Rather than me witter on today I thought that you might like to see the note I received yesterday from a brand new member recounting his experience of his first visit to the Ribble on Saturday. Conditions were far from ideal, but Chris did not return a blank.
I had an extraordinary moment later in the day on
Saturday. As the river was so low I figured that I would target the of runs into
the heads of the pools and used that NZ technique of a dry, sight fly and a
nymph below it. At the head of that long slow pool that leads up to the farm
complex there is a run at the head with barely 2 feet of water. I worked up it
and just as I was about to call it a day had a big splashy rise to the
klinkhamer sight fly. A monster trout shot past me on its way downstream
and then proceeded to jump spectacularly over and over again. It looked like
a breeze block. Fortunately it didn't go too far and inspite of my questionable
knot tying skills, stayed attached.
I got it to the net, and because I am not great at
guessing weights - part of that generation straddling imperial and metric and
so no sense of either - but I have marked measurements on my rod and can report
that it was an impressive 17", but with a deep body. It also had some
tell-tale wrap around leader scars from a previous battle or two, so I guess
other members have met with it from time to time. It also had the longest
adipose fin I have ever seen on a trout. I returned it quickly and despite a
long fight it shot off as soon as it was lowered back into the
water.
So all in all a very good start to my membership,
but it also probably means that I have peaked too early. ;-)
Best wishes
Chris S
Is this the same big brownie that Andrew caught in roughly the same place last season?
Ian
Is this the same big brownie that Andrew caught in roughly the same place last season?
Ian