Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Wild Browns & Rainbows
Wild Browns & Rainbows
With some light cloud around this morning, I thought I would head over to the Mersey River and have a short spin session before the sun burnt the cloud off. Conditions were quite nice, with hardly a breath of wind and the river was at the perfect wading height.
As I entered the river (7:40am), I noticed a few trout on the rise just ahead of me, so I flicked the Mepps Aglia Furia well past the fish and retrieved the spinner back a little faster than the flow. It didn't take long before I had a bow wave appear behind the lure and it was fish on! Very first cast and I was onto a fish.
The fish played merry hell as it made several runs every which way, as well as taking a few leaps from the river, before I netted it. A great way to start the session with a well-conditioned 430 gram brown on the first cast of the morning. I had a few more follows after that in the same area, but no takers. I decided to bypass the long slow flowing water and just concentrate on fishing the fast water runs.
I was very careful not to fall in as I neared the same area where I took a dive and drowned my camera on the last trip here. That day I didn't get to fish the fast water runs at all, however today was another day and this time I made it.
It was here that I went for a change of lure. The Aglia Mouche Noire went on and it only took a few casts before I had a beautiful rainbow trout take it while using the drift with the flow method. This was one solid fish that really fought hard and stayed deep in the fast water, holding itself sideways in the current.
After a minute or so I thought I had it under control, however while holding the rod in one hand I went for the camera... which took me around thirty seconds to get out and then it happened. The rainbow gave the lightest headshake I've had from any fish and out popped the lure... the trout was gone in a flash. I did do a bit of cursing when it happened, no fault of the fish getting off at all. The fault was the fool holding the rod, that was the cause of losing what would have been the best rainbow for the season so far, a fish of around 600-700 grams. I should have just bought the fish into the net then got the camera out and taken a photo, not worrying about doing a video clip.
After forty five minutes of fishing I still only had that one brown from the first cast of the session! It was time to move onto another fast water two hundred metres ahead of me. After a quick bit of bush bashing I was back in the river where I had two follows from a decent size brown, but it was only window shopping today.
It was time for another change of lure and the #1 (3.5 gm) Mepps Stone Fly coloured Bug spinner was the one that I chose. I had a few cast and drifts directly across the river without getting a touch, so the next cast was up and across the river. I lobbed the lure into a flat water close to the opposite river bank, where I had spotted a trout sip something from the surface.
It wasn't until I had retrieved the lure to the edge of the fast water mid-stream that it was taken by a rainbow. This fish wasn't anywhere near the size of the one lost earlier, however it was still a solid fish. After a short tussle I had it in the net and this time the camera stayed in the waders until the fish was safely in the net. A quick photo and a short video clip and the 410 gram 'bow was back in the river and on its way.
A little further upstream I caught a nice 325 gram brown, then in the next fast water run I caught and released my second rainbow for the session. That rainbow, like the last one, put up a great battle all the way to the net. It was a smaller 330 gram fish.
After reaching the top end of the fast water runs I had a couple of casts into the tail end of a wide shallow, slow flowing stretch of river. There I was lucky enough to pick up another well-conditioned 315 gram brown trout. The sun had been on the water for an hour and a half by then and the next fast water was another four hundred metres further upstream, so my day was done.
As it was I had a 1.5 kilometre or more walk back to the car. During the long walk back through dry grass I came across hundreds of grass hoppers, so there's still plenty of trout food around. The trout in the Mersey River are still few and far between... like they have been for most of the trout season.
Adrian (meppstas)