I took my first venture out to Wellsfield Trout Fishery near Denny today, under the kind guidance of Englander. He kindly offered to accompany me to Wellsfield and see about catching me my first fish on the fly.
Upon arriving at the fishery, it is slightly interesting as you must first travel past the barns and all the horses, certainly a very country feel to the place. I arrived at the carpark and met with Englander who advised me on what leader length to use, what flies etc and very kindly gave me one of his hometied viva nymphs on a barbless hook to try out. We tackled up with a hares ear on dropper, viva nymph on point and then headed up to the first lochan, where we were found flat-calm conditions and one other chap fishing.
After the first few casts, i was really struggling with turnover and shooting line. Basically my casting was horrendous, i think this was partly due to the long leader (maybe 13-14ft) which is longer than i have previously used, and the softer action of my new rod! Excuses, excuses eh?!
Whilst this casting monstrosity was going on, a peg to my left Englander hooks into his first fish which gave a pretty good account of itself, only a couple casts and bang! I was in shock to say the least!
After persevering for a while with nothing doing, we headed up to the top lochan where we'd seen two guys take one each (i think) so we started fishing our way around. We first tried the immediate bootom left corner as you arrive at the loch, no luck. Englander then ventured around the loch to the left and i went right, finally my casting was starting to get a bit better and i was feeling a bit more confident, no takes though! As i made my way around, a crosswind over my left shoulder started to whip up, so i cast out (actually a semi decent one this time!) and then, very slight "tug tug", hmmm i thought, its in the weeds again, another wee tug - wait thats a fish! FANTASTIC i thought! I quickly got the rod up, got my line under control and back onto the reel, after a few minutes of coming in, then running a bit, i finally netted him. My first fish on the fly, man i was happy! And it had fallen to Englander's fantastic viva nymph!
To top this off, as i pulled the net from the water, the handle snapped! I couldn't believe it, we put it down to fatigued metal as there was some discolouration...
Englander came around to congratulate me and take a photo and we both proceeded to keep fishing. About five minuted later, Englander was into his second fish, which put up a fantastic fight! He was not coming in easy, must have come into the bank then though he'd go for a few runs at least 5 or 6 times. Was great to watch!
After this, we spent an hour or so maybe going back around the loch and down to the smaller lochan again but with no such luck. And my casting had gone back to being less than useless! We decided with about 40 minutes to go, we would go back up to the top lochan and have one last crack at it. Again in these last 40 mins, my casting improved, i finally adapated to the longer leader and softer rod (i hope this is for good!). We saw nothing moving and touched absolutely nothing, by this time it was dark and we had about 5 minuted left on our permit, so last casts, in they go. I started my slow figure of 8 retrieve and then i felt it, another subtle take, and lo and behold on the viva! The fish put up a pretty good fight and that was us for the day. My first fish and second fish on the fly, i was thrilled!
For the day, Englander had 2 for 5lbs one on a hares ear, the other on the viva nymph. My two were just shy of 5lbs and both taken on the viva.
This was my first trip to Wellsfield and i rate it highly, it seems to get bad press on here but it's completely undeserved. The fish themselves were fully finned and put up great fights. The fishery is in a very nice location and is on par with other fisheries price wise, i didn't see a downside tbh. There's 3 lochans, 2 fly and one mixed bait/fly. The best thing was, for most of the day we were the only two there! And incase anyone doesn't see Englander's thread, his second had another fly in its upper jaw!
All in all, a great day out! Many thanks to Englander and his barbless viva nymph! (Barbless which seems to hold better than barbed!). Just to add in: I got these both on my new Shakes Odyssey 8'6'' #5wt and i cannot fault it one bit for the money i paid!
This write up is a wee bit more polished on my blog, feel free to check it out, can't be bothered scanning through this post again
Wellsfield Trout Fishery
and those sharp barbless hook dont fall out 
Linear Mode
