Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Small Stream Fires After Rain
Small Stream Fires After Rain
After having 25mm of rain in the area over the past few days I felt a trip to a small tannin stream would be well worth it. Seeing it was a dull, humid, overcast day, I didn't hit the river until 11:30am and found it flowing at a nice height for wading and spin fishing. It was also the colour of black coffee too. I knew it would be a little on the dark side but this dark I wasn't expecting. Anyway, I wasn't all that bothered about the colour because I knew the trout would pick up the vibration of the gold Aglia spinner as the blade rotates through the water.
When I left the car I put on the wrong fishing vest of the two I have in the car... the one I put on was my spare one. Not that there wasn't any lure boxes in it, the problem was I only had one gold Aglia in one of several tackle boxes in the vest. Not that it mattered all that much as I had plenty of gold Black Fury spinners in them... it's just that I prefer the Aglia in dark tannin water because of its larger spin blade.
Twenty minutes after arriving and a quick walk, I was in the river, casting upstream in the first narrow stretch. I had several light hit and misses in no time at all and just couldn't get a hook up. It wasn't very long though before I had the first little wild brown well and truly hooked and soon in hand.
From there on it was all go, when I caught seven trout from eight hook ups. These were all small / medium sized browns. Then it happened... as I was sharpening the treble I somehow managed to snap one of the treble hooks off. I carried on with just the two hooks on the spinner's treble. I still picked up a few trout on it, however I was losing more fish than I was catching calling for a change of spinner. Up until the change to the gold #00 Black Fury I had caught eleven trout from eleven hook ups on the #00 gold Aglia.
The little gold Black Fury did fairly well in the dark tannin water, catching three trout before I thought I would try a copper Aglia. The reason for the change was mainly because of the water being so dark and the Aglia having a larger blade, which rotates at a wider angle than black fury. That means it will give out a louder vibe through the water that the trout will pick up much easier than the narrow spinning Black Fury blade.
My only worry was if the trout would go for the copper colour like they did the gold... well they didn't. After forty minutes I caught two trout from seven trout that came at it, while the others turned away once they got close to it. Then I had a brain wave. I had a small hard body lure in one of the tackle boxes that had treble hooks on it. I snipped the treble off the Aglia spinner and then removed the small split ring with the treble still attached to it from the hard body lure and put that on the gold Aglia spinner. It worked a treat and the trout were back to taking the gold Aglia!
I had to call it a day earlier (2.15 pm) than I wanted too when my lower back and left hip became too sore. All up I had caught and released 22 trout from 36 hook ups. I just love heading to the small streams after they've been freshened up with a dose of rain.
Tight Lines
Adrian (meppstas) Webb