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Trout 400 for the Season
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Mild weather and lower water levels saw me heading back to the tannin water again today in the hope of catching a few trout to reach number 400 for the season. I wasn't in a rush to get to the stream today either and it was 9:30am by the time I was in the water. I started the session off using a Mepps #0 Aglia Fluo Phospho (white) inline spinner. With the water still being reasonably dark in colour, I thought this was a good colour to start off with. I could have also gone with the White Miller Bug also, another good dark water inline spinner.
It only took a few casts and retrieves with the Aglia spinner, before it was taken by a solid brown trout. While I messed around trying to get my camera out to film the catch, the trout tossed the spinner. This was no one's fault but my own. I've lost so many fish doing this throughout the trout season and it's something I will continue to do again.
The next stretch of water was a narrow, faster flowing one, that was just above knee deep. As I retrieved the Aglia spinner downstream a small trout followed it for a short distance before it disappeared in the dark tannin water. That was enough for me to go for a change of lure, so it was a #00 White Miller Bug that I went for. This is a lure that does well on the trout in this little stream, even more so when the water was like it was today.
The first cast was a little too much to the left side of the stream, which was the faster flowing side, so it was a wasted cast. My next cast was more to the right side of the narrow stretch of water, where the flow was much slower. On the retrieve a small trout took the spinner, and my first trout of the session was landed.
After its release I went to run the sharpening stone over the treble hooks and noticed one of the hooks wasn't off centre as much as I liked it to be. As I started to bend it the hook broke, so that left the lure with two hooks. So, I removed another one, leaving the spinner with one hook. I have several small Mepps #00, well-used inline spinners that have only one hook on them, and they still catch trout. Like I say, it only takes one hook to catch a fish.
As I approached the next stretch of medium flowing water, I spotted a couple of bow waves moving away from the tail end of it. They were trout, darting off from the slightest noise from my wading boots on the gravelly river bottom. This is always a problem when fishing small streams, where the slightest noise on the bottom of the stream carries a long way and that's all it takes to spook the fish.
The more the water level drops, the tougher it gets when fishing these small streams. Even a small 1.5g lure hitting the water is enough to send them darting off. So, you can imagine what it's like when the water is a light tannin colour and it’s a bright sunny day. Thankfully today was mainly overcast, which was in my favour in terms of catching a few trout.
That medium flowing stretch of water didn't give up a fish and neither did the next couple of small runs. It wasn't until I came to another deeper stretch of water that I caught my second trout of the morning. This fish was a better size and did it's best to toss the one hook White Miller spinner. It didn't do it and I soon had it in the net.
Thirty-five minutes into the spin session and I now had two trout to my tally. I still needed another two to reach my 400 for the season. A little further upstream I hooked and lost another trout. It was time to make another lure change and this time I went for a gold #00 Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire, another of my favourite lures that does well on the trout. After hooking and losing two more trout, as I slowly fished my way upstream, I finally had a trout stay on and I had trout number three in the net.
Ahead of me was a wide and waist deep fifteen metre stretch of water. This was one that had given up trout eight times out of the past ten times that I've fished it. With it being waist deep I went back to a White Miller Bug spinner and this time I went up one size to a #0 (2.5 gram).
After working the water in a one-eighty-degree radius, with no signs of a trout, I was starting to feel a little dejected that this water was going to let me down. I was about to move forward and make my way into the next stretch of water when I decided to have one more cast and retrieve before moving on. That was the best decision of the morning by far as halfway into retrieving the spinner a trout took the White Miller and it was fish on.
With the water being deeper this trout pulled hard and stayed deep. I took my time and let it run as often as I could, so that it would become tired, which happened. Once it got tired, that's when I got the camera out and filmed it, at the same time hoping that it wouldn't toss the spinner. It didn't and I eased it into the net. Once the fish was in the net (10:40am) I couldn't believe how relieved I felt. The weight was off my shoulders… mainly because I had expected to reach this target three trips ago, when I only needed nine trout to get it. My 400th trout of the season was a nice well-conditioned trout and after a couple of photos it was released back into the stream for another day.
From here on the fishing slowed down and the only trout seen were those that darted off as I slowly approached some shallow stretches of water. It was time to go back to the little Aglia Mouche Noire again, to see if it could work its magic and add another trout to my season's tally sheet. It did just that, while fishing a well-covered stretch of water, when a nice medium size trout fell to its charm. My fifth trout was in the net.
Not long after its release, and a little further upstream, I had a couple of trout have a go at the spinner, with both fish missing being hooked. I was about to call it a day then thought I would try a small floating hardbody lure, fished into a small, deep pocket of water. It turned out to be the best decision of the spin session. The first cast into that small piece of water and the lure was smashed by a beautiful brown trout and a large one at that. It took a while before I fully had control of that fish and it tired enough to slip the net under it.
This trout was the best of all the trout that I have caught in this little stream all season and after weighing it in the net (935g) then deducting the 310g weight of the net, the trout was a nice 635g fish. The condition of this female brown was excellent and the girth of it was quite large, which meant she was full of eggs. Thankfully no damage was done by the treble hooks of the hardbody and she was released back into the stream in good order. I did fish on for a short time, without seeing another trout and my day was done at 12:20pm.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During My Trout Season:
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rods - ULS 1-3kg
Okuma LRF Spin Rods – 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-1000
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 Pulse Mono Premium Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Super 100 Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Pre-test Monofilament – 4lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners
Mepps Bug Inline Spinner
Mepps Aglia Mouche Noire