Another night at my fly tying class last night, very interesting.
On the way back home I got to discussing with Alex another river that we fish and just how special it actually is. The river is split with reeds and islands and weed beds making the currents form hundreds of small pools, riffles and runs. It is essentially like fishing hundreds of small streams all at once. Very tricking fly fishing. Very technical as you are constantly thinking about drag and the trout are especially spooky (Alberto loves it and disapproves strongly of me even posting a picture – it is a very fragile environment). The wading is the stuff of nightmares big boulders, small boulders, sudden drop offs and occasional sandy drop offs. Last season I had a bad time as I was using rubber boots which meant I slipped all over the place but this year I have my new boots from Orvis with felt soles so should be ok.
We got to reminisce about a session we had at the tail end of the season when basically everything seemed to go just right – every time we looked up we seen another rising trout and it did not matter one jot whether we landed another trout as we had so many anyway.
I stood below a little crease in the water – it was maybe a yard wide and a couple of yards long where I caught around 4-5 trout each one as plump as the one I had before. I stood there for around half an hour thinking that there must be a limitless amount of trout coming from this little riffle. I was loathe to move on because as soon as I thought the crease was fished out another trout would come to me.
We got to thinking and talking about the amount you learn about trout behaviour and what you know you have to do and simply don’t put into practice. This year Mike and I have pretty much decided should be the Year of Stealth and with this I got to thinking about the way we approach this river. For a start we approach it over a hill and are in full view of around 200 yards of river. Are the trout spooked by this? There are cows wandering around the field so do the trout think we are just a funny cow (something I assume they are used to seeing) Should we be getting on our hands an knees and crawling the last hundred yards to the river or is simply walking quietly without making any sudden movements enough?
Sunday is our first trip of the season to this little section of river and I just think we might put some of these thoughts into action. The weather looks good and is looking to be April temperatures – well – the average April temp is around 11oc and Sunday is to be 12-13 so the heat should be enough to get some Large Dark Olives on the water and maybe some trout rising. I don’t want to hex the start of the season but it does kind of look like we are having a nice Spring which boads well for part two of what may become an annual “Big River Bonanza” at the end of April.
Thank monkeys it is Friday – I have had a hellish week at work – I swear the only thing that keeps me going sometimes is knowing that somewhere a few miles from where I am there is a rising trout.