Empty Handed

As mentioned in a previous post, I’d stopped off at this fishery to take a look at the catch returns to see if it would be worth a visit. The returns didn’t seem too bad, and Sunday afternoon presented a small window of opportunity to go and do something apart from the family, as they were going to Nana’s. Golf or fishing, golf or fishing..?

With the much vaunted, eagerly anticipated and long planned trip to Stocks Reservoir coming up in 2 weeks, I thought I ought to try out some of the tackle and techniques likely to be in use then. Looking at the catch returns and daily reports from this time last year seems to indicate that intermediate lines and mini-lures/cormorants/cat’s-whisker were topping the charts, so I got out my 9′6″ #6/7 GRX and the intermediate line and wacked on a damsel, a red cormorant and a black buzzer (well, you never know) and had at it.

It was a dry and pretty afternoon, if a little breezy, so I was fairly confident, even with the doubtful stock levels here. I’d fished this water a few times last year. The first time I went with Stuart we learned that the previous week the fishery had been opened to any method, with the intention of depleting the existing stock prior to restocking, and the restocking part of the plan hadn’t yet happened. I’m not sure how true this was, but there certainly wasn’t much happening; I caught two fish that day. The first was a beautiful hand-sized roach to a black and green buzzer within a few casts. The second was a rainbow, foul hooked - the water’s pretty clear, and I was fishing a midge pupae pattern to this fish when it came over to the fly, but seemed to turn away before it got all that close. Weirdly, the line started following it off and it had been fouled under the chin. Stupid prismatic effect. Anyway, Stuart didn’t get a thing, and it seemed pretty lifeless. I tried a few other trips later in the year with mixed results; one time I had half a dozen to buzzers and elk hair emergers in a few hours (good result for me), but a month later got nothing. I don’t pretend to really understand it, and it’s another honesty box pond, so I can’t ask the staff, or anything. Pretty much all of the anglers I meet there complain about the stocking (lack thereof), but I dunno. I’ll keep trying the occasional trip because it’s a nice little water, it’s not far away and you never have to book!

Back to this afternoon, and the result was nil points. I fished around the entire pond with my intermediate and covered every level in the water, from top to bottom and at every retrieve rate with a selection of lures, blobs, cormorants, nymphs and wets (stopping short of egg flies) and didn’t get so much as a touch. Indeed, I didn’t see a single fish all afternoon - no rises, no splashes or swirls, no signs of any near the margins (the water is clear and I was wearing poloroids), nothing. Until very close to home time, when one jumped quite nearby. Quite a big one. But that was it. One other guy did come and fish. He stayed for about 3 hours, moaned about the stocking levels, talked about flogging a dead horse and then fucked off. At least he didn’t bag up whilst I couldn’t buy a bite, that would have been too much. What was really puzzling was that the conditions later on were perfect to actually see some surface activity. It was mild, the wind had calmed and there was quite a prolific buzzer hatch. I really would have expected to see some rises, but the surface remained unbroken by anything but my flappings…

I did see some weird black cryptid hunting on one of the islands, though! Except it was a ferret, I think.

Or Chupacabra!

edit: Just re-reading the part about the trip last year with Stuart reminded me of an amusing incident from that day. The guy who told us about the any method fishing didn’t stay long, but he did catch a fish. I was maybe 150-200 yards down the bank from him, and saw him catch a pretty standard stockie, maybe a couple of pounds, obvious even from this distance; then he left not long after. Later, Stuart, who had been fishing around the other side of the water at the time and couldn’t see any of this, told me that the guy had spoken to him on the way out and had said he was leaving because it was rubbish - he’d only caught one fish, but at least it was a big one. Huh? The guy told Stuart that the fish he’d had was a TEN POUNDER!