When things change

With the forecast being a bit iffy this weekend the river seemed out of question. The wind and rain was due to set in and risking travelling anywhere to fish a river would have been the kiss of death, we headed to Farmoor where at least you can hide from the wind and the only effect the rain has is greying the sky.

As we arrived at the lake there was a strong westerly blowing directly into my favourite corner. The water was choppy but not so that you couldn’t get a line across it. Out came the Airflo Airlite Nantec Competition special loaded with the Di 8 Shooting head.

Usually if your first casts a good’un, the sinking time is normally left to a good minute just to make sure the line has hit the depth your aiming for, which in the winter is usually hard on the bottom! The first cast is normally a teaser, your excited, anxious to put a bend in the rod and a fish on the bank, your retrieve is too fast and you only realise when you miss a take… but 20 minutes in, nothing. Not even a take between 4 of us which was surprising considering the number of fish we had in this area over the last few months.

The next few casts I thought I’d do something different, retrieve the flies in a different manor to everyone else. The usual retrieve would be a dead slow figure of eight with the odd pull or jig throughout. As this wasn’t working i’d decided to fish the flies at the same level but a lot quicker, leaving the line sink 40-50 seconds with long exaggerate pulls, hopefully to entice anything that was feeding and not interested in the slow stuff.

It was like switching the lights on. A pull on the very first pull! Continuing the same steady retrieve it finally locked up and I’d hooked the only fish for 20 minutes on the Fenton Cat. The fish put up a good fight taking some line as it reached the bank, but eventually slid over the net. A clean looking for of about 2lbs, which was absolutely spewing daphnia. A water-mite which forms clumps in the water and provides a substantial part of the fishes diet in most waters. It forms to create ‘clouds’ under the water which fish gorge themselves on, this fish had it in its mouth and was pouring out onto the bank.

Still nothing was happening for the boys around so I tried the same thing again. For the next 4 casts I hooked and lost 3 fish and landed another. Cracked it! The next hour or so produced 6-7 fish with some slabs mixed in, older fish of up to 3 1/2lbs which had obviously switched due to the amount of daphnia.

Throughout the day the fish had risen in the water column, seemingly to make their feeding more active and aggressive. Varying the retrieve and sink rate we found fish more or less from the top to the bottom, with the bigger, more resident fish mid-water. Even though they were deep, they didn’t seem to want it slow. The speed of the wind was kicking up the undertow causing the flies to hooks some leaves which were caught in the current, the same thing was probably happening to the daphnia, forcing the fish to practically ‘chase’ it. Moving the flies seemed to imitate this perfectly and the fish were respoding well, why change anything when you get something going?

A Vlog! Something different

After reading through my blog the last week I thought I’d try something different as opposed to the usual photo layout.

Travelling to Farmoor Saturday morning the temperature gauge was hitting -10! At first, we were pretty reluctant to get out of the car for breakfast, but as we got closer to the lake the temperature rose and was near enough bearable – still below O though.

As the sun was rising above the tree line we were making our way out of the lodge searching for the best area to occupy us for the first few hours. The sun had yet to rise above the lip of the lake, it was -4 tackling up with a meter or more of ice around the edge making the first few cast difficult.

I tackled up with my preferred set up for bank fishing, an Airflo Airlite Nano Comp special fly rod and a Di8 shooting head. It was obvious the fish would be deep so there would be no compromise! Setting up a short leader of just 12 feet, I had 5 feet to my first fly, A Strangled Cat and a Fenton Cat on the point.

Usually the first cast is short, just to take any unwary fish by surprise then lengthen the casts there after.  But as the temperature was so low, water so clear and half the lake icebound I made the first cast a long ‘un to get the depth and location right first. At first it was flat calm, but then a sharp left to right breeze picked up and it was bitter, the kind that makes you want to pack up and go with the wind on your back so you can hide behind the wall. But we stuck it out, albeit with a few less casts not to get the fingertips wet!

