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!

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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

Last night I joined the Iver Flyfishers’ Club

Peter took Reg to Blackwool fishery as a birthday treat and I got to go too. There was a group of 3 already fishing when we arrived – it was the birthday of one of them and he was being treated to a taster session of fly fishing.  By lunch time the only people to have caught any fish were the 2 birthday boys! Reg caught a 4lb fish followed by a very impressive 9lb trout. The others were there for the day, but we went off for a pub lunch followed by a trip to a smokery to smoke the trout.