seatrout

[Guest Darrin Simpson]

can anyone help ? i want to try fishing for seatrout on the adur in sussex ie, best time, type of spinner or fly and how do i find out where the fish lay, rising or falling tide. hope someone can point me in the right direction thanks;

[Guest TheDacer]

Hi Mate, I'd like to help but I'm a complete novice at Fly fishing.

 

Is the Sea-Trout the same as the Sewin in Wales?? If so, I once saw a bloke fishing for them using a fly (ie. not a spinner) and he was having no problem getting a few.

 

Someone on here should be able to help you much more than that, however....

[Guest Mike Connor]

Seatrout ( which are sea-run or "anadromous", brown trout), are quite difficult fish to catch consistently.

 

The runs vary somewhat from place to place, but in Europe ( UK included), they usually ascend the rivers from June to the end of February. In most places, the season ends in either September or October.

 

Most succesful sea-trout anglers fish at night,( In rivers, and in the sea), as this gives better opportunities of approaching the fish.

 

There are a number of techniques which can prove successful. On occasion, sub surface flies, from 14 to 8, like "Peter Ross", "Zulu", "Mallard and Claret" and quite a few other of the "traditional" flies will do the business. It is important to fish the flies slowly. This is done by line -control, and mending.

 

On other occasions, "wake" flies ( muddler minnow, etc ) may prove successful, when allowed to drift across a pool on the surface, providing a wake.

 

When it is cold, then the fish may often be deep, and it pays to try a sinking line and a fish imitation in the deep pools.

 

Tube flies are very popular as well. For patterns, a black lure with a silver body ( silver tinsel body, wing of black arctic fox, throat hackle red or orange) will do for practically all occasions.

 

Sometimes a "shrimp" type fly will prove successful. ( "Allies Shrimp", small "General Practitioner", etc

 

Various hair wing flies, like "Squirrel and Orange", "Squirrel and Blue", may also prove very useful.

 

Usually the problem is in finding fish which are willing to take. The actual fly choice is not really of any major consequence.

 

Most people who fish regularly for seatrout, "know their spots", and try to get there before dark. They then (QUIETLY!!!), set up, and wait for full dark before commencing to fish.

 

Occasionally, twilight may also be a good time to fish, but this also disturbs the pool, and may only reduce your chances of catching a fish later.

 

Avoid noise, ( vibration), and lights of any kind. Do not point torches etc at the water.

If you smoke, then light up well away from the water.

 

Also, seatrout are very sensitve to smell. If you use aftershave, smoke, smell of garlic, etc etc. Then wash your hands very carefully, preferably after anointing them liberally with river-bank mud, before handling your flies or leader.

 

BE QUIET !!!!. If you stumble about on the bank, you will disturb the fish, and disturbed fish will not take very well, if at all. Pitch darkness is best. No moon, or well overcast. Fish the darkest spots you can find, under trees, bushes etc.

 

Take a LARGE! landing net along. Landing fish in the dark is something of a challenge, and a small trout net is useless in any case. There is nothing more discouraging than "losing" a large fish, after the third or fourth time over the net, because the net is too small.

 

make sure you have a place to land the fish, before you start fishing, and CARRY YOUR NET WITH YOU ( I sling mine over my shoulder), it is no use at all lying on the bank out of reach, when you hook the fish of a lifetime.

 

Check out your spots in daylight. If you wade, be very careful indeed, make sure you know where you can get in and out of the river, BEFORE!! you do it.

 

Some of the sounds you will hear in the country, especially near a river, on a pitch-dark night, will make your blood curdle, if you don´t know what they are. Night fishing is not for those of a nervous disposition!

 

When you catch a fish, don´t leave it on the bank. Hang it up in a tree etc. Rats and other creatures will make short work of even large fish. Ruining them at the very least.

 

Lastly, if the water is high, ( after rain etc), spinning may be a better bet than fly-fishing. There are quite a few spinners which are succesful. Two which account for a large number of seatrout, are the "Veltic", and the ABU "Droppen". There are quite a few other good ones of course.

