After a near 400 mile drive I took a run over to Elinor for a look-see at how to get there from the hotel and to see what its like.

It was far from early summer pleasantness, with a very similar cold wind blowing like home,  not sure what direction it was from, not quite got my bearings that far, suspect it was the North East. So after a quick recce decided to have a go for the last hours of the day bearing in mind it was already dank and cloudy and it gets darker earlier down here : considerably earlier!

There were though, fish moving though it was not by any means constant and most were well out from the bank, at the limits of my casting range.

There is a reedy margin all the way round from what I can see and it looks like the choice is get in and , knee-deep is no more than about 6 feet out in the places I tried, or  cast from the reeds taking advantage of the elevated position.  I think the latter was preferable as I was less inclined to catch in the reeds  or sloping banking behind me when in the water. The water was by my experience, gin clear, nothing like waters at home.

I set up with tactics to intercept the moving fish near the surface initially but they came to nothing, I think mainly because the fish were a tad out of range. I had a move and a few fish were moving closer in but I singularly failed to illicit a response to a variety of methods. and depths from on the surface to a few feet down. I spoke with a chap who was telling me what he had caught on, and it wasn’t like I was far off the money, but he was saying things were apt to going off and on quite quickly. My observations of the rises would probably back that up.

A further move to a reedy bay and my first cast quite close in got some interest to a Shuttlecock buzzer but I missed it,  it was really hard to see it in the flat grey light of such a dismal evening.

I decided on a further change in tactics and this got me a series of tugs but no full on take. A bit further along the bank it happened again as I targeted a moving fish, I thought this one was on but it wasn’t to be despite me keeping the retrieve going. Light was going fast now so I never had long to adjust tactics again but tried one last idea. I cast over a fish moving well out from the bank- close to 30 yards I would say. I managed to get my fly near and there was a sharp tug and a fish was on at range, it kited round to the left and jumped towards me. The weight in the line ( the full head of the 40+ floater I was using) I think introduced enough slack that it could slip the barbless hook and this one too went free.

That was about it. I think I got enough ideas of what might work tomorrow and will prep my gear tonight, but I think its going to take a lot of luck for me to come away with anything tomorrow, the only thing I don’t want to leave with is humiliation!