Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Trout Fall to the Aglia

Trout Fall to the Aglia

Another warm day was forecast so I was up bright and early and in the Meander River by 6:15am this morning, in what was a beautiful cool morning to start the session off. The river was running at 60cm so everything was looking good, just hoping there may be a few trout out and about as well.

The area I fished is one that's fished poorly for most of the season so far, however after checking last season's diary yesterday, this area fished well this time last trout season.

I started the session off with the spinner that's been the go to one for most of this season and that's the Aglia Furia. The first few casts up and across the river drew the attention of a small brown for a short distance, before it turned and moved off.

A little further up the river I had a hit and miss, before another small brown darted in and took the spinner. It tossed the Furia as quick as it took it. From there on all I could manage was a couple of follows and it was now time for a change of spinner.

Going by my diary the lure that did well here this time last season was the Mepps Black #00 Aglia Mouche Noire, so that's what I went for. I had quite a few of the small #00 sizes in my tackle box but decided to go with the one and only #0 Black one that I had in my lure box. The reason I went for the larger size was because of the river height and flow, as it was running 6cm higher than last year.

The first five minutes or so I had a few follows and one hook up from a small brown that stayed on for a short time before it tossed the spinner. It wasn't that long after losing that little brown that I had my first trout well and truly hooked and in the landing net.

A little further upstream I hooked and lost another small brown, then caught and released two other browns ten metres further up the river. All the trout so far had been taken in the flat water, close to the right hand river bank.

I was having several light hits from trout in the fast water runs but just couldn't get them to take the lure full on. They weren't really aggressive hits like I was having earlier, then in no time at all it turned around and they became aggressive again. I caught and released another six in no time at all, before they shut down again as the sun hit the water and the breeze picked up from the North.

It was now 9:15am and with the sun now full on the river I decided I'd get out and try another area downstream that I knew would still be in shade. Well the river there was in shade, the only problem was I didn't see a fish during the five hundred metres of river that I fished. My day had come to an end at around 10:20am, a reasonably fair time spent chasing trout with nine trout caught and released in that time.

Adrian (meppstas)