Fourteen trout caught in tough conditions 15/2/2016
The forecast wasn't all that flash today with winds reaching 45-55 kph during the day and I had intended to have a day at home after hearing that report. It was 7.30 am and the wind here in Sheffield wasn't all that bad so I quickly got into my fishing clothes and headed of to the Meander River to have a session before the wind picked up. After a forty five minute drive I was in the river flicking the little black fury around by 9.00am. There was plenty of smoke from the bush fires being blown across the area too, it was really thick and this wasn't going to make the day any easier either. It seemed more like 8.00pm it was that dark here and it wasn't all that warm, in fact the air was quite cool.
The first run I fished didn't show any signs of trout, not even a single follow. Then I remembered it was Monday and I was fishing close to an Angler's Access area so it may have had a fair bit of traffic here over the weekend. Going by the flattened grass it looked like it probably did too. I bypassed the first four hundred meters of river and started off in a very rocky fast water stretch of water. It didn't take too long before I had my first two fish caught & released from three hook ups.
The next couple of runs were medium flowing and I had a couple of follows from small browns that sat back some 15 cms from the spinner. On next the retrieve I gave the rod tip a lift while giving the rod a light twitch at the same time, then lowering the rod tip which makes the spinner flutter this often entices the trout into taking the spinner. It worked and I managed to pick up both of those little 280gm browns in the end. This kept using this method for most of the session which lasted just over four hours. In that time I caught & released another ten browns and lost two others. The wind was really just to get much stronger now and it was near impossible to cast the little black fury in these conditions. Besides that, I was feeling a little buggered and I still had a two kilometre walk back to the car. Not only that I it was a head wind that was now at it's strongest for the day. Even though it wasn't the best of conditions for river fishing today I was glad I had decided to go when I did. Had I stayed home any longer I more than likely would have changed my mind and not gone fishing at all. The fourteen trout took my season tally to 486 which just leaves me another fourteen trout to catch before the end of the month to reach my target.
One of fourteen browns caught & released today
A real body killer stretch of the Meander River Meander
Meander River, Meander