Off the Log #11

 

 Ed 10 burned the rest of my TCAOTFC prequels in short order when I thought we were at the end of Lockdown 2.0 and could get right back into it. Then came L3.0. Bummer! I could have spun a few blog posts out of that. Ho hum. To write a new post I had another butchers at my fishing log, picking December 2007, which happened to be my very first visit to Avon Springs, in Wiltshire. Most of the month had been cold, but the last six nights the temperature hadn’t fallen below five degrees C, so I thought it might be opportune for a visit to a new water. On arrival, the wind was blowing from the north, down the length of ‘Club Lake’ onto the smaller ‘Spring Willow Lake’. In all, there were eight acres of water to have a tilt at.  Despite the water clarity, the low winter sun and wind-ruffled surface ruled out any sight fishing. I commenced with a #7 intermediate, and within half an hour I had a take but ‘bumped’ the fish, which didn’t return for another go. I changed flies, knotting on a black/green ‘Montana-bou’, and after a handful of casts I fought and netted a cracking Rainbow which later weighed four-pounds twelve-ounces. 

 I kept changing swims; along the way I chatted with a ‘regular’ who told me that it usually fishes best “top of the water, with a green and white Cat’s Whisker”. Following this nugget I shortly switched to a white/green fritz CW variant, which duly brought a ‘bow of nearly three pounds, that took ‘on the drop’.

 I decided to try the other water, which is two acres less than ‘Club’, but is strictly dry or nymph only. I swapped to a #6 floating for my new attempt, putting an orange, gold-head nymph onto the business end. In my second or third spot a sudden take resulted in a trout just over the two-pound mark. 

 Next, across to the far side, poking around some interesting looking mini bays and corners, came a take from a much bigger fish, staying deep as we battled. While attempting to get spare line back onto my reel, mid-fight, I inadvertently dropped the rod tip, allowing a little slack to form, and my adversary slipped the hook. Cross at this loss, I returned to Club.

 Working back along the other side, up towards the stews, there is more variety in the swims than the bank nearest the fishery’s facilities, but I was just about at the last one before I had another hit. My ‘flame’ CW variant (just tied, being tried) was walloped on the second chuck by another fighting-fit fish. I was relieved when I was able to steer it into my landing net: a five-pounds plus beauty. Somehow, I managed to forget to take a picture of the pattern, and don't have one in my fly boxes at present. Essentially its a fritz-bodied CW variant, the wing and tail being a combination of yellow, orange, and ginger marabou.

 Four fish limit in about six hours of mid-winter fishing, a promising debut for a new water. I’ve been back a number of times since, but I think it was my second or third return that my buddy and I were taking lunch at a picnic table, where we absently watched a guy saunter over to the River Avon, sit on the bank of the nearby bend with be-wadered legs in the river, and begin casting. This is the upper Avon, which the fishery has about one thousand yards of, and is fishable on a day-ticket. Before long we noticed the chap was regularly catching and releasing fish. This scenario actually features in Off the Log #5. Incidentally, this particular bend is the swim where I caught my PB (hitherto) river Brown, in 2015, at six-and-a-half pounds!