It
doesn’t get much better!
After that cold opening
day at Ladybower on March 1 when I had to work hard for my three trout
landed, my friend and I were back out on a boat again just two days later.
Again the sun shone all day long, and I do like winter sunshine, though
there was ice in the boats and on the fringes of the reservoir when we
set off in the morning.
I was not too worried when after over an hour we had not had a single
take.
I enjoy the sheer fact of being out fishing even if I am not catching,
and anyway I was hopeful for some sport later on.
In very cold water at this time of the year it helps a lot if the water
temperature lifts even a small amount, and I often say that the hours
between 11am and 3pm are better for fishing than early mornings.
That is how it turned out because we started getting takes just before
going in for lunch and the fish were real beauties.
I had a couple of the newly stocked blue rainbows and even the normal
rainbows were pink fleshed and silvery. As I had been told the blues really
fight hard.
The important thing though was to fish the flies quite deep which, in
the cold water and very bright sunshine, is where the fish were lying
and feeding.
I used a fairly fast sinking fly line, and my pal used a less fast sinker
but waited for the line to sink well down before starting the retrieve.
Good sport, good pub grub, a drop of good whisky, and sunshine.
It doesn’t get much better than that for an old codger like me...