Jonathan hooked into the first fish after just 10 minutes of fishing, only to loose it as the first rose in the water columns. A few cast later another lost fish! Jonathan had it right but being primarily a river fisherman he couldn’t stop hitting the fish at first contact, he soon got the hang of it and let the fish actually eat the fly by slowing his retrieve down and waiting for the initial solid hold.

Anglers were moving around the lake looking for that quick fix hoping to land on a few lucky fish, although it wasn’t that sort of day. Perseverance was key, the water temp had dropped dramatically and the fish had seemed to sulk, not wanting to move far from their station. My plan as I described to Jon was, long casting and slow retrieves hopefully giving the fish a chance to ‘mosey’ around and pick up the fly. Fishing slow with long casts allows your flies and fly line to sink deep hugging the bottom presenting the flies in the fishes feeding zone. My theory was that the slower I fish the longer my flies are in the feeding zone and the more chance I have of fish intercepting the flies.

The flat calm was making things hard, the lack of wind meant casting was compromised and the fish were finicky. The lack of wind meant there was no/little undertow, the fish and flies had nothing to compete against meaning the fish could easily just ‘nip’ the tail or body of the fly. If the undertow was stronger the fish would be moving whilst taking the fly, competing against the undertow which should lead to better hook ups. These takes are normally described as ‘screamers’ as the fish hits the fly so hard it pulls the line out of your hand or stops dead on your retrieve. But today the takes were more finicky, if you’d missed the first take there wasn’t much luck that it would come back and re-take the fly. Throughout the day I think we must have missed twice as many as we landed, although this could have been down to user error I set about looking at different retrieves to entice the fish back. The best I found was ‘Slow figure of eight until you feel the take then jig the rod putting a small kick into the fly and pulls it down an inch or two, a fast figure of eight thereafter retrieves the slack line. After the initial ‘jig’ the fly will rise in the water column in front of the fish and this normally results in another take, or a hookup.

Check out the video below of my preferred retrieve. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the video – I thought it would be something new and different. What do you think?

Another showing the Jig from another angle

6lb of Farmoor Muscle

The trout season is just only around the corner at just 6 full weeks away… tying has commenced with booby eyes being perfectly rounded, lashed onto hooks and awaiting the arrival of its fluffy tail, slim bodies and pronounced wings.

To get us back into the swing of things we take a few needed trips to Farmoor reservoir, where the casting cobwebs can be blow away whilst we hurl a line out and into the horizon. New fly patterns devised over the winter can be tried, new methods or new lines.

For me, It’s a welcomed change to stand on the bank and work out the undertow, feeding depths and so on. Usually that sort of stuff is somewhat logged into the brain from previous trips when out on the boat but, on the bank things seem to change quicker and more frequent, all made easier to understand by the recent articles in the fishing magazines of fishing ‘concrete bowls’.

After a few grayling sessions, it’s always nice to have a break, leave the ladies to it and do something different, so we headed to farmoor for what will be one of our last trips before the season is back in full swing. It was bright and windy, a strong left to right wind in our usual spot so we decided to give it a go.

Deans first 4 casts seen him hook 6 fish and landed 4, snapping off at the dropped with two double headers. Then the wind started to pick up.. and up.. and up. Casting was becoming quite strenuous with nearly every cast being blow completely off target. Each ‘descent’ cast I got out, I caught a fish, I managed four within a few minutes which where feeding around mid water, and one near enough 5lb in weight. A great start to a increasingly windy day.

As the wind became almost unbearable our lines where blown all over the road and into the bushes! It was time to move, so we made our way round to the top of the wind for some comfortable fishing. Although slower, the fish were there, all you had to do was wait your turn as they made their way up and down the bank. We ended the day with around 20 fish between us – two in access of 5lb in weight.

It’s always nice to see what you’ve been missing for so many months over the closed season. Now to sort out the tackle box and fly lines!

Who else is looking forward to the trout season!?