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Leven Dark Tannin Waters
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Seeing as we had some reasonable rainfall in the highland areas, I checked the river height of the Leven River last night and saw that it had risen to a reasonable wading height. This had me thinking that a trip to it may be worthwhile. It was a late afternoon spin session as I had several things to do in the morning and with a forecast of a light north easterly wind of 7-11kph. It wasn't all that bad, even though I'm not a lover of fishing with the breeze from that direction.
Before I left home, I checked the river height again to find it running at 392 megalitres, which was a little on high side but a reasonably safe wading height. Had it been above the 400 megalitres I would not have gone. It was 3:10pm when I arrived at the Lee Memorial Park at Gunns Plains, where I started the spin session. It's a nice stretch of river that I haven't fished for at least two trout seasons. It used to fish really well, several years ago, with the trout in good numbers and of a good size too. Then it died off, with hardly any trout being caught, so I stopped fishing this area.
The first thing that I noticed was how dark the river was. It was much darker than any of my trips to this river all season, however the good thing was that I spotted several trout taking grasshoppers off the surface. When I say it was a good thing, this was because there were trout here, the downside was that they were surface feeding, which will generally make for a tough spin session.
I did think about setting my Okuma combo up with a size 6 suicide hook to do a bit of fishing with live hoppers, however I didn't in the end opting for a Mepps Gold #1 (3.5gm) Aglia Mouche Noire for starters. The reason that I went for the Gold blade was because of how dark the river was and the reason for the 3.5 gram Mouche Noire was that the first piece of water that I fished was a wide deep one near the bridge.
With the water being so deep and dark, it was near impossible to see the Gold blade spinner in the water as I retrieved it. Worse was the fact that I couldn't tell if it was being followed by a trout either. I spent just on ten minutes fishing the deep stretch of water, before moving further up where I could hop in and start fishing my way upstream.
I could see trout in different areas on the river taking hoppers off the surface, which was a little frustrating as I was working the Gold Mouche Noire in those areas without a single hit. I changed to a #1 Mepps Aglia Furia to see if that may draw their attention. It didn't. I then tried the Copper Aglia and still nothing happened. They were right into the hoppers here and that's it. I even gave a March Brown coloured Bug spinner a go, seeing as it was a similar colour to a grasshopper. The result was the same, no follows or hits.
Forty minutes later I changed to a brown trout pattern Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments spinner as I was starting to run out of ideas of what to try on the trout, especially when they were feeding on hoppers. I still had the White Miller Bug, Gold and Silver Aglia's, the Black Fury range, plus a few others to try before I went through the lot once more. I was sure that it wouldn't come to that and was quite confident that it wouldn't be long before I had my first trout in the net.
I made a direct cast, straight up the shallow side river ahead of me, three turns of the reel handle and the Fluo spinner was taken. Finally, it was fish on! This brown wasn't all that big but it was the first hit and take of the spin session and that was good enough for me. The north easterly wind had picked up and was blowing at around 15kph or more, which wasn't going to make it any easier catching trout either.
After the release of that little brown the fishing went back to how it previously was, no follows or any signs of a trout until I went for another change of lure. This time it was on with a #00 White Miller Bug spinner. I thought seeing as there were a few caddis moth flying around, the White Miller may suck a trout in. Not only that, it's done well on the trout in small dark tannin streams at other times.
After several casts, up and across the river, a solid trout took it. No sooner had that fish taken the spinner, it broke the surface and out popped the spinner. I was a little disappointed in a way, however also happy to see a trout have a crack at the White Miller. Two minutes later I made a direct cast, straight up the river into a shallow shaded stretch of water where a solid brown took the spinner. This fish was larger than the one that I had just hooked and lost. It made quite a few leaps and runs, every which way, trying toss the spinner as it made its way into the fast water.
The Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS rod was really bent over as the trout tried everything to shake free of the White Miller. This trout wasn't getting away like the last fish. I had the drag set pretty light on the Helios SX20 spinning reel, to allow the fish to run the Platypus Super 100 4lb line from it. I wasn't going to lose this trout. After a minute or two I had it back into the shallows and that's when I saw that it was only being held by one hook in a soft part of its mouth.
