2019 07 19 A well deserved troutToday being the last day of the trout season saw me heading off to try another piece of tannin water in the middle of the bush and yes it did require a little bush bashing to reach it. As tough as it was getting to that small tannin water it was well worth it because I was sheltered from the gusty wind that was still blowing. As I reached the water I could see it will be a pretty tough spin session, the water was very shallow, this meant I was having to go into stealth mode.

Not that it's going to work here with the water being low and a rocky bottom to walk on, plus I can be a little clumsy trying to move quietly at times. Seeing I was fishing another new tannin water I felt confident that it would be holding a trout or two because it wasn't all that far away from the one I fished yesterday. Well, it wasn't long before I spooked a couple of small trout as I slowly (and a little clumsy) moved on upstream. This trip I started off with a well used #00 Mepps copper Aglia Mouche, one that was nearly ready for retirement. A few casts directly up a shallow run and I soon had my first trout on for the morning. A little further up I had another brown take the little copper spinner, soon after releasing that fish I had my third trout hooked and landed. Three trout caught & released in the first twenty minutes was just what I was hoping for on the last day of the season.

Some stretches of the stream were nice and wide but the water was still shallow, it was the small narrow deeper runs that I concentrated on and that's where I caught the trout, a trout was caught every fifteen to twenty minutes on the copper Aglia that was now looking a lot worse for wear. The black and red tagged treble hook only had a little bit of black and red left on it, actually it now looked more like a plain copper Aglia spinner. I caught one more small brown on it before I couldn't go on any further unless I wanted to bush bash my way through a large mass of blackberry bushes.

With seven trout caught and released so far I was tempted to take a punt on getting through the blackberry bushes. I decided I wasn't going to attempt fate trying to get through them let alone ruin my $450 breathable waders. I headed on back to the car and tried another area that I knew I could easily access another small stream. The stream I headed to was running even lower that the one I had just left, I spent an hour fishing the there where I had one follow from a small brown, I knew I was wasting my time here and called it a day.

Just before I hopped out of the river I flicked the copper Aglia into a small pool and picked up trout number eight and the smallest fish of the morning. I did think about heading to one of the other small tannin waters that fished well a few days ago, then thought it best just to head for home. Those eight trout caught & released took my 2018/19 seasons catch to 573 trout which wasn't a bad result for the season after all.. Of the 573 trout caught during the season only one brown trout was kept.

Equipment used: Okuma Celilo ULS 6' 1-3kg trout rod, Okuma Helios SX20 spin reel, Platypus Super 100 mono line & Mepps inline blade spinners.

Adrian Webb (meppstas)


 2019 07 19 Small streams can be tough going at times

Small streams can be tough going at times

 

2019 07 19 End of the road

End of the road

 

2019 07 19 This water held a trout

This water held a trout

 

2019 07 19 Golden coloured brown

Golden coloured brown

 

2019 07 19 A well deserved trout

A well deserved trout