First fish of the year

A morning’s fishing at Haywards Farm on a 2 fish ticket.

Well my Concrete Bowls drew a blank, mainly because I didn’t weight them. I found 2 versions on the internet and chose the wrong one to make! When I switched to an olive leaded damsel I caught a 2lb 7oz rainbow and hooked but lost another (much bigger of course!)

I’ve made a lot of these damsels, but this was the first one to catch me a fish. And I netted it myself although it was helped by the fish giving up and letting me pick it up and put it into the net! Next time I must remember to net with my right hand to stand any chance.

After all that excitement it got very quiet and I had a chance to enjoy the surroundings. It was cold, but not very; there was a slight wind which didn’t bother me too much and there was bird life. A flock of tufted duck  and a couple of coots were on the water but the stars were a pair of great crested grebes doing the mating display. They dived together, rose a distance apart and swam towards each other making quite a noise and then did a sort of dance, shaking their heads, one mirroring the other. Then they swam off as if nothing had happened.

 

Preparations for Saturday

I am going fishing on Saturday morning, and have been told Concrete Bowl is the fly to try. So I trawled the internet and found instructions and made a couple last night :

Hope they work!

 

Fish!

After school fish at Bourley. Mayflies were hatching so started with mayfly nymph with no luck. Changed position and changed to grey wulff and caught 4 trout!

 

Salmon fishing near Ringwood

Fishing in the Avon for salmon. No luck but gorgeous water meadows.

 

Haywards

Fishing with Peter. 2 takes, no fish landed. Tried cat’s whisker, damsel nymph and diawl bach.

 

Wet

Morning fishing at Bourley. Very wet.  No fish.

 

First taste of boat fishing

Iver Fly Fishers had an outing to Draycote reservoir on Saturday.

I was in a boat with Reg.

For an inland water it was surprisingly choppy! Dry, some sun, but very windy.

I tried a floating line, then a sinking line (I was later asked what sort of sinking line and had to admit I had no idea!)

I had 2 droppers so I was fishing with 3 flies at a time – first time I’d done that. It’s not too bad with a floating line, but with the sinking line you really have to watch the rod tip to avoid pulling the first flies in too far – I had several horrendous tangles as a result.

I tried many flies – Peter-style montana, PTN, red buzzer, an orange blob. I tried an orange booby on the point, leaded damsels, an Alley Cat (Peter’s Cat’s Whisker variation), and a white Cat’s Whisker.

Nothing till 5pm when I finally caught a 2lb 12oz trout on the Cat’s Whisker. Around that time I noticed little flat winged flies appearing which I later identified as midges of some sort. Most of the club members caught 5-8 fish using buzzers – and when I checked up on midges I found that buzzers are recommended flies.

I had been a bit disappointed in the lack of fishy interest in my flies, but when I got home I saw that my Alley Cat was a lot smaller than when I’d started. It had looked like the one on the left. So fish had been nibbling it without me noticing.

 

Haywards Farm opens

Last day of February and Haywards Farm opened. Peter took me  for a morning’s fishing. He caught 4 (and a brown which he had to put back) and I caught 3.  I managed to net them all myself which was a first for me. And I caught them all on a Cat’s Whisker which I made!!

Looks a bit bedraggled, but did the business!

 

First fishing trip of the year

Blackwool Farm.  Cloudy, breezy, but dry. We fished the far end of the big fish lake with the wind behind us.

I tried all these flies but had no luck. The one other angler there that morning had better luck at the near end of the lake – he tried spots all round the lake – where you fish is as important as what you fish.

But that was more than made up for by the barn owl who hunted around us for the last half hour of our stay.  I’ve only ever seen barn owls at dusk before, and not for many years so that was a real highlight for me.

Peter caught an 8lb fish which we took to the smokery at Tillingbourne Trout Farm near Dorking. Peter will collect the smoked trout next time he is in the area.

Lunch at the Half Moon pub in Northchurch. Best cheese and ham toasties ever!

 

Over the winter you make flies

I haven’t fished since October, but I have been making flies:

An orange booby (good use for old tights)

Montanas Peter style

and today I have been making montanas with light beads so they won’t sink too fast. Peter says to let it sink slowly and then do a slow smooth retrieve