Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Trout Come Out On Top

Trout Come Out On Top

By Adrian (meppstas) Webb

Being a long weekend here and knowing that the main rivers would more than likely be busy, I decided to fish a small tannin stream close to home today on private property. The weather was pretty mild, with a light easterly breeze and patches of sunlight breaking through the clouds. The tannin stream had dropped quite a lot since my last visit, which was going to be a tough spin session.

The choice of Mepps spinner was also going to be a hard one because when spin fishing in low water levels the trout can be quite fussy. With the water being a nice light tannin colour, I thought the Aglia Fluo brown spinner would be a good one to start with seeing it was a light brown and cream colour. I didn't want to start the session off with a bright lure in light tannin water that had patches of sunlight on it. If the Fluo spinner didn't work then my thought was that I may well finish up with a #00 Gold Aglia.

The first stretch of water was a nice knee deep, slow flowing one that suited the use of the #0 (2.5g) Aglia spinner. On the second cast to the right side of it a medium size trout darted out from under a tea tree that was hanging low over the stream and took the spinner. After a short tussle with the trout it tossed the spinner, just before it was in reach of the landing net. As always, I hate losing the first fish of the day as it seems to make it all that much harder to catch another one.

As much as I didn't want to change a lure that was attracting trout, I just had to go for a smaller lure with small treble hooks. I had to make the change, after having six hook ups and losing every one of them on the larger #0 Aglia Fluo, so I went for a #00 (1.5g) Stone Fly coloured Mepps Bug spinner. After a couple of follows from small browns, forty minutes later I finally picked up the first trout of the spin session. This lovely medium size trout was taken in a narrow medium/ fast flowing stretch of water.

It took me another forty-five minutes before I had the second trout take the Bug spinner and over that time I didn't see a trout. For some reason they weren't in here. After that trout's release, the following two metres gave up two follows from small trout. For some reason those fish didn't like the Stone Fly Bug spinner. It was time to make another lure change and it was on with another of my well used #00 Gold Aglia spinners.

I had a couple of light hits on the gold spinner, however the trout seemed to have lost their aggression and I didn't know why. It was when I moved into a nice shallow fast water that had a bubble line along the left side of it that I caught the third trout. I cast and retrieved the spinner back down with the bubble line and that trout was sitting in a small flat water next to the bubble line.

A little further upstream I came to a short, deep, narrow run that had a fallen old tree and some branches in it. I was about to go through it when I thought it best to flick the little gold spinner in there first. I had to do a short backhand cast, to lob the spinner where I wanted and it didn't quite land where I wanted. This turned out to be a good thing as no sooner had the spinner hit the water and it was snapped up by a beautiful solid fish.

The first thing the trout did was to head under a fallen tree branch in the water. Thankfully, it turned and came straight back out into the deeper water. It put up a good fight all the way to the net and trout number four was landed.

I had been in the water for just over two hours and was ready to call it a day, after fishing a couple more stretches of water. I fished on for another twenty minutes, for one more hook up and a couple of follows, however the trout had more or less shut down once the wind had picked up from the east.

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