Things don’t always go to plan when fishing. Weather, wind, flies and mostly the fish can have other ideas. What we didn’t expect was an injury. Beardy Neil had back issues just a few days before our trip so it was up to me to head up to the midlands and fish for the both of us – and oh what a trip it was! (Sorry Neil, still feel bad about it!)
Day 1 – Rutland
As always, we’d been checking the intel leading up to the trip and there had been lots of accounts of fish being caught up on the north shore of the south arm from Yellowstone, Old Hall down to Green Bank so that felt like the natural place to start. Talk had been of fish taking shrimp patterns such as small hares ears. Daiwl Bachs had also been mentioned. So with a basic setup of hares ear and daiwl bach on the droppers and a fab on point I started at Yellowstone and found some feeding fish. They were close in and feeding on what I presumed would be shrimp but nothing I put in front of them seemed to work. After trying a few places on the north shore with no fish to the net it was time for a move. Beardy Neil, laid up at home was on intel duty and found out that Craig Barr had been doing well over on the Normanton bank so around lunchtime I headed over. By the outlet just before the harbour I was instantly into a fish on the daiwl bach. Then quickly had another 2 on and 2 off before it seemed to go quiet. I decided to move further up past the church where the water was a bit shallower going up into the bank as fish had been close in early on. Sure enough, only a few feet out from the bank were signs of feeding fish. Still with the hares ear and diawl on I started to catch a few on the daiwl but nothing on the hares ear. I changed over to a small grey boy buzzer instead of the hares ear and it was an instant change, the fish were all over the buzzer. As the day had progressed more and more layers had come off until I was fishing in hot sun in just a t-shirt. On the horizon though it looked very dark and it didn’t take long for a huge storm to drift over. It literally went from roasting sun and flat calm to 2 foot waves wet and cold in a matter of minutes! Luckily I wasn’t far from the shore so beached the boat and got myself as low down as possible as thunder and lightning forked across the sky. To my amazement there was a crazy boat still out there fishing with rods in the air and thunder and lightning all around! After a good 40 mins sheltering in the boat and chatting to some bank chaps I thought I’d get back out but presumed the storm may have put the fish off, but, in fact, it had the opposite effect. I carried on catching consistently, mostly on the buzzer with a few on the daiwl and a few on small cdc dries. Towards the evening it did go a bit quiet so after a very long first day I headed to the AirBnB with a very respectable 18 for the day.
Day 2 – Eyebrook
What a different day! My first day at Eyebrook looked like it was going to be very challenging with strong wind and a cold north easterly. To try and keep out of the worst of the wind I headed to Sam’s Dyke which seemed a little calmer. On our last trip to Eyebrook we’d had a brilliant day catching on small olive crunchers so based on last year I went straight for an olive cruncher and daiwl bach. I picked up a few fish drifting around in Sam’s Dyke then noticed a lot of activity right in the corner by the Willow tree. There were lot’s of fish rising in about 2/3 feet of water right in the corner. I noticed lots of olives hatching and 2 different colours of buzzers coming off the water in abundance. So keeping the olive I changed my other flies to a black nymph and big red on point. After catching a few on the olive my catch rate went up significant on the big red and nymph so I experimented with different flies such as a red Midas, red bobs bits with all flies taking fish. By this time it had got a bit crowded in Sam’s Dyke with most boats trying to keep out of the wind so after lunch I motored up to try Stoke Dry end. After an hour or two with no signs of any fish and only one random fish to the net I headed back to Sam’s and in the corner again by the Willow tree. Once again fish were still feeding and still taking off the top so on went some CDC dries and big reds which proved lethal for the next few hours with non-stop action. I’ve not had a day like this on dry flies for a very long time! I finished with 28 for the day. Wow! Amazing fishing.
Day 3 – Eyebrook
For most of our previous trips we’ve fished a different place each day but for the last two years we decided to fish two locations for two days each. It’s been a great decision as its meant we can use our previous days knowledge to improve on our second day and it gives you that confidence that you feel like you know what you’re doing. Obviously no two days are the same but it gives you a bit of a head start. So, with the previous days knowledge, I headed straight back to Sam’s Dyke. It was less windy today but still cold. Similar conditions though so I was hopeful that fish would still be in the same spot. Nope! Hardly any fish showing today. I picked up 2 on a big red but it was slow going. I’d tried olives and nymphs and daiwls but they didn’t seem to want to take nymphs like the previous day at all! I noticed a guy rock up on the bank only 30 yards along the shore and watched as he caught again and again on buzzers under a bung. Brilliant I thought. Bung went on with some buzzers but could I catch! I tried different types of buzzers, different colours, different sizes under a bung and straight-lining but nothing! After seeing a few fish high up I changed to a washing line and caught 2 but it wasn’t consistent. So, I decided to head back into the corner of Sam’s Dyke again figuring that now the morning had warmed up a little the fish might be drawn in to hatching flies. As I got in position I could see fish moving but couldn’t see any olives hatching, only a few buzzers, light grey and red/brown as I’d seen the previous day. As I could see more red/brown buzzers coming off I put on an orange buzzer and 2 big reds and for the next few hours it was utter carnage! Double ups, fish taking me to the backing, snap offs (could have been a pike), wrapped round the anchor rope! Then suddenly, it went very quiet and I couldn’t get anything on the big reds and buzzer. There were still fish around in quite good numbers but they just weren’t interested in my flies at all any more. I noticed there were no red/brown buzzers hatching any more, just very light grey ones so changed all my flies over to grey versions of my previous flies – grey buzzer and small grey cdc and dries. Instant success. I’ve been fishing for many years now and I’ve never seen such a clear change of focus from the fish to whats hatching and subsequently a clear improvement in catch rate by matching the hatch. I stayed at the corner of Sam’s for the rest of the day and it was non-stop action with a huge amount of fish caught on dries. Epic fly fishing! 34 for the day. Amazing fishing again Eyebrook!
Day 2 – Rutland
A very misty start to my last day and with only a half day ahead of me before leaving for home I needed to make some solid decisions. Fish had been caught the day before over at Whitwell on shrimp patterns close in to the shore so I headed straight there as quickly as possible, which wasn’t easy with the amount of people waiting around until nearly 10am before boats were let out. What a scramble for the dock! Good job I managed to get out first as boats slowly lined the shore all the way down to the top of the north arm. There were fish close in but I couldn’t tempt them on shrimp patterns so moved further out and changed to a fab on point and 2 different coloured buzzers, grey and orange. There were fish moving but slightly further out so a repositioned and anchored. I started catching instantly on buzzers and the fab was picking up a few as well. It was great sport until the sun came out and it went flat calm and very quiet. I saw a few fish closer in so moved in a bit closer to the bank and started catching again on the buzzers and fab. It’s all about watching and moving to those fish. Other guys close to me were catching on shrimp patterns but I could only get 1 on those so went back to my trusty fab and buzzers. After lunch it went a bit quiet so time to head home. 18 for the morning. Turns out others had said it was a tricky day with talk of people catch 4 to 8 fish. Didn’t do too badly really. Right spot and right flies again!