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They're Not All Monsters

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

I headed off for a late (2:15pm) afternoon spin session in a small stream not all that far from home, in what was fairly cool and mainly sunny conditions, accompanied by a 10kph wind blowing from the East. With the river still running a little on the high side, I started the session off using a Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo brown trout inline spinner and it only took five minutes before the first trout of the day was hooked.

This first fish was a solid well-conditioned brown that smashed the spinner no sooner it had hit the water. It was well hooked too and there was no way that it was going to toss the lure, especially after it had tied itself up after doing a few crocodile rolls. After the release of that trout I continued fishing my way upstream, casting the Aglia spinner into every bit of flat water that I came across, without a sign of a trout in any of them.

So, after twenty five minutes without seeing a fish, I went for a change of lure and it was back on with the old beat up, ever-reliable #00 Gold Aglia spinner. After bypassing a full on fast water run, I came to a nice section of water where a small creek flowed into it. To the left of the creek entrance was a small flat water that was perfect for a trout. It was on the second cast into it that the Gold Aglia was taken by a small/medium size trout and the second trout caught was soon in hand.

I fished the last reasonable stretch of slower flowing water, without catching a trout, and it wasn't worth going on any further once I had reached the top end of this slow flowing water. The river from here on was mainly all fast water runs and not worth fishing until the water level drops a few inches. It was time (3:45pm) to head back to the car and drive a kilometre and a half up the road, to a nice long stretch of this river that's much easier to wade.

It was 4:05pm when I was back in the river, flicking the little #00 Gold Aglia around in a shallow, light tannin and medium flowing stretch of water. Along the right hand side of the river there was a nice bubble line (or food line as I like to call it) and that's always a good area to work with a lure. Trout will sit either side of it waiting for feed.

A cast directly upstream and then as I retrieved the little spinner, at the same speed as the flow, the lure was taken by a trout. Well, this trout was little. In fact it was the smallest trout I've caught this season and probably many other past seasons too. It was a tiddler.

After its release I made a longer cast back into the same area. Two turns of the reel was all it took before it was fish on again. This one was a bigger fish, about four times larger than the tiddler. Two trout caught and released in three minutes was a good result at this stage and with plenty of good water ahead, the day's catch rate may even get better.

I spent a few minutes flicking the little Aglia around in the shallow water and had several more hits from some very small trout. Those trout that were having a crack at the lure weren't any bigger than the little one I had caught a short time ago. I was pretty happy to see these little trout in the river and the signs were there that it may have been a good spawning season in 2019.

I continued to fish my way upstream and had several more hits from small trout as well as hooking and losing a medium size brown. It wasn't looking all that good for me at this stage, with so many hits without a single trout landed. The aggression was there from the trout, but for some reason they just weren't getting hooked. When I did finally hook one it tossed the spinner as quick as it took it.

I was forty minutes into the second stint of the spin session when I hooked and landed the fifth trout of the spin session. This fish was taken in a flat water, behind a log in the river. I was only fifty metres from where the car was parked and with just two decent stretches of river left to fish, before reaching it and calling it a day, I wasn't all that confident of catching another fish.

I was into the last shallow, wide and medium flowing run of water when I hooked another medium size brown. I had the sixth trout already added to my tally as I felt it was well hooked as it made a few leaps from the river. I added it to the trip tally too soon, as on its fifth leap from the river it tossed the spinner. My time in the river came to an end with the loss of that fish. As much as I would have liked to catch a few more trout, I was reasonably happy with a score of five... it could have been worse.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment used on various trout trips:

Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg trout rods
Okuma LRF Spin Rods - Split Grip 1-3kg
Okuma Inspira Blue Spin Reels - ISX-20B
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels - HSX-20
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar Spin Reels - C-10
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Pre-Test Monofilament Fishing Line
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Boomerang Tool Products