Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Mepps Bug & Aglia Catch
Mepps Bug & Aglia Catch
I woke up (4:15am) to a beautiful, cool, foggy morning here in Sheffield, so I decided to head on over to the Meander River. I wanted to give it another go, in the hope that the trout had thickened up a little more than the low numbers it's had on previous trips.
This trip I was fishing the same stretch of medium/fast water, mainly because there were signs of the trout coming back in this area. I knew I had only caught five here and four others from a fast water three kilometres further upstream. I wasn't overly fussed if I didn't catch five trout or less, I just wanted to see a lot more trout here today than my previous trips.
Due to the fog being so heavy and a lot of wildlife on the roads, it was a reasonably slow trip to the Meander River. I arrived at 5:50am and it was so still and peaceful too, with only the sound of birds and running water. I stood on the river bank, staring into the fog, saying to myself "this is what it's all about, trout fishing rivers doesn't get any better than this".
People on the mainland fishing sites, that I put my reports on, often say to me that we're so lucky here in Tasmania, to have such a pristine wilderness and catching a trout is a bonus. I thought the same thing on my first visit to Tassie back in 1993, but after moving here and making trout fishing a priority, to me catching trout isn't a bonus. The reason I say that is because my aim when I hop into any river is to use everything I know and have learned over the years to catch that cunning trout. Yes, I do appreciate the beautiful surrounds when I'm in a river and quite often I will sit on a log or a rock in the river and take it all in, thinking how lucky I am to be where I am today. Anyway, let's get back to how the spin session went this morning chasing trout, once I had hopped in the river.
I was in it by 6:05am and started fishing with the spinner that did the job here last time, the black blade Mepps #0 Aglia Mouche Noire. After several casts, to various flat water areas on each side of the river, for just the one follow from a small brown, I changed over to an Aglia Micropigments in Gold / Brown (brown trout pattern).
I noticed a trout surface feeding in a flat water, close to the left side of river and that's where the first cast went with the Aglia. The spinner had no sooner hit the water when it was snapped up by a trout. It was a little brown and a quick start to the spin session that lifted my spirits into thinking it was going to be a top day on the trout. After that it was fairly quiet with just a few non-aggressive trout following the spinner, mainly out of interest.
It was time for another change of spinner and this time I went for the Mepps #0 Bug spinner in Stone Fly colour. I felt it was the go-to lure as the fog slowly lifted. It's the right time of the trout season to give the Bug spinners a go, like it is with the Aglia Mouche spinners. Both of these spinners produce fish in the right conditions and this is the right time to give them a go on the trout.
This is why I love trout fishing, no two days stalking trout are the same. They're always a challenge and they're a fish that tests one's patience. Yes, they've certainly tested mine many times over the past 54 years and they've often come out on top too.
I slowly worked my way up the river, using the cast and drift method, where I had a light hit and miss from a small brown. I came to a stretch of water that had a nice narrow flat water close to the opposite, right hand side, of the river bank and it also had a bubble line running along it too. A perfect piece of trout water for sure.
That side of the river was quite dense with foliage and the cast had to be spot on and it was. I lobbed the Bug spinner to within three inches of the river bank and as soon as the spinner hit the water a solid brown took it, with my first turn of the reel handle on the Okuma Helios HSX20 reel. It was fish on. It was a beautiful fish and one that I was hoping was well and truly hooked. After a few minutes of battling with this trout I had it in close enough to lead it into the landing net.
It wasn't what one would call a large fish, however it was a beautifully coloured, well-conditioned brown. After weighing it, while still in the net, I soon released it unharmed back into the river, after a couple of photos. That brown, after deducting the net weight (300 grams) from the total weight, went 490 grams.
Two trout caught and released over the first forty five minutes wasn't all that bad and I was hoping for it to continue on as I fished my way upstream. A little further up the river I was casting and drifting the Bug spinner in a fast water run and much to my disgust I hooked and lost a nice medium size brown. That was the last sign of a trout for just on fifty minutes, when I caught my third brown of the session. It was only a small 280 gram fish, still legal size but also disappointing that it was another small fish.
Once again it went quiet, with just the one follow from another small brown, until I reached another nice fast water run. A flick to the opposite side of the river resulted in a hook up. It was another small trout that had taken the Bug spinner. After the release of that little brown I hooked and lost another small brown, before calling it a day at 9:05am.
The sun was full on the river in most areas now, my body was sore before I left home and fishing here this morning hadn't done anything to improve it. Had the fishing been better I would have pushed on and put up with the hip and lower back pain, however that was me done for the session.
Adrian (meppstas)