It’s been another funny year for fly fishing. Buzzers seemed to come and go really early on in the season and then before we knew it the hot weather had come and destroyed the fishing before June had even started. We do have it worse down here in the South East and this year has been the worst I’ve known for a while. While I love the heat and long summers it does nothing for the fishing. Having stopped fly fishing on my local lake in June I took up fly fishing for carp on a lake just 10 mins walk from my house and had a very enjoyable summer catapulting dog biscuits and catching huge carp off the surface. More on that adventure coming soon!
So after a very wet, windy, adventurous weekend at Eyebrook a few weeks ago it was nice to get back to my local lake and see how it was fishing. Water temperature was down and it had been stocked a few weeks before so expectations where high. Looking back over my catch reports for previous years I could see that fish had been feeding but not close in so I took two rods – my normal light floating setup and my big 10ft beast with a 40+ line that I bought last year especially for these occasions when the fish are far out.
It was a gorgeous sunny day when I left the house but by the time I got to the lake I couldn’t see 20 yards in front of my due to heavy fog. It didn’t seem to bother the fish though. There were fish moving, top and tailing and chasing fry all over the lake but nothing close in within reach. A couple of the regulars were already there fishing and moaning about the fish being too far out so I set up my big rod and 40+ line and found a spot with some room behind me and signs of fish in front. When fishing a long way out its no good fishing delicate flies so I put on a pulling rig and tried to get out to the fish. It took a little while to find the right flies and to get out the right distance put after putting on my favourite big black nymph winter fly and a cormorant I started to get takes and it wasn’t long before I was into a fish, and they were fighting hard with savage takes!
Over the course of the morning and early afternoon I netted my 8 fish limit but had at least 8 fish come off. I got snapped off 3 times with really hard takes and double hook ups. Lost fish because of fishing so far out and the acrobatic runs they were pulling off. And missed a lot of nips and follows but it was a really exciting days fishing. Throughout the day the conditions changed and fish came in closer and pushed out again depending on wind and sun so I caught on lots of different flies: cormorants, dry daddies under the surface, small black nymphs, Diawl Bachs, cats whiskers and my big black winter fly. Cracking day back at the lake and great to see Millan back on top form again.