Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Quick Tannin Session
Quick Tannin Session
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Mainly overcast and cool weather saw me making my way back to the tannin waters, while the water level was still up and okay for chasing trout. This time I was in the river a little earlier than yesterday (8.50am), in what was a pretty good spin session. I was hoping for another good one today.
The water level had dropped by a couple of inches already, so I was hoping to get a few more trips in before the level was too low to fish here. Today I was fishing another stretch of water, a few kilometres away from where I fished yesterday. It would be interesting to see if the trout were here in good numbers.
My lure of choice was a #00 Copper Mepps Aglia, seeing as the water that I was fishing was not as deep or dark here, it was a little lighter in colour than where I had fished yesterday. The first fifty metres or so of water was open water, with light foliage cover along it, so I wasn't expecting to catch too many trout here. That would happen when I reached the thicker foliage areas half a kilometre upstream.
I was correct in presuming that the first fifty metres of rivers would be quiet, and it was, although I did have a couple of hit and misses from small browns in it. It wasn't until I had reached a narrow, fast flowing piece of water that I caught and released two small browns. Two fish in two casts (9:11am) wasn't all that bad. After that all that I had was one hit and miss, before it was time to get out and bypass a long deep stretch of water. After this section I could hop back into wadable water and continue chasing the trout.
Once I was back in the river there wasn't a sign of a trout until 10:04am, when I finally picked up my third trout on the Mepps Bug spinner. I had changed over to the Bug twenty minutes earlier, due to the trout going off the Copper Aglia.
After having a couple of follows and no takers, it was time for another change of lure. This time I went for the March Brown coloured Bug spinner, a lure that should have been well suited in the shallow tannin water. Eight minutes after the change of lures I was onto a medium size trout, taken in a narrow fast water run. It was soon followed by a small brown and the change of lures had been a good decision.
This wasn't going to be a very long session today as I had other commitments after lunch, so I had to hurry along upstream. I wanted to be back at the car and heading for home around 11:30am. From here there wasn't any messing around in fishing waters that I knew weren't worth flicking a lure into. I fished the waters that I felt should be holding trout and they did, I caught and released four more browns from seven hook ups over the next thirty-five minutes.
It was 11:10am when I hopped out of the river and headed back to the car... and yes, I was on my way home at 11:30am. It was another reasonably good spin session and nice to see the Mepps lures continue to keep on catching wild brown trout in these small tannin waters. Nine more trout added to my season tally, which was not as good as I'd like, sitting on 337 trout. My target of 600 trout by season end is now well out of reach and 500 would be as good as it gets now. I'll be happy just to reach 400 at this stage.
Cheers, Adrian
Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20 spinning reel
Platypus Super 100 monofilament fishing line
Platypus Pre-Test monofilament fishing line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps inline spinners
Boomerang Tool Products