The Continuing Adventures of the Fluff Club, Episode 48

(… in which the names of the participants are pseudonyms in an effort to be as inclusive to others as possible, attempting to obtain the widest readership. I will be grateful for any comments the reader cares to make. Thanks).

[about trout fishing] “… you don’t have to be very good at it to have a great time doing it. This capacity to be at peace with your mediocrity is high on the list of secrets of happiness. It’s also a sure sign of advanced and diminished ambition, the sum of which frequently passes for wisdom.”

Wow, we’ve had some rain this past week; today’s forecast was for yet more showers. Still, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. We splashed down at Chalk Springs to find new huttage and Darren no longer the guv’nor, according to the bespectacled youth who took the spondoolicks. Just the Professor and Whytee to represent the Fluff Club, but Whytee had brought a guest, Dodgy, so the fishery thought there were three from the Guild. Oh, how the mighty are fallen!

It is a hard road we all tread in this life. Our number has suffered this past couple of years, including as a result of the terrible spectres of stroke, cancers, and dementia; today we sadly heard that Rodney’s wife passed suddenly and unexpectedly in the week. May she rest in peace.

Dodgy isn’t a pseudonym like the other names in these chronicles, I’ve called him that for about forty years, because he is. I introduced him to fly fishing two decades ago, but he hasn’t been for years. I was hoping the rain would not make his rustiness any worse. There was such a horrible bird’s nest on his reel that simply couldn’t be untangled so it was abandoned and he borrowed a reel from Whytee. The Fluff Boys ambled down the track, past the fish farm stews, Whytee eschewing to fish North Pool, don’t really know why but I’ve never fancied it much, so onward to West. The Snowbee Geo #5 weight outfit with a floating line had two new ‘ties to try’: the ‘Chironomid Frenchie’ (aka ‘Silver Lancer’) and ‘Easy Calibaetis Soft Hackle’, both courtesy of the excellent Fly Fish Food’s Youtube channel.

Chalk Springs fishery represents stillwater sight fishing at its best; you have to simply love the ability to spot a fish and see the take before it registers as a pull on the line. There were Rainbows and Blues dotted around, some lying doggo while others appeared to be ‘on the fin’. Whytee searched for areas holding groups of fish that might compete for any food, thus increasing the chance of a positive reaction to the angler’s fly. There were a few Mallard about, a couple of pairs of ebullient Dabchicks, plus a gang of Coots that seemed loathe to get into the water, preferring to hang around the wet grass in the middle of the four pools like a bunch of awkward teenagers. Operations commenced with the aforementioned CF/SL pattern which brought two Blue Trout in less than an hour, one each from West and South pools, best two-pounds eleven. The fishery’s Fly Collectors were taking every opportunity (others call them trees) but fly losses are really only down to operator error. Next pattern on the business end was the ECSH which was soon taken by a fish on South which, alas, escaped after a couple of minutes, but following that brought two Rainbows from East pool. Job done, game over player one. Definitely heralds a session at the vice tying a supply of both patterns.

During the day Whytee provided several flies for Dodgy to try; the latter took a two-and-a-half pounder using the CF/SL and later lost a fish on South which took a black Buzzer, putting up a spirited fight and finally slipping the hook when the hook-gape opened a little. He was enjoying the day, but struggling to spot the fish because of his dodgy eyesight and even more suspect polaroids, which probably weren’t – he does like trying to buy stuff on the cheap! Whytee spent the remainder of the session acting ghillie for Dodgy, looking for fish to target and supplying different patterns to try. Around one o’clock the number of anglers began to decline, a reminder that Darren used to say the fishery switched off after the morning, only picking up again after four. The Professor had been very active, circling all four waters but having trouble keeping the fish on: he reckoned he had lost eight and bumped some others. This seems to have been his karma during the last few Fluff Club outings. When Whytee suggested the hook-point ought to be checked the Professor replied he had lost the fish irrespective of which fly among many he had been using. He eventually managed to fill his ticket, using a grub-hook bearing a biggish fluoro-green bead and black UV straggle-string body, for all his fish. More fishers departed, one of the last started filling his landing net with watercress plucked from the feeder stream, telling another departee “It’s worth more per kilo than trout is, you know”.

Whytee helped Dodgy fish on, but it was becoming grimly obvious that even money couldn’t buy another take.

Jikai made.