I was reluctant to pile too much into one post, so have been spreading out some of the fishing I had whilst away over the summer with the family. However if I carry on at this rate I feel that I will never get back up to date with the blog. The problem with typing this stuff up a few weeks later is some of the memories and details get a bit sketchy. Nevertheless Im going to try to summarise the rest of the holiday in this one post: here goes.
After the red hot weather and slow pike fishing it was back to the fly rod and down to the river. I am still too heavy handed with the fly casting but I suppose its hard to switch back to the delicate casting of a 3# after hoying 10oz jerkbaits round for 8 hrs the day before. Needless to say I started off having a bit of a mare. Fly in long grass behind me = fly gone and set up again. Fly in tree on far bank = 3 flies gone and set up again. Rogue boulder = face plant in river and bent thumb. Creep up to slow glide with fish rising, heavy splashy cast = mass exodus of fish. I have had days were things go wrong but this was getting beyond a joke. I did finally manage to hook something that felt decent in some fast flowing water (to be fair most things feel decent in fast water on a 3 weight) I saw a nice flash then the hooks pulled whizzed past my ear resulting in a gargantuan tangle - set up again.
After continuing to get a good kicking from the fish and the river I was begining to think enough's enough. I persevered along the river and caught a glimpse of a little Egret. Now I know its nothing to do with fishing but its the first one I had ever seen so decided to try and get a snap. David Bailey I am not but it is something that I will remember. I managed to get reasonably close before it flew off.
That brightened things up a bit anyway. I carried on to fluff a few chances on the dry fly but there were not that many fish moving, the river was still spectacularly low and clear. despite it being a bit of a shocker fishing wise I decided that if i packed up I definitely would not catch so carried on regardless.
As I started to fish another piece of fast water I got a solid take....please please please dont come off. The fish felt like a goodun and headed upstream. The light rod was bending under the strain and I reluctantly had to give line as I was concerned the 3lb tippet might part. After a great little battle I manged to subdue the fish....it was a cracking looking Grayling.
It was a proper handful as you can see, and really thickset across its shoulders. The only problem when fishing alone is trying to get a decent picture, unfortunately this one doesnt really show off what a pristine fish this was. After the fish was held in the flow for a few moments it swam away strongly to fight another day.
Despite the earlier catastrophes this one showed that when things are going a "bit tango uniform" if you stick at things even a bad day can turn around.
Having got the fly fishing out of my system for the time being I was curious to see if the river held any pike. I checked the rules and lure fishing was allowed, so the next day I headed off with a light jerkbait rod and some smallish lures. I tried a few of the pikey looking deep areas but nothing was about. The river is predominantly low and clear so I was trying out any spots where I couldnt quite make out the bottom. There aren't that many on the stretch so this was only to be a quick session before going out with the family. As I got to one of the bends where there is deep water on the inside, I lobbed a close under arm cast and let it swing in under the trees. As the lure started to sink it got whacked by a nice golden coloured torpedo with teeth. With the reel locked up the fight was more frantic and splashy than spectacular and the pike was soon in the net.
It wasn't a monster but quite chunky and a lovely buttery yellow/gold colour. I was quite pleased to have caught one in such a short time. I tried a few more holes without any further joy so got back to the family to score some much needed brownie points.
A few days with no fishing followed (shock horror) before I decided to go up to a little rainbow trout lake in the hills. Its only a small fishery, but its a lovely place to be for a few hours in the evening.
Some of the places I get out to with the fishing really are breath taking and fish or no fish its a pleasure to be out and enjoy such places.
As you can see the conditions were flat calm but there were a few bows topping. Out with some weird looking dry fly that I tied and before long I started to get a bit of interest. A nice head and shoulders take was met with a lift of the rod and the first fish of the session was on. These fish are not that big when you compare them to Pike, but on the fly rod they give a terrific account of themselves and make for some nice rod bending action.
Check out the rod in this picture....
Soon after another trout of a similar size made the same mistake as its pal by slurping in one of my dries. I had a couple more nice rainbows of a similar size before calling it quits for the session.
Despite trying to catch up Iv still got a bit more to report from the summer, so I have failed miserably to get back up to date, but I feel that the post is getting a bit long, and if I am getting bored writing it....well you probably haven't even got this far.
Bye for now more holiday catch ups to follow shortly.
cheers Mark
Great Blog Mark..
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