 

One or two seatrout anglers of my aquaintance, have been very successful with "plugs". Silver "minnow" types about three to four inches long, and "Fire-tigers", slightly smaller being very popular.

 

Tasmanian devils ( light plastic spinner type lure), and "Flying Condoms", are also very useful, especially for upstream spinning.

 

Try to control your lure so that it behaves like a fish. Casting across and down, and then bringing the lure slowly into a cross current ( which causes it to speed up, and "rise" in the water), is often very successful.

 

If it is allowed, worming can also be a deadly technique. Use a rubber coated "bomb", and a trace about eighteen inches, with a bunch of lobworms on a size 8 or 6 hook ( the "baitholder" hooks with the barbs on the shank are good for holding worms on a bit better).

 

Simply allow your "rubber bomb", ( a pierced bullet will do at a pinch), to "roll" down through the swims, and strike at every unusual movement, which you will "feel" through the rod tip.

 

You can also use a float to drift the worms down, but this is not usually quite as successful.

 

TL

MC

[Guest fisherman]

Now that is what I call an answer Mike.

Dave

[Guest Mike Connor]

[

Originally posted by fisherman:

Now that is what I call an answer Mike.    

Dave

Hope it helps. One or two further points occurred to me, which may be of some help.

 

Invariably when I go seatrouting on the local rivers, I carry a telescopic spinning rod, and a few lures, as "insurance". This is mainly because it is difficult for me to know the current state of the river, ( unless I have been fishing several nights on the trot, etc ). It may be more or less impossible to fish flies successfully, but a spinner will still work in some places.

 

It is best to have at least one alternative spot to fish, ( which you have previously scouted in the daytime), just in case your chosen spot is unfishable, or even occupied by other anglers.

 

Stumbling about on the river bank in the dark is a dangerous thing to do, you can quite easily fall and break a leg, or worse, and it is unlikely to lead to success.

 

At night, you are unable to tell how deep the water is by simply looking. You must check out your spots by day. Under no circumstances should you even contemplate stepping into unknown water in the dark.

 

Trees and bushes possess the unusual and apparently little known ability to move at night.

 

They apparently do this with the express intentions of snagging your flies, spinners etc. Many seatrout anglers will swear that the trees and bushes move nearer at night, and a cast made in the daytime, which easily fell a yard short of some greedy grasping tree branch, will now wrap around it several times, with consummate ease.

 

This results in a snap off at least, and at worst you will have to find some way of disentangling your fly-line from it. This may even involve you having to enter the water, to reach the branch etc ( if possible) , and will more or less put paid to any chances of fish from that run.

 

If you wish to be successful at night, then you must learn to cast "blindfold", and using

"feel" alone. This is not as difficult as it might sound, but does require some practice.

 

It is also far more difficult to do with a fixed spool reel and monofilament, than it is with a fly-line. You must learn exactly how much power to apply in order for your lure to reach a certain distance. Otherwise you will spend most of your time fighting trees and bushes, and cursing, than fishing.

 

Try casting a weight blindfolded to a bucket placed in the garden, or if you want to draw a crowd, on the local playing fields. ( in this case wear a crimson cape, and a black blindfold ). (You may also do this with a fly line of course, in fact you should).

 

It takes very considerable practice to hit the bucket consistently. This type of skill and control is essential at night though. Most especially if you want to fish spinners and similar lures. Fly-fishing is much easier.

 

Even though on most "Summer" nights, it never gets entirely "pitch black", you can still not see to cast, and unless you have learned to do it by feel, you will lose a lot of gear, and not catch many fish.

 

One simple way of achieving accurate casts at night, is to strip off the exact same amount of line you used during the day.

Try the cast in the daytime, ( who knows, you might even hook some contrary seatrout as well! ), and commit to memory how many yards ( one long strip of the line hand) you needed to reach your target.

