I had the chance of a few days fishing recently but the weather was not exactly ideal.
On Thursday it was blowing a gale and threatening rain, but I ventured out on to the lower water anyway. I never saw a rise, but thought I would tempt something in a likely spot with a nymph, but it was not to be. The water was plenty clear enough and low, and just as I was about to pack up I saw a trout lying in a gap in the weed. This looked like my only chance for the day, and on the third attempt the pheasant tail nymph fell in more or less the right spot, the fish turned, I lifted, and he was on. A hard-earned fish of about 12″.
On Friday I gave it a miss, I had been watching on TV the golfers getting blown all over the course at St. Andrew’s, and had seen enough wind for one day. Saturday was not as bad, and I was sure that a long stretch that I knew would be more or less sheltered from the wind, and the deeper water there might hold some fish. In fact there was a sparse hatch of mayfly (on 17 July!) and the odd fish was hitting them. I had to tie one on, and almost as soon as it hit the water a trout thrashed at it, but didn’t hook up. Fish were soon rising steadily, and despite many takes to the dry fly, I couldn’t hook one. In the end, I had 2 good-sized fish from about 10 takes, a poor return but nice to be fishing the dry fly again. Will have to increase the day ticket prices right through to July if the mayfly are going to keep on coming!
All the best (sorry no photos),
Doug
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