Went on Saturday, got down there for about 9.30 and wandered to the first lake. There seemed a fair amount of week in the lake and there were 2 decent rainbows and a couple of disinterested but large browns to target. Second cast and the larger of the rainbows charged up at my sinking fly from a long way off. at the last and i do mean last second it thought better of it, and bolted off. No matter what i threw at it after that, i got not a flicker of interest!
Wandered onto Lake 2 and there was a LOT of surface weed, rendering about a third of the lake unfishable! I saw a very large brownie and spent the best part of 2 hours fishing for him whenever he came into the little gap i could get a decent cast at. no interest whatsoever until i put a white lure on, cast it out and let it rest on the bottom. as he came round i ripped the fly off the bottom and stripped as fast as i could. the brown went berserk and chased the fly grabbing at it but missing and taking some detritus off the bottom instead. he came again and smashed the fly. I got a pull, and he was gone
further up the lake was a nice trout under some trees, i love this spot as it always holds a good fish, but the cast was a nightmare!. THe fish followed a few times but really wanted it static. I managed to cast over a twig leavng the fly suspended a couple of feet down, sure enough, fish came round and sucked it in. A really tight battle ensured as there was lots of weed about but finally i got him. he looked every inch a double, but 9.4 was what the scales said!
On to lake 3 and again the top end was unfishable due to surface weed
i saw one good fish under there but didn't risk a cast so wandered up to the very top where it's fenced off and spent an hour or so after another cracking brown with no success. managed a decent 8.4 from there though.
Back to lake 2 and out of nowhere a massive rainbow materialised. he was a good 18lb but disappeared before i could get a cast in. (i was under a tree) I wandered round to the other bank and the light (and weed) was terrible but finally saw him. Flicked a cast out and he hunted around for it but didn't take another cast blind into a shimmer on the surface saw the water 'hump' as soon as the fly landed and the line tweaked. I struck and had the big fish on! Straight into a huge weed bed which he proceeded to tow round the bottom of the lake. It was only a matter of time really, but sure enough, the hook pulled leaving me with about 20lb of weed rather than 20lb of trout.! Slightly gutted but it was always going to be a 'mare from that spot!
Back to lake 1 and a couple of cursory casts at a (by now) spooked biggie before getting a 5.5lb brown and calling it a day.
Great day all in, 2 big doubles hooked, more seen and plenty of chances. shame about the weed though.
Avington tomorrow...
Linear Mode
