Stone me Pink!Aches and Pains Like one or two other contributors to these pages, I’ve had an inconsistent Summer and I’m only doing marginally better now we’re well into Autumn. Two main problems have been the ups-and-downs of the weather and an arthritic hip that has flared up on an almost weekly basis this year. The weather has been the same for all and it’s up to me, a fisherman, to find strategies and cope. I’ve been found wanting on a couple of occasions and how frustrating that can be. I’m not grumbling about the arthritis either. In 1970 my GP sent me for X-ray examination at Withington Hospital in Manchester. The result came back: osteo-arthritis in the lumbar spine and in the right hip. His prognosis was gloomy and, after a few months of idleness I ignored his advice and got on with my life. Now, 36 years on, I’m beginning to feel it. My back and hip have stood up to a lot of ‘stick’. I played football until I was 40, wrestled professionally for 16 years and retired aged 44. I continued with athletics and sprinted for my club until I was 52. I still jog and walk. The annoying thing, though, is that it is now affecting my fishing. (So, too, are dodgy eyes and slow hands: knots on fine fluorocarbon totally defeat my fingers and teeth). Stalking Trout All things considered, I find I’ve spent more time stalking individual fish. On new waters this probably means that very little fishing is done on the first visit and more time spent on watching the water. I take binoculars with me wherever I go and some steep-sided reservoirs are best observed through binoculars from the top of a bank. Find the fish lies and plot them. Watch the patterns of behaviour and see how and when the individual fish look for and take their food. This in itself becomes absorbing and the fishing tends to take a back seat on occasions. Incidentally, my younger son thinks it highly suspicious that I go stalking with a pair of binoculars. Sitting on a steep bank the other day I spied out the lake whilst eating a plum. The plum stone escaped from my fingers and trundled down the bank and in to the water. It stimulated immediate reaction from a large rainbow trout that obviously patrolled close in to that bank; a fish I had not even seen in the half hour I had been watching the water. The stone disappeared for ten or fifteen seconds and then floated back to the surface. Back came the trout and took the stone in its mouth only to release it a few seconds later. This happened a total of five time before the fish gave up on the stone and it, the stone that is, slowly drifted away. Ten yards later another fish went through the same procedure; take the stone, turn and dive a little and then let the stone out. I spoke to Ken, the bailiff at Cowpe, about this and his mind immediately began to tick over: how to tie a passable representative of a plum stone. He then showed me an imitation of a piece of bread he had tied a few weeks back and reported some success with this pattern. I have some expertly tied nymphs and buzzers, particularly the dedicated stalking variety from www.sportflies.com that have helped me with some good catches using this method. Graham’s Flies (with apologies) I must mention a recent dour day when I fished for a couple of hours without experiencing even a polite tug from a trout. I looked in my fly box and spied one of Graham Marsden’s celebrated pink creations. On it went and, you guessed it, it attracted and hooked two rainbows in successive casts. The third take unfortunately broke my line at the knot and a four pound rainbow escaped and with it went the last of Graham’s ‘Lily the Pink’ flies. I guess the fish had seen everything I had to offer but could not resist the sight of something so novel. Change of Emphasis I’m away to Scotland next week but I’ve missed the final day of the trout and salmon season. This time, an old friend has promised me a visit to a very reliable bass mark off the West Coast that is producing fish well into late Autumn. Let’s hope it lasts ’til the end of this month. |
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