice well-conditioned 410 gram brown to start the session off.
The following long run of medium/fast water was one that normally gives up a fish or two... never gave a yelp, not a sign of a trout in it at all. Once I reached the top end of it I was into the full on fast water and that's when I went for a change of spinner. Seeing as there were a lot of duns hovering above the water, I went for the #0 (2.5gm) Mepps Stone Fly Bug spinner, a black lure that does well on the trout in clear water.
Using the cast and drift method in the first of the fast water drew the attention of a solid brown, that had one go at the Stone Fly Bug but missed the treble hook. As I moved a little further up another brown came at the spinner and took it full on and that fish was well hooked and stayed on long enough for me to ease it into the net.
With two trout caught and released, I was starting to think there may be a few more in the area for the taking on the Stone Fly spinner. I could see there was a nice flow, running through a small side water to the right of me, that I've caught a trout or two in on previous trips, so I headed over to it.
The first cast, up and to the right side of it, I had a hit and miss from a reasonable size brown. A few casts later, straight up the centre, I had a trout take the spinner and this fish was well hooked and stayed on all the way to the net. A little further upstream I hooked and lost two more, before picking up a beautiful 495 gram wild brown, then lost two more before heading back to the main stream.
Once I was back in the fast water and after having several hits and misses, I had another similar size brown take the spinner. This trout (470 grams) also made it into the net after a good tussle. I couldn't help but think that these trout may have been stocked into the river not all that long ago as they were all around the same size, light in colour, with very small red spots on them. To me they weren't like the normal darker coloured Mersey River browns that have stand out red spots on them. These trout were more like hatchery raised trout to me.
Not only that, the small side water has never held that many trout of that size in all the years I've fished it. With the World Fly Fishing Championships starting in a couple of weeks I wondered if there had been some stocking done to lift the catch rate in this area, seeing as Weegena is the main area on the Mersey that they'll be fishing.
With five nice trout caught so far the spin session was rolling along a little better than I had expected, given how clear the water was and the river was in full sun. While I continued working my way up the fast water, casting the Stone Fly spinner close to the opposite river bank and then slowly retrieving it as it drifted with the fast water, I caught another two browns as well as hooking and losing a couple more.
The fast water and small side water had given up seven trout, which I was quite happy with. I was just a little disappointed with hooking and losing so many others. I had come to the end of the fast water, ahead of me was a long stretch of slow/medium flowing water and I knew that it wasn't worth putting too much time into fishing it. I did have a few casts in the tail end of it, where I picked up a small 310 gram brown and hooked and lost two other little ones.
After bypassing the three hundred metre slow flowing stretch of water, I was back into the fast water flicking the Stone Fly spinner around. After having a couple of follows and one light hit and miss, I decided I'd try a small hard body lure that I had sent to me several weeks ago. It was a small 40mm olive coloured one that did fairly well on the trout in the tannin water one day.
After several cast and retrieves without a sign of a trout, I was about to go back to the Stone Fly and then thought I'd have a couple more casts with it. The second cast, back into the same area that I had previously fished, and a solid trout took it. Two minutes later I had my ninth trout of the session in the net.
With three shallow fast water runs ahead of me, I went back to the Stone Fly Bug spinner because the hard body would only bottom bounce and become fouled with algae if used. After having a couple of follows on the Bug spinner and ten minutes later I had a small rainbow trout take the Stone Fly. That little 285 gram rainbow was only the second one that I'd caught this season in this river. They were quite common in the Mersey River but over the past few years they have really dropped in numbers.
From here on all I could manage was a follow from a half interested trout. With the sun right overhead and after 3 1/2 hours of fishing this very rocky river, my day was done. With nine browns and one rainbow trout caught it was great. The only downside was the loss of so many trout. Had the conditions been overcast I feel the end result would have been much better.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - 6'6'' ULS 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20 spinning reel
Mepps inline spinners
Playtpus Super 100 mono line