My first "DONUT" in two trout seasons.
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 8:26 am
I've been holding back on this report guys because it's something that hasn't happened to me for quite some time.. It was probably well overdue as I've been very close to it several times lately and finally it happened... There's also a video clip at the bottom of this report if you'd like to watch it..
My first “donut” in two trout seasons..... 8-10-18
I though it was time to give the Leven River a fish for the first time this season seeing as it gave me a great finish to last years trout season. My last three trips of the season were here and I caught & released 31 browns with the best fish going 8 lb 8 ozs. I knew I wouldn't go any where close to catching another brown that size here again, unless he's still in the area. On checking the rivers levels it doesn't show the river height, it only shows how many mega litres (388.8) of water that's coming down the river. So what I did was to compare it with the reading of the Meander River that was running at 435 mega litres which showed it to be at a flow height of 62 cms which was a safe wading height. So that to me was good enough to work out the Leven should be at a safe wading height. There's nothing worse than driving 60 kilometres only to find a river running too high to wade. When I arrived at the river it was at the perfect wading height and had a very nice flow to go with it. I fished two different stretches of river this trip, each one being around 1.2 kms long. I was in the river by 9:00 am and started casting the Mepps Aglia Furia up and across the river while letting it drift with the flow while I kept the line tight with a very slow retrieve. I did find that the water was much colder here than the Mersey & Meander Rivers too, this was due to snow still melting in the upper reaches. Nothing happened in the first couple of hundred meters until I entered the faster flowing water. It was on the third cast across the river to where there was some timber debris next to the river bank that the Aglia spinner was taken had it no sooner hit the water. It was a beautiful solid fish (at least a kilo) that made a couple of decent runs and leaps from the river before it tossed the spinner while giving a massive head shake as it made another leap for freedom. As unhappy I was at losing that fish it did give me hope that I may be in for a good spin session in the fast water here today. It wasn't until I had fished my way upstream for another one hundred meters when I hooked my second brown, a small fish that soon spat the spinner. That was the last trout seen for the rest of that stretch of river before I got out and moved onto the next one to be fished.
The next long stretch of river fished was a mix of fast & medium flowing water, one that usually gives up a few fish. I did have to cross the river where I had parked the car then had a reasonably long walk through the paddocks to reach my entry point where I started session number two. Well, I had plenty of follows from some nice wild browns, not one of them had a go at the variety of lures I threw at them over the 1.2 kilometres of river. Not a single fish touched a spinner or a hard body, I just couldn't believe it. All that distance covered today without a single trout being landed which made for my first “doughnut” in two trout seasons. As beautiful a day as it was there, I wasn't a very happy chappy when I left the river that's for sure. I will return though and the next trip will certainly have a much better ending... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caT0993 ... ture=share
cheers
Adrian
My first “donut” in two trout seasons..... 8-10-18
I though it was time to give the Leven River a fish for the first time this season seeing as it gave me a great finish to last years trout season. My last three trips of the season were here and I caught & released 31 browns with the best fish going 8 lb 8 ozs. I knew I wouldn't go any where close to catching another brown that size here again, unless he's still in the area. On checking the rivers levels it doesn't show the river height, it only shows how many mega litres (388.8) of water that's coming down the river. So what I did was to compare it with the reading of the Meander River that was running at 435 mega litres which showed it to be at a flow height of 62 cms which was a safe wading height. So that to me was good enough to work out the Leven should be at a safe wading height. There's nothing worse than driving 60 kilometres only to find a river running too high to wade. When I arrived at the river it was at the perfect wading height and had a very nice flow to go with it. I fished two different stretches of river this trip, each one being around 1.2 kms long. I was in the river by 9:00 am and started casting the Mepps Aglia Furia up and across the river while letting it drift with the flow while I kept the line tight with a very slow retrieve. I did find that the water was much colder here than the Mersey & Meander Rivers too, this was due to snow still melting in the upper reaches. Nothing happened in the first couple of hundred meters until I entered the faster flowing water. It was on the third cast across the river to where there was some timber debris next to the river bank that the Aglia spinner was taken had it no sooner hit the water. It was a beautiful solid fish (at least a kilo) that made a couple of decent runs and leaps from the river before it tossed the spinner while giving a massive head shake as it made another leap for freedom. As unhappy I was at losing that fish it did give me hope that I may be in for a good spin session in the fast water here today. It wasn't until I had fished my way upstream for another one hundred meters when I hooked my second brown, a small fish that soon spat the spinner. That was the last trout seen for the rest of that stretch of river before I got out and moved onto the next one to be fished.
The next long stretch of river fished was a mix of fast & medium flowing water, one that usually gives up a few fish. I did have to cross the river where I had parked the car then had a reasonably long walk through the paddocks to reach my entry point where I started session number two. Well, I had plenty of follows from some nice wild browns, not one of them had a go at the variety of lures I threw at them over the 1.2 kilometres of river. Not a single fish touched a spinner or a hard body, I just couldn't believe it. All that distance covered today without a single trout being landed which made for my first “doughnut” in two trout seasons. As beautiful a day as it was there, I wasn't a very happy chappy when I left the river that's for sure. I will return though and the next trip will certainly have a much better ending... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caT0993 ... ture=share
cheers
Adrian