Arrogance - mine
I used to think that if the fish were rising I could usually catch at least one – oh such arrogance. Well that is how it had worked out more or less over the previous thirty odd years; here is how it all went wrong,
Last year I had the opportunity to fish the Derbyshire Wye. Actually we had gone to Derby to visit some of my wife’s relatives and I just managed to hide the rod in the car. We arrived at the Peacock Hotel, Rowsley (a very clever choice on my part) I pointed out that I could get a day ticket to fish the Wye and would my wife like to take my daughter on some retail therapy.
The next day I was off early with a waterproof coat and a packed lunch provided by the hotel. I decided to start at the lowest point on the beat and walk my way for the full length of the beat upstream. As this was my first visit to the Wye I had taken advice, bought some local patterns, noted the dry fly only rule and set to the task in hand.
It was a few hours before I found a rising fish, not matter how I tried I could not get a fly to this fish without it dragging. I continued on my way hunting in all the likely spots until I found another fish rising occasionally, again the same problem.
It was after lunch that I met a local angler, we exchanged pleasantries and I learned that he had already caught one very nice wild brownie. He was good enough to show me the fly he had used, luckily I had bought one earlier, so with renewed confidence I changed flies.
I searched every likely looking spot; I missed one or two fish but had not met up with a rising fish to test this new pattern on. Then I found a beautiful fish but it was impossible to cast to it from anywhere so I raised my hat to this crafty fish and headed on upstream. In between the rain showers and the wind I was beginning to feel a bit downhearted, but the thought of the alternative to fishing on this beautiful river, which was retail therapy with the family, soon straightened me out. In the distance I could see company in the shape of another angler, this turned out to be the same angler from earlier in the day. He had added another fish to his score since our last meeting. What was I doing wrong, he told me these had been rising fish - this just added to the anxiety. By this time I had seen about four rising fish and has failed to get a fly to any of them successfully.
I asked the gentleman if I could walk along with him for a bit and see if I could learn something from him. I did learn something but not what I had expected. As we moved along we both spotted a rising fish but he appeared to ignore it and carefully crawl past it and head on up stream, I assumed that he had noticed a better fish further upstream. He cast the fly beautifully into the stream to the rising fish … downstream of us, the fly reached the fish without any drag and hey presto it was number three in his bag. When I asked him about this he looked at me as if I was a little odd (he did have a point there) and asked what was wrong with fishing a dry fly downstream, I had to admit - nothing I suppose. It was just that I have never thought to do it.
I have always linked the words ‘dry-fly’ and ‘upstream’ together a bit like gin and tonic or politician and spin - you get the idea.
So I went home fishless and wiser. It may not always be the fly that is the problem; it could be something altogether different that is giving the other fisherman the edge. In this case a pragmatic approach to the problem of drag.
As I walked back to the hotel I had time to ponder over the events of the day – would my wife and daughter have bought one or two outfits and will I be asked which one I prefer and then be cross examined as to what is wrong with the other one.
As they say “Pride comes before a fall”.
Footnote
When I refer to the fly not dragging when cast downstream, this is far
from correct. A fly cast downstream is more likely to drag than in almost any
other situation. What was described above was where it was not possible to get to
the fish from below because of overhanging branches and the like. That was
also the reason that the fish were rising in the first place, they had a safe
location under cover with food being delivered to the door.