2018 12 11 IMG 8016At last the Leven River level was down to a safe wading height which meant I could finally go and have another go at catching a trout in it. My last trip there resulted in a “donut” which was my first for two trout seasons. I did hook a few trout that day but lost every one of them, today I was out for a bit of revenge. Actually I would be happy with catching two or three fish, well not really I want more to make up for my previous losses. The conditions were ideal too with heavy cloud cover and the lightest of breeze as I entered the river just on 6:00 am. The river was running at the perfect height for wading, so far everything was spot on for trout fishing. First stretch of river I fished was a medium to fast water around forty meters long.

Yes, I started off with the ever reliable Mepps Aglia Furia because it's the go to lure with the trout at the moment, so when you're onto a good thing you stick to it. It didn't take long before I had my first hit on it after drawing a medium size trout from near the opposite river bank. Every few casts after that as I slowly worked the lure down the right hand side of the river I was getting plenty of light hit & misses on it. Finally I had one take the Furia, it was a little brown trout that stayed hooked..That was the only trout taken in that stretch of water before I moved into a very wide, long slow to medium flowing run of dark tannin water. I could see the odd trout on the rise several meters ahead me, that's where I cast the spinner.

They weren't overly interested in it, I tried several other Mepps spinners & a couple of hard body lures and still couldn't attract a trout. I was getting closer to a nice run of fast water when I decided to try another hard body lure, this one was a MI Perch lure (silver) and it wasn't all that long before I had another brown hooked & in the net. That trout was caught at 6:40 am & went 430 grams, five minutes after the release of that trout I caught another one, it was a nice 320 gram fish. After that all I had was a few follows so I changed to another hard body lure, this time it was a MI Golden perch lure & this one caught two more small browns before the trout went off it. It was back to the Aglia Furia once more and it did well too, just one minor problem was that I hooked & lost seven trout in a row on it. It wasn't the lures fault at all, the treble hooks were sharp it was just the way things go when trout fishing. Other times they'll all stay on all the way to the net, today wasn't one of those days.

So I tried another hard body lure in a rainbow pattern, have no idea of the brand name either. That lure lost the first brown that took it before the next one stayed on. The trout soon went off that lure so it was back to the Furia for a third time.. No sooner had I changed back to it when I caught another two browns in a row on it before they went off taking it. Another change of lure happened, the choice was a Mepps #1 gold Black Fury & the only one I have left in that colour. It worked a treat as I never had to change it again after that. I went on to catch quite a few trout on it. It turned out to be the best trout taking lure of the day with eight trout to it's name, it was followed by the Aglia Furia that had the second best tally of six trout for the spin session. I did get out of the river and move on to another stretch of river further upstream where I finished the day after catching two more trout from three takes. So after six & a half hours in the river with a total of nineteen trout caught & released today I was very happy with the out come.. Like they say “revenge is sweet” and it certainly was today, just a shame I lost so many fish on the day.

Adrian Webb (meppstas)


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