Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » The Bug Gets Bit
Related Products...
The Bug Gets Bit
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
After having my weekly dose of injections this morning, I decided to have a mid-afternoon spin session in one of my favourite tannin waters. The conditions were quite good, with mainly overcast conditions and a light south easterly breeze. By the time I got myself organised and headed off, it was 2:20pm by the time I hit the water. Seeing as I was using the same set up as my last trip, I left it at that, no lure change was made and I stuck with the #00 March Brown coloured Mepps Bug spinner.
The first stretch of water that I fished was narrow and shallow. I had three hits in it for one hook up, from a medium size trout, that I lost with its first head shake. A little further up I had several follows, from small to medium size trout, but no takers and I was thinking it may be time for a lure change. To reach the next nice, faster-flowing waters, I had to make my way over a solid log jam. This was just one of many that's now on these small streams since the floods we had a few months ago.
Once over it, I thought I'd stick with the March Brown a little longer. If it didn't get a hit here or a hook up, I’d go for a lure change. It was on the second cast and retrieve that the lure was hit hard. A solid medium size brown had taken it and after a short tussle the fish tired and was in the net. Like I always say, it's a good feeling once one has the first fish of the session in the landing net and on the scorecard.
That was the only trout caught in that stretch of water. The following narrow run was much better, but it wasn't the March Brown that did the job in either. After having a few follows and a soft hit from the trout, I made a lure change, and the White Miller Bug replaced the March Brown. The change of lure did the trick in quick time. I caught and released two trout in five minutes, fishing that small, medium-flowing run. From there I made my way over another log jam and the Bug spinner did attract the attention of a couple of non-aggressive trout, so I gave a #00 Gold Aglia Mouche Noire a go. This option never even attracted a trout, so I went back to the March Brown coloured Bug spinner.
The change back to the bug worked a treat. Even though it took a few casts and retrieves, I caught a small/medium size trout in the water where the other two spinners didn't. From there I moved into a wide, deep run of water, where I had a couple of trout follow the spinner for a short distance, before moving off not to be seen again. That wide, deep stretch of water was around 150 metres long, with high riverbanks on each side of it, so I had to bypass it. I couldn't help but have one more cast into it before I moved on and that last cast resulted in a nice solid brown being caught, which put a smile on my face.
Once I had reached the top end of that deep run, I could see that there was a nice deep pocket of flat water, that had a nice bubble line next to it. To me that spelt ‘trout holding area’ and that's where the first cast went. No sooner had the March Brown Bug hit the water and it was smashed by a solid trout. This was certainly the fish of the day by far. With the water being deep and having good flow, the fish held deep and pulled hard.
I was feeling a little concerned that one or two of the well-worn treble hooks on the lure may part ways and I'd lose the trout. Thankfully, after a good battle with the trout, I finally had it in the net. It was a real relief once it was landed, that's for sure. It was certainly a beautiful looking brown trout and in the best of condition too. After I deducted the 300g net weight it came in at 625g, which is a good size fish for such a small stream. It was good to see the trout was no worse for the tussle it had once hooked, and it was released back into the stream in good condition.
After its release I had to bypass another long run of deep water, before I could hop back into some nice knee-deep water, that had a mix of medium and fast flowing runs, that I knew would be holding a few trout. With six trout being caught and released, all going well, I was hoping to reach a double-figures or better today.
Once I was back in the stream, I couldn't hook a fish. I continued to lose them as they leaped from the water, and it was becoming a little frustrating. The inline spinner wasn't the problem, it was just the way the trout were taking it. They were hitting it hard and fast side on and only being lipped, that's why I was losing them. Eventually, after thirty minutes of hooking and losing them, I had one that was well hooked and it made it into the landing net.
What I did notice was that the small sparkly pieces that were attached to the treble hook were a little long, so I trimmed them back so that they were level with the bottom of the trebles. I normally do this with my Bug spinners, mainly because I like them short and not long. Once done, the next trout that hit the lure was hooked and soon in the net. The drought was broken and it was fish on again.
From then on, I was hooking and landing more trout than I was losing. The majority of the trout I caught were all nice solid browns in the 400-450g range, something that doesn't happen all that often in this small stream. Before 2011 this little tannin stream used to give up fish of this size and larger on a regular basis, until we had a drought here in Tasmania. This little stream stopped flowing and the trout died. A few good winters and very wet spring weather has really brought many small streams back to what they once were.
I continued to fish until 5:00pm and caught quite a few more trout, which took my total catch to fifteen for the spin session. Tomorrow morning, I will return to this small stream and start off from where I finished fishing today. I'm sure it will be a top day, with many more trout being caught, giving my season tally a good boost.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During My Trout Season
TT Red Belly Spin Rods - RBS702L 7’ 1-3kg 2pce
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods – 6’6” 1-3kg 2pce
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reels – CHD-1000HA
Platypus Pulse Premium Mono
Platypus Super 100 Mono
Platypus Pre-Test Mono
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners