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Trout, Aggressive After Rain
By Adrian (meppstas) Webb
Seeing as we had a good dose (26 mm) of rain a couple of days ago, I thought that my favourite little tannin stream would have a much better flow and would be worth fishing. With the mornings now being pretty cool, I didn't start the spin session until 10:05 am. The stream had plenty of flow, and not only that, the water temperature was also a cool ten degrees.
The lure of choice today was a small #00 (1.5g) Mepps gold Aglia spinner. This wasn't your normal Aglia either, I had made a couple of changes to it. This is something that I do with the spinners from time to time. I had placed a small Mepps Black Fury sticker on the little inline spinner blade and a small piece of red plastic tube on the shaft of the treble hook.
I had only been in the river for two minutes when I hooked and landed the first trout of the spin session. Nothing big, just a small, beautifully coloured brown trout. A few minutes later and a little further upstream I caught a nice medium size brown trout. One that was in pretty good condition. After its release, when fishing the next stretch of water, I had a couple of soft hits, but I missed having a hook up.
Then it happened. The same thing as the last time I fished a similar stretch of water six days ago. I hooked and landed another little trout. This trout was one even smaller than the one caught back then! The small trout that I caught back then was around five inches in length, while this little brown was only four inches long. It's hard to believe how these little trout can even manage to get one of the treble hooks in their mouth, let alone two! Thankfully, like the other small brown, the hooks were easily removed, and it was soon back in the water, no worse for what it had just gone through.
A couple of casts later, in that same stretch of water, I caught another small brown. This fish was a little bigger, not by a lot though. This trout was probably seven inches long, or a fraction smaller, and it was also released unharmed.
Over the next couple of runs the fishing was a little on the quiet side, before I came to a nice medium flowing, waist deep stretch of water. This section gave up a couple of solid trout on the last trip here. Today it didn't give up a single fish, which was very disappointing. I tried a Mepps Aglia Fluo Brown and Rainbow inline spinner too, without a sign of a trout to be had.
It wasn't until I reached the shallow top end of that deeper run, after going back to the little #00 gold Aglia, that I caught a nice medium size (375g) brown trout. A little further up the stream I picked up another small trout. Half an hour passed by without a sign of a trout and it wasn't until I reached another nice stretch of water that the fishing picked up again. This stretch of water was just below knee deep and had a nice medium flow which was good to see.
It was here that I flicked the little gold Aglia into a small flatwater, close to the righthand side of the stream, and had an instant hook up. This trout was a beauty and the best fish of the session so far. It played hard to get too as it made several runs toward the weedy side of the stream. I did stop it from getting into the weeds and it didn't take all that long before it was in the net. This was a nice solid, well-conditioned trout, that weighed in at 420g, making it the biggest fish by a long shot, compared to the previous trout that I had caught.
As I approached the top end of this stretch of water, I thought the top lefthand side of it looked good enough to be holding trout, so that's where I lobbed the little Aglia spinner. A couple of turns of the reel handle was all that it took, before the lure was hit hard and fast by another nice solid trout. This fish wasn't much smaller (395g) than the last fish I had just caught and released. With eight trout now caught and released, by 11:45 am, I was feeling pretty good and would be happy if I could catch one or two more before calling it a day.
After hooking and losing a nice trout in a narrow, shallow stretch of water, and then hooking and losing another fish a little further up the stream, I was about to call it a day. I then decided to fish one more deep, short stretch of water. This was the same one I was going to fish the last time I was here, before changing my mind and continuing to head back to the car. This was the best decision I could have made today as that stretch of deep water just happened to give up two beautiful brown trout, with both fish going over the 500g mark. The biggest trout weighed 535g.
Now that I had hit the double figure mark, with ten trout caught and released, my day was done, and I started to make my way back to the car. Just as I was heading back to the car, I thought I would have one more flick into a narrow, shallow stretch of water. Call it a fluke if you like, but that narrow piece of water gave up my eleventh trout of the day. Yes, now my day was done and dusted, and I did go straight back to the car a very happy chappy.
Adrian (meppstas)
Equipment Used During my Trout Season:
TT Red Belly Spin Rod - RBS702L 7’ 1-3kg 2pce
Okuma Celilo Finesse Spin Rod – CE-S-662UL-1 6’6” 2-6lb 2Pce
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel – ITX-1000
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reel - EXPT-20
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reel – CHD-1000HA
Platypus Pulse Mono
Platypus Super 100 Mono
Platypus Pre-Test Mono
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader
Mepps Inline Spinners