Off the log #9

  I don’t want to repeat too often, but The Wild Trout Trust’s auctions of fishing lots (other auctions are available, e.g. S&TA, Angling Trust) are great ways to help fund the organisations we all need in these hazardous times. This not only raises funds but in return provides great opportunities for fishing other than your ‘home’ waters. So, keep an eye open, be in it to win it! 

 My buddy B bid successfully for this trip: two in a boat out on Farmoor II. Autumn weather can be agin you, indeed, for two days previously no boats were allowed out, due to the wind gusting to 40! It still blew on our arrival, and only four other hardy crews would venture out into the chop, with maybe a dozen other anglers scattered around the perimeter. Everyone soon realised the fishing was going to be tough. Indeed, the guy in charge had mentioned they had recently put in a load of stockers, specifically in hopes the new fish might stir up the older residents, who haven’t shown much in the past two or three months. 

 Readers will know I’m a long remove from any expertise, and I gamely deployed a drogue to slow and control our drifts through the near-tempest. This turned out to be one of the major interests of our day, however, falling far short of entertainment. On most drifts, the drogue managed to contort itself into any number of interesting shapes, rarely actually slowing our drifts. I later put a shout out onto the F F Forum, where the consensus was that I had the two ropes too long! We tried anchoring too, particularly the areas where we thought we had espied fishy activity, not easy amongst the rolling waves and whitecaps. We only managed to boat three Rainbows, each of us losing one as well. Still, we kept our eyes open constantly, and were well aware we weren’t being disgraced by the other fishers. As often is the case, I supply B with flies and he out-fishes me with them: two to one, today! I think I can live with that. The Farmoor fish really do fight hard! At one point during a scrap B said to me “I don’t often get the rod tip pulled so deep into the water!” and it happened twice more as I waited, readying the net. 

                                                             We used many, many more than these!

 We tried fast sinking lines, intermediate and floating ones, until I thought I should give a metre-long sink tip a go, being convinced the fish were up near the heaving surface. On the engine, to turn back to start a new drift, I managed to let my cast fall overboard into the water, which resulted in it snagging the prop shaft and winding on my line until the engine stalled! There were some hairy moments with the boat rocking and rolling while I hung over the stern, cutting pieces of line free from the outboard until I had released the propellor. Hey-ho. I thought, I must have had this line for about nine years. Then it occurred to me that in that time I have probably only used it half-a-dozen times. Lo que sera sera. 

                                             New, replacement sink tip on the old faithful and ready to go!