I managed to get out yesterday afternoon for a few short hours, literally just two, round at Swanswater. I had a few minor chores to sort out and to be honest I was somewhat slovenly at getting my finger out and ready to go. I considered a few ideas but frankly the clock and daylight were against me so the nearest option was taken.
The colours in the trees.
It was a remarkably mild day given the recent cold snap- there was snow midweek which is a rarity on lower ground in November. At Swanswater I was warned it was a bit tough going and so it was to be. I have this remarkable habit of picking slow days and only having a couple of hours to try work something out. I was also quite surprised that the water seemed higher than of late and quite coloured up. Two hours was never going to be enough on a day like this and only blind luck I think was going to put a fish in the net. I seen one angler hook and land a fish ( from the boat) the whole time I was there and it turned out to be an out of season brown on a black lure. The chap was speaking to me later and had been there the whole day and said he had two before 9 in the morning and then the Brownie later on. Another angler I spoke with had had one on a Yellow Dancer just by the bridge and another on a dry hopper pattern. Yes in some places fish were rising in splashy fits and on that occasion it saw fit to take his fly but he too said there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it and he had tried a number of methods- he was on the bung as I passed.
For this angler, I started on a slow intermediate and a couple of mini lure patterns, ( but I was picking up loads of weed so it was not ideal) and then once on to a floater, I tried weighted lures, buzzers, Diawl Bachs, yes a dry and a buzzer, more weighted lures, rabbits, and even the hated blobs. Not a touch. I did see the odd fish move in front of me but could not attract them to my fly.
I was though thinking about this daft, frustrating sport of ours. I seen a few posts on one of those Groups that pops up on facebook of anglers new to the sport complaining that they had been out a few times and never caught a thing. Fly fishing is NOT an easy sport. If it was the easiest form of fishing, our angling shops and tackle emporia would not be able to move live or dead bait, spinners or other lures. Everyone would be fly fishing. You wouldn’t be able to walk by a stretch of life supporting water without being lashed by a fly line.
If nothing else getting out yesterday allowed me to savour the colours of autumn.
I fished with the fly from around the age of 14 and I honestly did not land my first fish for a couple of years. I wasn’t really doing anything “wrong”, granted maybe my fly choice could have been better at times and you can’t cast so far initially but I had some close calls, rising the odd fish or losing one in the take or the fight but I struggled. It is not an easy method. The frustration factor can be stratospherically high. If your sole motivation around fly fishing is purely the catching of as many fish as possible in the shortest time, prepare to be disappointed. You will no doubt have heard some people say that to go fishing you need a lot of patience. Patience comes in different forms and it means something different to us all.
If you go coarse fishing patience might mean having the time to build up a swim, ground baiting, and bringing the fish in before finally catching them. It might mean staking out a muddy pond for days to fool that elusive carp. I personally don’t have that variety of patience. Sitting doing nothing doesn’t work for this angler. I like fly fishing because I am active all the time, you are casting, you are assessing the conditions, trying to identify the lie of a fish, observing whats happening around you, changing lines, flies, leaders, depths and retrieves. And sometimes it still results in nothing.
Ultimately you need to put in the time and the rewards WILL come. I have gone weeks without so much as a tiddler to show for my efforts. Then suddenly you go out one day and you can do no wrong. It’s like you are the “fish smeller persuivant” like some piscine magnetism attracts all fish in the vicinity to only your flies. Enjoy those days, revel in them and take heart, because as sure as night follows day your next blank is just around the corner.
