Blame it on the weatherman
Overcast with a chance of drizzle was the forecast. With this positive news, I decided to head to Pitsford Reservoir for a relaxing day fishing the dry’s and perhaps the washing line with some nymphs.
As we set off, there was a high cloud and gentle wind, everything looked perfect. A recent stocking of fish had gone in at the dam, so we thought it rude not to ignore this intel and headed in that direction. I set-up with my trusty 10ft Sage Sonic, a light, fairly soft rod and a RIO Gold floater. I tied on two size 12 nemo crunchers and a Muskins in the middle with my favourite Jelly Fire Pink and Magma FAB on the point.
We swung the boat around by the tower and with fish seen moving between the dam and the line of aerators (known as the boils), we were surely in for a easy day. It didn’t take long for my boat partner to bend into the first fish of the day, caught on a nemo. I then missed two fish, with stabbing takes, then third time lucky the fish stuck, and I had a lovely 3lb fish in the net. We spooned the fish which had a few buzzers and shrimp in them.
Then, all of a sudden the cloud disappeared and the temperature jumped from around 14 degree to 20 degree plus. The wind disappeared and we were all of a sudden baking. The fish clearly weren’t impressed and disappeared from sight. Over the next hour we netted a few more but it was hard going. To add to the challenge 17 boats motored towards us, there was a competition and clearly everyone had heard the news of the recent stocking…
We tried to avoid the other boats, slowly drifting towards the pines. We picked up a couple of small fish again on the nemo. But it was clear the fishing was off. Time for a change. I set up my Sage R8, 10ft 7wf, a di7 and two Humongous flies. I like to have a green eyed Humongous on the point and a gold one on the top. In the heat, I got to work, launching the line, waiting for the flies to drop, counting to around 15 seconds then a slow retrieve back with a hang at the end. After an hour, I had a had a few follows from smaller browns, bitten off from a pike and landed a small perch. It felt like a lot of work for little reward in the now stifling heat.
All of a sudden, it was 3pm and to be honest things weren’t going well. We had stopped catching, the match boats weren’t catching, the sun was blazing, we were sunburnt and there was no wind. BBC weather, we need to have words…
I have a spot on the lake which sometimes holds browns. We motored over, not a boat in sight. First cast and as I brought the flies up, a stonking big brown of around 8-10lb followed the point fly. I hung the humongous and the fish just stared at it, not interested before sinking back to its lair. It got the heart beating though. Next cast, another follow. Over the next hour, I raised around 12 browns. I tried mixing up retrieves, hanging for 30 seconds, changed flies, the fish just didn’t want to commit. It was very frustrating.
Then, out of nowhere, on the hang, a fish which had followed my point fly exploded towards the surface and launched itself towards the top dropper, I struck, felt the fish and the hook pinged out. I sat down in despair as the 6lb fish swam away. My boat partner was having similar bad luck, he also missed a large brown, when it launched itself to the surface chasing his dropper. It’s interesting that twice fish refused the point fly on the hang, but then launched themselves past the point fly to the top dropper. We both ended up trying to laugh it off, but to be honest, we were fuming
It was time to head in, just one more cast. As I waited for the flies to drop, the line just tightened and just like that, I had a fish on. Not the biggest brown in the lake, but amazing colours on it. After a quick photo, she was returned to fight for another day. It’s frustrating that we didn’t manage to crack the code on those browns. But one things for sure, I will be back to give it another go soon. Isn’t fishing great!
Tightlines,
David Hoppe
FNF Jelly Fire Pink and Magma Fab
With thanks to:
