Castle Fit For Kings

Yesterday afternoon after doing a rekkie for wild trout on the Erewash only to find chub, I brushed of the brambles, nursed my nettle stings and made my way to Willersley Castle for a spot of fishing.

I arrived 3pm and there were a few rising with plenty of small sedge swarming around the surface. I managed a few fish on my new pattern VW Sedge that I will blog soon but that's another day. I caught 6 browns from the bridge pool on dries and after receiving a new bright yellow line from Cumbrian(forums) it was a good time to test the truth about bright/dull lines. As I thought, no difference and carried on catching the odd fish moving upstream, another myth busted in my opinion but I'm not looking for an argument just make my own observations and believe nothing till I've tried it, like I've found degreaser/sinkant a total waste of time but many would argue.

I caught a lunker under the canopy and boy did it jump out of the water, frightened me a bit if I'm honest. I panicked at the size and mood of the trout so frantically began stripping line from my reel and i was gonna need it. This fish ran me ragged into fast water but I managed to persuade him to the net, putting a good bend in the rod. Once landed the lunkers teeth snagged my net several times still finding energy to spin, flip and then some, but what a full finned, shovel tailed lump it was, he even looked big in my hands which is saying something.

Revelling in my glory I set up camp over my favorite pool and got the kelly on half full for a Ringtons special. While spotting the odd fish and marking them out mentally my kelly began making a hissing, roaring kind of sound. I looked closely and couldn't work it out, was it because it was only half full, was the wind gusting through the whole in my kettle, but there's no wind. Jesus! my ear infections on its way back, so I poked my ear hole out and gave it a shake while down my ear.

All of a sudden it all became clear when a hot air balloon lifted above the trees opposite me, instantly i began laughing my bits off, what a plonker.

Fully refreshed I entered the pool with all the rising fish mapped out so how could I fail, well I did. I couldn't get a take for all the tea at Ringtons, God knows what they were taking but it wasn't in my box. Dusk began setting in and my touretts returned yet again. I tried desperately to thread flies on but kept failing a bit like my eyes, and when I eventually thought I'd tied one on, off it came when casting. I finished off 10 Min's later after managing to tie another fly on my invisible line, only to lose it in the tree behind me. At this point my touretts became unbearable so I quit while I was ahead, talk about from one extreme to another, a total roller coaster of a session, but that's fishing for you, I was beaten to death by those fish in that last pool, they probably wet themselves laughing, if that's possible.