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Slow End To The Season

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

Well the last day of the season was here and the weather wasn't all that flash either, with a very cold South Westerly breeze blowing and snow forecast down to 700 metres. Thankfully we won't get it here in Sheffield. I really wanted to fish the Meander River today, however I found it was running at 80cms, which is a little on the high side for my liking. It wasn't worth the forty minute drive today, so it was back to the tannin waters.

Today I was fishing two separate tannin waters, one fifteen minutes from home, which is a morning spin session and the other tannin water under ten minutes from home that was to be the afternoon session.

The morning trip started off in pretty cold windy conditions and with the water still running a little high and cold, I knew I was in for a tough spin session. Now having passed the 400th trout for the season I wasn't all that fussed today, though it would be nice to finish the season off with a double figure catch.

I was in the river just after 10:25am and started off fishing the dark tannin water with the little Gold #00 Mepps Aglia spinner. Thirty minutes into the spin session and I hadn't had a hit from a trout, let alone see one. There wasn't going to be a double catch figure here today the way it was going. I was in two minds whether to fish on or head over to the other small river and fish that this morning instead of later in the afternoon. I decided to carry on here.

Finally, about forty five or fifty minutes into the session, I hooked and landed my first trout of the morning. It was a small brown, taken from the head water of a narrow stretch of water. Knowing that there was still some good runs ahead of me, that have regularly given up some trout, I thought it worthwhile to continue on fishing a while longer. What a waste of time it turned out to be... with just a couple of light hit and misses. I called it a day at 11:40am and headed back to the car. Once back at the car I made the decision to head for home and give the Dasher River a fish later in the afternoon.

As the afternoon went on I was still wondering if it was worth heading off for another spin session and the weather being pretty windy and cold wasn't helping me to make a decision. It was close on three o'clock when I thought, what the heck it's the last day of the season, I may as well have one last crack at catching a few more trout.

It was 3:25pm when I hit the waters of the Dasher River and it looked in pretty good condition as well. I hadn't fished this little river since August, when I had just the two trips to it and caught eight small browns on the first trip and just the one on the second trip. It's a great little river that used to hold a lot of small/medium size brown trout. Over the past couple of years the trout have dropped off in big numbers, with catches of fifteen and more a regular occurrence for me once upon a time. This trip I was fishing in the upper reaches, where there's plenty of foliage on both sides of the river that will act as a wind break. Like earlier on today, the lure of choice was the #00 Gold Mepps Aglia spinner.

The river bottom was still in good condition and wading was reasonably easy going, as I slowly fished my way upstream. Not a lot had changed in this river over the past few seasons. It still had some great little runs in most stretches of the river and they all looked like good trout holding areas. Well, most of them were empty of trout and it wasn't until I reached a nice wide, medium deep stretch of water that I had the first fish take the Gold Aglia. It was a nice well-conditioned small/medium size brown. I was just twenty minutes into the session too, which was good and after a quick photo it was soon on its way.

The very next cast, back into the same stretch of water and I hooked and lost a small brown. Two hook ups in quick time... was this a sign of things to come. It wasn't, and after losing that little brown it took forever to get another hit from a trout, in fact it wasn't until 4:10pm when I had another light hit and miss then ten minutes after that I hooked and lost another small brown. After hooking and losing those fish it was time to head back to the car and try another nice narrow stretch of water two kilometres further downstream.

The fishing wasn't much better there either, with just a couple of hit and misses, along with one hooked and lost trout over the first one hundred and fifty metres of river. It was getting colder and the wind had picked up. Not only that, it was also getting darker so it was time to call it a day. As I made my way along the river bank, towards the car, I decided to fish a small narrow stretch of water above the bridge. This was a small stretch of water that I've caught a trout in every time I've flicked a lure into it.

So that's what I did. The second cast and retrieve resulted in a hook up from a small brown, which I lost on its first leap from the river. The next cast was a long one straight up the river and on the retrieve I had a couple of taps on the little Gold Aglia, before the trout took it. It was the best fish of the day, a nice solid medium size brown. I was happy that this small stretch of water had given up my third trout of the day.

A disappointing day overall to end to the trout season for me, with two rivers fished for just the three trout. It wasn't a good day at all. With only 414 trout caught for the 2019/20 trout season it wasn't a good one. Actually, it was my worst season since the 2012/13 (370 trout) & 2013/14 (397 trout) trout seasons. Hopefully next season will be much better... one can only hope it will be. Time now to re-spool the reels with a fresh lot of high quality Australian Made Platypus line and service them, clean the rods and check the eyelets for the coming season.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment used throughout the trout season:

Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg Trout Rods
Okuma LRF Spin Rods 1-3kg
Okuma Inspira Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EPXT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Super 100 Mono Line
Platypus Pre-Test Mono Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader

Mepps Inline Spinners

Boomerang Tool Products