We are lucky to have some of the country’s finest reservoir trout fishing right here in the West Country. We have brown trout only, rainbow only and mixed fisheries ranging in size from fifty to several hundred acres in size. Later in the year the sport can be almost entirely top-of-the-water based, but every season the problem arises of what to do in the early weeks. It is the easiest of things to reach for the sinking line and a tadpole type lure, which, when jerked back at various depths, can guarantee any angler a bulging bass bag.
This year, by way of a variation on my new philosophy (see Spinning and Stuff), I am going to try something different. The sinking line, if necessary, will remain, but I am going to try a slightly more traditional approach.
Once upon a time someone somewhere developed a fly which was so successful on stillwaters that it was banned on some lakes for being unsporting. This was when all the trout were wild and brown of hue. It has since fallen out of favour with the southern trout fisher, who now favours more modern patterns, and has been adopted by the sea-trout angler instead. It encompasses everything that a lure should and is one of a handful of similar flies, developed long ago yet never seen in the modern rainbow trout angler's fly box. This particular fly is the Alexandra, named after the princess who later became the Queen. It is still used in Scotland and by a few people south of the border, primarily for brown trout. But why shouldn't it work for rainbows too?
The same can be said of the Butcher in its normal, Bloody and Kingfisher guises. Also some of the more modern rainbow flies of the 70s and 80s have come and gone like the Sweeney Todd and the whiskey fly.
On those rare days when the sun might deign to warm the top few inches of water, I will forsake the sinking line all together and fish a floater with black beetley type patterns in very small sizes IN the surface film. A lot of the reservoirs down here have a fall of terrestrials on a day that is simply warmer than the day before. These will not be the foam variety of today but traditional things like black and peacock spiders fished as part of a team.
I am, therefore simply not going to tie on a tadpole or a humongous when I first take to a boat on Roadford, Wimbleball or Kennick. I don't own a blob and buzzers and diawl bachs can be replaced with spiders of various types and small bibios...........................well maybe. I am really looking forward to seeing if the patterns I used 20 years ago still work and let's face it; the fish aren't influenced by fashion are they?
This year, by way of a variation on my new philosophy (see Spinning and Stuff), I am going to try something different. The sinking line, if necessary, will remain, but I am going to try a slightly more traditional approach.
Once upon a time someone somewhere developed a fly which was so successful on stillwaters that it was banned on some lakes for being unsporting. This was when all the trout were wild and brown of hue. It has since fallen out of favour with the southern trout fisher, who now favours more modern patterns, and has been adopted by the sea-trout angler instead. It encompasses everything that a lure should and is one of a handful of similar flies, developed long ago yet never seen in the modern rainbow trout angler's fly box. This particular fly is the Alexandra, named after the princess who later became the Queen. It is still used in Scotland and by a few people south of the border, primarily for brown trout. But why shouldn't it work for rainbows too?
The same can be said of the Butcher in its normal, Bloody and Kingfisher guises. Also some of the more modern rainbow flies of the 70s and 80s have come and gone like the Sweeney Todd and the whiskey fly.
On those rare days when the sun might deign to warm the top few inches of water, I will forsake the sinking line all together and fish a floater with black beetley type patterns in very small sizes IN the surface film. A lot of the reservoirs down here have a fall of terrestrials on a day that is simply warmer than the day before. These will not be the foam variety of today but traditional things like black and peacock spiders fished as part of a team.
I am, therefore simply not going to tie on a tadpole or a humongous when I first take to a boat on Roadford, Wimbleball or Kennick. I don't own a blob and buzzers and diawl bachs can be replaced with spiders of various types and small bibios...........................well maybe. I am really looking forward to seeing if the patterns I used 20 years ago still work and let's face it; the fish aren't influenced by fashion are they?
