Gordon MacPherson
January 5th, 2004, 04:53 PM
Staying at my mother's in Denbigh, N. Wales over Christmas, my son and I
paid our traditional visit to Glynn Jones little fishery at Cilcain. He
has dammed a stream to make 2 small ponds that are heavily stocked and
fished. Most people fish C&R so these trout are very highly educated -
they will come up and nose a dry fly before turning away in disgust.
Any we turned up mid-morning on Dec 29th. Very cold, very clear and
very still. Multiple layers of clothes and my Skeet boots kept me
relatively warm - mitts were essential.
There was a thin sheet of ice along part of one bank on the upper pool
but to our surprise there wer fish moving - not just the stocked
rainbows - also the little native browns. I starte with a tiny (?20)
nymph about 2 ft under a strike indicator and was startled (and much too
slow) when the indicator moved laterally a couple of inches. Persisted
adn a few minutes later there was a good take at the indicator (bright
orange). Then the indicator disappeared and I landed and released a 1.5
lb rainbow. No more action with the nymph so changed to a size 12 GRHE.
Another rainbow and then a take on the drop turned out to be a brown
- approaching 2lb. These are native fish that have grown on from the
native browns in the stream - very rarely caught so this made my day if
not my season. Back to the indicator and I was stripping it in after
missing a take when there was a large swirl at the indicator - so, what
the hell - put on an orange booby-like floating lure and stripped it
back across the surface. Caused mayhem - swirl after swirl but none
actually went for the lure. This lasted for about 4 casts but then all
was quiet. Finally put on a small black and green lure and stripped is
back just under the surface - could see the wake of chasing fish - 3
casts, 3 fish landed. All in all 8 fish landed and returned in about 3
hours.
My son - well he usually outfishes me quite heavily - this time he
landed one!
Gordon
--
paid our traditional visit to Glynn Jones little fishery at Cilcain. He
has dammed a stream to make 2 small ponds that are heavily stocked and
fished. Most people fish C&R so these trout are very highly educated -
they will come up and nose a dry fly before turning away in disgust.
Any we turned up mid-morning on Dec 29th. Very cold, very clear and
very still. Multiple layers of clothes and my Skeet boots kept me
relatively warm - mitts were essential.
There was a thin sheet of ice along part of one bank on the upper pool
but to our surprise there wer fish moving - not just the stocked
rainbows - also the little native browns. I starte with a tiny (?20)
nymph about 2 ft under a strike indicator and was startled (and much too
slow) when the indicator moved laterally a couple of inches. Persisted
adn a few minutes later there was a good take at the indicator (bright
orange). Then the indicator disappeared and I landed and released a 1.5
lb rainbow. No more action with the nymph so changed to a size 12 GRHE.
Another rainbow and then a take on the drop turned out to be a brown
- approaching 2lb. These are native fish that have grown on from the
native browns in the stream - very rarely caught so this made my day if
not my season. Back to the indicator and I was stripping it in after
missing a take when there was a large swirl at the indicator - so, what
the hell - put on an orange booby-like floating lure and stripped it
back across the surface. Caused mayhem - swirl after swirl but none
actually went for the lure. This lasted for about 4 casts but then all
was quiet. Finally put on a small black and green lure and stripped is
back just under the surface - could see the wake of chasing fish - 3
casts, 3 fish landed. All in all 8 fish landed and returned in about 3
hours.
My son - well he usually outfishes me quite heavily - this time he
landed one!
Gordon
--