How ironic that three end up in the net the same day?

This particular fish is a favourite of mine, not only because it’s the largest Tiger trout I have ever caught, all two and a half pounds of it, but it was one of two fish landed on 3lb Sightfree on a tough day at Garnfrwydd trout fishery.

A walk around the lake showed that the fish certainly weren’t on the feed this particular morning, with temperatures just above O the previous nights frost must have put the fish off the feed.

I fished with the ‘never fail’ method with a lure and a fast glass in an area which always holds fish, the first cast saw me hook into a fish at distance as the fly was sinking but it shortly freed itself. Twenty minutes and four missed takes later I managed to net a rainbow which I estimated at three pounds. After fishing this method in a few spots it was obvious the fish didn’t want to move far or very quickly to take  fly.

I met up with a few friends who were fishing on the far side of the lake and they too were having the same problem, missing fish, and the lack of them in the net! So I took a walk around the lake looking for any feeders in the margins, there’s always a few, it’s just finding them in an area you can fish. I managed to stumble across a couple which looked like they were taking something from the bottom sitting around three feet down just off the bank.

My 10ft 5/6 weight Airflo Streamtec Nantec was rigged up with a floating line, three feet of 3lb fluorocarbon attached to a 15 ft tapered leader to aid presentation and a size 14 spider hung off the point. A short cast just in front of the fish saw the fly gently break the surface and the trout rise up and flair its gills as it sucked the fly in from a fair distance. As I couldn’t see the fly I give it a second and struck and within a couple of seconds I landed a brown, probably a pound and a half in weight.

I ventured around the lake picking the off one or two off with this method, until I came across a few which wouldn’t have it… By now the lake was full of anglers and open spaces were very few and far between. I decided to sit on these fish to see if I could get them to take, which was harder than expected!

An hour passed and I hadn’t had a fish, many had a look at my offerings but none really obliged. I decided to put the fly right in their face by rigging up a length of leader with a dropper about two foot above the point. On the point I put a 3mm nymph with a red tail so I could see it sinking and its position, with a spider on the dropper. the first cast in as the flies sank to the bottom a fish came from around 5 feet away to look at the point fly only to swim off  as it hit the deck, I lifted the rod to jig the flies and another fish done the same thing but nailed the spider. It looked like a brown and took off into the middle of the lake. The fish stayed out beyond the platform and dogged around fairly deep, managing to get the fish in a bit closer I could see that there was another fish on the point fly, dragging the poor fish on the dropper around.

Dylan came with the net as I got the dropper fish close to the bank, I was right, a brown about two pounds in weight and what seemed to be another on the point. As I unhooked the dropper the point fish took off back to the middle of the lake. After a further two or three minutes I landed it, the tiger pictures above.

I caught a few more fish using this technique, but after an hour or so the fishing died as the light started to fade. I wandered back over to see how Terry had got on and he was playing around with a fish in the edge, it looked like another good tiger which he said failed to even look at his flies. I passed him my rod and first cast it burrowed itself looking for the point fly as it hit the water, he lifted and the fish took as the fly re-emerged. The picture says the rest.

Check out the colour difference between the fish above and the one at the start of the post!