Winter is truly upon us here now, and when I arrived at my chosen Lake at
first light and stepped out of the car, the windit cut straight through my
clothes. But once I was in my waders, polar fleece jacket and rain jacket,
I was quite comfortable. Fortuntely the lee shore was right near the car
park, so I didn�t have too far to walk and wait. Not long after I arrived
the smmoth water near the edge was pock marked by the panicked smelt.
I cast into the disturbance and twitched the fly, immediately the fly was
bumped but no hook up. Another angler nearby worked another school. After
about fifteen minutes and a few bumps, I changed fly to a smaller white fly,
this was savagle attacked a few times, but I couldn�t hook up. Finally the
other angler hooked one, and it turned out to be a 10 incher.
After a bit of discussion we both went for a size 10 Tom Jones. We cast
again, this time I managed to hook up, and promptlky released a fat little
brown. It looked like a pack of small brownies was terrorising the smelt,
but were too small to eat them whole so were chomping them first. After a
bit of experimentation I manged to improve hook up rates using a long slow
draw and lift. Over the next hour or so we managed to hook a few more, and
I even enounterd a bigger brownie, which smashed my fly but failed ot hook
up. All I saw was his back and tail. Not a monster by any stretch of the
imagination, but bigger than the young uns.
At about 10:00 am all the action stopped. We fished for another half an hour
or so , in and around the small bays but with out a touch so we headed off
to another Lake; one that fishs better during in the day.
Walking down to the lake we found a sheltered bay, with the odd midge
popping up, but no trout swirling. With patience I managed to hook 2 nice
bows and miss another. I had to head off at 2:30 so I decalred to my
fishing companion last cast, which was promptly nailed by a chubby brownie.
After releasing him I cut of my flies and rolled up my rod and headed for
the car.
All in all I had landed over ten fish, which is pretty good fishing any day,
let alone winter.
- [VFB] Fishing report Ian Mitchell
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