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Late Season Browns and Rainbows
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
With the weather again being mild and overcast, with very little wind to worry about, I headed back to the lower Mersey River to see if I could catch a few more trout, fishing the same stretch of water that I fished a few days ago. That day I only managed to catch three trout, with one of them being my best trout of the season. Today I planned to fish that area, as well as the waters above it that I didn't get to fish three days ago. Those waters are normally good for holding both brown and rainbow trout.
The one mistake that I did make was to start off (8:55am) fishing the same stretch of slow, waist deep water, that I never saw a fish in last time. It wasn't any different today either. After wasting forty minutes fishing the slow water, I was finally in the faster flowing waters, and it was there that I caught and released the first trout of the day (9:45am) on a #0 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigment brown spinner.
The trout itself wasn't a big one, just a small/medium size brown that was lured from a small flat water next to the reeded riverbank. While fishing the shallow fast waters I had a couple more hits from trout but missed hooking up with them. From there I moved into another slow flowing stretch of water. Still using the #0 Aglia Fluo brown inline spinner, I had a couple of trout follow, before they moved off.
When that happened, I went for a lure change. I felt that with the water being very clear and slow flowing, the Mepps March Brown coloured Bug spinner would be a better option to use on the trout here. After having several casts and retrieves, into the righthand side that was the tree lined side of the river, I had one trout hit the lure, however it missed taking the treble hook.
It wasn't until I cast the spinner directly upstream and retrieved it back that a trout came out of nowhere and took the Bug. Trout number two was soon eased into the net. That trout was a little bigger than the first one and this fish was into what I call the medium range. It was in very good condition as well. From there on all that happened was seeing the odd trout come up behind the lure, take one look at it and then move off, not to be seen again. I knew I could have gone to a hard body lure here but decided not to, as it was best to get out of the river and head to the fast-flowing waters further upstream.
Once in the river I had quite a few casts with the March Brown Bug spinner without seeing any trout. With the water here being much deeper I changed lures, this time it was a small rainbow hard body lure that went on. It didn't take long before I had my first hook up and a nice solid rainbow had taken it. This fish stayed deep, pulled hard and that's when I knew it was a rainbow trout. No sooner did it leap from the river and out popped the lure. The fish was gone.
The next cast was up and across the river and this time I allowed the lure to sink a little deeper as I slowly retrieved it. Several turns of the reel later and another rainbow took the lure. This one played hard to get as well, however the good thing was that it didn't toss the lure. This fish made it into the landing net. It showed no signs of damage from the treble hooks and was released back into the river no worse for the battle that it had with me. The very next cast and retrieve it was fish on again. Another rainbow trout had smashed the hard body lure. This fish was only hooked for a few seconds, before it parted ways with the lure.
Losing that trout was enough for me to go for a change of lure and this time I went for the heavier Mepps #1 Aglia Fluo Micropigment brown inline spinner. It was the best choice I could have made too as from here on I caught a mix of brown and rainbow trout, with one rainbow trout being the heaviest fish of the spin session. This fish went 565 grams and was in excellent condition. After the change from the hard body to the #1 Mepps Aglia Fluo brown spinner, I went on to catch six browns and four rainbows, which exceeded my expectations for today.
Sadly, a brown and a rainbow trout could not be released, due to gill damage caused by the lure being swallowed by the fish itself. Once they take a lure deep into their mouth, whether it be a single or treble hook, nine times out of then they will suffer gill damage as they thrash around trying to toss the lure. Thankfully, out of the 497 trout that I have caught throughout the season only four in total have been kept due to gill damage. Every other fish has been released back into the rivers and streams.
Today was one of my better days spent in the Mersey River, with thirteen trout caught and it was good to see a few decent size rainbow trout in the lower reaches of the river as well. I will more than likely return to this same stretch of water one more time before the season draws to a close on May 1, 2022.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During My Trout Season:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma LRF Spin Rods – 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Pulse Mono Premium Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Pre-test Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Mepps Bug Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments Inline Spinner