Total Flyfisher Magazine

It can be anything out of the ordinary that makes your day.

One of my friends, Paul Davidson, an amazing fisherman whether on still or running water, called me recently to tell me of the remarkable day that he had experienced on the River Tweed, not only did he catch lots of grayling, 13 I think it was, he also managed a PB of 3lb 5oz, colossal indeed.

That wasn't the only reason he phoned though, the amazing part of the day was the mother otter which swam up past him, with her two young, as he sat on the bank having lunch.

How often does that happen in a lifetime? 

I had a special day last week.

A friend and I had a day out on the famous big fish venue, Lechlade down in Gloucestershire.

To say I had a good day is an understatement, it was epic!

The majority of the water was frozen over, another victim of the cold spell we've been having, goodness knows how many waters are affected loads I'd imagine!

There was roughly around 30% of fishable water, with two other anglers there it meant that we had to share what water was available. The guys were wonderful, great company and easy going, so it was kind of like a lads day out.
At first the fishing was tough, the cold most likely, but as the day warmed up, a few takes were felt on the end of the line, and a few fish, up to 9lb taken.

We all went to the lodge for dinner, them; a proper packed lunch with a whole host of niceties, us; Lucazade and pork pies from the garage.

We chatted away like long lost pals, before they headed off home and we returned to the water.

 I dispensed with the floating line which I had started with, and went instead with  Di3 forty plus, eight foot of 10lb leader and a small black and green lure. It was nowt fancy, rabbit strip lashed to a hook with a bright green bead.

Casting out and whinging it back I had several follows but nothing was looking like taking the fly.

 A change of tact was required. 

The muddy bank was making a mess of my line, so stepped into one of the moored boats, I figured I'd be able to lay my line down and keep everything tidy by standing inside it. 

I decided to cast as far as I could, towards a small bay, and just keep in touch with the fly as it dropped through the water.

After ten seconds of free fall I felt a touch on the line, a little rattle, like a Booby take. I did nothing. A second or two later the line locked up tight and I was in.  

The thing never moved, whatever it was brown or rainbow it was big! 
I pulled and eventually it started to pull back, before finally deciding that it was going to go mental!

It did several laps of the available water and also had one foray way under the ice to my right, before eventually coming into view. It was a rainbow at it was BLOODY massive!

Netted, I held it up for a photo, it weighed a ton, looked amazing and was fully-finned with a massive tail, perfection!



A few high fives and back slapping followed. What a fish! I was pretty much on cloud nine, and wasn't fussy for continuing I was content to watch my mate but he was adamant I should carry on straight away as things seemed to be hotting up.

I pulled the line back off the reel and this launched a cast towards an aerator which was working over time to keep the ice at bay.

Why change a winning formula I thought.

I left everything, just kept in touch as the fly sank through the water column.

20 seconds later… BANG!


No tiny takes this time, whatever it was that took the fly, it wanted it big style!

I lifted the rod and pulled on my line with the retrieving hand, just to make sure obviously. Big fish tend to have large, hard mouths!

The unseen fish started to doggedly pull line from my hand… Bump, Bump, Bump, it shook it's head out in the deep water. I could feel every movement transferred up the line, bucking the rod right through to the butt  sections each time it pulled.

After a few minutes, and in complete contrast to to the first fish, this one did very little, instead it did a very good impression of lakebed!

I put even more strain on the rod and moved it from side to side as I did so. The trout had obviously managed to get embedded in the weeds. After what seemed an age but was probably no more than five minutes, I could feel movement again, there was life back on the end of the line.

I don't often play fish of the reel but I did with this one, tightening the drag the minute I managed to get out out of the weeds.

 The rest of the fight wasn't very impressive, more a war of attrition really until I was finally able to net it, a brown trout, a beautiful, heavily-spotted, deep-bodied, fin-perfect whopper!

How big? Who knows. It was a double figure fish, in fact it was easily a double figure fish. I'll never know for sure how big as I slipped out the barbless hook and got it back into the water. 

It's not the done thing on a catch and kill water and no doubt I'll end up in trouble over it but I figured it was too good a fish to be caught once!


Leaning over the boat, I held it there in the water as it worked it's gills, trying to get oxygen into it's system. 

All of a sudden, it went form being loose in my hands, to tensing up, flexing it's massive frame and flicking it's spade like tail and shooting away from me descending to the depths as it did so.

Two doubles in two casts, one rainbow and one brown, will that ever happen again, I'd love to think so but I doubt it!




flyfishguide.co.uk