Undergunned

https://youtube.com/shorts/Dnh_bB5RQdw?si=sh72aS6vSLwt1e3Y

Fish on. Nothing big, and it looked like it had been resident for a while. Took the dropper, a largish fly but a natural one. We've had a long dry stretch, which maybe means the winter runs are likely still out in the lake, or at least thinking about it.

I was up early the next day. What I wanted to do was fish the big river. It's always a challenge, whether it's the method, finding the fish, or just getting through the trails and undergrowth. The rumour at present is that fishing is hard. It's still a good day out. Not without frustration. And I expected people everywhere. That expectation did not fail me!

Heavy nymph on a yarn indicator is something I've never felt adept at. Fiddly method. Productive once you find the fish, and one of the main ways they come out of that river.

Then there are the lines. This is the thing Paul goes on about, and he's right. The line companies don't report AFTM weight straight. A line boxed as a 6/7 isn't the weight it says. It's heavier. Done to help the casual fisher whose casting can't load a rod cleanly. A bit of extra grain to cover for them.

As a beginner you don't notice, and you don't mind. Then your casting comes right and you start to feel it. The rod it's matched to is suddenly undergunned. Bends like a noodle.

Paul's crowd aren't the casters that under-rating was built for. So it works against them. That's his pitch. It's become mine too!

So I turn up with the heavy rods, the 8wt or the 10wt, and cast. Suddenly it's a different game. Rod, line and rig sit close to right, if not very good. And the line I purchased at the start of my journey back into fly fishing enthusiasm is genuinely good for mending and roll casting. No argument there.

The heavy rigs are unforgiving of clumsy repositioning. Which brings me to the single spey casts. It's not just the trees in behind, though that's a thing too. It's the cast you need to bring the line from its downriver drift back onto the line you want to present. Get it wrong and you're retying.

This is where the park training paid off. I'd worked out what I didn't know I needed, then got it in the water. One came off clean, the line straightening where I aimed, the rig turning over instead of piling at my feet. More line fishing, less time on knots.

Didn't catch a thing this way. I enjoyed that I can do it now.

Then the rain arrived. Nothing on that rig. Switched to the euro nymph. A bite. A fish landed, by the tail, which I'm choosing to count. Another hooked and gone. And a rod tip snapped clean off.

The tail and the rod are both on the channel, if you want the visual. Great day out.