My last two outings have been crap. Was going to head to Pendriech on Tuesday night but I was late in getting out, it started to blow and then I remembered the road was closed, so went to Swanswater and had a couple of hours on the Meadow Pond. Was getting a lot of interest from the fish but they simply were not taking. I ended up on a really long fine tippet with tiny flies on and the fish would literally sit under it but not take it. I managed to “rise” two – one that turned away at the last second, the other I would have sworn had taken the fly, I struck into nothing. Never seen a fish caught all night and one guy had been there since lunchtime and had one. Then got organised and went to Pendreich last night. A gorgeous summers evening and mostly flat calm. But where were the fish? Barely a rise, and every rise I did see was alway 20 yards beyond casting range. I tried fishing from the boat and never had so much as a sniff, trying teensie wee midges and small Sedges- as there were tons of both on the water. Very disappointing. All this blanking got me to thinking about what a waste of time carrying a landing net has become and then I sort of enlarged on it…….
A Dictionary of Summer Angling
Barbless Hook : A device used to make “remote release” easier.
By-catch : Any sodding catch would be welcome.
Caenis : A type of aquatic fly anglers would love to ignore, but trout seem to love.
Catch Return : Any blank piece of paper will suffice.
Commercial Fishery : A location with specially trained fish, who are suicidal when angling press “features writers” are around but otherwise play dumb and pretend they are not there.
Dusk : Identifiable by the sound of fish laughing at you, and when your leader always tangles invisibly round your rod.
Floating line : Probably the wrong one.
Landing Net : 1) Something used to give your other hand something to carry on the way to the waters edge.
2) Best left in the car
Lure : Another word for “desparation”.
Midges : A type of aquatic fly that loves anglers.
Sedge : A type of aquatic fly, trout seem to ignore.
Small flies : too big.
Sunset : The time of peak frustration.
Tiny Flies : still too big
Tippet : A length of nylon or similar material, specially designed to get a “wind knot” around the time it gets too dark to spot or fix.
The evening rise : No, I don’t really know what that is either, though I have heard of it too. Has it anything to do with fishing or something more “private”.
Weather: Something to put in the way of fishing trips.
i too was at swanswater on tuesday until 7pm and only caught one all day (3lb blue)on a gold head daddy from next to the big overhanging tree to the left of the dam wall fish seemed just not interested in anything except all the tiny wee flies ,, could you possibly tell me if these tiny wee flies are the caenis flies ii’ve heard of
Hi Andy ( I trust not “the” Andy Murray) bet you get fed up with that one!
If you look at a post I made week or so ago tehre are plenty of pics of Caenis. https://www.theunfamousfly.co.uk/the-curse/
Annoying things, they don’t bite but they blanket everything when they hatch off. I think they tend to be prevalent in the evening but don’t hold me to that, though its the time I have seen them most. Trout become preoccupied with them and I find unless you fish really small, like size 18s and down to 24’s you have very limited chances of catching. And even then trying to get your fly seen amongst lots of real ones is a hard task. I know one strategy is to fish something brash and make a lot of disturbance- like a bushy dry fly dragged over the surface, though in my experience its never worked- it just spooks the fish. The most notable thing about Caenis is they have very white looking wings, compared to other small midges which tend to look black.