Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Double Figure Session
Double Figure Session
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Beautiful, warm (17 degree) conditions saw me heading off for another spin session in a small stream this afternoon. This trip was one to a stretch of water that I hadn't fished since the 12th August, so with the warmer temps I felt it was time to give it another go. The last trip to this area only gave up two small browns, so today I was looking for a big improvement with the fishing.
I had a twenty minute walk to where I started the spin session off and I found the water was still running at a nice wading height. The water temp was sitting on six degrees, a rise of three degrees which was good. Three degrees doesn't sound a lot, however it is when chasing trout.
I went with the Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo Micropigments (Rainbow Silver) inline spinner for starters, because it's the lure that's being doing well in the cold tannin waters. If it didn't fire the trout up today, then I would make a change. There wasn't a sign of a trout in the first small run of water, it was the second and much larger run that gave up two small browns in two casts.
Both trout were taken with casts to the top end of the pool, with both trout taking the Aglia Fluo in quick time. It was just the start every trout fisho likes to have, it doesn't get any better than that. I just hoped that it would continue as the session went on.
The following run was a little shorter and deeper than the previous water fished and here I had two hits and misses from a small brown. A little further upstream and when fishing a wide shallow stretch of water, one that I thought had a nice trout holding zone on the deeper left hand side, it didn't give up anything.
It took just on thirty minutes before I picked up my third little brown and then next cast I had another trout follow the spinner for some distance before it took it. My catch had moved to four trout now, which felt better because I was thinking my luck had run out.
It went quiet again for another thirty minutes until I had to get out of the water and bypass a deep pool and re-enter the water a little further up. I wasn't all that keen on the dead wooded area that I had to make my way through either. It's now that time to be on the lookout for snakes. It doesn't have to be hot at all to have them out sunning themselves.
Once back in the stream I felt more at ease and continued slowly fishing my way upstream. It wasn't until I came to a nice wide, knee deep stretch of water that I had a light hit and miss on the first cast into it. Two casts later and I was onto a small/medium size brown, that was a nice well-conditioned fish.
A few casts later, directly to the top end of that stretch of water and I had another trout take the Aglia Fluo spinner. Number six was landed. I couldn't believe that I was catching them in twos at this stage, not that I minded. It was better catching them in pairs every half an hour than none at all. From then on it slowed down, with just the odd trout being caught in various small stretches of water. My catch was now nine trout caught and released.
The good thing was that I hadn't needed to change lures, just rub the little sharpening stone on the treble hooks every so often to keep them sharp. I was probably thirty metres or so from the car and about to call it a day when I thought I would just finish the spin session by fishing one other short piece of water, before hopping out.
It was one of my better decisions too because I picked up two more trout in four casts, taking the tally to eleven trout in the end. It was my first double figure spin session for the 2019/20 trout season and one that was long overdue. I was stoked that I had made the decision to flick the spinner into that short piece of water, as had I not the score would have been another disappointing single figure ending.
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 6' 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Mepps Inline Spinners
Platypus Super 100 monofilament lines