Graham Nicol reflects on how the 2012 ended how he prepared for the start of 2013
In an earlier article I reviewed my season which can be easily encapsulated under the heading “rain and more rain”. Thus I thought readers would be interested to read how it has been since then to now as we enter the latter stages of March.
You may recall I had reasonable success with salmo salar on the Don in late October and upon returning my attentions switch to thymallus thymallus or the beautiful grayling. Well unsurprisingly it was an unmitigated disaster. I tend to focus on the rivers in Hampshire and Wiltshire but the wet Summer and continued rain resulted in the rivers constantly flowing bank to bank or higher. The aquifers were simply 100% full and thus any excess precipitation simply ran off into the rivers resulting in them colouring up as well as running high. Constant telephone calls to the river keepers were met by “you’d be wasting your time”, or “the path on the bank is underwater and thus dangerous” to “it’s in flood”. It’s at times like that one considers taking up golf. Thus my Winter consisted of tying ludicrous amounts of flies to such an extent that I could open a shop, reading many angling books and browsing through all the fishing forums quickly realising everyone was suffering the same symptoms. Hence 2012 ended and my season was overall quite a disappointment with too many days written off and others whereby conditions were far from ideal. That's fishing for you.
Early 2013 turned out to be a continuation of last year and I still had not ventured out to give the grayling a bash; and so yet more flies were tied. Towards the end of February Pete called up at short notice and asked if I wanted to go fishing. Well it was brassy to say the least and I had not taken all my kit with me as I hadn’t expected to wet a line. Nevertheless his gentle(?) persuading led me to relenting and out we ventured to try our luck on a Somerset stream. We shared a rod and spent the day applying the French nymphing technique. I was dressed like a Michelin man and glad I didn’t have to bend down much for I don’t believe I would have managed to get back up. Net result was one solitary fish, BUT, it was lovely to be out on the river again. There were the first few signs of Spring with hawthorn buds swelling, snowdrops showing and the first sign of primroses in the hedgerows. I must admit though it was also nice to get back into the warmth of the car at the end of the day
Now I happily fish for any species and so early March saw me upon on the lower Tweed attempting to open my score with the mighty salmon. Each time I go up there I am gently reminded how much colder it is than down in the soft South where I reside and how important it is to have the correct kit. The season up there is several weeks behind and the daffodils were only just pushing out of the ground whereas some were already in bloom in my garden. Likewise conditions looked and felt extremely wintery. The beat I fish is a massive dog leg in shape and very open and thus one feels the full force of the wind. Fortunately as beats are rotated after lunch you tend to get half of the day with favourable conditions and the other not quite so! Very quickly I realised my preparation was not optimal for I had a pair of leaking waders. Over winter I had left a pair of neoprenes folded up in the shed only to find a mouse had developed a liking for the material probably to use to create its nest. I repaired the damage with aquaseal only to find wading the Tweed it didn’t work. So a quick switch to my breathables made me realise that layering is important. Despite having thermals and fleece lined trousers the very low water temperature of 38F slowly worked its way and chilled you down. This with the incessant wind forced me to come out every hour or so and walk along the banks to defrost. Was it worth it? Well hey yes for I caught a spanking fresh sea liced 9lber; and that’s what it is all about. Furthermore I saw both a kingfisher and an otter which is such a pleasure.
So the trout season has opened and my impatience is getting the better of me. Rods are ready, lines cleaned, new leaders attached and fly boxes ready by the dozen. I look outside…and it is snowing. Spring will come, it’s just a case of waiting, and waiting…