Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Size Down, Numbers Up

Size Down, Numbers Up

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

With another storm forecast later in the day, I headed up to a small stream on private property for a quick spin session, making the most of the day before the weather turned sour. It was quite humid when I left home and I noticed, on my arrival at the river, that there were quite a few heavy clouds building up. I had to hurry up and get into the small river.

The water level was still good here and there was still plenty of flow. The water was a nice, medium tannin colour as well, so I started off using a small Mepps #00 Gold Aglia inline spinner. The first cast and retrieve resulted in a small brown having a go at the spinner, however it missed getting hooked.

The second cast and retrieve was much better, with another small brown having a go at it and this time it was hooked. The first trout of the session was landed. I moved several feet forward and flicked the spinner into the top end of this narrow stretch of water and no sooner had I started to retrieve the spinner, another little brown snapped it up. Trout number two was soon in hand. Another cast and retrieve, back into the same area and I had a hit and miss from a trout. Like the others, it was a small fish.

A little further up the river I had another small brown have a go at the spinner. This fish wasn't as aggressive as the previous trout and I felt that this was due to the sun breaking through the cloud, with the river now in full sun. The sun on the water was enough for me to take the Gold Aglia off and replace it with a #00 March Brown Bug spinner.

From here on I had a couple of follows and soft hit and misses from small trout. Finally, while fishing a shallow fast water run, a small brown took the Bug spinner. This trout was the smallest of the three caught. Even though the trout are small in this little river, compared to what they were a few years ago, it was good to see so many of them in it. These small trout will grow into larger fish and by this time next season and the one after they will be 30cm trout. The future of this river looks good at this stage.

That was the last trout caught for around twenty-five minutes, until I picked up the fourth fish in a deep and narrow stretch of water. Just after the release of that small trout, the rain arrived. Thankfully, there were a couple of large blackwood trees near the river bank and they acted as an umbrella for me until the rain moved on.

It wasn't all that long before I was back in the water and the trout were few and far between from here on. I did go on to catch another three from five hits, which wasn't too bad. I called it a day at 1:20pm when I saw more dark clouds rolling my way. It was a pretty fast walk back to the car, where I had time to get out of the wading gear and hop in the car as the rain arrived. As I stated earlier, even though the trout weren't medium size fish, it was good to see so many of them in the river and they're still fun to catch as well.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment used during my trout season:

Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rods
Okuma LRF Spin Rods - 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono - 4lb
Platypus Super 100 Mono - 4lb
Platypus Pre-Test Mono - 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 4lb
Mepps Inline Spinners