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Tannin Water Trout Show Up
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Seeing as it had been a few days since my last fishing session and with the weather being more settled for the next day or so, I headed back to one the tannin streams again. This was mainly because the larger rivers were still running on the high side. One thing that I was sure of was that the small stream I was headed to would be at a nice wading height. The only problem would be the number of trees that would be across the stream.
A few weeks ago, there was a massive storm in the area which brought down thousands of large trees in several areas across the state. A few of my favourite streams just happened to be in one of those areas that were severely hit by the 165kph winds. Anyway, by the time I parked the car and made my way to the river, it was nearly midday by the time I hit the water.
I started the spin session off with a well-used Mepps #00 Aglia Mouche Noire inline spinner. In fact, it was so well worn that it only had one hook out of three left on the treble. I've always said it only takes one hook to catch a fish and this little lure has done well for me many times over. The first cast was into a nice flat water, several metres ahead and to the left side of the stream. No sooner had I started to retrieve the spinner and it was fish on!
A solid, medium size brown had taken the lure and that fish made a couple of hard runs, before making a leap from the water. That's when it tossed the spinner. So, my choice of using the old spinner wasn't a good one after all, so a change was made straight away. The replacement lure was the #0 Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigment spinner. This is another of my favourite trout lures and it was also one that was a little worse for wear. The reason that I used this worn spinner was because I forgot to replace it after my last outing, so I had no choice but to use it today.
The change to the slightly heavier spinner was a good one due to the strong flow that was in the river. This lure would run a little deeper than the very light #00, 1.5g spinner. It wasn't all that long before I had a nice solid brown take the spinner. This fish fought hard for a short time before it eventually hit the surface and I eased it into the net. This fish was a beauty to catch first up. The colours were brilliant. These tannin water trout have to be the best coloured fish of any of the brown trout that I catch, especially compared to those in the large clear water rivers that I fish.
This fish was a decent size for a small stream as well. After weighing it in the net, then deducting the net weight, it left the trout at 485 grams. A good size fish for such a small stream. Ten minutes later and a little further upstream, I picked up my second brown. This fish was a little smaller and in excellent condition. These trout had certainly fattened up over the winter by the looks of it.
The further up the stream that I fished, the more trout I came across and they were aggressive fish too. Twenty minutes into the spin session I had a pretty good run, with five trout being caught and released. The only downfall was hooking and losing four trout, three of them in a row. Then to top it off the wind arrived from the northeast. That didn't help the cause either, it can shut the trout down for some reason.
The air temperature really dropped as well. It was quite mild to start with, then once the wind arrived it really cooled down fast and I noticed a few drops of rain hitting the water. In the meantime, I also made a change of lure. Seeing as the trout had gone off the #00 Aglia Fluo brown spinner, I gave the #0 Aglia Fluo Micropigments rainbow spinner a short run, without a sign of a trout. I didn't stay with the rainbow spinner all that long because the water ahead of me was knee deep, so the heavier inline spinner wasn't needed.
The lure of choice this time was a small #00 Aglia Mouche Noire. It was a new spinner too... no messing around with an old one this time. It worked a treat on the trout and it wasn't all that long before I hooked and landed a small/medium size trout. With the sky becoming darker I was sure that the rain was going to get worse as time went on, so I pushed on a little quicker than I wanted to. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to pick up three small/medium size browns on the way.
The rain did arrive, so I decided to call it a day and made my way back to the car. By the time I reached the car I was a little on the damp side. I had just removed my wading gear when the rain eased off and the sun broke through the clouds. Once I was out of the wading gear, I wasn't going to put it back on and head back to the stream... as much as I would have liked. My day was done. Overall, it was a reasonably good spin session, with eight trout being caught and released from a dozen hook ups, in just over two hours. All going well with the weather, I will hit the tannin waters in another area tomorrow.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used This Trip:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods – ULS 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Mono – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader – 4lb
Mepps Inline Spinners
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire
Mepps Aglia Fluo Micropigments