 

One of my favourite pool has three major "hot-spots", for a take. The first is from the head of the pool next to a large white stone, and is to a bush across and below, about forty-five feet away. Forty-five feet is fifteen strips of line. I strip this from the reel, allowing the coils to hang loosely in my left hand, and I then cast and shoot this until it is all out. This means that my fly is in an ideal position to fish this lie. My leader is ten feet long, and my fly should land about ten feet beyond the bush, and I then manipulate line tobring it in close to the bank on the opposite side of the river, and then draw the fly back. On a number of occasions, I have had three or four fish from this lie, on the same night!

 

Having found a "taking-spot", make very careful note of it. Seatrout choose their lies very carefully, and will often not move much. If you want to hook a fish in such a lie, especially a relatively "stale" ( a fish which has been in the river for a while), fish, then the fly must more or less go right past it´s nose, as slowly and as tantalisingly as possible. Six inches to the right or left, is useless.

 

When using spinners of any type for seatrout,( and indeed any other fish), it should be ensured that the hook ( single or treble) is mounted stiffly, and does not simply "hang" from the end of the lure. Tube flies use the same principle, the hooks being fed into a piece of valve rubber which is fitted over the tube end, in order to hold them "in line" with the hook.

 

This is for a couple of reasons. Such a system will not tangle often when casting,the "dangling" hook does not interfere with the lure action, and most important of all, it provides greatly improved hooking capability.

 

Many people lose seatrout hooked on spinners,

plugs, tube-flies, etc, because the hook just "dangles", and provides a lousy hookhold, even when it catches, which is then in any case more by accident than design.

 

Excellent lures like the ABU "Toby", which have a reputation for being bad hookers, ( although excellent at provoking bites), can be vastly improved by making the hooks "in line" and "semi rigid".

 

Although the "bad hooking" idea is usually attributed to the erratic motion of the lure, this is not the case. It is purely due to the hook "dangling" ineffectively.

 

I use these "semi-rigid" mounts on all my lures, and it has now been a number of years since I "lost" a fish due to a bad hook hold.

 

The "veltics" are actually fitted with a plastic tube, which can be pushed down over the hook to hold it in line. When a fish bites, the hook first penetrates, and then slides back out of the tube, also preventing the fish from gaining any leverage, which might help it to spit out the lure.

 

It can not be over-emphasised, that you must be stealthy and QUIET!!! when seatrout fishing at night. ( It is also invariably a good idea when doing any fishing anywhere though !! )

 

Darkness is a good cloak which allows you to approach the fish in the first place, but it does not dampen noise as well!!! Many seem to forget this.

 

On occasion I have been within feet of other anglers at night, and they have neither seen nor heard me. I have heard them when still several hundred feet away. I have no reason to believe that my senses are as good as a fishes, quite the contrary, and so I concentrate on being very quiet indeed.

 

Not too long ago, I took a fairly famous angler fishing for seatrout on one of my local rivers. I know this water like the back of my own hand, but he did not, and so we reccied the spots in daylight for his benefit.

 

What amazed me most of all, was that when we finally started fishing just after 23.00 hrs as it was full dark, that he waded in, and started casting for all he was worth to the far bottom of the pool!

 

To be fair, he did catch two very nice fish, one of just under six pounds, and one of eight. But this was really a fluke.

 

Normally, nobody doing this would catch anything at all at this particular spot, as the wading and casting puts the fish down almost immediately, and for a long time, often the rest of the night. Either that, or they simply vacate the pool. There were a lot of fresh fish fish moving upriver on this occasion, and this is why he got a couple.

 

On subsequent nights, in the same and similar pools, I showed him my usual technique here. During this "series", my best catch was eleven seatrout to over twelve pounds, and my "worst" catch was five seatrout ( and a big old brown as a bonus), to just over six pounds.

 

The secret is quite simple. DON`T WADE !!! and DON`T CAST !!!! If you can possibly avoid it.

