Spinning a Trouts Tale

Well I am back, it has been a while since my last post, but here is a story about my trout opening success.

One fine and Sunny Wednesday Morning, I am sitting at my computer, slowly tapping out a Uni assignment when my phone gets a message, its Todd wanting to head out for a fish, of course I say when and where and I am soon on my way to his house. Little did I know, this was one of the best decisions that I have made in a while, as of before this day, I had never landed a trout. I get to his house, pack my bag and rod into his car and we are off, no mucking about, although we did stop for KFC on the way for a bite to eat. Travel time was roughly an hour, we then proceeded to walk for about a kilometer before even wetting a line to get to where we wanted to start fishing.

The weapons of choice were spinners, brand of choice was Celtas, I had on a bright coloured yellow and green with red flecks, and Todd had on a green and black striped one. Before long, we were getting some action, with a tiny fish following my lure before Todd had some success casting along the bank in some shade, in slower moving shallow water, landing a nice little 1lb Brown, which was destined for the dinner table. Whilst he was getting a bag and unhooking the fish, I had a cast to his spot and had an estimated one pound fish follow my lure before tapping it and swimming off, so far the signs were looking good for a spectacular day. Moving on to the next spot, Todd decided to chuck a worm out on a hook and me being me, kept walking to cast the spinner. I found some good water along the bank, which had big reeds right near the water, slowly and quietly climbed through at the foot of the hole and had a cast. I watched as a small fish followed it in before turning away to sit virtually at my feet facing up stream, I just left him be and had another cast, when bang, I was on, a nice fight from a little 250 gram Brown before I pulled him out of the water and grabbed onto him. At last, my first ever Trout, and even better, it was on a casted lure. I took the fish over to Todd for a picture of my first Trout, before returning him to the water to I watched him just sit next to a stick. So I poked him to get him out in the faster water to get the oxygen over his gills, as soon as I did this, he zoomed off, ready to fight another day. I was pumped after my success, only a tiny fish, but I loved every minute of it.

First Ever Trout

First Little Brown

Moving on upstream, we got a few hook ups which managed to throw the hooks, before Todd once again landed a small Brown around 300 grams, which was quickly unhooked and released. Coming up to the next location Todd got into the better spot first and was casting. I was just standing back a bit and up on a hill with about a two meter drop into the water, I decided to cast from here into some very shallow water, this proved to be a good decision as almost as soon as the lure hit the water, I was on to a nice fish. Taken fully by surprise and way out of position to fight this nice fish which was flapping all over the water. I quickly moved to a better spot and saw just how nice this fish actually was, my mate, seeing the predicament I was in, ran over and landed the fish for me. It was a beautiful fish, a nice 2.5-3lb female Brown Trout, it was a bit skinny due to the just ended spawning season, but otherwise a ripper fish for my second ever Trout. I couldn’t believe it, I had gone fishing with the hopes of catching one trout, and I had landed a fish, that not many catch very often. A few photos and the fish was killed and placed in a bag, I didn’t feel that good about keeping him, as I like returning fish, but I had to take it home to show the family, and it would make a great meal.

One of Todd's Little Fellas

My 2.5-3lb Brown Trout. 47cm

We kept hiking upstream, for another couple of hundred meters, because the blackberries were a bit thick along the river. We came upon this stretch of water which looked sensational, it was screaming fish to us as we started casting, slowly working our way along the bank. Todd hooked into a nice fish, which looked like a Rainbow due to its light colours, estimated around 4 or 5lb, then it spat the hooks, leaving us disappointed, but keen to keep fishing. Minutes later I was retrieving my lure and it was about two meters off the bank straight out from me, when an almighty Brown screamed into view and smashed it, pulled drag and was bucking the rod tip with its wild shakes, leaving me absolutely helpless, I gave it time to do its thing, before it had one last shake and the lure came out. The fish was about 5lb, it sped off back to where it came from and I felt the disappointment that Todd had just felt, but I said to Todd, that’s fishing and we should go get another one.

We then came across a point where we had to walk a long way from the river around a massive blackberry out break, so we stopped for a break and so Todd could call his old man to tell him how we were going. Meanwhile I was having a cast in a deep hole whilst standing on an old tree, I placed a cast right near the bank at the base of a small bunch of branches about 10 meters away, upon letting the lure sink, the rod just started bending when I wound in. I thought I was snagged, until the rod just kept going down, then all of a sudden the tip went ballistic, massive shakes and I was struggling to hold the rod, my initial thoughts was a Cod but I ruled that out when I saw a flash of colour near the surface and it looked like an absolute ripper fish, Todd meanwhile had told his Dad that I was on and needed to assist me as it looked like a monster from the deep. Once I got it into the shallows, I could see that it was big, almost had it on the bank, when it turned and made a last run for it, almost getting under a log and escaping, but it changed direction and wrapped around some grass, which was easily manageable because I was standing over the water on the log, got him back around it and onto shore where my mate grabbed him and it was caught. It was a 4-4.5lb male Brown Trout, skinny from the spawning season, if it was in better condition it would have pushed the 6lb mark, going around the 60-65cm range. I was stoked. A lot of pictures, my thumb getting torn up and I had him back in the water and off he went, down under the logs. I was shaking from the adrenalin, I had just caught a fish that I probably would not match for a long time, if ever.

My 4-4.5lb Beauty of a Brown

4-4.5lb Brown. est. 60-65cm

Moving on around the large blackberry out break, we found some absolutely ripping water, Todd hooked a fish first cast but dropped him. Moving further up we came to a bit of rather turbulent water, which I had a follow and strike but no hookup by what looked to be around a 2lb Rainbow, then the same again a couple of casts later, for no luck. Further up again Todd hooked a fish but lost it, then I managed to hook and land a tiny little brown which engulfed the spinner that I was using. A bit further upstream and we decided to chuck a bait in whilst we gut the two fish that we kept. The contents of each the stomachs of each of the fish, were relatively empty, the larger one had a few eggs and dirt and grit, and the smaller one had a few insects and more dirt and grit. After this we decided to make the long trek back to the car as it was getting late.

I had successfully caught my first trout, plus a bonus of catching two absolute beauties. In total we caught seven fish between us, myself with four and Todd with 3, we had several followers and many strikes and hookups without luck. It was an absolute cracking session and according to my mate, it will only get better in the coming weeks, the fish will fatten up and really start eating and the numbers caught will sky rocket. I had an absolute ball trout fishing, and will certainly be getting back out for another session somewhere soon. In my opinion spinning is a fantastic way to trout fish, it is effective and fun and can be done by everyone, just use a light spin stick and a small spin reel, and tie on a spinner and your good to catch some trout.