After having my weekly dose of injections this morning I decided to have a mid afternoon spin session in one of my favourite tannin waters. The conditions were quite good with mainly overcast conditions and a light South Easterly breeze. By the time I got myself organised and headed off, it was 2:20 pm by the time I hit the water. Seeing as I was using the same set up as my last trip I left it at that, no lure change was made, I stuck with the Mepps #00 March Brown Bug spinner.
The first stretch of water I fished was narrow and shallow, I had three hits in it for one hook up from a medium size trout which I lost with its first head shake. A little further up I had several follows from small to medium size trout but no takers and I was thinking it may be time for a lure change. To reach the next nice faster flowing waters I had to make my way over a solid log jam, one of many that's on these small streams since the floods we had a few months ago. Once over it I thought I'd stick with the March Brown a little longer, if it doesn't get a hit here or a hook up I will go for a lure change. It was on the second cast and retrieve when the lure was hit hard, a solid medium size brown had taken it, after a short tussle that fish tired and was in the net. Like I always say, it's a good feeling once one has the first fish of the session in the landing net and on the scorecard. That was the only trout caught in that stretch of water, the following narrow run was much better and it wasn't the Mepps March Brown that did the job in either.
After having a few follows and a soft hit from the trout I made a lure change, the Mepps White Miller Bug replaced the March Brown. The change of lure did the trick in quick time, I caught and released two trout in five minutes in that small medium flowing run. From there I made my way over another log jam and the White Miller did attract the attention of a couple of non aggressive trout so I gave a Mepps #00 gold Aglia Mouche Noire which never even attracted a trout so I went back to the March Brown Bug. The change back to the bug worked a treat, even though it took a few casts and retrieves I caught a small/medium size trout in the water that the other two spinners didn't. From there I moved into a wide deep run of water where I had a couple of trout follow the spinner for a short distance before moving off not to be seen again.
That wide deep stretch of water was around 150 metres long with high river banks on each side of it so I had to bypass it. I couldn't help but have one more cast into it before I moved on, that last cast in it resulted with a nice solid brown being caught which put a smile on my face. Once I had reached the top end of that deep run I could see that there was a nice deep pocket of flat water that had a nice bubble line next to it, to me that spelt “trout holding area” and that's where the first cast went. No sooner had the March Brown hit the water it was smashed by a solid trout, this was certainly the fish of the day by far. With the water being deep and good flow it held deep and pulled hard, I was feeling a little concerned that one or two of the well worn treble hooks on the lure may part ways and I'll lose the trout.
Thankfully after a good battle with the trout I finally had it in the net, it was a real relief once it was landed that's for sure. It was certainly a beautiful looking brown trout and in the best of condition too, after I deducted the 300 gram net weight it came in at 625 grams which is a good size fish for such a small stream. It was good to see the trout was no worse for the tussle it had once hooked, it was released back into the stream in good condition. After its release I had to bypass another long run of deep water before I could hop back into some nice knee deep water that had a mix of medium and fast flowing runs that I knew would be holding a few trout. With six trout being caught and released, all going well, I was hoping to reach a double figure or better catch today. Once I was back in the stream I couldn't hook a fish, I continued to lose them as they leaped from the water, it was becoming a little frustrating.
The inline spinner wasn't the problem, it was just the way the trout were taking it, they were hitting it hard and fast side on and only being lipped, that's why I was losing them. Eventually after thirty minutes of hooking and losing them I had one that was well hooked and it made it into the landing net. What I did notice was the small sparkly pieces that are attached to the treble hook were a little long, so I trimmed them back so that they were level with the bottom of the trebles. I normally do this with all of my Bug spinners, mainly because I like them short and not long. Once done, the next trout that hit the lure was hooked and soon in the net, the drought was broken and it was fish on again. From then on I was hooking and landing more trout that I was losing, the majority of the trout I caught were all nice solid browns in the 400-450 gram range, something that doesn't happen all that often in this small stream.
Before 2011 this little tannin stream used to give up fish of this size and larger on a regular basis until we had a drought here in Tasmania, this little stream stopped flowing and the trout died. A few good Winters and very wet Spring weather has really brought many small streams back to what they once were. I continued to fish until 5:00 pm and caught quite a few more trout which took my total catch to fifteen for the spin session. Tomorrow morning I will return to this small stream and start off from where I finished fishing today, I'm sure it will be a top day with many more trout being caught to give my season tally a good boost.
Adrian (meppstas)
One of fifteen trout caught today
The fish of the day
The march brown bug was the lure of the day
The perfect trout combo does the job
The white miller bug worked on this trout
