Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Rain Livens Up the Trout Streams
Related Products...
Rain Livens Up the Trout Streams
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Seeing as we had close to 30mm of rain a day ago, I was eager to go and have a spin session in a small tannin stream that I knew would have a nice flow of water in it. I know these small tannin streams come alive after a good dose of rain, and this small stream that I headed to was one of those that does just that. Normally at this time of the year, when water levels are low in them, I stay away from these small streams because the trout are normally stressed from the low, warm water levels. Once it rains the water temperature drops, the water level rises, the trout come alive, and they are normally quite aggressive. That's why I headed there today.
It wasn't an early start either and after a twenty-minute walk to my entry point, it was 8:55 am when I finally hopped in the water. The water itself was cool and there was a good flow of water in the stream too. It was a little discoloured, but not enough to stop me from using the Mepps inline spinners. I started the session off with a #0 March Brown coloured Mepps Bug spinner, mainly because I felt the water wasn't clouded enough to stop it from being seen by the trout. Plus, the wider spinner blade would give off plenty of vibrations in the water that the trout would pick up.
I was also using my favourite Ultra Lightweight set up, an Okuma 6'0” Celilo Finesse Spin rod and Okuma ITX-1000 spinning reel, spooled with 4lb Platypus Pulse nylon monofilament line. This setup is perfect for small stream fishing. It only took two casts and retrieves before a very, very small trout (approx. 12 cm) took the lure. Thankfully that little trout tossed the lure on its first leap from the water. I'm not all that keen on handling the small trout as they can stress out quite fast, plus they're very fragile when they're so small. That's why I don't mind it when they toss the lure.
A few minutes later and several metres further upstream, I hooked another small trout. That little trout stayed hooked and was soon in my hand. It had foul hooked itself under its jaw and thankfully no real damage was done to that little trout and it was soon back in the stream. The same thing happened a little further upstream when I hooked and landed another little trout. The only difference this time was that the trout was hooked in the mouth. This fish was also released in quick time. I was starting to wonder where the larger trout had moved to as this water normally holds a good mix of small, medium and the odd large trout.
As I slowly fished my way upstream, I had the odd trout follow the spinner with taking it. I gave a #0 Mepps Aglia Fluo brown a bit of a workout and never saw a trout, then I thought the smaller #00 (1.5 g) White Miller Bug may be worth a shot in a narrow, fast-flowing stretch of water. Nothing happened there either. It wasn't until I made my way into a wide, waist deep, slow flowing stretch of water that I upsized the White Miller to a #0 (2.5 g) model. It was there that I hooked and lost a nice solid trout, that tossed the lure a few seconds after being hooked, which was disappointing.
Seeing as the White Miller attracted the trout, I thought I would stick with it for a while longer in the hope that it would attract another trout sooner than later. A few minutes later and a little further upstream, a nice medium size trout took the spinner. This time the fish stayed on, made it into the landing net, and finally I had hooked and landed a bigger fish. Not all that long after the release of that trout I hooked and landed another medium size fish in a small pocket of water close to the riverbank.
It was good to see that the further I fished my way up the stream, the trout were of a better size than how the session had started out, with those little undersize fish. Then for some reason the trout didn't want a bar of the White Miller and I had several trout look at it before they turned and moved away. I was a little unsure of what inline spinner to go for next. After going through my lure box I thought I'd give a small #00 (1.5 g) copper Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire a go. It's another little ultra lightweight spinner that's done well on the trout many times in the small streams.
It took quite some time before I hooked and landed the next trout. In fact, twenty minutes had passed by the time I hooked and landed my fifth trout of the morning. After the release of that trout, I felt it was time to try another of my small stream favourites, that lure being a small #00 gold Mepps Aglia inline spinner. That little lure was used for ten minutes, and it did catch a nice medium size brown trout. After that I went back to the #0 March Brown coloured Mepps Bug spinner, mainly because the water ahead of me was reasonably shallow and it was a nice light to medium tannin colour that is well suited to the March Brown Bug spinner.
I did get out of the stream to bypass a long, narrow, deep stretch of water, so that I could hop back into the shallower waters, where I felt I would catch a few more trout before I called it a day. The move was a good one and the trout fishing improved as I continued to slowly fish my way up this small stream. I went on the catch another five nice browns, in thirty-five minutes, and that's when I called it a day. I had fished on for a little longer than I had set out to do, but I just wanted to get another double figure catch on my Angling Club sheet. As it turned out I finished the spin session with eleven trout caught and released from twelve hook ups, which was a good result in the end.
Adrian (meppstas)
Trout Season Equipment Used:
TT Red Belly Spin Rods - RBS702L, 7’0”, 1-3kg
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - CE-S-662UL-1, 6’6”, 2-6lb
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels - ITX-1000
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reels – CHD-1000HA
Platypus Pulse Mono Fishing Line
Platypus Super 100 Mono Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Mono Fishing Line
Mepps Inline Spinners
TT Spintrix Inline Spinners