Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Plenty of Trout 16-11-2018
Plenty of Trout 16-11-2018
Perfect weather conditions for trout fishing today saw me head to the upper reaches of the Mersey River. It was a dull overcast day, with a light shower of rain every now and then... it couldn't have been a better day for chasing trout. The area that I headed to is probably one of the toughest to get to and also not the easiest on the body either. The river bottom is always slippery and even worse the rocks roll under foot, making it so hard when wading up the river. Just staying upright in the river is a bonus. In saying that, the fishing has been great for the majority of trips that I've had here, however it can also have its off days too. Those off days are usually when the river is low and clear, with full sun on it. Today was the ideal day to fish this area, as it's in these humid, damp conditions that this area fishes really well.
I arrived at 7:50am, then headed off to the river and started fishing just after 8:30am. The river was running at medium height and clear, so I started off using the Aglia Furia, the spinner that's been doing very well on the trout on quite a few trips.
The first area fished was a medium to fast flowing stretch of river, where I had several follows but no takers, until I moved into another stretch of faster flowing water. There I picked up my first wild brown trout of the morning, a small (280g) fish which was disappointing. For some reason the trout in the rivers this season have mainly been small fish, with very few large ones being caught and rarely seen. My best trout so far this season was a 1.4kg brown taken in the Meander River back on the 21st of September, although I have hooked and lost the odd large trout from time to time during the season.
The next stretch of river fished was a long six hundred metre shallow fast water, one that always gives up more rainbow trout than browns. By the time I had fished two thirds of the way up this long stretch of river I had only landed five small browns from eight hook ups. I did try a brand new gold #0 Mepps Black Fury spinner in that stretch of river and after I hooked and lost a couple of trout I went back to the Furia.
The biggest surprise was not seeing or catching a rainbow trout in that fast water run. The last third of that fast water was very shallow and the algae on the rocky river bottom kept fouling the Aglia spinner blade, which made me bypass most of it. With that fast water out of the way I moved into another long stretch of river. This was a wide, medium flowing run and I did have two takes on the Furia but lost both fish.
It was time to try a small shallow floating hard body lure. I picked up three small browns on it. The reason I went for the hard body was because it was more suitable for fishing that long wide stretch of water. Over 85% of the trout I catch are taken on the Mepps spinners, but there are the times when even I have to use a hard body lure. To catch trout I do have to make changes to suit the areas and conditions that I fish.
Not only that, the trout are very often fussy with what is presented to them in different stretches of water too. One stretch they'll take whatever you throw at them and then the next will be entirely different. They will only take a certain coloured Mepps spinner or hard body lure and that's what makes trout fishing such a challenge. Yes, trout fishing can be frustrating at times, but there's nothing better I like doing than outsmarting a cunning brown trout.
I was now back into the faster flowing runs and it was straight back to the Mepps Aglia Furia, which was soon right back into the action. The very first cast directly upstream result in an instant hook up from a solid brown. This was the fish of the day by far and it made a fast run down and across the river, then as it leaped from the river it tossed the spinner. I couldn't believe what had just happened... it would have been in the 600-700g range too.
Still, it's not the only one that I had lost today, just a shame a fish of that size was added to my list of trout hooked and lost. I continued fishing my way upstream, picking up a small brown here and there, when I caught my first and only rainbow (290gm) trout for the session. The rainbow took my caught and released total to thirteen trout.
I still wanted to catch a few more over the next couple of fast water runs before calling it a day... however that didn't happen. All I managed to do was hook and lose another two trout and that took my hooked and lost fish to fourteen. I felt it was a pretty good three and a half hour spin session, it was just a shame that the hooked and lost trout outnumbered the caught and released total...
Cheers,
Adrian (meppstas) Webb