 

On the eleven fish night, I did not wade at all, and I did not cast at all either. I fed in line from the top of the pool, and by judicious mending and line control, ( a floater of course) got my flies to where I wanted them without any disturbance whatsoever.

 

My guest was most amazed. He did say ( as others have done under similar circumstances) "But I like to cast". Fair enough, so do I. But I can cast on the playing fileds or in my garden if I like. Or even in the sea, or various stillwaters.

 

Doing it on small rivers in restricted pools, is only likely to cost me fish, and that is not the point of the exercise.

 

It should be remembered that a fly-line is not simply a casting weight, but an elongated controller, and there is no reason at all why good use should not be made of this simple fact.

 

Because seatrout obviously feel a lot safer at night, they will also be found in completely different lies at night, than those they habitually occupy during the day.

 

You should still fish known lies of course, but don´t make the mistake of ignoring streamy shallow water, especially under overhanging trees or bushes, or undercut banks.

 

Don´t cast to it, use the current to carry your line and flies out past the trees etc, and then by manipulating the line with your rod tip, allow it to swing in beneath the trees etc. Don´t be afraid to actively retrieve the fly. This will often result in good takes. "Dead-drifting" is not always, in fact not even often, the best way to catch seatrout.

 

One reason I use comparatively long rods, for seatrouting, even on small rivers, ( indeed especially so! ), is the ease of manipulation this allows. Short rods limit this too much.

 

Finally, here is an article I wrote about a seatrout fishing trip, not too long ago. It may be of interest. It was unusual, in that it was one of my few daylight sorties.

 

It seems that I am unable to post this in its entirety, so I will split the rest off, and send it in another post.

 

TL

MC

[Guest Mike Connor]

[

Originally posted by fisherman:

Now that is what I call an answer Mike.    

Dave

Hope it helps. One or two further points occurred to me, which may be of some help.

 

"Fresh" seatrout tend to like flies with a bit of blue in them. The "Teal Blue and Silver" is a classic pattern in this case. It is also good as a long sank lure with squirrel wing instead of teal.

 

"Staler" fish, ( which have been in the river for a while) often prefer patterns with a bit of red in them. The "Peter Ross", is the classic choice here. Once again a long shank variant with a squirrel wing instead of teal can be very effective.

 

Lures with a bit of red or blue also work in the same way. Wake lures which are jet-black are usually more succesful at night.

 

Usually, very dark lures are more succesful at night in any case.

 

Invariably when I go seatrouting on the local rivers, I carry a telescopic spinning rod, and a few lures, as "insurance". This is mainly because it is difficult for me to know the current state of the river, ( unless I have been fishing several nights on the trot, etc ). It may be more or less impossible to fish flies successfully, but a spinner will still work in some places.

 

It is best to have at least one alternative spot to fish, ( which you have previously scouted in the daytime), just in case your chosen spot is unfishable, or even occupied by other anglers.

 

Stumbling about on the river bank in the dark is a dangerous thing to do, you can quite easily fall and break a leg, or worse, and it is unlikely to lead to success.

 

At night, you are unable to tell how deep the water is by simply looking. You must check out your spots by day. Under no circumstances should you even contemplate stepping into unknown water in the dark.

 

Trees and bushes possess the unusual and apparently little known ability to move at night.

 

They apparently do this with the express intentions of snagging your flies, spinners etc. Many seatrout anglers will swear that the trees and bushes move nearer at night, and a cast made in the daytime, which easily fell a yard short of some greedy grasping tree branch, will now wrap around it several times, with consummate ease.

 

This results in a snap off at least, and at worst you will have to find some way of disentangling your fly-line from it. This may even involve you having to enter the water, to reach the branch etc ( if possible) , and will more or less put paid to any chances of fish from that run.

 

If you wish to be successful at night, then you must learn to cast "blindfold", and using

"feel" alone. This is not as difficult as it might sound, but does require some practice.

