Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Dark Tannin Browns 13-8-18

Dark Tannin Browns 13-8-18

Dark tannin water gives up a few small brown trout.

I went and checked out a small stream late this afternoon only to find it running high and fast, like many other rivers and streams I've checked out since the trout season opened. I wasn't sure if it was worthwhile getting the wading gear on to give it a go or not...

After standing there for at least ten minutes looking at the stream in two minds, should I or shouldn't I give it a go, I finally decided to get the wading gear on. A twenty minute walk though, down through some paddocks and thick bush, and I was in the river just on 2:15 PM.

It was running reasonably fast and a very dark tannin colour so the choice of lure was quite easy, it was on with a Mepps #0 Aglia Tiger Fluoro. The water temp was a cold 6 degrees, which was two degrees cooler than the air temperature at this time of the day. Not only that, the wind was gusting up to 35 KPH. Casting in any small stream in these windy conditions won't be easy as accuracy is a must. The good thing is that both sides of this little tannin stream feature some very dense cover which gave me shelter from most of the wind.

The first couple of runs were quiet, with no sign of trout and it wasn't until I flicked the Aglia to the top end of the small third stretch of water that I had my first trout take the lure. It wasn't a large fish, just a small skinny wild brown trout that was around 200 grams. Even though it was a little brown it still fought hard all the way to the net, like all river trout do whether they're small or large.

I wasn't sure if I'd even catch a trout, given that the water was so cold, dark and running hard and fast like it was. The following run of water gave up another two aggressive little brown trout, that weren't much bigger than the first one I caught. Still, it's good to see a few trout in this little stream as it has been through some tough times with low water levels during the past few Summers, when a lot of trout died in it.

A little further up I picked up another small brown trout and that was it for at least another two hundred metres of fishing my way upstream. The water depth had varied quite a lot so far, from knee deep up to a few inches below the top of my waders, when I had to tip toe through a deep six metre long pool. I knew it was safe to do this here as I've been through this pool before and it has a nice easy going river bottom.

Once I had reached the top end of the pool it shallowed out to knee deep water again. It was here that I caught another two small browns in pretty quick time. As I kept working my way upstream I noticed some heavy storm clouds building up in the West, so I thought I had best get a move on.

I hurried through the next twenty minutes of fishing and managed to catch and release another couple of little browns before getting out and heading off back to the car at 4:10 PM. In all it wasn't a bad spin session, with eight small browns being caught, just a pity they weren't a little bigger in size. I'm sure once this weather settles down there will be some larger fish to be had here, just like there was last season.

Cheers,
Adrian (meppstas)