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Small Stream Spring Trout
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Seeing as the weather today was the best it's been for a few days, I headed off for a spin session in the upper reaches of a small tannin stream. It was just after twelve o'clock when I hit the water, which I found to be running a little on the high side, but still good enough for a spin session. The river bottom wasn't all that good, with most of it covered in a green cotton like algae that I knew would foul the inline spinners in no time at all. Unfortunately, it did just that many times throughout the spin session.
I also decided to give my Okuma Epixor EPXT-20 spinning reel a workout for a change today. It's a beautiful lightweight spinning reel and one that I haven’t used for quite some time, so it was well overdue for a run in a stream. Of course, it was coupled with the Okuma Celilo Finesse 6' ULS 2-6lb spin rod, spooled with Platypus Super 100 clear mono line. The lure of choice to start the spin session was a Mepps #1 Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown model. The reason for using a 3.5g lure was because of the high, fast-flowing water. Once I get a little further upstream, where the river is much shallower, I could then go back to a size #0 or #00 inline spinner.
This stream mainly holds small to medium size trout, however every now and then, all going well, I will pick up a solid fish in the 500 to 600g range. They are very few and far between though. The first few casts and retrieves were into a narrow, deep run, where a medium size trout followed the lure for a short distance before it moved off. When I spotted the trout behind the lure, I was expecting it to take it, however it showed no signs of aggression. This had me scratching my head as normally the trout in this stream are very aggressive. I did have a few more casts and retrieves in that narrow run, with zero result, so I moved onto the next stretch of water.
The water that I moved into was a nice wide and below waist deep run. It was a good stretch of medium flowing water, that I have never missed catching a trout in each time I've fished it. Thankfully, it didn't let me down today and it didn't take all that long (hooked on the third cast and retrieve) before I hooked the first trout of the spin session. The trout was a nice small trout, beautifully coloured and well hooked. Not only that, but it was also an aggressive take, which was good. After its release I continued to slowly fish my way upstream without having another hit from a trout, which I wasn't overly impressed with at all.
Ahead of me was a long, narrow, and knee-deep fast water run. Before moving into it, I downsized to a #0 (2.5g) Aglia Fluo Micropigments brown spinner, which I knew would be better suited to this stretch of water. The going wasn't all that easy, as I slowly made my way upstream, as the flow was strong and the rocky river bottom was covered in green algae, which didn't make it any easier. I only had a few choices of where to cast and retrieve the lure and they were the small pockets of flatwater next to the riverbank.
In the first two small pockets that I flicked the spinner into nothing happened. It was the third pocket of water that gave up the second trout of the afternoon, thirty minutes after the first trout was caught. I knew the fishing wouldn't be all that easy today, given that the river was running on the high side and the water temperature was still very low. After the release of that little brown, I fished a couple of nice medium flowing waters with no sign of a trout to be had. It wasn't until I reached the top end of a deep and rocky stretch of water that a small trout fell to the #0 Aglia brown spinner. With the third trout added to my tally I was feeling a little happier, but still not all that satisfied with the slow catch rate and the lack of trout caught so far.
After the release of that little brown trout, I made another change of lure as I moved into a nice wide and shallow, medium-flowing stretch of river. The lure I chose was a Mepps #00 gold Black Fury spinner. This is a lure that has saved the day for me on many trips to this small stream. Just as I was about to cast the Black Fury spinner, I noticed a trout surface feeding near the lefthand riverbank. So, that's where the first cast went with the little Black Fury. No sooner had the spinner hit the water and a small trout smashed it. The only problem was that it also tossed the lure as fast as it took it!
From there I slowly made my way upstream, working the river from one side to the other (a 180-degree arc) with the spinner and had a couple of hits and misses from small trout. Having those hits and misses was a little frustrating, however it also gave me some hope that a trout would eventually be well hooked and landed. That did happen, but not until I had reached the top end of the shallow run. It was here that I caught two small browns in quick time. After that it went quiet, with no signs of a trout over the next one hundred and fifty metres of water.
It wasn't until I was approximately fifty metres from the car that I made another change of lure. I wasn't going for a colour change, what I did go for was a small #00 gold Aglia, another of my favourite small stream spinners, that always does well for me. After having a couple of soft hits, without a hook up, over the first twenty metres, I was thinking about hopping out of the river and heading back to the car.
As I was about to climb up the side of the riverbank, I changed my mind and decided to fish a little longer. That was a good decision, and two more casts was all that it took to have a small trout take the spinner. Once I had that trout in hand, that's when I called it a day. With half a dozen trout caught and released in two hours, it was what I would call an average spin session. Yes, I had expected a much better catch today, but it wasn't to be. I feel that the low catch rate was mainly due to the cold temperature. I know that as the season goes on and the weather improves, so will the fishing in this small stream. The Okuma Epixor XT (EPXT-20) spinning reel and the Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin rod both got a much-needed workout, and as expected both performed very well.
Adrian(meppstas)
Equipment Used Today:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods – CE-S-602UL-1 6'0”, 2-6lb
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EPXT-20
Platypus Super 100 Mono Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Mono Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Aglia Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments Inline Spinner