Today I was in two minds of whether to go and wet a line or not given the forecast was for cold and wet conditions. It was a little cloudy here and very cool but it didn't look like it was going rain for quite some time, so I decided I would go and wet a line for a few hours. This time I decided to head over to a river just to the West of home, one that I often have a session on early in the season. This river usually gives up a few browns at this time of year because there's always plenty of flow in it. During the warmer months it drops to a very low level as well as being crystal clear. I only ever fish it during the warmer months if and when we have had some decent rain. I wasn't sure what the river would be like after the record June floods either, it could be completely ruined by them. Once there it was a relief to see it was still intact, though a little wider with some damage to the rivers banks. It was running at a medium height, cloudy and most importantly it was wade-able which mattered most to me.
I was soon in the river working my way upstream finding it a little difficult getting a good footing on the rocky and slippery river bottom. Even with the spiked felt soled wading boots staying upright was areal challenge. The three month lay off from trout fishing was certainly showing me I needed to have got on the exercise bike more often. Still,I kept working the river without a sign or a touch from a trout. I was using the same little rainbow trout model lure that I tested a couple of days ago to see if it would do the same job here. There's no reason that it wouldn't, but stranger things have happened. Some lures work well in one river and don't in another, it often depends on the mood of the trout too. The first three hundred meters was quiet, though I did have a follow and a couple of light taps on the lure. So, the trout where here, now it's just a matter of getting them to take the lure.
I had now reached a nice medium fast water run which to me looked like it should be holding a trout or two. The very first cast into a bubble line along the edge of the river bank had a small brown take notice of the lure. It wouldn't take it though, just sat some five centimeters off the rear end of the hard body lure. Another cast back to the same area had this little brown come back again, this time I slowed the retrieve, then twitched the rod at the same time raising the rod tip. This worked and that little brown took the lure. It was soon in the net and then back in the river and on it's way. This worked again in this same stretch of fast water on the next four browns that came at the lure. All four browns had to be enticed into taking the lure, they were in one of those moods today and this was more than likely due to the water temperature being a low 7 degrees. Good thing was that these four browns were much bigger fish and really well conditioned. The biggest brown went 510 gms, the smallest 490 gms, all quality fish that were released. I decided I would try the brown trout pattern now to see if I could bag a fish using a different lure pattern. I managed just the one follow, no matter what I tried that brown wasn't one bit interested in it. It was back on with the rainbow lure and in no time I had the brown take the lure. One leap & head shake from this fish had it tossing the lure. Still, it did show me to stay with the rainbow pattern for the rest of this session.
Over the next four hundred meters I was hit with three showers of rain and I became pretty well saturated for quite some time. The heavy rain didn't help with the fishing either, they shut down as they do with heavy rain hitting the surface of the river. Light rain's not a problem, it's just the heavy rain. Wet and now a little tired I thought I would just fish another hundred meters of river and then call it a day. It was now much cooler and being wet wasn't helping either. Over that distance I did have two more takes for one more nice solid brown caught and released. Five of the six browns caught today all had that beautiful golden colour that I love to see on a wild brown trout. Today wasn't an easy day on the river, it was very challenging and rewarding with six browns landed from eight hook ups.

Adrian (meppstas)

spin fishing fast water

brown trout muzzas lure

nice brown ready for release

solid brown