There are times when you go fishing when you try every fly in your box and every spot around the lake and get nothing. Sometimes though, there is one guy who catches in the same spot on the same fly all day. Well, for a change, that guy was me at Spring Hill Trout Waters on a very blustery November day this week.
Today was a joint trip with Beardy Neil and we’d had it planned for a while. A week before the weather was looking great and then came storm Abigail followed a few days later by Barney. We thought Barney would be out of thew way the day before but we caught the tail end of it and what a tail end it was. With hands on hats during the big gusts and a constant strong wind blowing the length of the lake it was almost impossible to find a good spot to cast an easy line out. I lost more flies than I put on due to huge gusts of wind whipping the line back into the back while in mid cast. The only way I could successfully get a line out was to stand with my back to the lake and whip out on the back cast using a few hauls and some might tight loops to help it cut through the wind. We couldn’t get out far but it was enough. Kind of.
After wondering round for the first few hours trying to find a half decent spot and trying a lot of different flies we sort of settled into a corner that was slightly less windy and put on some midge tip and intermediate lines to try and keep the line down in the water and stop it getting blown across the surface. I moved spots again into a shallow corner and tried a couple of casts but kept catching weed because of the midge tip and a gold head black damsel I had on. I’d just decided this corner was too weedy and shallow and was just about to pull in my line ready to move when I felt it tighten. I thought I’d just caught the weed again so gave it another tug only to feel it wriggle and pull so I lifted up into the fish and it sped off into the weeds. I’m not sure who was more surprised – me or the fish! With a little persuasion I managed to bring him in to the net. Three casts later and a huge gust of wind whipped my line back into the reeds and I’d lost my lucky fly, and it was the only one I had.
Black and green had worked so I stuck with the same theme and put on a black and green Viva. I spent another 30 mins trying to get a decent line out which seemed to happen in between the gusts every 4/5 casts. Trying to get an exact line out to sit nicely between the weed beds was proving tricky and I’d been snagging on weed a lot. A decent cast went out and another trout hit it hard. This one a bit larger than the first 2/2.5 lb one and a good fighter.
After spending some time in the same spot I noticed that small fry where jumping out of the water near the weeds every now and again and I suspected that the trout were chasing them. I decided to try and get my line closer to the weed beds and changed the retrieve to something more erratic and speedy – more like a small fish. After another 20 mins or so of battling the wind and I was into another fish. And then another until I had my 4 fish limit. All taken on the Viva and all in the same spot by the weeds. But it didn’t stop there! I soon had another fish which shot off with some speed and felt like a real lump. It took me straight into there weeds, then out again and came hurtling towards me so fast I couldn’t pull the line in fast enough. It then headed straight for the weeds next to the bank where it seemed to get stuck until I let the line go slack and it eventually made a break for it again only to dive straight into another weed bed. I managed to get a glimpse of the fish when it came up to the surface and it was a good 4lb or so but again it charged into the weeds and got stuck again. I tried to manoeuvre it out but it just bedded down deeper in the weeds and eventually the hook came out. All I was left with was a hunk of weed. I had one more snatch that was on, and then off just as quickly and that was it. Not a bad day at all considering the conditions and it turned out I had been the only one there that day to catch anything. So 4 fish and the 2 that got away seemed like a fantastic days fishing.
Sometimes there’s one cocky guy who manages to catch loads when no one else does. This time, it was me!
General conditions – Cloudy and very windy. Gusts up to 50mph!
Wind direction – South westerly
Flies that worked – Black damsel, Viva