Well, now i've finally found a moment to myself when i can't go out to fish, i too can get to musing over what has been my personal best season
I'm sitting roasting the remains of last weeks pumpkin to make a nice spicy soup, so with glass of wine in hand i find it rather pleasant to reflect on what for some seems to have been a disappointing season for the bigger tourists, i had a couple of of fresh ones in the late spring, both on the Dry fly while chasing gold, but i haven't seen any since. Not even seen fresh ones moving with the nice water over the last few weeks
However the Sea-trout were a different story.
My early season exploits with the brownies are fairly well documented on the Don pages, however i haven't really been after them since the beginning of August, so there wasn't much else to add, it was my best season by a long way, according to the returns i had well over a hundred fish greater than a pound, all on the dryfly, 1/3 were over 2lb with half a dozen 3lb+ and 4 over the magic 4lb mark. I have still yet to land one over 5lb, so an amazing season all in, with some startling relevations.
This was the season i decided to fish with the minimal flies i could carry and the first time i actually managed to achieve that objective, a bit of experimentation but fundamentally i carried the whole season on 5 patterns (and 2 of those are basically the same with a different wing, another 2 of those are the same pattern in different colours and the last is my all time favourite) It worked
Not changing flies very much, meant i have spent following my own advice so lots of looking, some carefully well timed casting and a good dollop of rivercraft, it has been great getting to know the river again and i think age has meant i understand her a whole lot more. I also spent a lot of time with my fibreglass rods and they are wonderful things to fish with, a lot like cane but more accessible, they have helped me improve my approach to the fish and have heightened the pleasure in catching fish. On the whole a great experience for the whole year and many of the high points have been shared with a few people whose company i have loved
Since August..................
We get to the Sea trout, another story all together
its been somewhat hit or miss all year for them until mid september. I had a lot of finnock early season on the fly and a couple of nice sea-trout during the year on an evening, however the last 6 weeks have been amazing
I reckon i've had well over a hundred fish out of the ythan, almost all bright silver and fresh, about half were mature sea-trout and half Finnock, most of them were relatively small 1.25-1.75lb, but i've had a good few over the 2- 2.5lb mark, most on the fly (1 pattern, in fact the same fly
and it is still good, if a little ragged)
It was great to be able to take fresh fish right up to the last few days of the season, the odd one still had sea lice too.
This is my pen-ulitmate fish of the year, just starting to darken slightly, caught on the 30th with "the' fly
Still a bonny wee fish about 1.25lb firm and acrobatic. its these wee devils that have occupied me almost obsessively the last few weeks, what a great way to end a fantastic year
I've a few rods to build over the winter and quite a few flies to tie (although not many patterns 6 for all species!!!) so i'm looking forward to communicating a bit more and hearing how some of you have faired this year too
Cheers
Sandy
