For what would probably be my last fishing trip to CDAA’s Fordwich trout pool before I start at my new lake I picked a real pig of a day! The Beardy Bros really do know how to pick the weather!

After a lovely Saturday in the garden a few weeks ago I decided to grab a few hours on the Sunday afternoon for a final blast at Fordwich. It was freezing cold, windy and looked like it would hail any second. I walked around the lake 3 times trying every method I knew worked and every type of fly but with no success. As my fingers were nearly blue I decided to give it one final try on the last side of the lake before leaving and put on a fly I had caught with on my previous trip – a gold head brown nymph with an orange tag.

Almost instantly I got a tug. A few cats later in the same spot and another quick tug and a very slight wriggle but all that was on the end was a very small roach fry (which we’ll come back to later). Fordwich is FULL of small course fish which can get very irritating at times when they constantly nibble the fly and attach themselves to the end of the hook. I moved a few passes up the bank and tried again and first cast out got a good tug and a fish on the end. Not huge, but very welcome. Two more casts and into another. And then a few more misses and it went dead. I was so cold by this point that 2 fish felt like a good end so I packed up and headed home for a warm brew.

The theory

It was on the walk back I had a thought. The small roach fry I pulled out had amazingly orange eyes. Maybe the fly I used, pulled quickly, mimicked the speed and colour of a passing fry and the trout just grabbed at it. With so much fry in the lake they would be an important food source for the trout all year round. Maybe?