......Fluff chucking Part Five, over the last few weeks I've been really hooked on the wild Brown Trout, so naturally I went out in search of more but the only thing missing from my recent trips is a specimen Trout, these are really hard to come by recently for the simple fact is that they are spreading out as they get older and becoming more territorial hence I'm only seeing the occasional 'big one' here and there rather than shoals of three to eight in small pockets that would average 2-3lbs the large ones now rarely keep other company.
The expedition was the same as usual but with a lot less time as I had to be somewhere in the evening and I only reached my first spot at just gone midday so I didn't leave myself with much time to lose, I started the day with a selection of wet's and dry's fishing a pool where Trout do congregate albeit usually small ones but the occasional beast does slip in and out so I always work it just hoping to tease one into nailing the fly but after ten minutes or so, with not a touch I decided to move on and try elsewhere, casting from the bank does have it's difficulties, within five casts I lost two flies in the vegetation and trees lining a path behind me so I started to only pick the swims where the casting was easy and loss of tackle kept to a minimum.
So easy swims is what I picked and it wasn't long before I had my first fish on, taken on the Mayfly it was the first of the season for me and a very pretty one it was too, at a massive 8oz or so, it was the smallest I think for me as well this season but they all count and touch wood in 5 years it will be a 6lb+ target, with that lil guy put back, next cast, I was into another, then another and one more after that too, within 7 casts I took 4 Trout to 1lb 1oz, all marked really well and nice colouring, plus two of which were young male Brown Trout, you could tell by the small kype forming on the lower jaw, this season I have only caught one male Trout so far, almost all have been females ( no kypes ).
A female Trout 1.1. ( Epoxy buzzer black with a white head ).
I had decided to change fly in case they wised up and the buzzer never fails on here, so a mix of flies did the business here and a great 15 minutes of fun, fishing with light gear just adds to the fun too, let em scrap, I say. I believed there was more Trout in that shoal to be had but I left the remainder to frolic for another week unhindered, but when it gets quiet I'll be paying them another visit, see if any bigger ones are home.
Walking around my usual spots I found a variety of swims that had Trout in but they all seemed to look at the fly and expect it to have a hook in it, clever sods aren't they?!, a good half a dozen fish watched my fly land in front of them and all showed a slight bit of interest but no conviction at all, this scenario happen for nearly two hours until a good one came straight up to and sucked in my blue flash damsel, just for me to go and miss it inexplicably, after so much practice that's two in two trips I've fluffed up, just goes to show all the practice in the world doesn't make you exempt from a mistake or two.
With time though hastily ending my trip, I did have one last chance, that chance came when I walked the same route I do most of the time and always hope to see a fish sitting up and never do but this time there was and it was a Brutus just what I've been searching for, a specimen Brown Trout, now I was actually in a dilemma here as I didn't know what fly to send down to it and on a whim I looked in the edge of the water and noticed some water-boatmen, the closest in my arsenal were daddy long legs flies, so I tied one on to my tippet, did all my line checks and then breathed in deep and cast down the 20yrds required to get within it and hoped it was interested, the closer it got to my fly the more my heart started pumping with adrenaline, as the fly got to within 3 or 4 foot of the fish, the Trout gained that distance in a blink of an eye and the line slammed taught, the take was ferocious and the fight that I endured was the best I've ever had off of a brown Trout without a doubt, an immense fight where at least twice I had to gain 30 feet of line as it stripped it, then thundered back towards me upstream, if you've ever been fly fishing and a fish has done that to you, you will know how hard it is to retrieve the line and keep tension on the fish, as all my flies are barbless due to a strict catch and release policy enforced by most of the fly anglers on this river, any loss of tension could have lost me the fish and that would have been a travesty.
For about five or six minutes this fight lasted, I was truly amazed and when the fish finally got close to the net I noticed a kype on it, I had hooked a big male. First time of asking he came straight into the net, where I then left it to revive before photographing and weighing I also needed to catch my breath as I had used a fair amount of energy overcoming it, after such a cracking fight he still had plenty of get up and go on the bank too.
On the scales he went an impressive 4lbs 9ozs, a proper specimen and my biggest for nearly a year, but I know a few larger ones lurk around here somewhere, but for now this amazing creature will certainly do!, after a couple of photo's it was home time for us both.
Who ate all the pies....... sorry I meant flies.
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