Easter is a very movable feast! It can fall anywhere between March 22nd and April 25th.
Last year, Easter (Sunday) fell on the 20th April. The following day saw me heading for my first trip of the 2014 trout season to the Dorset Piddle. Today saw me bound for the same venue, with a view to marking the opening day of the trout season 'round these 'ere parts by wetting a line at the earliest opportunity.
Unsurprisingly with Easter in 2015 falling so much earlier than in 2014, the weather forecast today was far from encouraging. Nevertheless I duly loaded Ellie and Hamish into the Freelander and headed westwards into the........Bank Holiday traffic!!!!!
Honestly, what's so great about getting out of the towns and cities into the countryside anyway? My drive through the New Forest was good, but as soon as I hit the A31 around Bournemouth/ Wimborne it was another story. Audiobook to the rescue!
As something of a fan of military history, I'm currently working my way through this, and enjoying it immensely. The great thing about audio books is that they can be "rewound", so if one nods off whilst listening during one's long commute, by train I hasten to add, then nothing need be missed.
Yesterday evening I had also read Peter Anderson's latest blog entry with interest. and then his entry dated 1st April. Notwithstanding the date, I don't think he's kidding!
Back to today. I was an hour later than I'd wanted to be in arriving at the river which had given me far too much time to think about what I was going to do when I got there. I've acquired one of these and wanted to try it out today. I like the concept of sling packs, but from a practical perspective find small chest packs easier to get on with. Travelling light is key - and that reminds me of a joke, especially for any physics graduates out there........Whether sling or chest pack, it mustn't be of a size that tempts one into taking everything including the kitchen sink for a day's fishing. I don't believe we need as much "stuff" as we seem to think, and admire those organised enough to get by with just a lanyard.
Today was never going to be a long session - I intended only to fish the middle part of the day. This is a long and varied beat, and pretty quickly I changed my mind about which bit I was going to fish. A day for new kit - a 3wt Barrio Smallstream (in olive, of course) was loaded onto my Sage Click, and I wanted to try this out.
A marvellous beat, this. Off the beaten track. No dog walkers, hikers, or other types that can sometimes be a pain in the @rse for an angler. After letting the dogs have a bit of a sniff around whilst I set up, I headed downstream to a part of the beat known as Chestnut Wood. I'd tied on a Balloon Caddis, determined to fish dry rather than nymph.
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| Low and clear! |
Past experience has taught me this is a good, potentially productive pool up as far as the tree. I've seen one or two big fish in the pool upstream of said tree over the past couple of years, as well as having made the acquaintance of a decent fish that lived just under the tree. All I wanted to do today was get off the mark, try out some new kit and then beat the traffic home.
It was a strange day in that I couldn't get the Balloon Caddis to stay up! But, fishing it slightly submerged I had three fish, none of any great size, within a half hour as I fished up to and above the tree.
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| Balloon Caddis, beautiful trout! |
Anyway, I ended up detecting the "takes" by watching the end of my fly line. The Barrio Smallstream was a joy to fish with, perfect for an environment where the roll cast is used about 90% of the time.
Not so sure about the sling pack. I could have put my essentials into wading jacket pockets and made even more like the proverbial photon. But, given how un-promising and uninspiring the weather forecast had been, I was pleased to end up with three fish on the mystifyingly submerged Balloon Caddis, and beat the Bank Holiday traffic home!
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| Stream level! |
