Empty Handed

A lightning quick post to show willing and to try and get back on with the blogging - I haven’t even been able to keep up by only putting up short entries of fishing trips for personal logging reasons (place, date, weather, catch), let alone longer posts. I’ve been stupidly busy with work over the past few months, and I’ve barely managed to fish, let alone also having the time to blog about it.

Anyway, as it’s the longest day today, and I always try and be outside doing something on the evening of the longest day, I managed an hour or so at Borwick Water last light for a bit of a crack at the carp and other coarse fish on the fly. This afternoon it could have gone either golf or fishing, and would probably have been golf actually, had it not been for my Dad - and usual golf partner - being poorly. The poor sod’s been hit by the impetigo that my kids are suffering at the moment; he must have picked it up last Sunday when he came round, before we knew what they had and how contagious it was! I didn’t manage to get out of the house until 9, but this gets me to the venue by about quarter past, and so I was probably wetting a line by about 20 past or so.

I started off in the north end of Dewhirst Deeps (see here, NW corner), trying to get into the carp that were moving about there. It was too overcast and windy to be able to see clearly into the water, and too dull to wear the poloroids, so I mostly had to go on the occasional bow-wave and splashy rises I could see nearby. Spent maybe half an hour with a deer-hair emerger on the point and a ptn and other nymphs, like the diawl bach, being tried on the dropper. This ‘washing-line’ style usually works pretty well with these carp at this time of year as they cruise around feeding near the surface, but it really helps when you can see them, and I couldn’t tonight. Nothing doing here, so a short walk over to Burn, usually pretty dependable for catching something, just to say you have. It was Burn that I fished the first time I came to Borwick in July last year, and I caught around 20 fish comprising no less than 5 different species, 6 if you count Golden Orfe and Ide as separate species, in the space of about an hour and a half. That’s 20 landed; I lost count of the number of missed pulls and lost fish. It was tremendous fun. So, it’s something of a nice fallback. Tonight I managed 2 nice Ide in the last half-hour before Jimmy came to collect my money and kick me out (gate closes at dusk).

All in all, excellent fun and an excellent way to spend the last hour of light on the longest day.

Oh, and the Ide both took a size 14 Green Witch on the point. The first grabbed it as I was roll-casting, which confused the hell out of me, as I thought I’d (’scuse the pun) snagged the bank near my feet or something. I always, always roll-cast on this water and similar where there are plentiful, ready-biting, small fish, ever since the first time I fished here last year when I overhead cast a 2oz Rudd into the undergrowth behind me! You’ll be pleased to know the poor little thing was none the worse for its foray into the realm of the birds, and (once I’d found it by following my line) swam off nearly as fast as its cousins were biting…

Decided to give Borwick Waters a go for a couple of hours this morning. I’d previously told myself that I wasn’t going back there until well into Spring or even Summer, when the conditions for catching some coarse fish on the fly were more favourable, but, with the weather being so nice, fancied a little experiment to see if I could tempt anything with some deep bloodworm and buzzer patterns.

Arrived at the water for just before 10 and started straight off over in the corner (Griffish), with a bloodworm pattern under a yarn indicator. Tried several other flies, such as white latex grubs (to imitate a maggot?) and various sizes and shades of buzzer, but, after an hour, it was pretty clear nothing was going to happen for me here. So I walked the 5 yards over the road to Gattenby to see if any of the Crucians would play. Same tactics, same result.

Interestingly, there did appear to be several fish feeding. That’s if I’m right about the feeding bubbles that Crucians give off. There were several patches of these moving around the pool. Obviously, I concentrated on these, and I fancied I saw a bit of a take at one point, but didn’t connect with anything. The bubbles were probably marsh gas and the take just the indicator settling, but it kept me interested for an hour…

In my defence, I didn’t really expect to catch anything, and just thought it would be nice to be at the bankside on such a glorious (sunny, crisp and still) day, and to keep my casting hand in. Another plus, I finally gave my ‘new’ intermediate line a swim. It’s been waiting for some use since I got it ages ago and I tried it out for the last ten minutes today, partly because I’ve been meaning to for ages but mainly in anticipation of a planned trip to Stocks Reservoir on the opening weekend (24th Feb), where I think it will be useful. I didn’t want to get there, only to find it floating like a cork, or something. It doesn’t. It sinks like a stone. I thought it was a medium intermediate, but it seems pretty fast to me. Mind you, I’ve only ever fished floating lines before, any sink will seem fast to me!

So, I packed up and was off again by 12. Nipped over to Hallmore Fishery just up the road to have a look at the returns book. Seems like a few are coming out of there again, now, and there are people visiting regularly. Most seem to be catching 1 or 2, with the odd 6 and 8-er mixed in, so looks like it might be worth a visit next weekend, if the weather is reasonable. Otherwise, I’ll stick to the golf.