UnexpectedlyHooked

Morning fishing at Bourley. Very wet.  No fish.

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.