My First Trout

It was a cold, dark day in December. There had been a heavy frost overnight and everywhere was white and sparkling. I arrived at the fishery early and set up my rod in the car park.

As I was putting my rods together I examined the lake I had come to fish. No ice thankfully, a slight riffle on the water but no sign of any trout, although I knew they were there, just deep down in the water.

Fly fishing was still new to me then, having come from course fishing, I had only taken it up some two months previously.

Fly fishing was something of an enigma to me. I always thought of it as out of reach somehow, which is not the case. I also imagined that it was expensive.

I was wrong on both counts. I had driven out to a local fly fishery where I lived, just to take a look around. The fishery was down a private road through trees which opened out to reveal a beautiful 2 acre lake, with the hint of a second lake through a small copse on the far bank.

On walking around the lake I met Ernie, a retired gentleman who instantly engaged me in conversation and then insisted that I held his rod to get a "feel" of things.

George has fished for many years and was enjoying his fishing even more since he had retired

He blew away all my misconceptions about fly fishing, and introduced me to a number of the regular fishing "crowd".

I also made sure I had a long chat with the fishery manager, from which I gained an idea of what the two lakes were like, and where the "hotspots" were often found.

It always surprises me the number of people who turn up to a new water to fish, but never take the time to actually find out about the water they are about to fish.

Going back to the morning in question, I was by this time getting familiar with the two lakes, but had yet to catch!

I decided to fish the deeper and more challenging of the two lakes, casting into the light breeze.

I stuck with my familiar floating line, but to get down to the fish I used a long leader.

With no fish rising and at that time of year this was obviously no time for a dry fly, and I was following the "dark flies for dark days" theory. I liked the black of my fly, mixed with red and silver for that "attractor" look!

To this day I still find an intermediate or sinking line more difficult to cast, so I use a floating line with a very long leader attached.

There were three of us fishing the lake that morning. After about an hour and a half I started to find casting difficult. The line just did not seem to want to shoot.

I then attracted a number of jovial comments from the other fishers, one of which was something like "it's harder to cast when it's frozen!" Sure enough, my rod rings had completely iced up!

The others were packing up, considering it too cold to continue. I decided to give it one last try. I went against the rule of "dark flies for dark days" and put on an Orange Fritz.

That did it. By breaking the rule of using dark coloured flies on dark days I caught my very first trout with my first cast of that particular fly!

I was so excited about catching my first ever trout on the fly that I determined to come back the next day, and I did, full of confidence. I must have fished that Orange Fritz for over 3 hours, but didn't even get a "knock".

These days I wouldn't consider fishing the same fly with no result for that long and it just goes to show how fickle trout can be, interested in a certain fly one day, completely uninterested in the same fly the next!