Spitting Feathers

After last Sunday's insect no show it was nice to see various beasties fluttering about the river when I arrived at the bottom of the most upstream of the club's waters. A size 16 Foam Dun looked to be about he same size as the insect life. This looked like a really good selection when it was taken immediately it hit the water near a rise. With great skill I managed to yank it from the fishes mouth, a skill I managed to repeat several more times as I wandered upstream. Dropping to a size 18 failed to increase the hook up rate.














The trout in the Esk average about 5-6", but appear to be quite greedy, so my abysmal hook up rate seemed a bit odd. Over the net hour I tried several different flies from 14 to 18, but nothing appeared to help. In fact the good old Grey Duster Hardly seemed to attract fish at all. A change back to he Foam Dun in 16 produced nice little rise and a hooked fish, which proceeded to spend more time in the air than the water before spitting the fly out. Annoyingly it was a good deal bigger than average a well.

Somewhat frustrated I sat down for a spot of lunch, over looking the pool I’d lost the fish in. By the time I'd finished lunch a couple of fish were rising again. I put on the only Foam Dun I'd not crushed the barb on when tying it. First cast and I'd hooked another, somewhat smaller, fish. Yes you've guessed it, it spat the fly out just as I grabbed the leader. Buoyed up at having contacted with a couple of fish I continued upstream. I managed to raise at least a dozen more, but failed to hook any at all.

Having reached the top end I wandered back to the car somewhat dejected. Halfway back I met an angler fishing worm, who was having a similar hard time, plenty of bites, but not contacting with any thing. Back at the car I met another angler who had been fishing another club's water downstream. He'd managed half a dozen on a small Grey Duster, a fly the trout seemed to be ignoring upstream.

After the previous couple of trips here it looks like my 'beginners luck' has run out. There again I'm still learning the water. I'm, also still unsure about he most suitable rod for here. The two I've used so far were #4 in 7' and 8'. The seven footer struggles to roll cast well and the eight foot seems a bit long. Still plenty of time left in the season to start to get to grips with the place.