Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Working for the Big Bite 5-4-21

Working for the Big Bite 5-4-21

Adrian (meppstas) Webb

Adrian shares a trip from last season where there was plenty of trout action, however he was kept working hard for the big bite. Fish on!

I thought I would give the tannin waters a rest today and head off to one of the larger rivers, for a spin session on what was a perfect day. With the Meander River still running high, I thought I would take the shorter drive to the Mersey River and just fish the fast water in the upper reaches of it. When I arrived at the river there was another angler (from Hobart) setting up to fish in the river. He was a fly fisher and was going to fish the wide open, slow flowing water. That was good as it meant that I could go well ahead of him and fish the fast waters that I had planned to do. He was quite a nice chap and he had several questions for me too. What's the fishing like here? What's the best side to fish it from and what about the size of trout that are caught in the area. I answered every question that he asked, which he was thankful for.

Once he set off to the river, I hopped into my gear and headed off for the approximately seven hundred metre walk to the fast water runs. It was 8:05am when I hit the water. I started fishing the fast water with a Mepps #0 March Brown coloured Bug spinner, mainly because of the water being clear and the sun starting to hit the surface. I felt anything brighter than a March Brown or Stone Fly spinner may put the trout off.

I spent around five minutes casting and drifting the lure with the flow, without a sign of a trout, then made the change to a Mepps #00 Copper Aglia Mouche Noire, just to see if my earlier prediction was right. This was a brand new lure, so the blade was very shiny and with trout being very light sensitive in clear water, I still may not see a trout. I thought I would test it out in a very small, shallow tail water for starters and the first cast and retrieve resulted in a soft hit.

On the second cast and retrieve I hooked and landed a juvenile brown trout. To me that didn't mean all that much because small trout are the most aggressive. For them it's a matter of survival, hunting for what looks like a feed and they will have a go at anything that passes by.

From there I moved into another fast water run. This one was much deeper and I spotted a trout sitting just under the surface, about two thirds of the way across the river. I flicked the little Mouche Noire up and across the river, letting it drift with the flow and at the same time keeping the line tight. The spinner drifted with the flow to where the trout was sitting. I couldn't have judged it any better and as soon as the spinner drifted past the fish, it turned and took it.

It was a rainbow trout that made a couple of solid runs before heading into the water weeds where I thought I would lose it. I didn't. It was too well hooked and made it into the landing net. It wasn't a large rainbow either, just a medium size 310 gram fish, that I was still happy with as they all add up in the end. That was the only trout seen and caught in that fifteen metre stretch of fast water. The next fast water was a couple of hundred metres further upstream and that's where I headed.

With the tail end of the fast water being deeper, I went back to a #0 March Brown Bug spinner, in the hope of catching a large rainbow trout like the one I had caught here on a previous trip. I spent fifteen minutes or more, working the lure in every bit of this fast deep water run, without a touch.

As I moved into the knee deep fast water, it was the small Copper #00 Mepps Aglia spinner that I went to. This was one of my old and well-used favourites. I wasn't all that long into fishing that fast water, when I had my first hook up. It was a small brown that tossed the spinner in quick time. After that, I had several more hit and misses from small trout. Where were the larger trout that I often catch here? They were nowhere to be seen so far, which was very unusual.

A little further upstream is where the fun started. I started catching small rainbows to start with and then a couple of browns, before the rainbows took over again. At one stage, after hooking a small brown, a large brown trout came out of nowhere and swam right up behind the little hooked trout, before moving off. At one point I thought it was going to take it and in a way I was hoping it would swallow it and I would have caught the best trout of the session so far.

I continued to catch these small browns and rainbows in the fast water, right up to the very end of it. All up, the fast water that I fished gave up nine rainbows (only one being of legal size) and four under size brown trout. I did hook a decent size brown trout that tossed the spinner after a couple of leaps from the river. I also headed further upstream to another deep, fast flowing stretch of water, where I had a trout follow the lure before it turned away and disappeared into the deep water.

The sun was high and full on the water by then and with no fast water runs ahead of me, it was time to call it a day. I was disappointed not to catch any decent sized browns and rainbows today, however on the other hand it was nice to see a lot of small trout in the river. Those small trout, should they survive, are the future fish of this river, which is good to see.

Adrian (meppstas)

Equipment Used for the Trout Season:

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