The waiting is over

The long awaited start to the 2012 Brown Trout season has arrived at last.
On Thursday 15th March I awoke to glorious sunshine and the usual feeling of excitement and anticipation.... a feeling I've had on every opening day for nearly 40 years and one that I hope I never lose.

By lunchtime the sun had gone to be replaced by cloud and conditions were perfect, when I got to the river there was a trickle of Large Dark Olives (Baetis Rhodani) coming off but no sign of rising fish so it was on with the nymph - a single Hares Ear beadhead on a tapered leader so I had the option of a quick change to a dry should I come across a surface feeding brownie.

Fishing the single nymph upstream and working any likely looking areas provided a few opening day fish, one at approximately 15 inches (38cm) and the rest around 12 (30cm).

The afternoon cloud brought a drop in temperature and a very sparse hatch of Olives.... not enough to tempt the trout to the surface, although  I did come across one rising fish which succumbed to a dry Olive Paradun.

Great to get my string pulled on opening day though and the rest of the season to look forward to.... Happy days !!

Resolutions and first outing of 2012

I swore I wouldn't make any resolutions this new year as I never stick to them.
I've decided to make one but I'll probably fail miserably, and that one is to try to keep this blog up to date. The trouble is that I always set off with good intentions then the trout season will start and that will run into the autumn salmon run, and that will run into the winter grayling, and as often as I can get away with it, when I'm not working I'm fishing, and everything else, including this, is put on the back burner.

Anyway, here is the first entry of hopefully many in 2012

We've had a miserable wet winter up here in Northern England and my Grayling fishing has been a bit of a disaster, after a few decent sessions in October I didn't get out again until December and that was a short session fishing a swollen river but I did manage to save a blank - just !
I managed another session last sunday - to be honest the river was a touch on the big side but falling after yet more rain and another rise, but I decided to give it a go anyway.
The conditions suggested that a team of short lined bugs would be the method for the day and they did produce one grayling but it was a struggle in a big water. Happy with saving a blank, I was about to give up when I saw three fish rise on the flats, the only fly I spotted on the water was one Large Dark Olive that floated past and continued on downstream as far as I could see without being bothered.
So not being sure what these fish had risen to I decided to re-rig with a team of spiders, Waterhen bloas on top dropper and point and a small black spider in the middle. I never saw another fish rise other than to my team or to be more specific, the Waterhen Bloa on the point, it produced seven offers resulting in two Grayling to hand and two lost, two out of season Brown trout and an offer from a fish that I didn't see and it didn't connect.

Beautiful spring weather not doing fishermen any favours

The weather is very much like last year at the moment and it's not doing us fishermen any favours. At a time of year when we should be enjoying the cream of our daytime sport the rivers are low and gin clear and the fish are keeping their heads down in the very bright conditions.
It hasn't stopped me going out though - you have to have an optimistic attitude as a fisherman, one of the things I have learned over my many years on river and lake is that fish can be unpredictable creatures at times, they don't always follow the rules so you can never say never, and I have been rewarded with some success on my occasional daytime foray.

I have managed a couple of outings on Ullswater on the days when we have been blessed with more seasonable conditions - the first was short and sweet, the weathermen were as accurate (or not!) as normal and the winds were about 15 - 20 m.p.h. more than forecast, there were 'White Horses' coming down the lake, but I decided to brave it, I wasn't taking any risks though - I live for fishing but I'm not going to die for it, so I stayed out of the rougher open water and worked a couple of calmer bays that I could reach safely and was rewarded with a few fish - my first of the season (below) came to a Zulu.
As it turned out it may have been a blessing that the wind restricted my wandering as my electric outboard died the death not long after I hit the water - nowadays I use the electric to keep my boat on line when drifting and I reckon I can't have given the battery a long enough charge after the long winter lay off.

Conditions were much more favourable for my second outing with the perfect scenario of good cloud cover and ripple. With the battery fully charged this time I had a problem free day and the fish obliged with a steady trickle throughout the session - they're still pretty lean after the winter and possibly not that fussy with fish coming to all three flies on my cast.

My third outing failed to get started as the good old weathermen were at it again, the forecast was ideal, a cloudy overcast day with a wind - perfect I thought, until I got up to the lake to find more blue sky than cloud, the sun blazing down and not a breath of wind. So then the decision had to be made - do I stay or do I go ?

I didn't want to risk wasting the only day I had to fish over the weekend floundering about in a flat calm so the decision was made - back home, swap the lake gear for waders and 5 weight then off to the river - as it turned out the forecast was right, just a few hours late and the lake would have fished in the afternoon, but, decisions have to be made and I had a good afternoon on the river. Any day fishing should be a good day, that is unless it's on a lake with the sun blazing down and a surface like glass.

Best of the season so far

I had my best fish of the season at the weekend - this River Eden beauty was a tubby 19 1/2 inches (50cm) and weighed in at 3lbs 6ozs. These fish don't turn up too often on our local waters, I'm usually fortunate enough to get one each season so it will probably be my best of 2010 - but you never know.

The river is down to it's bones but it just goes to show that there is still some good fishing to be had. This beauty, like most of my other big river browns taken over the years, was caught on my favourite method, the upstream nymph.

As usual, the fish was safely returned after photographs and weighing.