Three Trips Without Landing A Brown Trout.

[meppstas]

'' THREE TRIPS WITHOUT LANDING A BROWN.''
16th & 17Th December 2014
** Trip One: Mersey River at Weegena, Weds.16th..
With another change on the way I thought I would head over to Weegena and fish two stretches of the Mersey River. One above Dylan's Bridge for some 800 meters and the other close on 700 meters below the bridge. The conditions were pretty good when I left Sheffield and were still holding by the time I reached Dylan's Bridge. With hardly any wind up here the river was very glassy and there were browns jumping and surface feeding every where I looked. December right up to the end of January is one of my most difficult times of the season for me as I always struggle to catch the browns on spinners and hard body lures. Today was going to be one of those days too!

When they're leaping from the river it's only the odd one that will hit the lure and that's usually in a fast water run. I could see that the trout were feeding on black spinners that were hovering above the water, they were everywhere. I fished with the black bladed black fury for around 10 minutes, but could only manage a few follows. Those fish sat back some 100mms from the spinner and had no intentions of taking it. I tried the March brown and stonefly bug spinners, Aglia Mouche with red tag on the trebles with the same result.
It was now time to give a rainbow pattern Rapala a go to see if that would get a hit. It did, twice I had browns take it, but lost both fish after two or three leaps from the river. After that, all I managed again was a few more follows.

I still had one last chance to hopefully catch a fish in a small fast water before I was getting out and heading back to fish from below the bridge. It was back on with the black fury for this bit of fast water. I reckon it was on the fifth or six cast I finally had a fish take the spinner, it was the ever reliable rainbow trout that saved the day once again. This rainbow did stay on right to the net. What was seriously looking like being a donut for this stretch of river was now broken. This is the second trip now it's been the rainbows that have saved the day for me. Just got to love those rainbows for sure.

I had now moved to the other stretch of river below the bridge and stayed with the black fury spinner as there was a nice run of fast water that I was going to start from. It was only five minutes of working this water before I had a brown take the spinner, this one stayed on right up until I was about to slip the landing net under it. With two head shakes it was gone, it tossed the spinner, so I still hadn't landed that elusive brown. I fished on for another three hundred meters for just the two follows. It was now back to the rainbow Rapala. Five casts later I had a rainbow take it, but after some 20 plus seconds it too tossed the lure. Like I have stated several times before this often happens when casting upstream and retrieving the lure back downstream. The fish really has to get the hooks in behind the jaw to stay on, this is why one loses several fish with this method of fishing. Some days they all stay on and others, well we know that result don't we.

I just had the one stretch of fast water ahead of me know before I was calling it a day and this stretch of the Mersey always fishes well. It didn't let me down either as I did have six hook ups in it and caught and released three more rainbows with the best on going 550gms. It was a great end to the session finishing off with another three fish even though there weren't any browns amongst them.

**Trip Two: Mersey River at Merseylea, Thurs.17th.

This trip to Meresylea was taken late in the afternoon in very trying conditions with a gusty Nth Westerly blowing straight up the Mersey. With the wind roughing up the surface of the river I didn't really mind as this would stop the trout from jumping and surface feeding making it better for spinning. This session was only going to be for around an hour today as it was mainly to see if I could finally get to land a brown trout as I've missed out on landing one in the past two trips. It's not from hooking them either as I have had them on, but lost each and every one of them.
I'm starting off the session with the rainbow Rapala in the hope it may just be the one that breaks the spell. The river bottom here is really in poor condition as it still has the brown algae all over the rocky bottom and once the lure touches or bounces off the bottom it just gets covered in it.

This was happening on nearly each and every cast for quite some time until I reached a deeper stretch of river. I had been in the river for nearly 20 minutes now and didn't look like getting a hit. I had now come to the head water of this stretch of river when I had my first take. Yes, it was a rainbow once again that was the first fish landed. I was now about to fish a shallow fast water so I changed to the black fury for this run. The wind had suddenly dropped right off, then the browns started to appear in most sections along the river. They were jumping every where just like yesterday at Weegena. I made the decision to just fish this small run of fast water before calling it a day.

A few casts up and across the river resulted in a brown taking the black fury, I thought this one is going to make it to the net as it seemed like it was pretty well hooked. It wasn't to be! It only took the one leap from the river to toss the spinner. So that was the end of my short session for the afternoon. Trout were now leaping all over the place as there were black spinners every where now that the wind had gone. Even the swallows were filling themselves on the insects from the air and even by picking them off the surface of the river.

So there it is, three trips without landing a single brown trout which is a first for me in my 50yrs of trout fishing. I suppose there's a first time for every thing isn't there and it doesn't matter how long you've been doing it either.
Cheers
Adrian

[kaotay]

Beautiful surrounds and pics. Another great read. Would fly fishing be better when the browns are chasing insects?

[meppstas]

Beautiful surrounds and pics. Another great read. Would fly fishing be better when the browns are chasing insects?

Yes it is kaotay, mainly when they're surface feeding on the insects. But when they're jumping it's tough for both the spin and fly fisher. This time of year through to end of march is always a great time for the fly fisher in Tassie.

cheers
Adrian

[Nude up]

Thank god for the rainbows, 3 trips without catching a brown you must be devastated I see you changed to a rapala

[barra mick]

Adrian, great trip again !

That pic of the lure in the last picture is a lure I use alot in vic trout waters.... there is a doulble jointed version also that works well....do you every use them ??

[meppstas]

Thanks guys, yes i often use the Rapala when they go off the Mepps spinners Nude up then when they go off the Rapala it's back to the Mepps, just one big Merry Go Round.. :doh1:

I do have two of each (brown & rainbow) in the Rapala J-5 models BM, but as yet haven't used them. I have them in my fishing vest too so i must give the a go very soon..
Heading off again later today to try and break the brown trout hoodoo!!! :Boxing:

cheers
Adrian

[muzza43]

Another ripper report Adrian, brown or rainbow, you are still catching trout. Great effort as usual. Cheers muzza43.

[meppstas]

Another ripper report Adrian, brown or rainbow, you are still catching trout. Great effort as usual. Cheers muzza43.

Thanks muzza, broke the hoodoo this afternoon too, just got back home at 8.45pm. Will write a report and post it some time tomorrow.
Will be catching up with mazman (Alex) for a session on a river here in Tassie when he comes down on the 30th of December. Looking forward to it.

cheers
Adrian

[mazman]

At least the rainbows were they to make up for the lack of catchable browns.
Browns can be extremely frustrating sometimes, I went through a period where if i brought my fly gear they would all be feeding subsurface and if i brought my spin gear they were all feeding on the surface.

Another ripper report Adrian, brown or rainbow, you are still catching trout. Great effort as usual. Cheers muzza43.

Thanks muzza, broke the hoodoo this afternoon too, just got back home at 8.45pm. Will write a report and post it some time tomorrow.
Will be catching up with mazman (Alex) for a session on a river here in Tassie when he comes down on the 30th of December. Looking forward to it.

cheers
Adrian

I'm looking forward to it as well. I actually fly out on sunday just spending some time in other parts of the state before i get to you adrian.

Cheers Alex