Sorry for the picture-full post!

So the rivers haven’t been fishing that well, speaking to Bushy and Terry who fished the Wye on Saturday, they only took a few Grayling and trout between them but with surprising amounts of salmon in the river, which in turn is a great thing to see but maybe putting off the Grayling due to the Salmons spawning behaviour.

Farmoor was the venue where me, Lloyd and his Gramp, Brian, was to fish.

A cold easterly breeze to start the day wasn’t off putting but didn’t seem to budge the thick fog.

Our fishing tackle was basically the same, 7-8 weight fly rods, and shooting head fly lines… More than likely your getting bored of me saying the same thing !? But it’s fishing… it’s great!

The fishing was good, steady fishing throughout the day with pulls and plucks all day to keep you interested. Eventually the ripple died off and the fog broke being able to see a few hundred yards. The lake flattened and the fish we seemed to be getting on the bank previously turned to pulls. A good wind and undertow normally means the fish pull better and take the fly more positively.

A change to smaller flies normally put the fish in the bank.  HAd a few decent images of fighting fish this week, what you think? Some fish which were hooked at range were powering off into the backing and jumping before giving up the ghost.

Catching up with editor of Total Fly Fisher, Steve Cullen, I tell you, t’was like being on the red carpet with people coming from all around the lake to ask S’ for his autograph. I didn’t know whether I was security or what..

After a brief chat and banter with him and Phil Longstaff the fishing commenced and i sat and watched Steve for a few minutes, peering through his fly boxes.

Farmoor has produced some cracking fish this year with great tails and in immaculate condition. There doesn’t seem to be that many big Rainbows like the previous years being caught, although the size are pushed aside by pure numbers. Maybe the number of larger fish have been hindered by the number of stockies around.

Cullen bending into a good’un.

Unfortunately, darkness and fog fell, making things a little tricky to see. I noticed a small swirl in the corner of my eye where a fish was grubbing on the bottom of the lake at about 2ft out. I tried to get my boobies to sink deep enough by the only way that would happen is if I cast 20+ yard, and by the time I would have got the line it, the fish more than likely would have moved off. I stripper the top dropper booby off and replaced it with a heavily weighted nymph. As soon as it hit the bottom, the fish was on it… I twitched it to keep the trout interested and before it moved a foot, it was on. Being so dark I couldn’t tell the species, brown or rainbow but splashing around in the edge, it became apparent that it was a good brown. a fish of around 4 1/2lb came to the net. A great way to end the day.