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Ten Trout Session

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

With more lousy weather forecast for later in the day, I thought I would spend a few hours in the water this morning while the weather was calm. Even though it was foggy and quite cool when I left home, there wasn't any wind to contend with and that mattered most. I left the car and walked to my entry point. At 8:45am I was standing on a gravelly river bank and the first thing that I noticed was that the water level had dropped to a nice wading level. It was down by at least five inches from my last trip here, meaning the trout would be in more open, slower-flowing runs now.

I started the session off using a #00 Gold Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire spinner, as I felt it would be a good lure for the dull conditions and lower water today. While I was at the river's edge, I decided that I would cross over and head further downstream, to fish a stretch of water that I hadn't fished for a couple of seasons. This was one that did give up a few fish back in its day. Before I crossed over, I looked at a nice flat water that had a large, submerged log in it. To me it looked fishy and was worth a few casts, just to see if I was right.

No sooner had I lobbed the little Mouche Noire near the submerged log and I felt the weight of a trout on the lure. The trout mouthed it. Not a strike, it just mouthed the treble hook. I slowly raised the rod and set the treble hook of the spinner and it was fish on! I couldn't believe how fast it had happened and I was stoked to have a hook up on the first cast of the session. That trout made several runs towards the submerged log, while I kept the pressure on enough to keep it out of there. It then turned and headed back into the main stream, where I took full control of it.

The trout made a few more runs and leaps, before tiring and I eased it onto the sandy river bank. It was a solid (410g), well-conditioned and beautifully coloured trout. Like all my trout, it was released for another day. Catching trout on the first cast and retrieve is something that rarely happens and when it does it can go two ways. Either you have a good day on them or one with just a couple caught for the day. Myself, I really felt that with the lower water level it was going to be one that would see quite a few trout make it into the landing net.

After crossing the river, I decided not to go all the way to where I had originally intended to start from. Instead, I thought I would leave it for another day. After a little bit of bush bashing, I finished up hopping into the water around one hundred metres downstream from where I crossed over. The water looked good too and I thought that it would give up a few trout as I worked my way upstream. It only gave up one medium size brown and that fish, like the last one, only mouthed the treble hook. It was taken by raising the rod tip to set the hook.

I had no idea why there wasn't any aggression taken by the two trout caught so far. It may have been due to the water temperature still being low. I managed to break the treble hook with my forceps, when removing it from the trout, but I didn't damage the trout in any way. I replaced the little Gold Aglia Mouche Noire with its cousin, the Gold Aglia Mouche Rouge. The difference between the two is that the Noire has a black and red tag treble, whereas the Rouge has a brown and red tag treble. Having caught two trout from two hook ups now, I was quite happy with how the spin session was going at this stage.

Once back at the area where I first crossed over, I started to slowly make my way upstream in the knee deep, medium-flowing tannin water. I concentrated on retrieving the lure down the bubble line, that was to the right side of the river. It also had a nice flat water along that side as well. After several casts and retrieves a small brown took the spinner and this time it was an aggressive attack on the lure, which was more to my liking.

As I continued to fish my way upstream, I picked up two more browns in ten minutes. Before I knew it, I had five trout on my tally sheet, making it my best catch for this season so far. After the release of the fifth trout the fishing went quiet for a short time, before it was fish on again and I had reached the half a dozen mark. Now I wanted to reach the double figure mark, before calling it a day. With plenty of nice water ahead of me I knew I had a good chance of reaching it too.

A little further up the stream I hooked and lost a small trout, then a few minutes on I had my seventh trout in the net. Like all the trout caught so far it was taken next to the bubble line and it too was also an aggressive attack on the spinner. Every trout caught so far had been in excellent condition, all plump fish and this included the smaller browns as well. It was 11:45am when I caught my seventh trout of the session. My back was starting to tighten up on me. It was really time for me to call it a day, however I still wanted to reach the double figure catch first. So, I fished on. It was a good decision as, even though I was in pain, I did catch three more trout in twenty minutes and reached my set target. I called it a day and started to head back to the car.

On the walk back to the car I decided to give one more stretch of water a go. Big mistake that was. As I made my way up in waist deep water I tripped on a submerged log and yep... I took the plunge into the drink. I drowned another camera (my third now) too. Thankfully, my brain engaged and I pulled the camera from the inside of my waders in quick time. It was wet and went a little haywire when I turned it on. I rushed back to the car, dried it off with the car heater and it's back in good working order again.

Not only that, while heading back to the car I took the camera battery and memory card out to dry them off. After walking some forty yards or so I then couldn't find the memory card. I had dropped it somewhere! I back tracked and was lucky enough to spot it in the grass. Was it luck or pure arse that I found it? I didn't really care. All that mattered was that I found it. It had all the morning's spin session on it as well as 2,600 other photos. It was still a top few hours spent chasing trout... even with the little mishap.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment Used:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rod
Okuma ITX Carbon Spinning Reels - ITX-1000
Platypus Pulse Monofilament Line - 4lb
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament Line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 4lb
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire Inlien Spinner