 

It is also far more difficult to do with a fixed spool reel and monofilament, than it is with a fly-line. You must learn exactly how much power to apply in order for your lure to reach a certain distance. Otherwise you will spend most of your time fighting trees and bushes, and cursing, than fishing.

 

Try casting a weight blindfolded to a bucket placed in the garden, or if you want to draw a crowd, on the local playing fields. ( in this case wear a crimson cape, and a black blindfold ). (You may also do this with a fly line of course, in fact you should).

 

It takes very considerable practice to hit the bucket consistently. This type of skill and control is essential at night though. Most especially if you want to fish spinners and similar lures. Fly-fishing is much easier.

 

Even though on most "Summer" nights, it never gets entirely "pitch black", you can still not see to cast, and unless you have learned to do it by feel, you will lose a lot of gear, and not catch many fish.

 

One simple way of achieving accurate casts at night, is to strip off the exact same amount of line you used during the day.

Try the cast in the daytime, ( who knows, you might even hook some contrary seatrout as well! ), and commit to memory how many yards ( one long strip of the line hand) you needed to reach your target.

 

One of my favourite pool has three major "hot-spots", for a take. The first is from the head of the pool next to a large white stone, and is to a bush across and below, about forty-five feet away. Forty-five feet is fifteen strips of line. I strip this from the reel, allowing the coils to hang loosely in my left hand, and I then cast and shoot this until it is all out. This means that my fly is in an ideal position to fish this lie. My leader is ten feet long, and my fly should land about ten feet beyond the bush, and I then manipulate line tobring it in close to the bank on the opposite side of the river, and then draw the fly back. On a number of occasions, I have had three or four fish from this lie, on the same night!

 

Having found a "taking-spot", make very careful note of it. Seatrout choose their lies very carefully, and will often not move much. If you want to hook a fish in such a lie, especially a relatively "stale" ( a fish which has been in the river for a while), fish, then the fly must more or less go right past it´s nose, as slowly and as tantalisingly as possible. Six inches to the right or left, is useless.

 

When using spinners of any type for seatrout,( and indeed any other fish), it should be ensured that the hook ( single or treble) is mounted stiffly, and does not simply "hang" from the end of the lure. Tube flies use the same principle, the hooks being fed into a piece of valve rubber which is fitted over the tube end, in order to hold them "in line" with the hook.

 

This is for a couple of reasons. Such a system will not tangle often when casting,the "dangling" hook does not interfere with the lure action, and most important of all, it provides greatly improved hooking capability.

 

Many people lose seatrout hooked on spinners,

plugs, tube-flies, etc, because the hook just "dangles", and provides a lousy hookhold, even when it catches, which is then in any case more by accident than design.

 

Excellent lures like the ABU "Toby", which have a reputation for being bad hookers, ( although excellent at provoking bites), can be vastly improved by making the hooks "in line" and "semi rigid".

 

Although the "bad hooking" idea is usually attributed to the erratic motion of the lure, this is not the case. It is purely due to the hook "dangling" ineffectively.

 

I use these "semi-rigid" mounts on all my lures, and it has now been a number of years since I "lost" a fish due to a bad hook hold.

 

The "veltics" are actually fitted with a plastic tube, which can be pushed down over the hook to hold it in line. When a fish bites, the hook first penetrates, and then slides back out of the tube, also preventing the fish from gaining any leverage, which might help it to spit out the lure.

 

It can not be over-emphasised, that you must be stealthy and QUIET!!! when seatrout fishing at night. ( It is also invariably a good idea when doing any fishing anywhere though !! )

 

Darkness is a good cloak which allows you to approach the fish in the first place, but it does not dampen noise as well!!! Many seem to forget this.

 

On occasion I have been within feet of other anglers at night, and they have neither seen nor heard me. I have heard them when still several hundred feet away. I have no reason to believe that my senses are as good as a fishes, quite the contrary, and so I concentrate on being very quiet indeed.

 

Not too long ago, I took a fairly famous angler fishing for seatrout on one of my local rivers. I know this water like the back of my own hand, but he did not, and so we reccied the spots in daylight for his benefit.

