I was in two minds whether or not to go fishing this morning because I was still recovering from a long eight hour spin session one day ago. In the end, I thought why not go because I only require five more trout to reach my two hundredth for this season and with the weather being fine I headed off to the Dasher River. It was 8:45 am by the time I hopped in the river and even then there was a light Easterly breeze blowing straight up the river. The river itself wasn't running all that high today, it had dropped to a nice wading height and was also a light tea colour, just right for chasing trout. I started the session using a Mepps #00 White Miller Bug inline spinner for the first five minutes without a sign of a trout so I changed over to a #0 Aglia fluo brown spinner and it didn't take all that long before a small brown fell to it. The next cast was straight back into the same stretch of water and that's when I picked up the second trout of the morning, another small aggressive brown was landed.
After its release the fishing slowed down with hardly any trout to be seen so another lure change was made, this time I went for the #0 March Brown Bug to see how it would go in the river mainly because it's been doing well on the trout in other rivers lately. It only took a few minutes while fishing a deeper stretch of water when a nice small/medium size trout took it. Even though the trout are rarely large in this beautiful little river they're still fun to catch, fight hard plus it's close to home which is even better.
This stretch of river I'm fishing today is very open on both sides of the river so there's not a lot of foliage on it so there's a lack of shaded areas when fishing in full sun like I'm in today. The more the sun gets overhead the tougher the trout fishing becomes, even more so in this shallow light tannin coloured waters. The next run of water I was about to move into was a narrow shallow run so I went for another change of lure, this time it was a #00 copper Aglia Mouche Noire spinner that went on the small snap swivel. This water did have a bit of shade on it which was good, it also gave up a small brown trout as well which was even better, that little trout was the smallest of the four caught so far. I moved a few meters forward in this narrow run and lobbed the little spinner at the top end of it, no sooner had I started to retrieve it when another brown took a liking to it. This trout was a bigger fish and just on legal size (22 cm) and it did play hard to get for a short time before I slipped the net under it. It was just legal size and in good condition, this trout was the one I wanted most of all today, it was the 200th trout of the season for me, something I wanted to reach before the New Year.
A little further up this small stream was a wide deep stretch of water, one that was too deep for me to get through and one that has given up a solid trout or two many times when I've fished it. Another lure change was made, I went back to the heavier #1 March Brown Bug spinner and that worked a treat. I took several long casts and retrieves into the top end of this deep water before a nice plump brown decided it was good enough to take it. That fish fought hard and stayed deep before it broke the surface and I slipped the net under it. With six trout caught and released in the first hour wasn't all that bad, in fact it was much better than I had expected given the sunny conditions and shallow light tannin coloured waters. From here I had to get out and bypass that deep stretch of water, I re-entered the river some thirty meters upstream and it was there where I caught the seventh trout of the spin session, it was another small brown, one that was the most beautifully coloured trout of the morning. From here on the fishing was really tough, I kept chopping and changing lures but could not not hook a trout. With the sun being much higher overhead I knew I was wasting my time by staying in the river, it was time to either head to another area that I knew was well shaded or call it a day. I did the latter and called it a day, I had done what I set out to do and that was catch my 200th trout, it was time to head for home and put my feet up.
** Equipment used:Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3kg trout rod, Okuma carbon ITX-1000 spinning reel, Mepps inline spinners, Platypus Pulse Mono premium monofilament line, Platypus Super 100 UHT mono, Platypus Pretest premium grade mono, Platypus Stealth FC lead line & Boomerang Tool Products.
Adrian (meppstas)
200th trout is in the net
Aglia Mouche wild brown trout
Another beauty that fell to the March Brown Bug
Another solid brown is in the net
Good flow in this little stream
Light tannin water full sun not ideal fishing conditions