Very wet & windy weather was the forecast here today, well by 2:30 PM I was sick of waiting for it to arrive so headed over to Merseylea for a short spin session. As soon as I arrived so did the rain, thankfully it was only light and wasn't a problem. As the time passed by so did the rain, the trout were few and far between here too. All I could manage was three hook ups for just the one small brown landed. Another one had its revenge with me as I went to lift it from the water it tosses the lure which in turn sliced through my finger. All good in the end as I always carry a small first aid kit in my vest for this very reason. I often have to yank a treble hook from a lure that has embedded itself in a finger or some other part of my hand from time to time.

The river bottom was in pretty poor condition here as well with a lot of brown algae covering the rocky bottom. Every time the lure touched a rock it was fouled by the algae. I did have a few follows, other than that it wasn't a very good spin session with the trout so few & far between.. I tried a couple of hard body lures as well in a couple of the wider slow flowing runs & never sited a trout. They continued to get fouled by the brown algae as well so I didn't stay with them for all that long. Today I fished above the middle bridge at Merseylea, this is my third or forth trip to this area and each time it's fished poorly. I'm not sure what the reason is in the Merseylea area as the whole area has fished poorly right from the start of the season, in six trips I've only caught thirteen trout. The Mepps Aglia Furia was the lure that caught the trout & sliced my finger too. I also tried a out a new spin fishing outfit today, a small Okuma Ceymar C-10 reel & Okuma LRF 1-3 kg, 6 ft rod, found they coupled up very well together, nice and light and a well balanced set up.

Adrian Webb (meppstas)

Brown algae river bottom full of it

The one and only trout caught

Trout caught here

Trouts revenge