DECEMBER DRY FLY
For many years my trout fishing was confined to the rivers and streams of the Peak District. The season started in mid-March and finished in mid-October with, on some rivers, winter grayling fishing for the hardier souls. I must confess that, for many years, I did not fish in the winter months. Ah, opportunities lost! Nowadays, trout fishing continues throughout the year because the fishery owners stock up with rainbow trout.I did not immediately take advantage of all-the-year-round fishing. Perhaps the old habits were too deeply ingrained but in recent years I have enjoyed some of the best sport possible and most of it has been outside of the traditional season. My best fish have been landed in November through to early March, including my first ‘double’ at Raygill Fisheries in early March of this year.
Just this week, another idea began to germinate in my mind. I was at Wharf Lake, the Salmon & Trout Association water which lies at the east side of the Forton Service Area of the M6 and alongside the River Wyre in north Lancashire. The sport at this isolated water has been good so far this winter. Rainbows to four pounds have been tempted by green nymphs and GRHEs fished on a floating line and being allowed to settle down to the bottom and retrieved slowly.
On my previous visit to the lake I had been casting to rising fish, or at least casting and allowing the nymph to drop into the dimples before beginning the retrieve. There had been a couple of hatches in the sunshine during the late morning and I toyed with the idea of putting a dry fly on my leader. However, the rain came down and put an end to that idea.
Humping Under The Top Layer
This week it has been freezing cold but with plenty of sunshine. A good part of the lake was covered in a layer of thin ice but under the trees there was some clear water with the sunshine just creeping onto it. I waited and watched for a good ten minutes and then there was a ‘humping’ under the top layer, followed by a barely visible sucking mouth. This was my target, a trout feeding just under the surface film.
I had a size 14 Black Spider on a three pound tippet and managed to cast it just into the circling ripple near to the bank with the trees and bushes. Nothing! And after a few seconds I lifted the fly off the water and waited.
Two or three minutes later the fish was there again. This time nearer to me. I must have cast the fly in the wrong direction. Now I dropped the fly onto the water a good yard in front of the fish. He went down, out of sight and I presumed that he had been disturbed and had eased away. No he hadn’t. Just as I thought of lifting my fly off the water I saw the whiteness of his mouth and the little black spider disappeared in a swirl.
I tightened with gentle firmness, just as the experts tell us, and he was on the hook. He had taken the fly in the angle of the jaw and there was no way he would wriggled out of this. He was just over two and a half pounds in the net. I eased the barbless hook out of his mouth and gave him a push in the general direction of the middle of the lake. Away he went with a flourish of his tail.
That was the first trout I had taken on a dry fly in December. I felt inordinately pleased with myself because I don’t think I’d fished a dry fly for the last two months or so and I would not have wagered my mortgage on taking a trout on a dry fly in December with ice on the water.
A recurring theme in my chronicles is that in trout fishing the unexpected happens and the unusual gets results. I regret now the many times I’ve considered putting a dry fly on my line only to think that no fish would ever be tempted because its the wrong time of the year.
New Year Fishing
I’ll fish once or twice more this year and I’ll try the dry fly again. I hope the weather stays reasonable and that a lot of anglers get a taste of winter fishing. Now that I’ve landed a fish on a dry fly in December I’m looking forward to trying again in January. What about fishing a dry fly on a snowy day?
I’ve left a number of fishing catalogues strategically placed around the home and office with certain pages turned down. With a little bit of luck someone will get the message and Father Christmas will bring me a new Orvis Trident or Hardy Elite.
May I wish you a very merry Christmas and I trust we can all look forward to a healthy and successful New Year.
Tight Lines!
Eddie Caldwell
