the newts.net

Yes at last, I’ve got my first fly fishing outing of 2004 under my belt, and what a start it was!

I’d been helping Oli out in his re-designed garden when I got the call from Gaz to rendezvous at my house at 3:15 for a trip down to Thorpe Vale for the evenings fishing. The weather had been lovely all day, but as soon as I set off for home it started to rain :0|

By the time Gaz arrived it was fairly chucking it down. So much so I thought he wasn’t going to turn up. Thankfully he did… Because by the time Gaz had took us [inadvertently] on a tour of all our backwater villages after a missed turning, by the time we arrived at the lake at 4pm the weather was glorious once again!

We were fishing the far end of the lake by 4:30pm and it was only a few casts before the newts was into his first fish of the day. A fine 2 1/2lb rainbow. Sweet. Nice start. I was getting a few takes but it wasn’t until we moved round to the left hand side of the lake that I got my next two fish. By this time Gaz was still dry netted. AKA Waterlicked.

It was only then, then after 15 years of fly fishing, then after I’d seen Ken do it twice and novice Gaz beat me to it at Bigland Hall, THEN…

2 FISH IN ONE CAST!!!

Woo, Yay and Houpla!

At last I done it. What happened after that all seemed a little insignificant, but the fish started to rise late in the evening and I was getting pulls nearly every cast. I’d changed from my highly sucessful small gold ribbed hares ear to a small pearly pheasant tail and the fish were lapping it up. We left the lake at about 8:30pm so only 4 hours fishing but what a fantastic start to the new season. Buzzing.

There were plenty of fish rising when we left, and I reckon another 1/2 hour would have seen us with a 3 or 4 more fish each, but the light was fading and it was getting a little nippy. I was happy to stick on lucky 7 for the opening day of the new season, especially after bagging 2 in 1 :0)

And the final score…

newts 7 : Gaz 1