Bits and Bobs

Bits and Bobs

After spending time with the family over the bank holiday weekend and earning a few brownie points, it was time to get on the water. The sun was shining with a light to moderate south westerly so my 6 year old son and I headed to a local fishery Tildarg Fishery Co Antrim for a few hours. I heard there had been some good top of the water action in recent weeks, so I was looking forward to some fishing on the dries. We arrived at the lake around 3pm and I set up 9 foot 5# Scott Radian with matching Rio Gold floater.

We could see sporadic fish rising along the margins on the sheltered side so I tied up a simple 2 fly cast 6ft apart using 6.6lb Riverge Soft Plus.With slow head and tails  showing up the shore line I opted for 2 small sparse bits, one claret and one red…these flies sat perfectly in the surface film.

Most of the rising fish took the claret bits with confidence but it was when there was no free risers within casting distance we noticed we could pick up the odd fish with the bright red bits on the blind. It was a really great afternoon with my son and even better to see him catch his first on the dries. These bits, particularly the red sit perfectly in the surface and Jack loved watching the bows slowly coming up from behind in the sunshine to engulf the fly. Catching fully finned rainbows up to 3lb with light tackle isn’t a bad way to spend a few hours on a bank holiday weekend.