The two men in the boat seemed to be doing quite well. As I peered over the dam wall at a showery Pendriech last night I could see one of them bent into a fish.
Another angler coming off was telling me the fish were “on top” and he had managed one. He had taken it and had it been a fish I had caught, I would have taken it too. It had had a tangle with (probably) an Osprey or maybe a Heron. I think the Osprey was more likely as it has a deep red gash behind its head like it had been clawed from above. It looked well sore. Maybe not as “sore” as getting your head stoved in with a priest, but at least it won’t need to suffer infection and fungus and a slow death.
The two men in the boat
I decided to just load my wee bum bag with a few boxes of mostly dry flies and a few nymphs and head off to the East end where the breeze was crossing left to right. A spot like this is essential to fish with a single ( ideally dry) fly. Anything else will get tangled in the fringing lily pads and reeds. I changed my leader for a tapered item and put a black parachute fly on. I degrased the leader and siliconed the tip of the line to aid lift off. I hadn’t seen anything rise and had no indications of what was on the water so it seemed as good a place to start. The two men in the boat seemed to be having success as they were into another fish.
I cast out, the fly landed, the line perfectly straight and limp ( my new Greys Platinum floater) and almost as soon as it settled a fish took the dry. First cast! I lifted and the battle commenced, only to be cruelly ended by the line suddenly going slack and lolling back towards me. A quick check of the fly ,the hook seemed fine and discovering I had forgotten my Shimazaki dry shake, ( brilliant stuff this) I gave it a few stiff blows and cast it out again. Unbelieveably a fish rose and took again! I lifted but this time either I was too slow or it never had a hold as I never contacted the fish. At this stage I thought I was in for a bumper night. It wasn’t to be.
For most of the evening I seen barely a fish move, I heard a few other anglers talking from the bank basically saying they had had nothing and had mostly seen nothing. I felt lucky to have got the “sport” I had. I tried at the narrows into the nature reserve and though a couple of fish moved in the vicinity, they seemed reluctant to show more than once and what they were taking wasn’t clear as there were few insects about on the water. I did get one decent photo of a nice upwing that landed on my rod.
One of the few upwings I seen all night cose my rod as a perch. Did end up with a huge Sedge in the car on the way home
As I moved back down the North bank the two men in the boat continued their catching. I seen them get at least 4 or 5 fish, all returned as far as I could see maybe about 35 yards out from the shore. They looked to be fishing wets going by the style of fishing they seemed to be pursuing.
Fish began to move well out in the middle and in fact had I been on the boat I would have probably moved out there as there seemed to be more movement there for the rest of the evening. The wind dropped and it became flat calm, the fish rose as the midges bit and the two men in the boat kept catching. My Avon Skin so soft worked well on the whole keeping the midges at bay and I came off the loch with my skin looking and feeling ten years younger. ahem!
The New Era seems to be a serious distance tool, even with a standard floater fitted
With nothing doing for me I decided to have some casting practice and really try out the new line. I managed to do something I have never ever done, casting the entire line out except for the last two yards before the backing. Seriously impressed with this New Era rod in combination with the Greys line.
