Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Leven River Browns
Leven River Browns
I though a trip back to the Leven River may be worthwhile, now that the river level had dropped back to a safe wading height after some heavy rainfall a couple of weeks ago. My last trip there was a good one, with nineteen trout being caught and released. Today the water level was lower than it was on that trip.
When I arrived it was very foggy and the conditions were great. Cool and not a breath of wind, just perfect for chasing trout. There were a few campers set up on the property where I started off the spin session, however the good thing was I had arrived at 6:00am and they were still in their beds.
It wasn't long before I was in the river and working my way up to the fast water runs, flicking the #1 Mepps Aglia Furia around. It was quite eerie in the river this morning, with it being so still and just the sound of running water and frequent bird calls. The silhouette of trees along each side of the river, as well as the dead and fallen ones in the water, made for a few great photos.
The trout weren't around for the first five minutes or so, until I finally had a follow from a medium size brown, a fish that was only half interested before it slowly turned and moved off. Not that long after I had a small brown take the Furia spinner and had my first fish of the session.
A little further up I picked up another small brown. This one came from a small flat water near the river bank. It wasn't until I had reached a shallow fast water ten minutes later that I picked up my third brown and this one was a nice 320g fish.
The fog was slowly being burnt off as the sun rose higher and started to hit the water. With a forecast of 24 degrees one could feel the air warming up already. As I approached a very long, wide, medium flowing stretch of river I decided to try a small section of back water that ran off it. I used a small hard body lure there and picked up a solid 410g brown that smashed the lure no sooner it had hit the water.
After releasing the brown I moved into the long wide stretch of river and all I could manage there was one hit and miss, plus several follows from some medium brown trout. I used a variety of Mepps spinners and hard body lures without a single taker.
The following two hundred metres of river was a mix of fast to medium runs and it was there that I caught and released another two solid browns from three hook ups, fish a small hard body. With six trout caught and released and more wide and long, slow flowing water ahead of me I decided to head back to the car and try another stretch of river further downstream.
After a twenty minute walk I was back at the car and on to the next area to fish. I stayed with the hard body lure and caught two small browns from four hits, all in the one small fast water run. The next medium flowing stretch of river I had quite a few hit and misses before it gave up a nice 310g brown. That fish was my 300th trout for the season.
I didn't think I would reach the three hundred trout before the New Year, seeing the season has been so up and down for me. The sun was now high and fully on the river and the fishing slowed down to what it had been. I was still having plenty of follows but the aggression from the trout had dropped off. I fished on for another hour and a half and caught and released another six browns, which made it fifteen for the spin session. I called it a day and arrived back to the car at 12:20pm. It had been a long day in the river and I was hot, tired and very sore in the hips and lower back.
Tight Lines,
Adrian (meppstas) Webb