Trout Spinning Madness

My story starts when I get a message on my phone on Tuesday from a my mate Steve asking what I am doing tomorrow, I reply with nothing and he suggests we catch up for a fish as his car was getting serviced all day and had nothing to do, of course I agreed. The next day came and business was attended to before we were underway towards a favoured Trout spot, arriving around 10:30am. Lines quickly rigged with spinners and we were underway and off walking along the river. Success was hard to come by to start with, with me losing two lures along with Steve also losing one, retying leaders 3 times before a fish was not looking good and only action was a few timid followers was showing no signs of energy from the fish. A few follows later and Steve was onto his first ever trout, it was a nice little brown which managed to get in the current and get over a log, luckily I was in the water across from him fishing a hole and could just walk over and help him out. He was stoked, I was stoked, we had achieved what we had set out to do, get him onto his first trout. With the day already being called a success we headed on towards some nice looking water that almost guaranteed us a fish. From a high bank I was casting towards the opposite bank across some fast flowing water, receiving a few follows and one take which was soon dropped. The action seemed to be picking up a bit as slightly further down I hooked into a nice solid little brown, my first for the day.

My first Trout for the day

Steve with his first ever Trout

Moving along the river up to a nice long rock and pebble bank saw myself catch another little brown, and both receiving follows from other fish that did not take the lure. Numerous more casts were placed to try and draw a strike were to no avail and we continued our trek upstream. The river flow went under an undercut willow with a depth of a meter or so creating a hole and slight backwater right in under the tree creating shade and great looking fish habitat. We went over to it in the water as quietly as we could and proceeded to cast into the hole. My first cast had interest from an estimated two pound brown as he followed it and gave it a small tap before retreating back to cover. The next few casts were similar with follows coming from fish of varying sizes between one and three pound, following the lure out before retreating. Giving up on this spot and moving up again, slowly walking in the water whilst casting upstream retrieving the spinners back to us was proving productive with myself catching four small browns in quick succession. Feeling a sense that the fish may be fired up today we went on with a eager sense of anticipation that we will catch more and better fish. The next spot we came to had a depth of around 60-70cm and a steady current, I cast my lure upstream a ways about a 45 degree angle from the bank, on retrieve saw a relatively nice sized brown of around 2 pound follow the lure before again retreating to hide amongst the rocks, the next cast to the same location resulted in a lightning fast strike and take. A hard but quick fight resulted before the trout was landed. It was a nicer brown than what we had been catching so we were happy, It was quite fat for its length and it was around a pound maybe slightly over. Fish was quickly released after a happy snap and we were back to the fishing.

Nice little fat Brown

Still fishing the same location, Steve managed to hook another small trout but the hooks pulled, fortunately the next cast hooked into another one and landed it. It was another little brown and was released after a picture. I also managed to get another one in the same location just before leaving for another spot upstream. Here we had to walk around overgrown blackberries and other shrubs in order to fish the river so a few minutes later and the fish were biting again, In a short period of time, I landed a little brown, Steve landed a little brown and I managed to score again with a brown slightly bigger then the previous two. Now we were at a location where I had caught my first ever trout from, we decided to fish the opposite side which had some amazing water in it, casting up under trees and letting the lure drift with the current and into a deeper sort of hole. I cast out my lure into the crystal clear water that was flowing past the overhanging willow, the lure landed with a soft splash, that could not be heard over the sound of the water. I watched as the lure was spun towards the swift section of water before I pulled it into the hole and the force of the water pushed it down under my sight. I regained the slack line that the water had caused as it pushed the lure down and continued my retrieve. The gold flash of the spinner came into view, it all happened in a matter of moments, I watched as a big white mouth came up from the depths, I watched as the whiteness dissapeared along with the flashing of my lure, I watched as the trout surfaced in front of me, and I watched as it took of downstream in the fast flowing current, peeling drag with ease. With an exclamation I clicked into gear and chased it down the fast water and tried to regain control of the fish. A few minutes later i managed to bring the fish to where I could easily land him and the fight was over. It was a nice healthy Brown Trout, I estimated him at around three pound, the photos do not do it justice it is heavier and bigger then it looks. It measured at 44cm and was photographed and then released to fight another day.

The three pound Brown

The release

With adrenaline levels still high we moved on upstream and fished the exact location of my first ever trout, I let Steve have the first cast where he hooked but quickly dropped a tiny brown, before catching one the next cast. I managed a follower but no luck my way here. Moving on up the water casting to the bank and logs just off the fast water. This is when the action turned hot, I caught a little brown which was quickly released, the next cast I caught another one, which was also released straight away. Walking up further Steve managed a fish from the opposite side of the river. I cast into a bit of water that was not flowing fast in the current due to a log and hooked up straight away, this was followed by a second cast resulting in another small brown trout. As I was fighting this fish, Steve hooked into another trout from the same location, it was a double hookup, three fish in three casts situation. We were astounded at the amount of fish we were catching in so little time from the one small area, all up about 20 meters of water resulted in just under 10 fish between the two of us. Reaching the end of where we could walk comfortably in the water, we excited and walked out along the bank. The spot we chose to cast wasn’t ideal as the water was flowing steadily and it was a meter to two meters deep, but we cast anyway. My first cast was followed by what I originally thought was a big carp, but as it got closer and in the clear water, it was a trout that I would say close to eight maybe nine pounds, an absolute monster of a fish, unfortunately it lost interest in the lure and turned and sat in the current right in front of me, as if to tease me, this gave me a good look at it. Shortly after I hooked up to a solid little trout casting across the river, this in turn spooked the large trout away from where he was sitting. A quick snap of the trout and it was away back to his home. We continued up stream resulting in a few more captures all of the average half a pound size that we had been catching all day.

One of Steve's Trout

Nice sized Brown Trout

In the end we managed to catch 28 trout between the two of us in just under six hours, I managed 22 and Steve with six. All fish that were captured were Brown Trout and all returned to the water and swam away. Lure of choice for the day was a Celta and method of the day was casting into the deeper cooler water, around one to one and a half foot was the best depth, and if it was shaded it was even better. My guess is here that the trout were seeking to escape from the sun and heat into the deeper water. I chose to release all the fish instead of keeping one or two for dinner, just because the feeling and satisfaction I get out of releasing a fish alive and well is just as good as actually catching the fish itself. As I have heard others say, and now say so myself when Trout fishing, “Only take what you need, or take nothing at all”.