Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

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meppstas
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Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by meppstas » Sun Jan 29, 2017 8:28 pm

Oh, so close to a donut day. 29-1-17

After sleeping in yesterday and missing out on going fishing I was up bright and early this morning and at the Mersey River by 5:50 am. It was a cool morning with a light mist drifting above the water surface, the first thing I noticed was trout rising in most of the visible areas from where I had parked near the river. At least I knew there were trout here, but with them rising and surface feeding meant the fishing wasn't going to be in my favour at all. I did think of hopping back in the car and heading off to another river, but then I was wasting what was a beautiful morning to be in the river. That also meant a thirty minute drive plus a thirty minute walk before I even reached the river to where I would start fishing. So I thought I'll take pot luck here and see what happens, besides this is also my first trip here since the June floods too as access was restricted due to flood damage to the bridge.
6-10am Mersey River, Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
perfect conditions..
Cool morning at Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
Cool morning with a little mist ..
It wasn't all that long (6:05am) before I was in the river flicking the little copper Aglia around while watching several trout ahead of me surface feeding. They were not the slightest bit interested in what I offered them. I used black fury's, Aglia's in a variety of colours as well as the stone fly & March brown bug spinners. Not only that I tried Rapala's, Muzza's and the Atomic Shad hard body lures as I worked my way upstream all to no avail. This went on for three hours of fishing every bit of water, though I did manage two light hit and misses on the copper Aglia in a fast water run. I had covered well over a kilometer of river for absolutely zero and it looked like it was going to be a “Donut Day” for me, making it the first one of the trout season. I sat next to the river bank for ten minutes watching the trout surface feeding while thinking to myself, I'm not leaving here today with a donut.
Shallow fast water, Mersey River, Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
one hit and miss here..
Very wide stretch of the Mersey River, Merseylea.  2017 (Medium).JPG
Sun now hitting the river..
Surface feeding brown trout, Mersey River..  2017 (Medium).JPG
trout surface feeding
I headed back to where I had parked the car near the bridge and decided to fish a fifty meter shallow fast water stretch of river below the bridge. It has given up a trout or two for me on many trips here and I'm hoping it will again today. The sun was well up now and full on the river, but I was determined to catch at least one trout today and I wasn't fussed how big it was either. The fast water stretch I was to fish looked quite good, I was feeling pretty confident of picking a trout here. The first cast with a black bladed black fury resulted in a follow from a solid brown which gave me a real lift as I could see the white of it's mouth as it opened and closed it as it approached the lure. That's as far as it went, as the spinner came into the shallows the trout turned and moved off, there wasn't any aggression shown at all. That took the wind out of my sails I can tell you.
Solid brown taken here, Mersey River, Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
Narrow fast water that I was fishing
It was then I decided to go back to the #00 copper Aglia even though I thought it may have been a little too shiny with the sun full on the river. Then again it did the job a week ago in picking up quite a few trout in clear water and sunshine. As I was changing the spinner a large black cloud moved in and the section of river I was fishing was now in full shade. Knowing this may be my only chance of picking up a trout I quickly moved some five meters upstream and started working a narrow fast water run. It think it was on the third or forth cast the little spinner was taken by a solid brown. It took off down this narrow fast water in a rush and put up one hell of a fight for it's size. From what I could see it looked like it was hooked under the lower jaw as I could see the spinner quite easily. Now I'm starting to worry it will toss it if it decides to make a leap for freedom, luck was on my side as it didn't leap it stayed under and soon tired before I finally had it in the net. The first thing that came to mind was the “Donut” wasn't happening today after all.
The first brown of the morning, Mersey River, Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
The Donut breaker..
It was now 11:30am and I decided to head back to the car. As I was crossing back through ankle deep water I noticed a small shallow fast water close the river bank and thought it was worth flicking the spinner into it seeing I was going past it any way. This small fast water that was no deeper than 125 mms gave up a medium sized brown on the very first cast. Today's spin session did finish on a high note in the end in what was a very poor and frustrating session for the most part of it. Funny thing is that as I left the river the sun broke through again leaving the river in full sun.. Makes one wonder if the fishing gods decided to help me out..
Another nice Mersey brown.  (Medium).jpg
Nice brown taken from small shallow run..
Small brown caught in this very shallow run, Merseylea. 2017 (Medium).JPG
Small shallow run that gave up the brown..
cheers
Adrian
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sloth
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by sloth » Sun Jan 29, 2017 9:03 pm

Great report as usual Adrian and well done on avoiding the dreaded donut - experience shows when you can quickly adapt to rapidly changing conditions like light levels :)

Your part of the world looks idyllic though - I think I'd happily trade a few donuts for the opportunity to fish such waters.

Lightningx
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by Lightningx » Sun Jan 29, 2017 9:04 pm

Great report Adrian! Close call there but you did it mate! Very nice pics as always :thumbsup:

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meppstas
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by meppstas » Sun Jan 29, 2017 9:18 pm

Thanks guys, Yes a close call & just managed to get out of jail once again.. :super:

That donut was looking real there for most of the session sloth, just managed to break it though.. ;-)

cheers
Adrian
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by Broomstick » Sun Jan 29, 2017 10:21 pm

Lovely pics mate, what a beautiful place

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Marty.A
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by Marty.A » Mon Jan 30, 2017 4:57 pm

As sloth mentioned I wouldn't mind a donut amongst scenery like that but Adrian as your a trout catching machine I could just imagine your frustration :thumbsup:

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meppstas
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Re: Oh So Close To A Donut Day..

Post by meppstas » Mon Jan 30, 2017 5:24 pm

Frustration.. that it was Marty.. I wasn't going to let it beat me though mate.. ;-)

Just about to write up my report from today's session.. big turn around from yesterday.. :thumbsup:

cheers
Adrian
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