Brook Trout - Warwickshire Tenkara Pt.2

There are those among us, brothers, who reckon that game fishing is strictly for the aristocracy, for the plutocrats, for the face-grinding capitalist exploiters of ‘honest’ labour 🤦. That you need a lottery win before you can even think about it, and that we don't want to know, anyway that if the canal was good enough for our dads it's good enough for us. 

A load of old shoemenders, admittedly, if you want to fish the southern chalk rivers or any of the privately owned stretches of Scottish salmon rivers, you do need the numbers to come up. But there are lots of small rivers and streams which are full of trout and cost no more to fish than a coarse river. 

The growth of stillwater trout fishing on specially stocker reservoirs has increased enormously the number of waters. You can reach them now, because you've got a car, which was something your Grandfathers never had. Some of the bigger 4 angling clubs have bought rights on some beautiful salmon and trout waters. 

You can go and fish for those my friends, and still have enough cash left over for a bevvy, or do what I do and go and look on your own doorstep, because its surprising what these forgotten water hold. 

That flay fishin’, my dear old chap, is the only way to catch fish compatible with the dignity of an officer and a gentleman. And if you are a real purist, old chap, you must use the dray flay for trout and nothing else. That the only fish worth pursuing are the salmon and the trout. 

And that the skills of flay fishin’ are infinitely superior to the chuck-and-chance-it methods of those roughnecks on the canal. A bit like an English breakfast, some people get all hot and bothered over the contents, add chips if you want to, who says it's right or wrong ? 

Heck please look away, I've added a hash brown to mine, which I had for a lunch, not breakfast I might add. That's what you need for 3 meetings before 10.00am when the first one is 7.30am with those still locked-down in China. 

Now although dry fly fishing is an extremely beautiful art, every branch of angling has its own skills and merits, anyway trout are thick as two short planks aren't they ?. Trout anglers will argue for hours about which fly he prefers, meanwhile, he's quite happy with an almost lifeless lethargic worm.  

No lifeless lethargic worms for this super short session however though but back out with the tenkara fly rod. You see out in Stratford-Upon-Avon the weekend with the rabble in tow the mayfly were dancing in unison like they were auditioning as ANOTHER dance group in Britain's Got Talent (anyone still watch this guff ?) so I fancied another dabble. 

There had been some rain too and the local stream was so shallow last time any adding to its levels would be welcome as I felt I was on a hiding to nothing. I decided to go waters more familiar mind you where I'd caught trout from before and hoping one would succumb to the dry fly tactic.  

Anyway to the session, well the hatch was clearly evident when I got bankside and trout were rising every 30 seconds or so, a pretty good picture if I so so myself where one was mulling around in the margins and I scooped it up with my net and got Boris to say Hi !!!. Now I'm not talking a boat load of fish rising, just the odd one dotted about the visible stretch.

I was struggling after an hour though without a take, however the move to the next swim it was a different story as after a couple of rises after dibbing the fly up and down where the fish were bumped off sadly, eventually one nailed it big time. Only a nipper as I've caught them far bigger here but a welcome brook trout on the dry fly. After losing another fish that came off after 3 seconds or so my curfew was up and I had to head off back home to look after the wallet raiders whilst the Wife had a well deserved evening out.