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Mepps Aglia Saves the Day
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Once again Tasmania's weather wasn't all that good, with gale force winds and rain as the days progressed, so I felt that small stream fishing for trout was the way to go today. I headed to a long stretch of water that I haven't fished at all this season, so I wasn't sure what to expect. This trip was a late start as well and it was 10:45 am by the time I entered the water and I was surprised to see how low the water level was today, especially after all the rain we've had over the past week. The main reason that I chose to fish here was because it's well sheltered from the gale force wind that had already arrived.
I started the spin session off with a small Mepps #00 gold Aglia spinner and in the first narrow stretch of water that I fished all I could manage was a follow from a small brown trout. The following water I moved into was a nice wide and medium flowing, knee-deep run, and one that I have often caught trout in. It's also the same stretch of water that gave up my 10,000th trout way back in November 2019.
After giving the little gold Aglia a good workout in this section and only having a couple of small trout follow the spinner, I was feeling very disappointed. With no trout being caught I moved into the next stretch of water. I also went for a change of lure, feeling that I had nothing to lose, so I went for a #00 White Miller Mepps Bug spinner. This is a spinner that often turns things around and sucks the odd trout in when I least expect it. Well, it didn't give a yelp in the two small shallow runs that I fished… didn't attract a single fish. Then again, there may not have been any trout there or if there were trout there, they weren't interested in it.
As I made my way into the next stretch of water, another lure change was made and this time I went for another very reliable trout catcher, the #0 Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown inline spinner, attached to the small spiral swivel. The water I moved into was slow to medium flowing and around knee deep in most places, which was well suited to the slightly heavier Aglia Fluo brown spinner. The first two casts and retrieves nothing happened. After lobbing the lure close to a log near the opposite side of the stream, that's when it was taken by a nice medium size brown trout.
I still had to work to catch that trout too. I spotted it sitting close behind the lure on the retrieve, so I gave the Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin 6' rod a light twitch. This made the spinner blade flutter and that was enough to get the trout to take the lure. Finally, after having several trout follow the lures, I managed to get one to take the spinner and I had the first trout of the session in the net at 11:10 am.
Not all that long after the release of that beautifully coloured brown trout, I had three solid hits but missed hooking up with each hit from the trout. Then it went quiet again, so much so that I made another lure change as I moved into a narrow and shallow fast water run. The Aglia was replaced with a small #00 (1.5 g) Aglia copper blade spinner. This is another colour that the trout tend to like in most of the tannin waters that I fish. This little #00 Mepps Aglia inline spinner was a little different to the normal Aglia spinner in that it had a small Mepps ‘Black Fury’ sticker on the face of the copper blade. It's something that I've tried over several years now and it's worked very well on the trout.
The first cast and retrieve was into a small flatwater close to the left-hand side of the stream and as it happens a small trout darted out of nowhere and hit it hard and fast… but missed getting hooked. When that happened, it gave me a lift, thinking that this little copper Aglia may be the go-to lure for the trout from here on.
The following stretch of fast water also had a small pocket of flatwater close to the opposite side of the river. That pocket of water was a tight one, due to a fallen tree branch covering some of it. An accurate cast was a must. If it wasn't a spot-on cast first up, any trout holding there would dart off never to be seen again. I took my time, looking at the spot where I knew that I had to put the lure to have any chance of luring a trout into taking the spinner. My main concern was that if the cast was a little long it would wrap the Aglia spinner around the fallen tree branch.
What I did do, before making the cast into that flatwater, was to have a practice cast on the opposite side of the stream to gauge the distance correctly. I felt that the practice cast was good, the distance was spot on, and so the next cast to make was going to be into that small pocket of tight fast water. The cast I made was spot on and no sooner had the spinner hit the water it was taken by a nice medium size trout. Once hooked, the fish made several runs in the shallow and fast flowing water, before I slowly eased it onto a sandy spot on the right-hand side of the stream.
This trout was in top condition and a beautifully coloured fish as well, like most of the tannin water trout are. Very rarely does one catch one that's just a plain coloured brown trout. Once released my next cast was into a wide stretch of shallow water that was only a few metres ahead of me. As soon as I started to retrieve the little copper Aglia a small brown hit the lure hard and fast, and trout number three was added to my tally.
From there I slowly made my way up that shallow, knee-deep run, spooking a couple of small trout that were sitting in very shallow water close to the riverbank. It wasn't until I was near the top end of that wide stretch of water that I flicked the spinner into a small flatwater to the right of me. I wasn't expecting to catch anything in it, but as always, I never like to bypass small pockets of water because you just never know what may be in them. Plenty of times there's no fish in them, while other times you'll get fish in them and today I did.
There just happened to be a small trout in that small pocket of water that liked what it saw. It took the lure and in no time at all I had trout number four in hand. Once released I had to make my way through a small, narrow log jam, and once through it I was in a nice three metre wide, medium flowing stretch of water. Here I caught the fifth trout at the top end of it and that trout was a well-conditioned, small/medium size fish. Better still it was the little #00 copper Aglia that the trout were happy with, as were I. It continued to stay that way for another forty minutes, where I caught and released another five trout from seven hook ups. Not all that long after the tenth trout was caught and released, the wind had really picked up from the east and the trout shut down. They were still there but the aggression was gone, so I decided to call it a day.
What started off on the slow side with the trout fishing, certainly turned around for the better when I finally changed to the small Mepps #00 (1.5 gram) copper blade Aglia inline spinner. It's not the first time a spin session has been like this either. It's just one of those things that happen when chasing trout, whether it be in a small stream or a large river. If the trout are there and are not taking a lure, one just needs to keep chopping and changing lures, and eventually there will be one that they take a liking to.
Today I was lucky that it only took four lure changes to find the one they took a liking to. So far, it's been a tough start to the trout season for me, with several health issues, poor weather conditions and high water levels. So, from here on I'm hoping things will turn around for the better sooner rather than later. Today, the first trout that I caught and released was also my 50th for the season, which was good, and today was only my second double figure catch as well. Last season I didn't get a double figure catch until November 10, so that's a good thing. Not only that, this time last season I had caught and released 44 trout, while to date I've caught and released 59 trout this season, which I'm happy with.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods – CE-S-602UL-1 6’0”, 2-6lb
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels – EPXT-20
Platypus Super 100 Nylon Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners -
Mepps Aglia Inline Spinner
Mepps Bug Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments Inline Spinner