River Witham

River Witham
River Witham near Barkston, Lincolnshire

Thursday 28 July 2011

A lesson learned - check that tippet!

Some views of the River Witham at Barkston


 Ventured out last night, can't believe its been a week since I last fished the fly.  Arrived at Barkston to lovely peace & quiet, not a soul around, just a few rising fish and the occasional late mayfly to welcome me.
 Noticed again the huge amount of balsam on the banks, this really needs a determined effort to tackle.  The early warm weather and low water really seems to have brought on the vegetation, making casting even more challenging.  Trying to combine accuracy and delicacy often defeats me!
 However I did manage to catch nearly as many as I put down.
 Difficult to see the subtle rises on this one, little sips generally, suggesting spinners, and emergers?
 A cheerful and pretty little grayling.
 Jungle casting skills required!

 A few small mayflies were dipping on the water, but the fish seemed to ignore them, perhaps because they don't expect them?
 Eventually my perseverance paid off when this clonker (for this stream) took my klinkhammer in a flat calm pool amongst the reeds, as dusk crept in.
 15" of very solid fish who had me all over the pool, before slipping over rim of my net.
After that lovely fish a lesson was to be learned.  I didn't check my tippet after retreiving the fly and in my enthusiasm to cast to a rising fish I hung up in a hawthorn tree.  Managing to free the fly with some judicious waggling of the rod tip, I again omitted to check the tippet  for damage.  Another cast to a very subtle rise and my string was well and truly pulled, but only briefly as my tippet parted, leaving me wondering what I'd lost, apart from my fly that is.  Another klink tied on produced a couple more brownies in the 12" range before I headed home in the gloaming.

1 comment:

  1. Great looking browns and grayling. Sometimes those lessons learned can be bittersweet. At least you know where its at and you can head back with proper tippet and catch it again. Great Blog, just started following. Look forward to future posts. Tight Lines.

    Trout MaGee

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