I MUST Check My Flies!

The amount of times I have fished through a pool and thought that I must be doing something wrong or that my timing has gone off are many. I carry on down - still not first rate - strange as the wind, although upstream, is only very light and I can normally cover that lie on the far side quite happily - oh well.

Suddenly I have a thought and look at my fly..............ah. That'll be the problem then. One of the hooks has caught itself up around the leader. I then wonder how long it has been that way. Potentially I haven't fished the pool at all!

Maybe it is just me, but I get so engrossed in casting my way out of trouble or into form or trying to fish every cast as though it's my last, that I forget the obvious.

Here is a quick sequence to show the effects of a hooked up fly. In this case it is a big tube that I wouldn't normally fish in these conditions as the water is a bit low, but it does show how the entire cast is affected from the initial lift, through the touchdown and lift off of the anchor and finally the turnover of the fly itself.

Although this is a set-up to make the effects obvious, even with small flies all these difficulties are experienced if they are hooked up, just to a lesser extent. The fact is that with, say, a size 12 double or treble, it is even easier to waste a lot of time casting when all the while not fishing.

When in doubt, I MUST stop fishing and check my flies.

The silly thing is that at night I check my flies every few casts and rarely have a problem.

Proper Preparation Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance

 
I have just been to Bellbrook trout fishery. I do not quite know why. I paid £35 to catch three specimen fish and came away having caught nothing more exciting than a mutant trout and slight chill!

I have to say that I was ill prepared. I had an old line that should have been changed ten years ago. It purports, or rather purported, to be an intermediate. This means that it sinks very slowly, much slower than a slow sinking line, but it definitely sinks, so is mid-way between a floater and a sinker - thus "intermediate". Ideally a line of this sort should gradually drop beneath the surface on a nice level plain with no one part sinking any faster than another. My version rather resembled the sinking of a piece of rotten string, parts of it didn't sink at all. No amount of jollop or fullers earth could persuade it to behave like it should and so, I am afraid, I removed it from the spool at the end of the day and hurled it with considerable force - not to mention malice - into the nearest bin!

I was fishing with my best friend Marc. Musto Marc we call him because he works for this popular clothing brand. (IT SHOULD BE MENTIONED HERE THAT I WORK FOR LE CHAMEAU - A FAR SUPERIOR BRAND OF COUNTRY CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR, THAT HAS SHAPED THE WAY WE DRESS WHILST SHOOTING. Well................that's my story and I'm sticking to it.) He caught his three specimen fish very easily. Actually I say "specimen" but by this I mean they came from one of the Specimen Lakes. They were neither extraordinarily large nor perfect of fin; but he he caught them. We were fishing the same flies on the same lakes and at the same time. The only difference was that his nice blue Cortland Intermediate did exactly what it says on the tin.

I could have gone salmon fishing for £40 and expected to catch nothing. If I had connected - OH the joy. This small stillwater debacle was the exact opposite - and it was all my fault.

I left the fishery feeling most dejected.

P.P.P.P.P.P...........................Remember this for a more stress free life.