Another summer vacation and Holly and I head up to Chatton Trout Fishery again for some fly fishing with Bob Smith. She caught the sole fish on our last and her first visit and experience of trout fishing with a fly rod. This time it was my turn. It was a return to the adventure of the book Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout (Kindle ebook and now 5"x 8"glossy paperback ISBN 9781729146149 for £6.35, and hardback). However, this was no early morning session. It was a civilised drive in the late morning for a post-lunch start.
View from the car park
Bob was a little delayed in his arrival at the venue so Holly and I had lunch before doing about 15 minutes unsuccessful fishing before Bob arrived. We saw a tiger trout swim past our feet a few times while we waited.
This was the first Rainbow caught
The Fritz patterns I usually start with were not attracting anything.
Bob arrived and we walked over to the upper lake at its far end where the spring enters into deep water. This was local knowledge coming through. It had been a low hot dry summer to that point (as evidenced by the parched soil in the photo above), and the fish were deep in the cool fresh spring water.
Bob suggested a small hook wrapped around with copper wire. Bang! First cast and as the intermediate line began to sink past a count of 20, the fish hit.
So it continued, the line sinking deep with various pheasant tail nymphs, wire nymphs and olive nymph lures all sinking close to the reeds where the spring fed in. All in all I had about 7 on and allowed them to come off the hook prior to landing to speed the catch and release process, (and avoid getting the hire car smelling of fish from my hands).
Holly had one on and lost it with Bob's help but he had a floating line and the leader wasn't really long enough to get down to the depth of the feeding fish.
We had a good session and all too quickly had to get back to home and farewell to a lovely spot where NO English (Environment Agency) rod licence (available online or at local post offices) is required as its part of the River Till catchment area feeding into the Tweed.
