Clutching Despair from the Jaws of Success!

I was off down the Annan on Saturday for my second time this winter chasing the ladies, and I doubt its a day I will forget.

The plan was to get there early, fish a few spots I had found and succeeded with previously but then to try and explore more of the sections of the beat.

I was out on the river as the sun rose and it was frosty and cold but still as I covered a few of the lies I fancied for a fish or two. I had my new GoPro Hero2 headcam with me again so was relying on that for any shots for the day.

Out on the river with a cold winter sun rising

After a few fruitless minutes at the first candidate I moved upstream to a section I learned on my previous trip. I had fished down maybe about 10 or 15 metres, covering all the width of the riv r on my French Leader set up when I encountered what initially felt like a snag right at the end of  the dead drift down with the bugs. Normally the bugs start to swing up as the line tightens in the current below you, but they just stopped. I was about to try  free the line when the snag  moved!… and it arced round beside me and started head shaking. The next 7 minutes were mad! I have made up these screen grabs to convey what happened.

The fish is hooked and head shaking furiously

A bit of a stand off ensues but then the fish takes a good 15 metres of line

I clamber onto the bank to try keeping up with the fish its heading further downstream

Running down the bank trying to get below it

Now about 40 metres below where I hooked the fish – notice the broken weed patches in near the bank

The fish heads into the weed but the flies snag and I can see it below- its huge!

I net the fish after sliding into the water a bit too much- getting a couple of pints of cold river water down the inside of one leg as I stumbed in.

The fish- a girl.  was weighed- 4lb in the net so thats makes it about 3lb 4 ozs

Did you notice the cock up? Yes, no picture of the fish, the headcam was pointing slightly too high. You can see a much edited and speeded up video here in glorious 1080p HD: Had I not just half drowned myself I would have used my mobile to take a few pics too, but everything was soaking and I did not want to start fumbling with cold hands trying to get it out its waterproof case and possibly wreck it so I trusted that I had the shot- I was sure it was OK. I even held it up for a second or two, and all you see is the top of my hand holding up the dorsal fin! What a loser!

Anyway after this collosal screw up which I am still moping over, though certain there would be more fish there, I headed back to the car to dry off as I wanted to spend the day exploring not freezing my nads off. I was still totally stoked at the big fish, my day was made whatever happened so I went and got out the wet waders, and clothing, dried off socks and under suit under the car heater and set about untangling the mess that was my flies and leader. As I was standing some anglers came over the field and we had a chat- guys from Fly Forums I beleive and I showed them the red tag bugs that I get so much success on ( including the big girl) so gave them one each and told them where to try- I was moving downstream for a recce.

Dried out and warmed up I went to the next section down which was very over hung with trees. It looked like a good spot but the trees over the water were a continual hazard- I lost 5 flies here! There was one very deep hole that looked very fishy but it was on the wrong bank to fish easily and the water was very deep onthe approach and was pushing me into deep water- so prudence put me off. After a spot of lunch I moved further down.

The next section was much slower in nature and I met a guy trotting. The water he reckoned was about 9 feet deep in near the bank- no good for me. We chatted and he too had had a 3lb plus fish and a couple of other decent sized ones but was getting a lot of trout to his maggots.

I decided to head further down and eventually came across a nice corner pool with deep moving water, leading into a nice long run hopefully with a few holes in.

I fished this long section most of the way down but as the sun lowered in the sky I started to feel the cold- I was still a bit damp in my waders, so was thinking of calling it a day. A final fly change just for interests sake and almost immediately I had a fish, I was part way to getting it to the net and impatience got the better of me and I pulled a bit too hard and think I pulled the hook out the fish. I cast again in the same spot and almost right away had another fish, this one I netted successfully, not large but a nice wee grayling of about 8 ozs.

FInal fish of the day heads for the net

I headed home looking forward to showing everyone my huge fish pics….. you cannot imagine my disappointment when I discovered the camera was shooting about 6 inches too high……. EPIC FAIL!