 

What amazed me most of all, was that when we finally started fishing just after 23.00 hrs as it was full dark, that he waded in, and started casting for all he was worth to the far bottom of the pool!

 

To be fair, he did catch two very nice fish, one of just under six pounds, and one of eight. But this was really a fluke.

 

Normally, nobody doing this would catch anything at all at this particular spot, as the wading and casting puts the fish down almost immediately, and for a long time, often the rest of the night. Either that, or they simply vacate the pool. There were a lot of fresh fish fish moving upriver on this occasion, and this is why he got a couple.

 

On subsequent nights, in the same and similar pools, I showed him my usual technique here. During this "series", my best catch was eleven seatrout to over twelve pounds, and my "worst" catch was five seatrout ( and a big old brown as a bonus), to just over six pounds.

 

The secret is quite simple. DON`T WADE !!! and DON`T CAST !!!! If you can possibly avoid it.

 

On the eleven fish night, I did not wade at all, and I did not cast at all either. I fed in line from the top of the pool, and by judicious mending and line control, ( a floater of course) got my flies to where I wanted them without any disturbance whatsoever.

 

My guest was most amazed. He did say ( as others have done under similar circumstances) "But I like to cast". Fair enough, so do I. But I can cast on the playing fileds or in my garden if I like. Or even in the sea, or various stillwaters.

 

Doing it on small rivers in restricted pools, is only likely to cost me fish, and that is not the point of the exercise.

 

It should be remembered that a fly-line is not simply a casting weight, but an elongated controller, and there is no reason at all why good use should not be made of this simple fact.

 

Because seatrout obviously feel a lot safer at night, they will also be found in completely different lies at night, than those they habitually occupy during the day.

 

You should still fish known lies of course, but don´t make the mistake of ignoring streamy shallow water, especially under overhanging trees or bushes, or undercut banks.

 

Don´t cast to it, use the current to carry your line and flies out past the trees etc, and then by manipulating the line with your rod tip, allow it to swing in beneath the trees etc. Don´t be afraid to actively retrieve the fly. This will often result in good takes. "Dead-drifting" is not always, in fact not even often, the best way to catch seatrout.

 

One reason I use comparatively long rods, for seatrouting, even on small rivers, ( indeed especially so! ), is the ease of manipulation this allows. Short rods limit this too much.

 

Finally, here is an article I wrote about a seatrout fishing trip, not too long ago. It may be of interest. It was unusual, in that it was one of my few daylight sorties.

 

It seems that I am unable to post this in its entirety, so I will split the rest off, and send it in another post.

 

TL

MC

[Guest Mike Connor]

"Fresh" seatrout tend to like flies with a bit of blue in them. The "Teal Blue and Silver" is a classic pattern in this case. It is also good as a long sank lure with squirrel wing instead of teal.

 

"Staler" fish, ( which have been in the river for a while) often prefer patterns with a bit of red in them. The "Peter Ross", is the classic choice here. Once again a long shank variant with a squirrel wing instead of teal can be very effective.

 

Lures with a bit of red or blue also work in the same way. Wake lures which are jet-black are usually more succesful at night.

 

Usually, very dark lures are more succesful at night in any case.

 

Meant to put that in one of my other posts, but due to problems posting, ( don´t know why) it got lost somewhere.

 

TL

MC

[Guest Mike Connor]

Stretching its large tentlike network of roots, like long gnarled and weathered fingers, into the stream at the side of the pool, the tree stood, seemingly unaffected by the floods, storms, and even one or two lightning strikes, which had simply split off some of its larger branches.

 

Nobody knew how old it was, but it had stood there a long time. Known as the "seatrout tree", by those who were aware of its secrets, although it was in fact an oak, it was a very difficult but usually rewarding place to fish.

