Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Stone Fly & Surface Feeding Trout
Stone Fly & Surface Feeding Trout
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
With the lower back and hips not feeling all that good this morning, I thought I'd have a break from river fishing for a few days to give the body time to recover from a couple of tough river trips two days ago. Then, seeing how good the weather was and with some windy conditions forecast again, I decided not to rest up but to go and chase a few trout in the upper Mersey River again. After placing eight heat pads on the lower back and hips, and taking a few pain killers, I was on my way.
This trip wasn't in the same area where I had caught ten trout from eighteen hook ups a few days ago, it was further downstream from there. The weather this morning was absolutely beautiful, probably the best day for some time, with no wind and clear skies, it couldn't have been better.
It was around 7:05am when I hit the dead flat glassy and crystal clear waters on the Mersey. The first thing that I noticed was trout surface feeding on small mayfly duns and midges. On seeing that, along with hundreds of them hovering above the water, I knew it was going to be a tough spin session. Surface feeding trout, on flat calm water, is always tough for the spin fisher and can also be tough for the fly fisher as well, if they don't select the fly to match the hatch.
Looking back downstream, with the sun hitting the water, one could see thousands of these small insects on the water surface and in the air. This is something that I haven't seen on the Mersey since before the June 2016 record floods. As much as I hated seeing so many insects, mainly because it was the making for a very tough spin session, I was also quite happy to see such a large hatching of insects again... there's life back in the river system.
I knew I was in for a challenge, however it's just a matter of luring the odd greedy trout in... one that's interested in taking something else apart from the mayfly duns and midges. The mayfly has a short lifespan. Eggs are laid in the water after mating and nymphs hatch after two weeks, where they live in the water for twelve months. During their twelve months in the water they develop into what they call an emerger. Once at the surface they then turn into a dun, fly off and mate. Soon after mating they lay their eggs in the water and die. The attached sketch will give you a better idea of their life cycle. Hundreds of them are eaten by the surface feeding trout no sooner than they touch the water surface and they never get to lay their eggs. With millions of mayflies on the water surface, there are still many millions of eggs laid anyway.
Right, now let's get back to the trout fishing and how it all panned out. I started the spin session fishing a long wide glassy stretch of river, flicking the Aglia Furia around for a few minutes to start with, before deciding to go with a #0 Mepps Stone Fly coloured Bug spinner. It's a lure that's sucked a trout or two in when there's been large insect hatches on this river, over many years, when the trout have been surface feeding.
I kept casting the spinner well ahead of the feeding trout and retrieved it down past them. This certainly drew the attention of several fish as bow waves appeared behind the lure as it was retrieved. The only problem was that there were no takers, just followers, which was what I was sort of expecting anyway.
With the trout following the Stone Fly spinner, I still felt confident that the odd one would eventually have a crack at it. It was just a matter of being patient and having confidence in the Stone Fly spinner. The trout that had followed the spinner were of various sizes, from small to large fish, and at this stage I didn't care what size fish would take the spinner, any size would suffice.
A long cast, up and across the river, to where I saw another trout surface feeding resulted in a large bow wave appearing behind the lure as I retrieved it. This fish was moving in much faster than any of the others had done so far. Once the trout was right up behind the spinner I gave the rod a light twitch and that was enough to get it to take the Stone Fly spinner. It was a larger fish than I had anticipated too and boy did it give me the run around, making several leaps from the river and running both up and down the river before I finally had it under control and close enough to slip the net under it. Once in the landing net out popped the Stone Fly spinner... the fishing Gods were on my side this morning.
You know, it doesn't matter how many times one's been trout fishing or how many fish one's caught, there's always that feeling of satisfaction when you get a fish to take the lure, especially when the going is tough. Catching that solid brown trout was one of those moments. It was also a beautiful 705 gram fish, which made it even more satisfying. It seemed like it had taken ages to catch the first trout of the morning, until I looked at my watch only to see it was 7:16am. Eleven minutes was all that it had taken.
Every cast and retrieve was attracting the attention of the trout, however not all of them were aggressive. I did have four hits and was lucky enough to catch and release two more medium size browns by 8:05am. With three trout caught and released I was fairly satisfied with how it had gone so far this morning, especially seeing as I hadn't reached and fished the fast water runs at that stage. The fast water runs is where I thought I'd add quite a few trout to the day's tally. The following two hundred metres of slow flowing water gave up follow after follow, without a single hit. I tried a variety of Mepps spinners and even succumbed to a small hard body lure and still no takers.
I was about to call it a day because my lower back was becoming quite sore. I was struggling on the rocky river bottom and each step on a rock that rolled underfoot jarred the back, sending sharp pains down the back of my legs. I decided to bypass some fifty metres of the slow water and hit the fast water, with the Stone Fly spinner back on the snap swivel.
After having a couple of follows, that included a hooked and lost fish, I went for a change of lure. It was back to the Mepps Aglia Furia, another of the Mepps lures that does well on the trout and even more so in the clear fast water runs. Three casts up and across the fast water, while letting the water do the work with the drifting spinner and a small/medium size rainbow trout took it. It had taken an hour to catch my forth trout of the morning. Looking at the fast water ahead of me, that I felt would be holding a few trout, as sore as I was feeling I pushed on.
After having a couple of follows and no takers with the Furia, I went back to the Stone Fly Bug spinner and soon picked up a small brown from two hook ups. A little further upstream I lost a medium size brown and then ten minutes later caught and released the fifth brown trout of the day.
The pain in the lower back was getting unbearable, so thought it best to call it a day and make the one and a half kilometre walk back to the car. It was the longest one and a half kilometres I think I've ever walked in all my years of trout fishing. As sore as I was, it was still a great day to be in a river chasing trout.
PS: Since writing this report I have spent four days in bed and had over 90 injections over three weeks... only one more doctor visit to go. It's something that I have to put up with and it won't stop me from fishing the rivers here in Tasmania yet. I'm not ready to chuck in the towel. I may just have to spread the river trips out a little further apart.
Adrian (meppstas)