Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Late Arvo Bug Session
Late Arvo Bug Session
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Being a Monday, I wasn't all that keen on heading to the rivers as they would have had a lot of weekend fishing traffic on them, however later in the afternoon I had a change of mind. The day was too nice to be sitting around twiddling my thumbs, so I headed over to the Meander River for a late afternoon spin session. This time I was stayed clear of the fast water runs, deciding to fish another of my regular stretches of river that has a mix of fast and medium flowing water. Even though the area hadn't fished all that well this season, it's always worth a shot. Who knows, today could be a day that the trout are out and about.
Seeing as it was a day with not a cloud in the sky, most the river would be in full sun, so being a late start the first place that I headed to was one where I knew one side of the river would be shaded. I was in the river by 2:45pm and the first small stretch of water was a deep one and in full sun. I had a couple of follows on the #1 Stone Fly coloured Mepps Bug spinner, from a half interested medium size brown.
From there I moved into a long, wide, waist deep stretch of slow/medium flowing clear water. The very first cast to the left side of the river resulted in a follow from another brown, however like before it wasn't all that interested in the lure either. Making matters worse was the amount of green algae that was covering the rocky river bottom, making it like an ice skating rink... not what one needs in waist deep water. It was a case of taking one step at a time and making sure I had a decent foot hold before taking another, as I slowly fished my way upstream. By the time I had covered the whole length of the slow/medium water, I'd had enough of slipping and sliding on the river bottom. I had tried a variety of Mepps lures here without seeing a trout, so it was time to head to another stretch of river, one that's much easier on my body.
I didn't travel all that far, just a kilometre further upstream to another of my regular haunts on the river, one that always gives up a few trout. This long stretch of river has a good mix of medium to fast runs along it, plus it will still have some shaded areas along the right hand side. Once I arrived, I was soon in the river and even here the bottom was well covered in green algae. The bottom itself isn't as rocky as the area I had already fished and it's much easier going due to the river bottom not being covered in large rocks. Anyway, I slowly fished my way upstream, concentrating the fishing to the right hand side of the river as it's the deeper side and the best side to cast and drift the Stone Fly Bug spinner. Not only that, it's also the side where the trout should be holding out.
The first thirty minutes fishing the medium flowing water was pretty quiet, with just the one follow. It wasn't until I moved into the faster runs that I picked up the first trout (at 4.50pm) of the afternoon. At last I had the first fish of the day in the net. Not a big fish by any means, just a solid well-conditioned brown, that went 325 grams.
Fifteen metres further up I picked up another brown, from close to the river bank in a bubble line, and a few minutes after that I was onto another very small brown trout. This trout was the smallest trout that I've caught for at least two trout seasons or more. Thankfully I was fishing on my own and no one else was with me to rub it in 😉.
After that it was slow going, with hardly a trout to be seen, until I picked up two more small browns on the Stone Fly Mepps Bug spinner. It was time to call it a day at 6:05pm. Each and every trout caught this trip were all in fast flowing water, close to the river banks, which shows that the fast water in the Meander is the only areas to fish for now... well for me they will be when I venture back to this river.
Adrian (meppstas)