On what seems to have been the first true day of Summer, certainly that I have experienced this year, when it was actually warm enough to be out without a jacket on,  it would have been sacrilege to have spent the evening sat staring at the box, in the hotel room.

I therefore got out as early as I could manage after work,  had a quick bite to eat on the run and made it up to the Barrows for a brief couple of hours fishing. The water was gin clear and relatively weed free in the margins- certainly not enough to cause me problems unlike the last time I was there last year. There wasn’t a fish moving though and all the anglers already out, were all up in the South East corner of “tank” number 2.

I stayed near the road end and set up a cast of three buzzers on a floating line. Black, olive and tan were the colours.

I fished for about 30 minutes before I saw a fish move near me, by this stage one or two had moved out near the turbulent water in the middle- not sure if it’s an aerator or some sort of inflow to fill the reservoir?

I moved and cast near to the fish and as the flies dropped through the water and I commenced my slow retrieve there was a sharp tug, I lifted and then there was tension, replaced by slack.

I pulled in to check my flies and the point buzzer, a slim black one was gone along with the point 6 feet of my leader. It had snapped below the middle dropper knot. I know it was OK just before I cast as I was checking the leader regularly, so maybe my 7lb point section of tippet was too weak? Disappointed but not disheartened I tied on a replacement and fished on.

The fish started to rise more regularly now and as the sun set and light faded I targeted a few fish either side of me, I tried buzzers,  Diawl Bachs, Shuttlecocks and finally a tiny black Klinkhammer, but they were not interested in any of them.

Casting at Sunset, Bristol Barrows

Casting at Sunset, Bristol Barrows

In the end the light was too poor to continue- not even ten o’clock ( it doesn’t half get dark quick down south.)

I spoke with a good few anglers as they moved from the South East to the North West end, and only one seemed to have had anything and that too was on a black buzzer. So they weren’t suicidal tonight!