Tight Lines
Extracts from a Fishing Log
1
Illicit Sea Trout
2
Four Casts, Four Fish
3
A
Good Night
Fly fishing stories from the past.
Extract #1
Illicit Sea Trout
Date :
A
long time ago
Place :
An exclusive sea
trout river
My
first visit to the river left a clear and indelible impression of a most
memorable catch, a defining moment in my fishing life, heralding a
lifelong obsession with that most mysterious and fascinating fish, the sea
trout .......
Having
made our way nervously to the river's edge in the darkness of an early
July night, we assembled our tackle excitedly but without much trouble,
the fly and bubble float having been attached before nightfall.
Everything now would be done by the meagre natural light of the summer
night. We would not dare to stay long, just long enough. Fish were
moving in the tail of the pool but it was difficult to assess their
size. A couple of maggots on the bend of the hook and the first casts
were made. But surely the loud plop of the bubble float could be heard
a hundred yards away in the still of the night. Teeth gritted at each
cast.
The first few casts produced one or two finnock, fish around half a pound, which were
returned carefully. We hadn't come all of two hundred miles for finnock
but for the larger sea trout that we knew would be running the river at
this time of year and for which the river was famous. Another
cast to the far side of the pool within a yard or two of the bank, pull
over the bale arm of the reel manually to minimise any noise, begin a slow
retrieve just sufficient to maintain a taut line and contact with the fly.
Suddenly the fly stops, the line tightens as if stuck fast on a log or
stone. Lift the rod. It's a fish and no finnock this time! The
light seven foot rod bends double then dips sharply as something big
leaps from the water. Has the hook come out?
No, the rod is almost pulled
from my hand as the fish immediately dives for the riverbed. These
acrobatics are repeated two or three times as the sea trout desperately
tries to regain its freedom but it is firmly hooked and, weakened by its
dramatic efforts to escape, it is drawn, perhaps too hurriedly, on to the
shingle. I drop the rod and fall on the bar of silver, still kicking
frantically, solid muscle. I reach for a stone, knock it on the head,
remove the hook and carry the fish well away from the river. Only now do I
realise that my hands are trembling, my legs shaking and my heart pounding
too fast for comfort. What a beauty, it must be five pounds, by far the
best fish I've caught. But surely the battle must have been heard, someone
will come to investigate. We crouch silently, every sense strained to the
limit to confirm that we have not been discovered. Fear, though, is soon overcome by the prospect of another such fish and we edge back to
the river. We catch one or two more, not of the same quality as the first
but decent fish all the same. It suddenly seems as if we've been fishing
for a long time, surely too long for safety. We are taking too much of a
chance in fishing on, pushing our luck. So it is with relief that we agree
to call it a night. We collect our fish which have been well hidden in the
dry stane dyke nearby and make our way quietly and quickly away from the
scene of the crime to rendezvous with friends who have been fishing a pool
further downstream. In reality, as it turned out, we had fished less than
an hour and the fish weighed only three and a half pounds. But what a
fish!
Extract #2
Four Casts, Four Fish
|
Date : Monday 15th August, 1988
Place : Cowden Mill Dam, River Endrick
Diary 15th August
5 Sea Trout - 8, 4¾, 3½, 3½, 2¼ lbs.
(Total
22lbs)
|
 |
After heavy rain over the weekend and a high spate on
Sunday, the river had dropped by Monday evening and was running clear, at
a perfect height for the sink tip line. Others thought so too as five
fishers had gathered at the dam for a 9.30 start. A warm night with some
encouraging cloud cover and no moon but, with the tractor lights from the
haymaking disturbing the pool until 10.30pm, things were a little slow to
start.
I had one smallish fish of around 2¼lbs from behind the
stone in the middle of the pool, lost another and foul hooked a grilse,
which was duly returned, all before midnight. Alec had two fish and two
others were caught early on. Things went very quiet between midnight and
3am, by which time all but myself and two others had left. It was looking
like a fairly average night.
Just occasionally, though, we experience
an exceptional day or night's fishing, when all the time and effort
spent on the river seems worthwhile - when, as Alec puts it, we are
rewarded for good attendance. This was such a night. In the space of no
more than half an hour, between 3am and 3.30am, without moving my stance,
I hooked, and landed, four sea trout in four casts. The total weight of
the four fish was 19¾lbs and the biggest was 8lbs, until recently my biggest ever sea
trout (see Fishy Photos). I might have added to my bag but, deciding enough was enough, I
called on Robert, who had been fishing some way up the pool, to take my
place at the hot spot. This was one of my favourite spots, about ten
yards or so above the Dam, casting to a narrow gap in the overhanging
trees on the far side. The fish usually took just as the flies emerged
from under the trees. Robert, on this occasion, had no success. I, though,
had had a magical half hour, never to be forgotten, or repeated. I must
have been casting over a shoal of large fresh fish, ready and willing to
take my flies after entering the dam minutes earlier. I fished the usual 2
flies, one size 8 Pheasant tail spider on the dropper and one size 10
black and silver spider on the tail, both sparsely dressed and adorned
with a few maggots. That night I was certainly in the right place at the
right time.
