After the Watch being cancelled due to high winds a week previously, we had a flat calm! Well, at times. The rest of the time it was a very light ripple. It started cooler than of late and, with good cloud cover, the conditions for top of the water fishing for rainbows was just about perfect. The water was 18 C and all-round in in good nick. The bailiff told us the fishing had been hard and we would do well to get 2 or 3. There was a challenge!
Mel and I set out for the far shore, following advice from the bailiff. There were not many fish rising, but we had some early offers. Mel drew a couple of fish to moved flies. I had a take to a size 12 static black hopper that produced our first fish of the day. As we continued, we started to get some risers coming on the go. Not many, and well spread, and mostly oncers. But if you got a chance at a cover, you had a good chance of a positive take.
We continued to meander our way along the south shore on the lightest of easterlies and started to pick up a fish or two. Mel had fish to a foam beetle and I had one from a cover to the black hopper. I then hooked something of a different class on the size 14 black foam-bodied terrestrial I had on the tail. I had it on for ages and was just reaching for the net when it dropped off!
Mel tried a small F-fly and had a fish on it soon after. It looked like an answer, but turned out to be a bit of a one-hit wonder. Going into the afternoon, black gnats started to fall on the water, and these were a bit of a double-edged sword. They were getting more interest from the fish, and we were getting more chances, but there were too many refusals and playing and missing at our imitations. I swapped the bigger flies for a size 16 black Bob’s Bits and a size 16 flying ant. I picked up 2 fish from covers to the wee ant on the tail and lost another.
By mid-afternoon the numbers game started to go against us. The water was carpeted with black gnats, but the number of rising fish, if anything, was fewer. The sun breaking through wasn’t helping either, as it turned increasingly brighter. We were seeing an occasional heather fly on the water. Remember them? I thought that might stand out from the crowd better, so swapped the Bob’s bits for a pearly-winged heather fly. That worked and I picked up our last 2 fish on it.
The afternoon rather petered-out on us over the last couple of hours as the number of risers dwindled and the temperature soared. I had left my thermometer lying on my seat after reading the water in the morning. It was now in the sun. I looked at it. It was reading 40 C!
We finished with 8 to the boat, which seemed a decent total, given the bailiff’s prediction. Indeed, the club’s total of 29 fish for 12 rods was good going.
