Unfortunately, just like Beardy Paul, I’ve been unable to get close to the water for a few months due to work and family commitments. This has been especially infuriating given the relatively mild weather and decent hatches of daddies, one of my favourite flies, which I’ve missed entirely. So I decided to take a morning off and shot up the A34 to Farmoor reservoir.
Unfortunately, the weather conspired against me again and while dry and quite warm, a 20mph wind with gusts over 30mph made casting a little tricky, to say the least. However, I managed to find a corner where the wind was mostly behind me and allowed me to get a decent line out. There was not much on the water to suggest what the trout were doing but the ranger had said they remained mid to high water in the warm temperatures and had recently switched onto fry. I decided on a slow intermediate line with a floating fry initially on the point and a diawl bach on a single dropper (given the wind).
With no interest after the first half an hour, I switched to a fluffier fry imitation I’d tied myself and a cruncher on the dropper but still no interest. Thinking they may need a little something to provoke some interest, I then tried a white and silver humongous on the point and a silver invicta on the dropper, which are said to be useful fry imitations.
The result was almost instantaneous. First cast, I stripped the line back with one long tug as it landed (to try and keep it higher in the water to start with) and then settled into a slow figure of eight and hooked immediately with one of Farmoor One’s large rainbows. Unfortunately, it must have mis-hooked as it came off pretty quickly. Second cast, exactly the same, and the take came quickly; this time it was a solid hook-up and after a good ten minute fight I landed a beautiful 3-4lb rainbow which had taken the Invicta. Over the next ten minutes I had another few missed takes and one more bad hook-up before things went dead. I reasoned I may have hit a pod of trout cruising around the margins for fry.
Unfortunately, that was it for the day but a very exciting half an hour in difficult conditions.
General conditions – Cloudy and very windy (20mph+)
Wind direction – North easterly
Flies that worked – Silver Invicta