I went up to North Third today for a day out in a boat and hoping for some good sport. To be honest I won’t bore you with the entire tale but in short I fished from 10:00 in the morning to 16:45 and never had the merest sniff of interest from a fish.
Not a tug, a swirl, or a refusal. I tried nymphs, dries, wets, lures, boobies, and blobs. I tried sinking lines deep, shallow, and moderate, I tried a sink tip and a floater. At lunchtime I saw three fish move near the bottom corner – the corner opposite the boat area, near the weeds and that was it.
I fished the east shoreline, the back of the islands, the dam wall area and the aforementioned section from the boat area across to the corner.
Not a single touch!
After braving the elements rowing all the way to the dam and back ( it was pretty windy), I decided on a final drift back from the boat area down to the Southeast corner one last time.
I popped a couple of nymphs on with a gold bead Daddy Longlegs on point. With just 4 minutes to go and casting out near the weed beds, I had a couple of tugs on one retrieve. A couple more casts- nothing.
It was nearly five and the end of the session, one last cast, same spot on the corner of the weed path, started to retrieve and then a sudden resistance, barely more than a dead weight on the line. I lifted and yes there was a fish on. It seemed to be very lethargic at first and nearly came right to the net but then it woke up and we were off. I played it quite hard but it wasn’t wanting to see the net, but I was wary of it getting under the weed blanket. Bang on five it was in the net and I barely had time to chap it, and start the row back to the moorings where I removed the gold head daddy from its scissors, a fine Rainbow of 3lb 6oz, on my last cast of the day! How unlucky was that fish?
