Its getting very addictive!

After a successful day of car shopping on the Saturday i got home to a message in my inbox asking if i fancied spending a Sunday morning working on my fly casting at some local pits. Phil, the sender, was already an extremely accomplished fly angler for both Trout and Pike and with my own casting being so utterly pants it was an offer i couldnt refuse!
After meeting at the entrance to the fishery we headed for a quiet area with plenty of room to have a chuck about. Phil rigged me up with a shooting head line to help with my timing and it wasnt long before i felt i was starting to get somewhere with it. Compared to Phils casting, my own efforts were far from pretty but my confidence was building and soon we decided to head around the lakes to have a cast or two in anger. The wind wasnt very good on the big pit i caught from on Friday but the even bigger pit next door looked a pretty good proposition.

After a few casts it didnt appear that anything was showing any interest. I reached down to unhook my line from the undergrowth for the upteenth time in preparation to recast and when i looked back at the water i was surprised to see a Pike sat right next to my now motionless fly. I gave it a twitch and it turned and took it imediately but it then spat it back out just as quick before i had a chance to strike. It swam off slowly out of view as i recast. As my retrieve neared the bank there were two Jacks following the fly and i was certain of another take and sure enough the lead fish engulfed it yet somehow i managed to strike the fly clean out of its mouth! The second fish shot off but the first one stayed put and had a confused look about it as if it was wondering where its dinner had just gone! i dropped the fly back in front of it and it was inhaled without hesitation, this time the fish was firmly hooked!



After that, Phil and i tried several more swims and had follows but no hookups. A move to another pool proved to give a similar story although i did manage to lose a couple. I think the single hook sometimes has difficulty getting a hold in the Pikes bony mouth which is why a few drop off but from what ive seen so far the number of takes on the method more than make up for the amount of dropped fish. Im planning on trying my hand at making some flies up of my own in the next couple of weeks, its all exciting stuff!