For those that were interested in my neglected river Trent trout..In my previous blog post I mentioned of my upper river Trent trout..
Well for the last week I have popped down to watch it at various times and it came out of its hole from 11.30 until 1 and was proper finned up hungry as hell.. Some arse hole had done me a favour by lobbing a massive bolder in the river and it has changed its feeding lane this year for the better! It made the food Chanel a slightly easier cast from its lay many years before. This trout would sit behind the bolder out the flow and intercept anything food like in its path, it was so hungry from the poor hatches from this river it would mouth on touch most drifting debris and eject it.. Two days ago I saw 1 olive and it did what I wanted to... It rose to it but in such a cautious way I have seen nothing quite like it....it would take bits of surface food and then literally bolt for its hole 20 yards away and then slowly drift back to its feed lanes in around 30 seconds! Well this fish has alomost probably never seen a fly and you can make up your own assumptions of why this fish has become so cautious... For one its doing a good job as I have watched it for years..
Over he the years I have had 10 or so shots at this fish and nearly given up due to it's been so dam hard in spooking , the chublets infront and behind are its Alarm bells..
But this season I have really took my time to catch this wild horse..
So today I headed down early doors with rod in hand and three flys I had specially tyed for it, a black klink, a hendrie Cdc&purple and my trusted Ltd sedge.. All in a size 16 on a heavy guage hook..
Looking into the pool it was there in full show nymphing and looking up too..
My trip down to position is a nightmare, over a massive wall, down a slope, crossing rat infested sewer pipe and not daring to touch anything in fear of getting a disease !!
All this without spooking this fish.
Well to my amazement I managed for the second time in 5 years with the fish still on full show.. I sat on a washed out root with my back against the bridge and made that sigh of relief ..
Well next I studied it and it was bang on the look for food, I was in a proper shooting distance and this is when my head falls off, if you don't fish you will never get this feeling and will never understand but as your about to cast at any fish you have been stalking its pure adrenaline!
The cast was upstream and about 20 FT away from me but I had a major problem I could see ..
The fish was taking surface stuff and was bolting for cover down toward a me like I had watched the week before ..I would have to wait for it to turn and strike to the side ..
I had that soft technical stroft on the tippet! I ripped that stuff off and went for some no frills 4.6lb twang..
The black klink went on, first cast about 10 foot infront of it, it dragged but the trout did not care it dived at it and turned, I struck !! And pulled it out of its mouth!! Fuck that's it I messed up again..Head in hads..
There was one little bit of hope, I had not pricked the fish and 2mins later it was back again ..
On went the hendrie CDC&PURPle.. I had got another shot to my disbelief..
Same cast again it absolutely walloped it again and I stuck in Exactually the same way and again a pulled the hook clean out of its mouth !!
My nerves were now shot, what the hell was I doing wrong.. The fish was turning and bolting and twice I had stuck at the right time and the hook came flying out..
I actually felt like Peter Arfield had told me a few weeks back maybe I should never catch this fish! Maybe he was right..
Now sometimes I admit I am very lucky, and for the third time the fish was back on the feed, I had not touched it..
So on went my old school LTD sedge.. To be honest this fish would take anything, but I wanted a change so the fish did not become aware something was wrong .
All against my thoughts this time I altered my cast into the flat water 3 FT away to entice him into a better strike and he came rushing over kyped over the fly and bolted but this time I set the hook with a upward strike.. OMG this fish took my 5# in its first run right out of control under a floating log straight for its bolt hole.. Fuck it I thought i done what I wanted now and gave him full bolocks and it worked but as many will know hammering a horse will send it tail walking which it did in spectacular fashion, this was no posh trout I could tell that how it went, it was angry as hell and fighting for its life, i went in after it as it thrashed against the tree roots with even more strain.. After a few mins of hardcore scrapping I went for it with my net, it was not ready to come but I had had enough of negative thoughts of losing it and stabbed my net at it and lucking it bolted into it!!
The feeling again is something again only a specimen hunter will know..
I left the fish in the water for over a minute to revive and then expected to see a battered deprived neglected dirty old battered trout.
How wrong was I!! This was one of the finest horses I ever caught, and without doubt the hardest fish to take on a dry.. Now like I said I could of nailed him on a streamer 5 years ago but I would have forgot that fish a day after, this one I will never forget.
A scale sample has been taken and this will give a lot of info about this fish, I have sent it to Paul Gaskel.
I will never target this fish again, I will be out again to see if she is back on the feed again..
5 years of soul healing blanking and I managed to hunt this fish down which is one of the most satisfying feeling I ever had..
