A MEMORABLE DAYS FISHING

A month or so ago i decided to head out to a a fishery in North Yorkshire called Belflask, Its a Privately Rub fishery stocked with rainbow and brown trout and is a little gem hidden away amongst the countryside.

Autumn is the time of year where i cant wait to get out with my Zeech and Zonkers to target the fry feeders.

Nothing beats the aggressive pulls and takes you get when the trout are heavily on the fry. With cooler water conditions the trout really do put up one hell of a fight.

THE DAY

We arrived at the fishery for 8am with no other cars in the car park. The fish could be seen boiling and rising all over with the occasional flash of small fry in the margins. As you can imagine at this point i am itching to get into the fish in a big way.

A light Wind was kissing the surface of the water creating a perfect ripple. Conditions couldnt be better.

I set up with 2 rods, My 10ft 6" Sharpes Gordon and 10ft Atom Six Switch rod which i have been given to test by Deer Creek.

On my Atom Six Roid i set up with a #8 Clear Intermediate (for that added bit of stealth), 15ft of 8lb Airflo Sightfree Leader and a Black Zeech.

On the Sharpes Gordon i set up with a #8 Floating Line, 6ft of 6lb Airflo Sightfree leader and a Black Zonker.

Upon setting up iu made my way round the lake to a Double peg on the far side.

With anticipation i made my first cast with the Atom Six rod and started with a slow figure of 8 retrieve, Nothing !! 

Second Cast, Nothing! 

Third Cast, Nothing!

Hmmmm, i was wondering as normally this is a good go to pattern for fry feeding trout, after trying white and olive zeech,s i had managed to get a couple of fish to the net but sport was slow. 

I then remembered i had tied up a few natural Grizzle zeech,s the day before as i knew the fish would be on the fry. I tied one on to my leader, made a long cast exiting the full line onto the water and started my figure of 8 retrieve. After only a few seconds the line shoots off and i realise i am into something large. A long fight ensued and a Nice 13lb rainbow trout struggled to fit into my net.

I continued fishing and added a few more trout to the net on the same fly and then decided to move to a different peg. with high banks nehind casting can be tricky but by standing on a rock and my hieght at 6ft 3" i manage to get out some nice casts and the sport is fantastic. In the next hour i land a further 15 fish to the same Grey Zeech, including another nice fish of 7lb.

The day continues like this untill it is time to leave so i have a few more casts down from the lodge before i call it a day on this great venue.

I tell my fishing partner peter this is my last cast, So i make a extra effort to bank all my line out plus some backing and have a 5 count down as i am in deep water (25ft). I start with a twitchy pulling retrieve and about half way through the retrieve i get a solid hit and line shoots off in the other dirrection. Immediately i knew that this was a good fish and after a good battle a cracking 10lb trout was netted.

So it just goes to show if you get the colour and tactics right the fish will follow. I ended the day with 38 fish and many long range releases, including a 3 fish bag of over 30lb.

Normally i dont kill fish but these were beautiful after being marinated and smoked on my friends smoker.

tight lines

Andy