Tracy&James | Sunday, 5 July 2020
Another week and I still haven’t fished this year, the weather has been pretty wet and windy, plus I’ve been busy working from home. However next week looks good and I’ve booked some time off, so hopefully there will soon be a report from us about fishing in 2020.
In order to find the pictures for last week’s report, I went through all my old printed photos and found some of the first couple of trout I caught when I started fly-fishing back in the 1990s. I had been sea fishing previously and even tried a little bit of coarse fishing, but once I tried fly-fishing, I loved it. It was more motivating; stalking the prey, reading the water, observing the fly-life, casting constantly and trying different flies - rather than just sitting waiting for a bite.
My first trout was caught on my initial trip to a nearby Welsh still-water. Admittedly James cast for me, but I had the take, to a dry claret Shipman’s buzzer, and I hooked a beautiful silver rainbow trout. The place was in a gorgeous location, very close to where we now live, and had several small lakes surrounded by lots of foliage; sadly it closed several years ago. My next trout was at another Welsh still-water in a valley, a little further away, with one large lake and fewer trees, so ‘safer’ for me to try casting myself. I had also taken some casting lessons from a brilliant instructor who worked in the local tackle shop, so I was also more confident in my casting ability. Predominantly my first season was fishing dries, mainly Shipman’s, so my next trout was also caught on a similar fly to my first. This one was a little bigger and ran more, so was my earliest experience of playing a fish, thankfully I didn’t lose it.
It was at this lake that I remember James hooking a monster trout that shot off across the lake and only stopped when it ran out of water. I know this as I was on the opposite side of the lake and saw the fish running towards me and then stop and go left. It took him long enough to play it to the net, that I was able to walk round the lake and help, as well as take photos. That fish remains as one of the largest trout that James has caught. The lake is still open to anglers, so I reckon we should go fish it for old time’s sake.
For the rest of 2020, instead of researching locations abroad to fish, I have now started to review places in the UK, maybe some trips to Scotland, Jersey, Cumbria and other Welsh locations will be on the cards for fishing trips. Any suggestions are very welcome ☺
Whatever you do this week, enjoy and tight lines,
Tracy