That’s it lads – we are almost there! The winter solstice is upon us and from now on the days will be fair old drawing in. I think this is a special time for the dedicated trout angler as it signifies a turning point in the long dreary winter – a faint glimmer of hope that the new season is just around the corner, warm summer days, olives on the water, trout splashing at your dry fly.
I suppose I need to get my ass in gear and tie up some flies…
I was having the same kind of optimism when i noticed the date, i dont think ive ever suffered the off-season blues as much as i have this year. My minds never been so focussed on one thing before, this season will see a new, tactical approach to my fishing.
Tactical? last year I decided was the year of stealth – it went completely out the window – I reckon if you want to catch big trout you have got to target them with streamers – something I will be giving a bash at the start of the season I think !
I think it was actually you Alistair that got me thinking about streamers, looking forward to giving them a good bash in the coming season!
I believe it was either yourself or Alex that had reverted to using a Humungus at the end of our first days fishing in August!
They get big for a reason I supose 😉
🙂 Yep – I put on a wooly bugger !
Have a good christmas !
Im a fairly stealthy angler when the conditions call for it but i reckon im gonna pay a bit more attention to hatches, conditions etc as opposed to putting on the same spiders or bugs that always work. It stands to reason though that the bigger trout will often fall to big ugly lures, after all, you dont get many ferox on little dries!
Starting the season with streamers is a decision you won’t regret Alistair. I’d still expect a few strange looks though.
That’s a cracking fish bye the way.
Jim
Scott – I think we are all a little guilty of sticking to the same old flies, I reckon I only use half a dozen flies for the whole year. When you say you are stealthy how far do you take it? Do you hide behind bushes or simply keep a low profile ?
Jim – after seeing what you caught last year on Streamers I would be daft not to give them a go. I think it would give me a little more hope at the start of the season than just praying for a hatch of olives that does not seem to interest the trout anyway.
What annoyed me about that photo (apart from the big blur) is the fact the trout is bent away from the camera making it look shorter – the trout was longer than my thigh and was caught on a dry fly – it was one of those perfect days – warm,muggy,showers, trickling hatch of olives – I reckon I caught over 20 trout on the dry fly many of them over a pound – tremendous. Just before I landed that trout I lost another one which was even bigger !
Alistair
Depends on the situation, if theres a bush i can hide behind then i’ll utilise it but most of the time its just simple things like keeping a low profile and most importantly staying well downstream of the fish im targetting.
Yup – I try and do those things as well – however have you thought about taking it a stage further – I mean really using stealth – crawling along the bank, wearing camo gear etc
I dont wear camo but i usually kneel on the bank, keeping my profile (hopefully) invisible, Im thinking about buying some camo gear for fishing one of my local waters because its well overgrown and i reckon it would give me an advantage, for the other water i fish regularly there is absolutely no cover so its just a case of keep low, downstream and keep your shadow off the water. They both differ extremely and incidentally theyre both kelvin tributaries!