Nick Moore | Wednesday, 19 January 2022
I have had a fantastic couple of days fishing emergers, which I must say, was a lot of fun. The two days were similar, but slightly different, and this was mainly down to the ice placement as well as the temperature. The first day was cold to begin with, but the bright sunshine sky rocketed the ambient temperature which set off an amazing buzzer hatch, and the trout were feeding on the emerging insects (the backs of the fish were breaking the surface).
Most of the lake that I started on was frozen, but the rises were pretty clear and concentrated on a clear section, so I brought out the HT4 with a Mastery trout #4 and got to work, tying on a relatively small #16 CDC black emerger on a long leader. The fish weren’t far out, so it was quite easy to see which way they were going, and how often they were feeding. I had 9 residents in a few hours which was pretty successful!
The other day was quite similar, so I set up the HT4 with the same setup I was using. I also set up another rod, because my friend gave me an old line to make a shooting head out of (one for me and one for him). It was a Scientific Anglers Wet Cel DT9S Type II, for using large flies on reservoirs, totally overkill for the lakes I fish, but I wanted to see how far I could throw it compared to the MED5. Oh yes, and the shooting line was 25lb Amnesia.
I haven’t really used shooting heads for fishing, so this was a new avenue for me, especially trying to cast the things well, which was really tricky. I made a handful of ‘decent’ casts, and having looked on Google earth the estimated distances, I was quite surprised. I had a slight tail wind, and I cut the line at 35’, which saw some of my best casts go around 130’ +. On land, it was about 120 on average’, but I’m having turnover problems so I’ve asked the board for some help. For me, it’s not as consistent as chucking the MED5, but I must say it was fun! I have to make another one for my friend, so I might give him the 35’ version, and alter the 55’ piece that I have left. Anyway, on the second day I had 5 on FAB’s on that shooting head, and 3 on the emergers. A brilliant couple of days! Interestingly, shooting heads are not allowed on some venues, anyone know why?
Tight lines all!