Satisfaction

First trip of the season down to Salisbury on Friday. The intention was to fish the Bourne at Laverstock but all the indications from the SADAC website where that the beat was pretty weedy. On arrival this was certainly my finding. Even though there were fishable spots in the beat I really was not in the mood to spend the day struggling to get the fly in the water. Apparently the EA do not consent to weedcuts in the Bourne. I have to admit that I do wonder what the impact of predators may be on shoals of fish tucked into what little open water is available.

So I then trekked over to the Avon at Durrington and made my way to the wading section of the beat. No particular activity was immediately apparent but it is remarkable what will be revealed to the angler willing to spend a few minutes doing nothing particular than observing and thinking. A trickle of hatching olives were enough to keep the fish looking up and careful observation revealed fish intercepting the emerging insects. So on with the CDC Emerger and time to get into position to cast at a feeding fish. To be entirely frank the session that finished was the very epitome of chalkstream dry fly fishing that I am sure I am not alone in dreaming about during the close season. I had inspections, refusals, fish coming short to the fly and a few long distance releases. The absolute cream of the afternoon were the two wild fish that came towards the end of the session. Both required a decent cast and a drag free drift. And on each occasion I was rewarded with the sight of the fish spotting and intercepting my artificial.

I have to admit that I wrapped up the afternoon pretty shortly after that as I could not envisage it getting any better. I think I have now ‘grown up’ to the point that fishing is no longer a numbers game and it is more about the challenge of catching the fish that I want in the way I wanted it.

In terms of the fly it was the CDC Emerger in size 14 all the way. Looking at the naturals a size 16 would have been better; that was certainly my thought when a couple of trout came short or refused the fly. I have no defence though, I have always been a lazy tyer.