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Fast Water Trout Fishing
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Fine weather was forecast today, and even better it was going to be cloudy for most of it as well. For reason I decided to head over to the upper Meander River and chase the trout again in the fast waters. The river was still sitting at a nice and safe 65cm high, and it was still nice and clear. I started the spin session off (8:15 am) with the #1 Mepps Aglia Furia, the same lure I used back on the March 16, when I last fished here.
The spin session started off just as good as the last trip here, only taking a few minutes before I hooked and landed my first trout of the morning. This fish was caught in a small flatwater, behind a boulder, five metres directly upstream from where I was standing in the river.
Then, a little further upstream, after lobbing the spinner into a small narrow flat water on the righthand side of the river, I was onto another trout. This fish did all that it could to toss the lure, but it didn't, and I soon had it in the net. It was a beautiful solid brown, that weighed in at 540 grams, which wasn't all that bad either. Two trout caught in less than ten minutes was just the start I was hoping for. The thing is with fast water trout fishing, it doesn't always start or stay like this, and it can change with the blink of an eye.
Even with the river running at 65cm the going wasn't easy. A river that has a bottom covered with rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes can bring one unstuck quite easily, so care still must be taken. The water level also varies depending on where you are in the river, so one moment you may be fishing in water that's below the knees, while a few feet further up the river the water can be just below the waist. Care must be always taken when fishing any fast waters as it only takes one mistake or a rock rolling underfoot and before you know it, you're in the water.
Like the last trip here, I concentrated on fishing the flatwater sections along each side of the river as well as the small flatwater pockets behind the boulders that were spread out across the river. After the release of the second trout, the next forty-five minutes of fishing was reasonably good, with another four small/medium size trout being caught from six hook ups.
I then had a bit of a poor run for 30 minutes, hooking and losing two small browns in a row, before picking up the seventh trout on the Aglia Furia. Once it was in the net, out popped the spinner. So far only one trout had stayed hooked while it was in the net. The rest had all tossed the spinner as soon as they were landed. This is just a part of fast water trout fishing though, as the trout spot the lure as it's drifting fast with the flow and most times they only have the once chance to take it. The majority of times when a trout is caught in the fast waters, they are hooked in the soft part of the mouth or lip and the lure doesn't hold all that well. That's why they toss the lure so fast when they leap from the river. One good head shake is enough to do it.
After the release of the seventh trout, things slowed down. The trout were there however they only followed the Aglia Furia. They had lost interest in it for one reason or another. I gave the Stone Fly coloured Mepps Bug a short workout, however that lure never attracted a trout, so I changed over to a #1 March Brown coloured Bug spinner, a lure that's done well on the trout for most of the trout season so far.
The change was a good one too. Even though I had several trout follow the spinner, it only took a few minutes of casting and drifting the Bug with the flow, before a medium size brown took the spinner. After a short battle with that fish, it was soon in my landing net. Five minutes later I picked up another trout. That fish was only a small brown, but even though it was small it still fought hard. That was my ninth trout of the morning.
Then the wheels fell off. Over the next few stretches of fast water, I hooked and lost four trout. The first two that I hooked and lost were on the March Brown Bug and after losing them I gave a #1 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown spinner a short workout. After hooking and losing a trout on it, I then went back to the #1 Aglia Furia and that lure was taken hard and fast by a medium size trout. It also tossed the lure.
Once that happened, I went back to the #1 Mepps March Brown coloured Bug spinner again and decided that I would continue to use it right up to the end. There would be no more changes, well that was the plan anyway and thankfully it turned out to be the right one too. Fifty minutes after catching the ninth trout of the morning, I picked up another trout. This was a nice, medium size trout too. Once I had it in the net, it did what nearly every trout had done so far, and it tossed the lure. I continued to make my way upstream, mainly working the left hand side of the river because it was the deeper side and perfect for casting and drifting the March Brown Bug. I had also moved into a stretch of water that I hadn't fished for around eight years.
I wasn't all that sure if I should continue to fish up through there, because I was starting to feel a little sore in the lower back. After two and a half hours in the river, and not content with being stuck on nine trout, I continued to fish until I reached the double figure mark. Thankfully, it only took a few minutes to reach the double figure mark, which was much quicker than I was expecting too. Once I reached that mark, I couldn't just pack it in, as there were still a few nice fast water runs ahead of me. I couldn't turn my back on these.
I spent another thirty minutes fishing those fast waters and I'm glad I did. I went on to catch and release four more trout from six hook ups. Now my day was done. Even though there was still plenty of good water ahead, this time I knew that enough was enough. Besides, I had to cross back over the river and climb up a steep riverbank, before taking a twenty minute walk back to the car.
During the walk back to the car, I looked down at the river from the top of the riverbank and it certainly gave me a different perspective of the water that I had fished, that's for sure. The result at the end of the day turned out to be a good one, with fourteen trout caught and released from twenty-three hook ups.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used This Trip:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg Rod
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Bug
Mepps Aglia Furia
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments