2019 04 01 Bog spinner and Wild brown troutSeeing as we had a Angling Club fishing day at Huntsman Lake at Meander I thought I'd get a few hours of fishing the Meander River in before heading to the lake. I was still dark when I arrived & headed off through the paddocks on a 1.5 km walk to where I was starting the spin session in the river.

By the time I reached the river it was light enough to hop in and start fishing where I had a couple of follows from a solid brown at the tail end of a long slow flowing run. I tried several different lures but that fish just wasn't in an aggressive mood. The next stretch of river gave up nothing and it wasn't until I reached a nice narrow medium/fast flowing run when I had my first take. A small (280 gm) brown took the Mepps Aglia brown spinner from a cast & drift under the willows close to the river bank, I had my first trout of the morning.

That was the last trout seen over the next four hundred meters when I decided to walk a kilometre back to the car and try another area a few kilometres away. When I reached the next area I was going to fish there was light fog on the river which soon lifted not long after I entered the river, conditions here where perfect. I stayed with the Aglia brown for around ten minutes and had a couple of follows but no takers, it was time for a lure change.

I went with the Aglia Mouche Noire, same thing happened, more follows so another change of lure was had. This time it was the #1 (3.5 gm) March Brown Bug spinner, why I went for it was because it was a similar colour to the light brown grasshoppers that are out & about this time of the year. After a couple of casts close to the opposite river bank I was soon onto a brown that snapped up the spinner Once again it was the cast and drift method in this fast flowing stretch of river that worked on the trout.

A little further up the river & using the same method I was onto another brown, this one was a much better fish than the previous two caught so far. After a good tussle with the trout I had it in reach of the landing net, it was a beautiful 460 gram fish. After releasing it I moved into a very fast flowing stretch of river where I had one hit & miss. As I was heading into another nice medium/fast flowing stretch of river and flicked the lure into to tail end of it & close to the opposite river bank.

It was here I watched another solid brown come from nowhere, it moved in fast & sat right up behind the March Brown spinner. I could see the white insides of it's mouth opening & closing as it followed closely behind the lure. I raised the rod tip slightly to keep the line tight as the spinner drifted with the flow before giving the rod a light twitch then watched the trout take the spinner. No sooner had it taken the Bug spinner it took of downstream and into the shallow fast water where I had to let it do it's own thing.

The water it went into was so fast I had no control over the fish, all I could do was to move carefully downstream with it. Being so rocky & slippery one I had to go easy, I wouldn't take the risk slipping over in this fast water. The fish made several leaps as I tried to keep the lightest of pressure on the fine 4 lb mono line, then it happened, one solid head shake and it was gone. That trout wasn't any bigger than the 460 gram fish, it was probably close to being the same size. In the end it was the force of the fast water that did the job & me not taking the risk of going with it as it headed downstream at a rate of knots. That solid brown came out on top this time, next time hopefully it will be me that comes out on top.

Moving back into the medium/fast flowing run I was about to enter a short time ago I hooked and lost another brown, that one was just a little fish. I went for another change of spinner, the Stone Fly Bug spinner went on this time. I was about half way into fishing this stretch of river and another cast close to the opposite river bank I hooked another nice brown, a medium size fish that went 330 grams. I fished on for another twenty minutes and just had a couple of follows before it was time to get out and head over to Huntsman Lake 8 kilometres away.

Adrian Webb (meppstas)


2019 04 01 Another brown falls to the Bug spinner

Another brown falls to the Bug spinner

 

2019 04 01 Bog spinner and Wild brown trout

Bog spinner and Wild brown trout

 

2019 04 01 Cast and drift method here bought another trout undone

Cast and drift method here bought another trout undone

 

2019 04 01 Trout taken here using the cast and drift method

Trout taken here using the cast and drift method

 

2019 04 01 March brown bug spinner and wild brown trout

March brown bug spinner and wild brown trout

 

2019 04 01 Trout gear

Trout gear