Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Dark Tannin Water Trout
Dark Tannin Water Trout
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
This week Adrian shares with us a session in the tannin water from March, prior to the closure of the Tassie trout season. Speaking to Adrian recently he is getting the gear sorted and counting down the days in anticipation of a new season commencing.
After arriving home from the hospital this morning, I got into my trout gear and headed over to the tannin waters for another short spin session. It was 10:55am when I hopped into the dark tannin water, that was still flowing strong after having 27mm of rain here a couple of days ago.
I started the session off using the Okuma Celilo Spin 6' Ultra lightweight spin rod and Okuma ITX-1000 spinning reel set up. The combo was spooled up with 4lb Platypus Pulse Mono and at the end of the line was a Mepps #0 Aglia Micropigments brown spinner. Small stream fishing doesn't allow for casting and drifting a spinner, so it's just a matter of casting upstream and retrieving the lure at the same pace, or at times a little faster than the flow, to ensure the spinner blade is rotating.
I normally cast the spinner to one side of the stream on the first cast. That is then followed up with a series of casts, approximately a metre apart, until my last cast is next to the opposite side of the stream. That way I cover every bit of the stream ahead of me and if the trout are there this often results in a hook up.
With the water looking like black coffee I did think about using a White Miller Bug at first, however I decided to give the Aglia spinner first go at catching trout, in a shallow, narrow stretch of water. It was a good decision too, as on the first cast and retrieve I had a soft hit as I retrieved the brown spinner. When the lure was within a metre and a half of me a small trout took the spinner. I had the first trout of the day soon in hand. Catching trout first up is always a good feeling and there's no better way to start a spin session.
After its release I moved into a wider, knee deep stretch of water, that was well covered with heavy foliage. It was a nice safe haven for trout and one that often gives up a trout or two. Like before, it was on the first cast and retrieve that a trout took the spinner hard and fast. This fish was bigger. It was a beautiful, dark tannin coloured trout, that fought hard all the way into the net. After a quick photo, it was back in the water.
With two trout caught and released in the first few minutes, well what can I say, it doesn't get any better than that. I just hoped that it would continue like this as I have had good starts like this before, before it's gone quiet with hardly a sign of a trout from there on. This time it was different and on my next cast back into the same stretch of water, the same thing happened again. It was trout on! I had my third trout in the net in quick time. Three trout now caught and released, in as many casts and retrieves, which was another first for me. Surely this wouldn't continue to happen.
As it turned out… it didn't. After having a few more casts and retrieves, in that small stretch of water, I didn't have any hits or hook ups and so it was onto the next run of tannin water. Before I could fish the next stretch of water I had to get out of the stream and bypass a log jam.
While making my way to the next stretch of water, I was quite happy with how the Aglia Micropigments brown inline spinner was doing on the trout, given how dark the water was. The wide blade of the Mepps Aglia inline spinner was a big help too, with the wide rotating blade doing its job really well attracting fish in these conditions.
The next run of water was more open, still knee deep and around twenty metres in length. There was also a lot of water weeds just under the surface. On the second cast and retrieve I had a soft hit from trout, then the next cast and retrieve it was fish on. A small brown took the spinner and after a short tussle I eased it into the net.
Four trout caught and released in eighteen minutes is as good as it gets. I was on a high and so were my expectations… then it all went quiet. The few trout that did come at the spinner weren't aggressive. I had a few soft hits and one hook up from a small trout, that I lost as quickly as it took the lure.
It was time to try the Mepps White Miller Bug spinner in the dark tannin water, as it is one that normally does well in these conditions. Today it didn't. After ten minutes without a sign of a trout, I replaced it with a #0 Mepps Aglia Micropigment rainbow spinner. Fifty minutes had passed by without trout being caught, but thankfully the Aglia rainbow broke the drought.
While fishing the same stretch of water that I had with the Bug, I caught my fifth trout on the second cast and retrieve. I was quite surprised that the ever-reliable White Miller didn't catch one, but that's trout fishing for you. Trout can be very fussy at times, and it seemed that today was one of them. Ten minutes on I picked up my sixth trout of the day. After its release I fished on for a short time and had a couple of trout follow the spinner, however that's as far as it went with them.
As much as I would have liked to have kept on fishing my way up the stream, I felt it wasn't worth it. My day was done. Once the river drops a little more and the water becomes a lighter tannin colour, I'm sure that my catch rate will be much better here.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rod ULS 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma ITX Spin Reel – ITX-1000 spinning reel
Platypus Pulse Mono Line – 4lb
Mepps Aglia Micropigments inline spinner
Mepps Bug inline spinner