Extract #3 A
Good Night
|
Date : Thursday, 10th July 1997
Place : River Earn
|
 |
Thundery rain in the west. Temperature forecast to stay
above 11°C.
Heavy cloud cover, upstream easterly wind, not strong enough to be
troublesome but strong enough to keep mist off the water.
Surprisingly, no other fishers to be seen, perhaps
because the river level had dropped six inches since Tuesday and was now
running very low, with a large area of pebbles exposed on the left bank
opposite the fence. I had caught fish earlier last month in this height of
water, though, and so was hopeful.
It
was just about dark enough to start fishing, with care, at 11pm. Fishing a
double taper seven floater and two size 8 flies, a ginger pearl on the
dropper and a pearly dark mackerel on the tail. I made a start in the streamy water at the head of the pool, wading carefully and casting into
the shade of the bushes on the far bank.
The
first fish took on the far side just opposite the log, a good firm take as
I had been doing a slow figure of eight retrieve to keep in touch with the
flies and keep them moving at a good pace. Now this fish, at just 1lb 14
ozs, was probably the liveliest fish I have caught, leaping clear of the
water about eight times and causing a great commotion in the now shallow
stream before being drawn towards the net, at which point its lively
acrobatics almost earned its freedom. Just as I was drawing the fish over the net, I felt the hook come out and, for a second, the fish was
free. Fortunately, before the fish realised this, I managed to scoop the
net under it. An unlucky fish! It was 11.30pm.
Despite
the disturbance, not wishing to miss the chance of another fish, I started
in again just above where I had hooked the fish. It was only a matter of
minutes before I felt a strong pull but didn't make contact. At 12
midnight, on reaching the overhanging trees on the far bank, as the flies
began to swing across the current, I felt a tiny pluck, very like a bat
touching the line. Seconds later, the second sea trout of the night was
on, stronger than the first fish but less acrobatic. After an early leap,
it ran strongly up the far side of the stream. I kept firm pressure on to
keep it out of the thick trailing weed, which grew near the far bank. The
hook held, though, and the second fish of the night was eventually netted,
another hen fish of 2lbs 2ozs. Like the first, it had taken the tail fly.
After a short break
for a cup of tea from the flask, I fished on till 12.30am. With no
further offers and two fish on the bank, I decided to call it a night. I
may have had the chance of a few more fish, perhaps even the bag of the
season, but I was well satisfied. Two beautiful,
fresh sea trout, 4lbs
between them, caught within an hour of each other, with a third fish
missed, on a lovely river at the height of summer with not another
fisherman in sight. A good night! In fact, if you were to imagine, to
daydream, of a perfect night's fishing, it might be very like this.
The Sea Trout Fisher
~
He comes by well worn evening path his craft to
nightly ply
On quiet summer pools where sewin silver sleeping
lie
Like precious
stones that shine unseen beneath the
silent stream
Elusive pearls that haunt the dreams that sea trout fishers dream
Home
from salty sea the roaring rapid roughly run
Home
to the redd their weary journey long ago begun
To
rest and wait by nature's blinding light of lengthening day
To
stir and wake as verdant leaf turns slowly now to grey
In
twilight hour of hawking bat and silent swooping owl
The
regal corbie sitting high upon an ancient bough
Surveys
the simple scene of scented summer's coming night
While
high above the grey veiled moon gives out a grudging light
The
heron craaks his raucous craak as now a roving otter
Disturbs
the even temper of the cool clear flowing water
He
stops to stare unhurried at the wading fisher's feet
Then
slides upstream intent again upon his nightly beat
The
braid of supple silk unfurls upon the darkening river
The
teal winged fly with hackle blue and subtle glint of silver
Dressed
long ago with special care upon a winter's eve
Swings
steady o'er the shingle bed in slow and deft retrieve
But
now the ever restless sea trout shoal has taken fright
Their
moonlight shadows fearful shrink away with fading light
A
chilling mist
like
silken shroud slips o'er the settled glen
The
chance the fisher thought he had is surely lost again
~
.....but not always
|
|
Back to top of page
|
|
Quick Product Links
Our Needle Tubes and boxed selections of
trout, sea trout and salmon flies are available in our
online fly shop with free worldwide delivery on all orders
over £60. All online
payments are processed by the trusted Paypal payment system, the
safest way to shop on the internet. You can be
sure that your personal and credit card details will remain strictly
confidential and secure. We normally dispatch all orders within 24 hours of receipt of
your order, by
first class post within the UK (which often means next day delivery for
orders placed early in the day) and by airmail to international destinations. Read
comments from our customers
|