 

If one managed to allow the fly to drop into the space beneath the tent of roots, a sheltered eddy with a clean gravel base, and then retrieved along the side of this eddy, it was very unusual not to take a fish. Many were lost, as they immediately bolted through one of the openings in the roots, but some were landed.

 

Even if one managed to extricate a fish from the roots, landing it was also quite difficult, especially larger fish, as the bank was steep, and the water deep and powerful, making it extremely difficult to hold even a played-out fish in the current, and many fish were lost here as well.

 

Standard technique was to fish with fairly heavy tippet, and on hooking a fish, attempt to horse it straight upstream out of the roots. This technique was sometimes successful, more often not. Nevertheless, of all the spots on this stretch of river, this was the most promising.

 

After a while, most anglers who knew of it, simply referred to it as "the tree", and "shall we try the tree?", or "let´s meet at the tree", became fairly common phrases, absolutely meaningless to an outsider, but known to most of the skilled anglers who fished the stretch.

 

Remarkable also, was the fact that one might take a seatrout here in broad daylight, presumably the darkness beneath the roots sufficed to quell their suspicions.

 

Most takes here were confident, not the usual tentative plucks. Dark flies of medium size, such as the Mallard and Claret, or Connemara Black in size 6 or 8 being proven patterns.

 

On this particular occasion, I had agreed to meet a fellow angler at the tree, and we arrived almost simultaneously. He had not fished the tree before, but had heard quite a bit about it, and he was anxious to discover the best method of doing so.

 

Staying well upstream of the tree, I played out line until my fly was well past the tree, and then manipulating the line allowed it to be pulled into the eddy just before the roots. one or two mends were thrown in, to get the line out of the main current, and the fly allowed to drop back under the roots.

 

Having spent some time with scuba gear in this spot, I knew it pretty well, and this knowledge was of inestimable value in fishing the place.

 

Allowing the leader to straighten, a little more line was fed in, and then yet another mend was thrown into the main line, causing the fly to swim up the eddy under the roots, somewhat faster than the current.

 

Without any warning whatever, the water beneath the roots seemed to explode, and a huge fish leapt straight up between the roots, my angling companion almost fell into the water in surprise.

 

My own surprise was no less, as I discovered that the fish was firmly attached to my line, and heading back to sea at a considerable rate of knots. My taut flyline was wrapped around at least two of the roots, and there was nothing I could do apart from hang on, listen to my reel screeching in protest, and hope for the best.

 

Moving slowly down towards the tree, with my rod tip beneath the water surface, and hanging by my left arm from a convenient branch, I started to thumb the reel, with my rod hand, hoping to slow the fish somewhat and in meantime find some way of poking my rod through the roots, and regain some sort of control, however minimal.

 

Completely careless of my precarious position, and apparently attempting to give me a heart attack, the fish leapt again about thirty yards downstream, coming down with a large and noisy splash. What a magnificent fish!

 

My companion was jumping up and down on the bank in excitement, in severe danger of falling in, and bawling all sorts of interesting ideas and advice, laced with curses, in my general direction.

 

Such advice may have been quite useful under other circumstances, but hanging as I was from a branch with one hand, my left foot slowly slipping off the bank, my rod tip down among the roots, and a large completely uncontrollable fish on the end of my line, I was not particularly enamoured of most of it.

 

Ignoring his cursing, and also his quite astounding imitation of a ballet dancer on speed, I bawled back at him to get the " Blooming" ( or words to that effect), net, at which point in time, I realised with a sinking feeling, that the net was slung over my shoulder on a cord, and folded.

 

Ceasing his demented curse punctuated jig for the nonce, my partner approached, and attempted to deploy the net.

 

After a fairly short time, it became obvious that there was no way I was going to be able to get the cord from around my neck, this was rather difficult to communicate to my partner, as he was at this moment engaged in strangling me with it!

 

Gently murmuring something along the lines of "it might be better to cut the cord you know", ( I can not remember the exact phrase), before losing the power of speech altogether, my partner finally dragged his knife out, and cut the cord.

