Long dry summers and In Praise of Coarse fish

This year has been long dry , hot and certainly has made fishing for trout on my wonderful north Yorkshire streams challenging and to be honest with low levels and doubtful oxygen levels really i think they are better left alone . So after a little bit of activity on the spring fed chalk stream and really struggling to raise much interest from the trout which are in low numbers mainly because of the black plague that has descended on my part of the world. I reckoned its time to explore other avenues.  I have been persevering with my local chalk stream .  Much as it is a stunning place with fantastic wildlife the fishing for the last couple of months has been to say the least " challenging " The guests I have had on the river have found things difficult as I have.  Other anglers including those who have skills beyond my own have stated how spooky the fish are and how difficult the fishing is ,  Yesterday I did have another trip there as it was sort of on my route between meeting someone and coming home . Well it was nearly on that route but it was enough of an excuse.  

The stream is very very low but still fishable and most of the fish I saw were at distance and swimming away rapidly .   I did however manage to get tucked away using a bush behind me and reeds in front where i got within casting range of a few fish .   I could see a couple of fish rising and after watching them for a while I reckoned they were taking something that was sat in the surface film.   They certainly ignored my usual selection of hackled and cdc flies and emergers i even tried unweighted nymphs . I had reduced my tippet down to 6x and was stumped .  I couldn`t see at all what they could be taking and sort inspiration from my fly box.  I spied an ant pattern and remembering that on my allotment and under my driveway this week the annual winged ant explosion had happened I thought what is to lose. Despite not seeing a single ant on the day .   Second drift down the ant was taken . Now Mr Trout could have been tripped up by a masterful deduction by yours truly or it could have been the ant was a good impersonation of something else .  But yesterday after struggling for a couple of hours I took the small victory with some pride . Not a huge fish but was happy to get it to hand ,  and have another follow it slightly later on the same fly..

One of my two sons was keen to have a day fishing with me but due to the pitiful state of our usual rivers which are largely spate or freestone streams . Both the fly fishing clubs we have membership of are both suffering from low water .  So it was time to dust of the coarse fishing tackle that has been lying idle in the garage for some years , new mono lines were purchased and after  sorting out all the stuff and  remembering that coarse fishing can be an exercise in logistics compared to a rod reel and waistcoat for fly fishing .

Ollie has never coarse fished in his life and fixed spool reels are new to him so it would be interesting . I had planned a return to a local lake I probably haven`t fishing for 25 years . We arrived mid afternoon with a planned session into the evening . we were armed with chairs , rods assorted gear . Cool boxes with beer , cold chicken , pies and assorted hot drinks .  If I was going to Introduce Number 2 son into the dark arts of float fishing and fixed spool reels we needed sustenance .  As it turned out the afternoon was a huge success soon to be repeated , Rudd , Roach and Tench all appeared for both us .  Tangles were few and soon sorted .  Down side was me losing the best fish of the evening trying to keep it of the weeds .  He got the hang of it very quickly and had got several fish before this old bloke got himself tackled up...

As a social afternoon it was a success that I want to repeat looking forward to the next trip..  Nice to be able to sit have a drink and chat whilst fishing...