At last the sun was shining and I was able to go fishing River season is closed to coarse fish so I went to a small local pond were I caught the ide in winter.
There were a few rudd just under the surface some were taking the odd insect, so I thought I would at least have a chance.
Not as easy as I thought though, these rudd wanted the fly just under the surface at dead drift. Earlier I had caught a nice ide deep down using a flourocarbon leader that sank quickly, but this was not the way the rudd wanted it.
I greased up the flouro leader with some vaseline this works really well and seems to stay on longer than ordinary floatant
I started picking up a few fish but the bites were lightning fast and difficult to see! I needed a dry fly or a sight indicator but I had neither, I needed to think.....
I looked around and in the grass was a small bird feather so I stripped it and cut off a small section of quill. Then carefully carved a tiny notch in the middle with my small trusty penknife. The tiny quill was then secured in place on the line just above the hares ear nymph, with a clove hitch.



The next cast saw the little quill drift in the breeze before it jerked sideways then pull under I lifted the 11ft iwana and a fish was on!



If you look carefully you will see the tiny quill near the front of the fish. Some of the bites were very delicate only moving the quill half an inch to the side without pulling it under. Other bites would yank it under leaving me in no doubt it was a hungry fish.
The rudd would feed when the sun shone brightly on the water, but when it clouded over the bites slowed down.



I think I caught about ten rudd and a nice ide I also missed a fair few but it was nice to be out on the pond.
The little Iwana Performed well and allowed me to cover individual fish very accurately, it was also very responsive.
Fishing for coarse fish on the fly is great fun and not as hard as you would think