 

Unfortunately, he had been supporting himself on the steep and slippery bank, by holding the net, which up to that point had been firmly attached around my neck. This support was no longer available as he cut the cord, and he slid feet first down into the water, with the net in one hand, and the knife in the other.

 

This sudden lack of strain on my neck also caused me to lurch forward, lose my hold on the branch, and start to topple irrevocably forward towards the water. My descent was less than graceful, and the phraseology employed, as I came gasping to the surface in the freezing cold water, does not bear repeating here.

 

Pressed against the roots by the current, up to my shoulders in the stream, I cal,my and collectedly reviewed the situation.

 

My rod had taken on a curve for which it had never been designed, but at least my reel had stopped screeching. Having at least a hand free now, I reached down and pulled some backing from my reel, to release the pressure on my rod.

 

All went slack, and certain of defeat, I grabbed one of the heavy roots, and hauled myself up into the tree.

 

Perched precariously directly above the roots now, I looked down into the water, in hopes of being able to find a way of extricating my line.

 

My companion had in the meantime struggled onto a gravel spit almost level with me, and further out in the stream. "Bloody hell", I said, ( demonstrating remarkable restraint I thought), " No idea how I am going to get this lot sorted out", peering down into the water swirling around the roots.

 

At this precise moment, the water immediately below me erupted, and a large object hit me in the face!

 

Two things occurred, I wet myself, and fell off the roots into the water again.

 

Laughing like a maniac, my companion helped me struggle up out of the fast water, onto the same gravel spit where he was standing, a few seconds later.

 

Resigned now to fate, albeit not a little resentful at the turn of events, I began reeling in my line. All my backing and most of the flyline came in, until only the last few yards of flyline, which were pointing down into the roots, stuck fast.

 

Handing the rod to my friend, I proceeded to haul the line hand over hand, expecting the leader to break, or something similar, when the line started moving upstream away from the tree!

 

"F"§$§%&% Hell, its still on!, its still on!" screamed my friend, and recommenced his demented jig, and snycopated cursing.

 

"Let go of the F§&%§&& line for God´s sake!" He bellowed, and somewhat dazed, I complied.

 

Most of the rest is fairly boring really, the fish jumped a couple of times, and headed for the roots a couple of times, but after a while my companion managed to subdue it, and I managed to net it rather riskily, as it swam slowly down past us in the fast water.

 

Magnificent it certainly was, a fresh run seatrout of not quite nine pounds. We administered the last rites, and decided that we had had enough fishing for the time being, and made our way back to our cars. Our soaked clothes were exchanged for "falling in kits", making us look even more disreputable, and we repaired to the local pub, which also happens to be the pub where our club usually meets.

 

A couple of the club members were at the bar, and the fish was duly admired, various ribald comments made on the state of our apparel, and drinks proffered and accepted.

 

"Mike showed you how to fish the tree then?" one of the older members asked my companion. "Obviously successfully as well".

 

"Well", said my friend, " All I can say is, if that´s what you have to do to catch a fish at the tree, it will be a while before I fish anywhere near the F$&&&$ thing again. It is a very nice fish though".

 

We wandered off home after awhile. On a number of occasions since, I have heard variations on this story from members, and even from people I did not know, most of them endowing me with the abilities of a circus acrobat, the skill of a perfect angler, and the luck of the devil.

 

Such an experience may never be repeated, the tree is now gone, it disappeared during the winter floods at the end of that season. I wonder how long it stood there, and how many battles or comic interludes it witnessed?

 

Might be a good ideas to come back in another life as a "seatrout tree" ?

 

TL

MC

[Guest Darrin Simpson]

THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR REPLIES MEN MUCH APPRECIATED YOU MUST HAVE BLISTERS ON YOUR FINGERS, LOADS TO GET ME GOING FOR NEXT YEAR JUST ONE MORE QUESTION THE ADUR IS A MUDDY WATER WILL THEY STILL LOCATE A FLY OR AM I BETTER OFF USING A SPINNER ?