Winter was hard in Lithuania, the kind that settles in and stays longer than you expect. It had been a while since we saw steady -15 to -20°C days, with constant snow, icy roads, and heating bills that kept climbing.
Then it began to break. The cold eased, the snow started to melt, and the rivers rose fast, spilling over their banks. Floods came through, the kind not seen in the last five years, and it took a full month of spring before the water returned to normal levels.
That was my moment to head out and open the trout season.
The river was about an hour away, and it was not new to me. I had tried it last year, and while many anglers seem to pass it by due to older studies claiming trout are nearly absent, my own trips told a different story. Both times I fished there, I found fish, and the river showed clear promise, even for larger trout.
For the day, I brought the Saurus U-Effects 56 UL, new to my setup and seeing its first real use. I decided to hold off on forming a full opinion until I spend more time with it later in the season. I paired it with a Daiwa Lucia Arity 2000 and spooled it with 0.6 Pontoon21 line, I plan to drop down to 0.4 Varivas soon.
I started by moving upstream, tying on an SV Lures spoon as my first choice. After an hour of casting with no response, I switched to a God Hands spoon, since in cold water I find spoons often work better when trout are less active and holding deep.
Another hour passed before I finally got a bite, but it did not hook up.
I reached a straight stretch with a stronger current and cast again, this time keeping the lure tighter to the bank while letting it run through the main flow. That change paid off, and I landed trout of around 30 cm, marking the true start of my 2026 season.
I kept moving upstream and decided to switch from spoons to minnows, choosing a Bassday Bottom Twitcher. I wanted to test whether the fish were active enough to chase, and also to see how the rod handled light twitching.
About an hour later, in a deeper run, a trout came up and struck but missed the lure. I cast back into the same spot three more times without any result, and for a moment I thought the fish had felt the hooks and went in hiding.
Instead, I adjusted my position and let the lure travel slightly farther downstream through the same current. That small change worked, and I hooked what seemed to be the same trout, a bit larger and much more energetic than the first. It fought hard before I brought it in, and after unhooking it, I let it slip back into the water.
I continued upstream for another hour and a half, covering more water but finding no further bites. After about a total of five hours of steady casting, I decided it was time to head back.
Near the car, there was an open spot by the river, quiet and clear. I set up a small grill and cooked some “saslyk” for lunch, taking the time to sit and watch the water before packing up.
That closed out my first fishing trip of 2026, and it was a good one to start the season.
