Fly fishing diary: October 2020

Sunday, 25th October, 2020

We've not managed to get out much this month due to COVID, so it was perhaps unsurprising that the Defender's battery was flat when we went to set off to Ellerdine Lakes. We eventually arrived just after 9 am to find the fishery fairly quiet. Conditions looked quite fishy - there was a strong breeze blowing down Meadow Lake and it was fairly overcast.

After tackling up we headed to the windward side of the lake and could see that fish - presumably trout - were smashing the plentiful rudd fry from beneath. I switched over to a flashy humungus pattern and stripped it back through the shoals of fry. I missed my first opportunity, but eventually hooked a fish after switching to a roly-poly retrieve.

As we expected, the ravenous feeders were brown trout that were cruising the margins hitting the rudd from below. My first fish was just under a couple of pounds and had lovely markings. I followed it up with another one, which could have been its identical twin, the very next cast.

George meanwhile had hooked and fought a lovely rainbow but lost it at the net as I was delaying him by taking a photo! His switch to a huey had seen a number of fish smash his fly, one of which was a good-sized brown. Despite getting far more takes than me, he struggled to get any of them to stay attached, which I'm guessing may have been down to my faster retrieve.

By lunch, the fish seemed to have stopped chasing, so we both switched over to static or slow-moving flies. The fishing was now much harder and we struggled for an hour or so before I eventually managed to land a final rainbow on the bottom of Cranymoor. Not a bad day altogether, with some beautiful fish returned!