Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
- meppstas
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Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing..
Overcast, no wind and mild weather conditions had me in the Mersey River by 6:35 am this morning and the first thing I noticed was the trout surface feeding. They were spread out in most sections of the river sipping down the little midges that were floating down the river. I thought nothing of it really because that's what I saw on my last trip to the Mersey River & thought I was in for a tough day but caught & released 22 trout. Well, how wrong was I on this trip because it took me just on an hour before I had my first trout in the net, a nice rainbow taken on the aglia gold spinner.. After the release of that fish I did manage two hit and misses plus one hook up from another rainbow which I lost. I changed over to the ghost brown hard body to see if this may get the trout on the take like my last trip. It took around fifteen minutes before I picked up a brown at the top end of a pool where there was a bit of fast water flowing into it. The surface feeding trout did show some interest in the hard body but not a sign of aggression at all.
As I worked my way upstream I had several hit and misses before I finally had another rainbow take the hard body, this was a beautifully coloured fish that went 510 grams. The fishing was certainly tougher than I thought it was going to be with the trout fixed on surface feeding. Once they are in this mood then it's always going to be tough for the spin fisher, great for the fly fisher's though if they can match the hatch.. With the air being much warmer now the duns and caddis moths were also out and about, something else for the trout to chase. I stuck with the hard body for another forty five minutes and caught & released another two nice browns. With a couple of medium fast flowing runs ahead of me I went back to the gold Aglia and picked up another solid brown which was the last fish of the morning. I tried two more short stretches of fast water with out a sign of a trout so called it a day. As I headed back along the river to where I had parked the car I noticed the trout weren't as large in numbers with the surface feeding now to what they were earlier. This may have been due to the 10-15 kph North Easterly breeze that had now set in. cheers
Adrian
Overcast, no wind and mild weather conditions had me in the Mersey River by 6:35 am this morning and the first thing I noticed was the trout surface feeding. They were spread out in most sections of the river sipping down the little midges that were floating down the river. I thought nothing of it really because that's what I saw on my last trip to the Mersey River & thought I was in for a tough day but caught & released 22 trout. Well, how wrong was I on this trip because it took me just on an hour before I had my first trout in the net, a nice rainbow taken on the aglia gold spinner.. After the release of that fish I did manage two hit and misses plus one hook up from another rainbow which I lost. I changed over to the ghost brown hard body to see if this may get the trout on the take like my last trip. It took around fifteen minutes before I picked up a brown at the top end of a pool where there was a bit of fast water flowing into it. The surface feeding trout did show some interest in the hard body but not a sign of aggression at all.
As I worked my way upstream I had several hit and misses before I finally had another rainbow take the hard body, this was a beautifully coloured fish that went 510 grams. The fishing was certainly tougher than I thought it was going to be with the trout fixed on surface feeding. Once they are in this mood then it's always going to be tough for the spin fisher, great for the fly fisher's though if they can match the hatch.. With the air being much warmer now the duns and caddis moths were also out and about, something else for the trout to chase. I stuck with the hard body for another forty five minutes and caught & released another two nice browns. With a couple of medium fast flowing runs ahead of me I went back to the gold Aglia and picked up another solid brown which was the last fish of the morning. I tried two more short stretches of fast water with out a sign of a trout so called it a day. As I headed back along the river to where I had parked the car I noticed the trout weren't as large in numbers with the surface feeding now to what they were earlier. This may have been due to the 10-15 kph North Easterly breeze that had now set in. cheers
Adrian
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Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Very pretty Rainbow Trout there Adrian - I guess as most of us know there are some days when the fish turn on and others when it is hard work but persistence in this case paid off for you.
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Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Well done mate! Haha how frustrating is it when the fish just dont seem interested, but at least you landed some nice looking fish. Sometimes we need the days where we need to jog or brains a bit and remember that fishing is a form of hunting and requires skill and patience, if it was easy to nick to the river chuck in a line and pull out a fish every time it would be boring. The fish know this so they test our patients and and make sure that we put in effort. Witch you did and it paid off! Good job
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- Bluefin
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Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Well, if anyone is going to catch five good fish on a tough day.....
You certainly know your stuff Adrian. Great report as always.
You certainly know your stuff Adrian. Great report as always.
- meppstas
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Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Thanks guys, this time of year I always find the fishing tough with so many insect hatchings going on, plus the Easterly winds are not the best when trout fishing rivers either. We have another week on them too going by the weather reports, used to be the same when I lived in Sth Aust, salt water fishing was also poor with an Easterly wind too. We had a saying.. "When the wind is from the East, the fish don't feast.. When the wind is from the West, the fish bite best...
cheers
Adrian
cheers
Adrian
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- Queasy
- Rank: Flathead
- Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:52 pm
- Location: North East Melbourne
Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Never tempted to pick up a fly rod? I usually aim to take a 4 piece fly rod with me when out bush, which when not used for fly fishing, a simple reel swap enables it to be used to cast lures, or if truly desperate for a feed, bait.meppstas wrote: The fishing was certainly tougher than I thought it was going to be with the trout fixed on surface feeding. Once they are in this mood then it's always going to be tough for the spin fisher, great for the fly fisher's though if they can match the hatch.. With the air being much warmer now the duns and caddis moths were also out and about, something else for the trout to chase.
cheers
Adrian
- meppstas
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Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
I did try fly fishing around 50 yrs ago but found it wasn't for me so stuck to my spin fishing the rivers.. I always release my fish, the only time they're kept is if they have some gill damage & there's heavy bleeding from them. I have 8 trout rod & reel set ups that are suited to the rivers I fish.
cheers
Adrian
cheers
Adrian
'' Brand Ambassador for Mepps Lures in Australia '' Tackle Tactics, Okuma, Mepps & Platypus lines Pro Team Member
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- Queasy
- Rank: Flathead
- Joined: Mon Oct 28, 2013 10:52 pm
- Location: North East Melbourne
Re: Surface feeding trout makes for some tough fishing...
Oh fair enough. It can get pretty frustrating at times, other times very rewarding.meppstas wrote:I did try fly fishing around 50 yrs ago but found it wasn't for me so stuck to my spin fishing the rivers.