It is true I have not been out much of late. It’s not for the want to be on the water but I have been struggling with my arthritis having gone into my elbow on my right ( my casting arm). Think “tennis elbow” and I doubt you will be far away. My particular fun branch of the arthritis tree brings with it a particular type of inflammatory symptom, called enthesitis, where the joining point of the tendon to the bone becomes inflamed. This is pretty much what afflicts me just now. I have been fairly lucky over the last 8 years of this rubbish not to have had this before, though oddly going back maybe14 or 15 years I had to have an operation on this same elbow for the tendon on the inside of my elbow becoming damaged and inflamed and not settling down. It took a while to settle even after the op but the “surgical release” did the job. Hopefully, this problem doesn’t require the same intervention and settles down with time and my various drugs.
Oddly the regular elbow bending motion of fly casting isn’t itself that bad, but over time (say a couple of hours) it does start to ache and does appear to aggravate it overall. In comparison to simply trying to open the lid on a jar, or picking up a cup or opening a door handle all of which are almost unbearably sore. So on one level I have been quite deliberately trying to avoid aggravating it, but equally, we have been in partial lockdown, I am classed as at high risk of serious complications if I get infected so am not going far, and the weather has frankly been utter rubbish with almost constant rain for months.
Unlucky for some?
But I did have a Friday off a few weeks ago and decided to head out for a couple of hours at Swanswater. I quite deliberately fished the wee pond to discourage me from trying to cast too far, so I could get a place with the assistance of the wind and where if I did catch a trout, had a reasonable chance of landing it without excessive pain in the elbow. It was, I realised, as I paid for my ticket, Friday the 13th, which maybe should have been a sign of the luck I would have. One thing about fishing the wee ponds is you know the fish are more or less there in front of you so the element of having to find the fish is at least removed. However, it’s arguable that this doesn’t make it any easier. While it was windy and came on the back of several days of rain and was in fact still showery and very very cold, the water was surprisingly clear and the fish were totally aware of my presence it appeared.
I could cast to them, get the fish “competing” for the fly and on two occasions did manage to get a short and sharp pull, but when they followed the fly in, as soon as they got the merest sight of yours truly, they turned away. The answer may have been to try to get some cover behind the surrounding vegetation but my few attempts to “make like a tree” didn’t seem to fool the Golden Trout that seem to be the majority strain in the small ponds. There were a few Rainbows about too, and these I think were sitting deeper down below the Golds and I think one of the pulls was one of them. But it was hard going, they would play with but not take the flies.
The Cats Whiskers
A Cats Whiskers appeared to be the one pattern that had any consistency of interest as long as it was fished in line with the fish, too high in the water or swimming towards the surface seemed to lose the interest of the fish. I realised this fairly early on and had fitted my clear “slime” line- clear slow intermediate. This appeared to help but wasn’t slaying them it has to be said.
The Number of the Beast
By the time 2 hours rolled around on the clock, to be frank I was glad to be heading home. My arm hurt, my hands hurt with the cold and I was skunked. But it was still nice to be out and away from the house. We are now well into Grayling season too but with the travel restrictions, the better Grayling waters are off-limits to me. I reckon I might be able to manage the simple lobbing of bugs which isn’t much of a casting action. My fishing chum John has kindly got hold of UCAPA season permit for me ( he lives local to some of the outlets) to cover this winter and the next trout season, Hopefully, I get a chance to use it but if not then no stress, it isn’t the end of the world. I think the permit is in the post to me and I understand my ticket number is 666…I seem to be pushing the superstitious stuff hard this year!