I didn't attempt to get the camera out to film it, like I normally do when I have a fish in close, instead this time I eased it straight into the net. No sooner it was in the net and out popped the lure. Had I messed around getting the camera out, I'm sure I would have lost that trout. Not that it was a big fish, however it was the best one so far and I wasn't taking any chances... like I've done in the past and lost them. A couple of photos, then weighing it while it was still in the net and it went 485 grams, after deducting the weight of the net (410gms) from the total weight.
On checking the treble hooks of the spinner, I found that one of them was missing. It had broken off once that trout was in the net. It was on with a new White Miller and I went on fishing my way upstream, where I lured a trout from a small flat water on the opposite side of the river. All it did was follow the spinner, with no a signs of aggression.
I continued on, fishing the medium/fast flowing water until 4:40pm, before heading back to the car and then heading to my favourite stretch of water 2-3km further upstream. Once there (5:10pm) I crossed the river and keeping close to the left hand side, made my way up a long, wide, medium deep stretch of river to the fast waters.
The water here, being much deeper, wasn't easy. It was nearly waist deep and I couldn't see the river bottom, making it very slow going to get to the area that I wanted to fish. After reaching the fast water I still had to take it easy, while making my way to the centre of the river where I knew it was knee deep and a lot safer for wading. This is where knowing every area in river comes in handy. Not being able to see the river bottom and in waist deep water, I still knew where it was safe enough to make my way across to where it was knee deep and safe. If I didn't know this river, there's no way that I would have attempted to make my way to the centre of it.
Even being in dark tannin, knee deep water, the going wasn't easy as I had to feel my way as I slowly fished on upstream, working the right hand side of the river. The reason for fishing the right hand side of the river was because it was the side of the river where the trout seemed to be holding out. The left hand side on this stretch of water rarely gives up a fish.
I continued fishing here with the Bug for around fifteen minutes, without having a hit. Time for a change of lure. It was on with a #0 Gold Black Fury. With the water being much faster and a little deeper here, you would be surprised how much deeper the spinner will run, with it being one gram heavier. The first cast into a narrow flat water, where I had already cast the Bug at least three times before changing to the Black Fury, I had an instant hook up. The change to the Gold Black Fury had already paid off. Only one problem came of it, the trout tossed the spinner within five seconds of taking it!
From here on it was slow going, without a sign of a trout, until I hooked a small brown (at 5:50pm) in another of the shallow flat waters close to the right hand river bank. This little trout made it all the way in and I did get some footage of it. As I was about to get hold of it and let it go, it gave one more headshake and tossed the spinner. After that I lost three small trout in a row and all in quick time too, before I caught my fourth trout of the afternoon, dead on 6:00pm.
I was thinking about calling it a day, seeing as the river wasn't fishing all that well, then decided I may as well finish it off by fishing the side water to the left of me. This side water has always given up a few trout on my previous trips here. Staying with the #1 Gold Black Fury, I slowly fished my way upstream. I had a follow from a medium size brown that looked like it was about to take the lure, before the lure bottom bounced and picked up some green algae. That was the end of that fish, it turned and moved off not to be seen again.
With the water being much shallower here it wasn't as dark as the main stream and I could see the rocky bottom. The #1 Gold Black Fury was a little too heavy to use here, so I changed over to a small Gold Aglia spinner, one that's been well used (and looks very second hand) and has caught a lot of trout in its day. It did quite well in getting several trout to attack it, with three of them being hooked and lost. I reached the top end of the side water without landing a trout, which was a first for me here. As the saying goes 'there's a first time for everything, isn't there'.
My afternoon spin session was finished. I didn't bother heading back into the main stream to fish the rest of the fast water, knowing that it was just a waste of time. I will return here a few times over what's left of the trout season because I'm sure that it will fire up on one or two of those trips. Now that February is here the trout fishing will improve... as will my catch rate from here on hopefully.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - 6'6'' ULS 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20 spinning reel
Mepps inline spinners
Playtpus Super 100 mono line - 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 6lb