- Early start on the Meander..
Seeing I pulled up pretty good after yesterdays two hour spin session I headed off to the Meander River just on 6:15 am this morning as I wanted to be on the water before sunrise. The forecast was for a cool morning with clear sky and a warm day. I was in the river by 6:59am well before sunrise and the air was really crisp, but it was also a beautiful morning to be on the river. With a light mist drifting along most sections of it I was hoping for a good catch rate today. I wanted to hit the river before the sun did as it would be the best chance of getting a few trout before the insects came to life on the river once the suns up. The river is still very low and clear and I knew I was in for a tough day at the office, even more so with the river bottom fully covered with a fine green cotton like algae. The first fifteen minutes all was quiet until I flicked the little gold Aglia close to the river bank and had a bow wave appear behind the spinner. It didn't take all that long before that bow wave turned into a hook up and I had my first trout in the net. Again the first fish of the day wasn't a large fish but one of just over 340 grams which was still a good fish to start the spin session.
- Very still and misty conditions..
- One solid brown..
- Just love spin fishing in these calm conditions early morning..
- Sunrise...
- Tranquil waters..
The very first cast directly upstream and it was fish on, this trout had taken the lure as soon as it hit the river. After a short battle this brown it was in the net, photographed and back in the river. I fished another fifty meters of river without a sign of a fish, not only that the algae was fouling up the lure every second cast I was was really getting ticked off. I went back to the gold Aglia and worked a another shallow fast water, even that was getting fouled up with algae. I decided it was time to get out of the river and try another area further downstream. The area I was heading to would be in full shade for a few more hours yet which will work in my favour too.
- Good river brown..
- Sun starting to hit the water and mist is lifting..
I was soon there and in the river casting the spinner in the areas that would normally be holding trout. They were there but the algae kept fouling up he spinner, they followed it for a short distance before turning away not to be seen again. I had to bypass several shallow fast water runs and just fish the deeper fast water runs due to that damn algae. My patience was starting to wear thin at this stage when finally I had a trout take the Aglia. It was another medium 320 gram brown that was soon landed and released. That fish was followed up with a better brown that went 510 grams and was a beautiful golden coloured fish too. They were the last fish for the next two hundred meters before I hooked two in a row with just the one small brown landed. The river ahead of me is very shallow and after that it's in full sun so it was here I decided to call it a day. It was certainly a tough day on the river and with just the five browns caught and released it was probably better than expected in the end. Hopefully over the next few days we'll get a dose of rain which will give the rivers a much needed lift to bring the trout back into a more aggressive mood.
- Black fury & wild brown trout..
- Decent well conditioned brown..
Adrian
