Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Low Water Tannin Trout 9-10-2018
Low Water Tannin Trout 9-10-2018
Will the low water give up a few trout? 9/102018
Seeing as I hadn't fished the tannin waters for several weeks now I decided it was time to pop over and have a bit of a spin session in one. When I arrived, in perfect overcast fishing conditions, I found the water level had dropped right off to a very low level and I nearly decided not to fish it.
Then I spotted a small trout dart off upstream and that was enough to make me get the wading gear on. A twenty minute walk to my entry point soon saw me in the river flicking a small Mepps #00 gold Aglia upstream in the shallow light tannin water.
It was on the second cast that I hooked and landed my first little wild brown trout. It was even too small to bother using the landing net, so I just wet my left hand before picking it up. That's something I always do when handling a trout, I always wet the hand I use to take a trout from the water. Even when I net one I still wet my hands when lifting the fish from the net, before releasing it.
When grabbing hold of a fish with dry hands you will remove the protective slime from the outer body of the fish. The slime is there to protect the fish from bacteria and fungus that can form on the fish if the slime is removed from its exterior. If it is removed then there is every chance the trout will pick up a bacterial or fungus disease and die. I never use gloves when handling a trout either, for that very same reason, even if they're wet. Handle the trout as little as possible and return it to the water ASAP.
Back to the fishing. After releasing that little brown trout I picked up two more little ones in three casts and then lost the next seven in a row, with one of them being in the 400 gram range. The river bottom wasn't all that flash because of the green, fine cotton like algae that had formed on it. That's what happens when the water slowly warms up as the weather improves, algae grows in it. It becomes a real pain in the butt because in the shallow water it fouls up the blade spinners and one can't use hard body lures either as they dive deeper than the small blade spinners.
After losing so many trout I changed from the Aglia gold to a copper Aglia Mouche Noire, which is a normal Aglia spinner except for the treble hook, it has a red tag fly attached to it. That spinner did attract several trout but no takers. The sun then decided to break through and the trout were just tapping at the lure, their aggression was gone.
I stayed with the Mouche Noire for around twenty minutes, before going back to the little gold Aglia and not long after the change of lures the cloud moved back in. I finished up catching and releasing another six small brown trout?from nine hook ups, before calling it a day when the sun came out again.
It was a day with mixed results with the trout this trip. One minute they were on and then they weren't. At least I had fun catching those little battlers...
Cheers
Adrian (meppstas) Webb