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High Water Trout Fishing
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
It's been six days since I have been fishing due to poor weather, that included another 37mm of rain. Today the weather wasn't all that bad, so I headed back to the tannin waters. I headed back to the same stretch of water where I had seventeen hits from trout six days ago. I didn't get all that far into the walk when I spotted that the paddock had young bulls in it... something I didn't want at all. Young bulls always seem to give me a hard time for some reason and once they spotted me that's where they headed.
I had no choice but to head into the first opening that I could find in the thick foliage and hop into the water. I then started fishing my way upstream from there. It wasn't where I had intended to start the spin session either. No sooner had I hit the water and the cattle were at the area of foliage where I had entered the river.
So, that's where I started my spin session. The first cast was with a #0 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown inline spinner and I had a follow from a nice brown on the retrieve. That trout didn't show any aggression toward the spinner, so I replaced it with a #00 Mepps White Miller Bug spinner. It was a good choice too. The first cast and retrieve, back into the same area, resulted in an instant hook up. I soon had the first trout of the session in the landing net.
Just ahead of me was a massive logjam that was way too big for me to climb over. Thankfully the cattle had moved away, so I could get out of the stream and go around it. While I was out of the stream I decided to head back towards the car, well out of the way of the cattle, and hop back into the stream.
Once back in the water, I continued working the Mapps Bug spinner in the flat waters on each side of the stream, where I felt the trout would be holding. I was right about the trout holding out in the flat waters too, because I had a few fish follow the Bug and unfortunately that's all they did. Another lure change was made.
This time I went for a small gold #00 Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire, to see if that may turn a trout or two on. The change worked a treat and the first cast, into a narrow flat water to the right of me, was enough for a nice brown to take the spinner as soon as it hit the water. No sooner had it taken the lure, it then headed straight into the fast-flowing water and did all it could to toss the spinner. As it made several leaps from the water, I was more concerned about it tossing the lure than anything else, especially when I could see the spinner blade flopping around each time it jumped.
I eventually had it close enough to ease it into the net. It wasn't as big as I first thought it was either. As it turned out it was only a medium size trout and a well-conditioned one at that. Two trout caught and released in the first fifteen minutes was a pretty good start, however, with the wind picking up and heavy clouds moving in, I wasn't sure how much longer I would be in the water. If the rain arrived, I wouldn’t be hanging around to get drenched that's for sure.
Just ahead of me was another logjam. This one wasn't as big as the previous one and I did manage to ease myself over it. Once over the log jam I had a nice long and narrow stretch of fast flowing water, that had a nice little flat water close to the right side of it. That was the area that I concentrated on fishing. Well, not a lot happened there, just the one hit and miss from a small trout and that was it.
At the top end of this narrow stretch of water was another log jam, this one I couldn't climb over. I had to get out, go around it and then find a way back into the water. As much as I love fishing these small tannin streams, they're never as easy as the larger, more open rivers that I fish. The large rivers I fish never have a logjam across them, instead they have rocky, slippery river bottoms, with a good mix of slow/medium and fast water runs. Much easier to fish than these small tight streams. The good thing with small stream fishing is the fact they're tougher to fish and accuracy is essential, plus one is assured of catching a trout at least 98% of the time. Very rarely do I miss catching a trout in a small stream.
Once I had made my way around the logjam, I soon found a spot where I could scramble down through some debris and get back into the stream. It didn't take all that long before a trout had a go at the gold Aglia Mouche Noire, but missed being hooked. Shortly after that a small trout followed the spinner without taking it, so I went for another change of lure.
This time it was a plain, well-used copper #00 Mepps Aglia spinner that I went for. A little spinner that's done very well on the trout many times in this tannin stream. The first cast into a small flat water, near the lefthand side of the river, saw a small brown dart out and hit the spinner. Like earlier, it missed being hooked.
To the right of me was a very small pocket of flat water, amongst a fallen tree. This was a good spot to hold a trout, however it also required an accurate backhand cast. I had nothing to lose by trying anyway. If I did miss time the cast and snagged the spinner, I could still reach that area and get the lure back. The backhand cast was perfect, the spinner lobbed right where I wanted and as soon as it hit the water, it was snapped up by a nice solid trout.
Like the previous trout it headed straight into the fast-flowing water and played hard to get. Several times it nearly brought me undone by heading towards the fallen tree, but I kept the pressure on and got the trout to head back towards me. Finally, I had it on the surface and in the net. As it turned out, it was the best trout (525 grams) of the spin session so far. Not by a lot, just 10 grams heavier than the first trout I caught.
Once again, I had to hop out and make my way around another logjam, then hop back into the stream. Where I hopped in was where I caught the fourth trout of the session. This fish was caught in a similar looking area to where the last trout was caught, the only difference was that this time it was on the lefthand side of the stream. It was another very snaggy area, that I managed to keep the trout out of and after a good tussle it wasn't long before it was in the net.
A little further up the stream I had a couple of soft hits and misses. The wind had really picked up and ahead of me was a very long, wide, deep stretch of water, that I would have to bypass if I wanted to continue fishing in the stream. I decided not to bypass it. I'll return here on another day, when the water level is lower, and the weather is more settled.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Leader – 4lb
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Aglia
Mepps Bug
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments