Merseamudboy

I’m after some advice. I’m new to both fishing and using the fly despite being retired. Yesterday I was fishing a Stillwater locally (Bessie Beck). My 2nd fly session. I had a fee hours casting tuition and fishing at Helwith Bridge last week. I drew a blank with one bite when I was faffing with my line and not prepared for it. I was using a floating line and an Airflo copolymer 5’ 2iS leader with about 7’ of flouro tippet. The surface tension of the water was making the sinking leader float?? I have some Xink (that I’ve not used before) and I tried drying the leader off and applying. It didn’t really help and left an oily film on the water. Any ideas? I had a blank 4 hours. One friendly chap with cheaper well worn gear got a couple near to me and later got a 12lb rainbow. I noticed that the weed and overhanging stuff that limited back casts were on the prevailing wind downwind side of the lakes. I guess that is normal if you think about it. The said friendly chap (not all were so pleasant) was double hauling right across and hitting the downwind side without looming over the fish. I struggled standing on the downwind side, lots of tangles with fly on weeds, trees, bushes, fly vest, rod and jacket etc. The guy casting right across was self taught by instinct and trial and error. He didn’t even know it was ‘double hauling’. A good day in terms of practice and experience but I feel like I need a fish on the hook to keep enthusiasm up. Im still enjoying myself.

This mature blokes first few months of angling has gone very well. There is an awful lot to learn! I’ve been using lures on the Kendal and Lancaster canal. I’ve caught some perch. What a beautiful fish! I’ve been both drop shotting and casting across the canal with a weedless cheb head as I found a jig head was forever snagging. I paid for a couple of hours at a local fishery (Estwaite) as I wanted to broaden my experience and hopefully catch some larger fish. I caught 16 fish from the jetty using a float for the first time with maggots. All smaller fish mainly perch with some hybrids thrown in. I’m presently in Wales in my camper as my lovely wife is walking Offa’s Dyke and I’m collecting her when she finishes. I paid some day tickets to fish the Llangollen Canal and I had a nice perch yesterday. Today I went to a fishery, bought some worms and paid nearly £30 to catch 4 trout that I was assured were about 3lb. It wasn’t really about the trout (which would have been appreciated) but I want the experience of catching and playing some sizeable fish. Today I spent 4 hours fishing the trout pond that is for worms. Despite going around all the pond and varying my depth as suggested I had not a single solitary bite! It was soul destroying. Two other anglers turned up for my final hour and to my surprise they were using a lure and a spinner. They had nothing either. I spoke to the boss. He suggested fishing another pond for smaller trout and said I could have as many as I wanted. In 2 hours I caught 2 tiny bream. It turns out that this 2nd pond was the coarse pond that was free with my ticket anyway! Two other anglers caught not a sausage in those 2 hours. I’m not a coarse fisherman. I did however really enjoy the subtleties needed to catch tiny bream with a worm on a size 10 hook. It’s not just about catching fish I know but I do feel rather ripped off. Tomorrow I’m back to the canal but I’ll try using my remaining worms. Ive still to catch a reasonable sized fish. It’s not about the fish itself but the need to do a bit of a battle.

Just to make it plain, I am a complete novice at fishing even as I approach an age I never imagined. As a young lad I'd dangle lug and rag worm over the side of a boat and catch flatties but that was a while ago. I recently visited Loch Earn. My lady and I hired a boat and all the gear we needed to go 'trolling'. I caught one brown trout and I absolutely loved it. With spinning for trout in mind I bought a rod and reel online and gathered together some odds and ends. I realised that my 9' Okuma rod rated at 15-45g casting weight was probably not suitable for spinning with lightweight spinners so my local angling shop was visited and a Shimano Catana rod with a 2-5g CW was bought. With my Okuma 30 series Helios SX reel I spent nearly 4 hours sorting out my casting at an extremely low Thirlemere with a variety of spinners and I didn't have a single bite. I still loved it. I'm learning all the time. I'm planning a visit to Estwaite before the end of September. I was thinking of spinning from the bank but they recommend hiring a boat. I'm really enjoying the cast and retrieve type of fishing at the moment and I'm not so sure about sitting around waiting for a bite or ground baiting etc. I'm not sure about other types of freshwater fishing. Is there a use for my Okuma rod? I live in Kendal in the Lake District and I have a rod license although I haven't joined a club. Any advice would be appreciated. Peter