Auld Trout...

I have never really had any real interest in Sea Trout fishing.  I suppose that might surprise a few people who know me and know how close I live to the river.  I know there are people who really enjoy and are extremely interested and passionate about sea trout fishing but it never really had much effect on me.

Before I begin, I'm not knocking anyone who chooses to fish for sea trout.  I sometimes envy them and wish I had their drive and interest. It would certainly help with passing a few weeks until the grilse started to arrive but I just cannot find any interest or get motivated enough to fish for them.

Don't get me wrong. I treat any sea trout I catch with the same respect in regards to handling and releasing as I do salmon but I just don't any 'buzz' or excitment out of catching them.

It is 5 years since I last targeted trout specifically.  Even that was one night only.  I left the house after 11pm and was back at 12:30am and had three trout as well as other plucks, rattles and bangs.  Maybe this is one of the reasons I don't target them?  Perhaps I find it a bit easy?

The last sea trout I caught after dark

caught on 23rd July 2013

I love the visibility involved in low water salmon fishing.  Seeing the fish coming for your fly and maybe not even touching it but turning away at the last second.  That gets my heart pounding as much as anything.  I just don't get that fishing for sea trout at night.  I like dry fly fishing for river brown trout and even stocked rainbows at lakes for the very same reasons.  The visibility of it.  I find it a challenge to allow them to take the fly and not lift too early and pull the fly away or strike too late after they've spat the fly out again.  Fishing at night feels a bit like sunk lure fishing to me.  Casting, seeing nothing and waiting on the pull.  It just doesn't stimulate me in the way salmon fishing does.

It is getting to the stage now with me, where casting and swinging a fly in a spate for salmon is beginning to feel like fishing at night for trout.  I almost do it as it is expected of me as a salmon angler to fish in 'nice' water.  However, it gets back to standing holding a rod waiting on a line tightening.  'The Take' is still a heart stopping moment but other than that, I find very little else exciting about fishing in 'nice' water.

A Sea Trout that took a small salmon fly.

In low water conditions, I tip-toe about the river bank, keeping low, keeping out of the water, trying to land the flies and line as delicate as possible, cringing when I make a bad cast. Then you get the pull.  Your heart misses a beat as you tighten the line and wait for the draw as a salmon heads back to the deep with your fly.  Only, that doesn't happen.  Instead this thing is ripping and splashing across the surface like a Springer Spaniel after a tennis ball, scaring everything in front of it.  I already know the next phrase which will leave my mouth.  "Ah S*%te, it's a trout"!  That's that pool wrecked for salmon fishing.  I know if I sat for five or ten minutes and let the pool rest it would do no harm but I've already spat the dummy out in a fit of rage and am half way up the field to the next pool or the house.

Perhaps it's the size of the Sea Trout we get here.  Maybe if we got some of the massive trout that the Welsh rivers get I might have a bit more interest.  Seeing trout online up to 20lb weight.  That, I would enjoy.  Here though, a BIG trout on the Faughan is about 3lb.  Most of the ones I encounter are not that much bigger than a decent brown trout in the 1-2lb size range.

Some 'dual purpose' flies which will take sea trout as well as salmon

I think the main reason for me not caring to fish for trout that much is the sheer regard and passion I have for salmon.  Growing up, that is all I wanted to catch.  I could catch brown trout as well as anyone on the river.  I have caught some really big brown trout that could almost be specimen size for the Faughan but they were 'just' brown trout.  No matter what I tried I could not catch a salmon.  I was catching sea trout but again, they were not salmon.  When I eventually did catch a salmon, I felt ten feet tall and had a feeling that I'd actually achieved something.  Perhaps it has been growing up all my life and almost seeing sea trout as 'by-catch' that has made me feel this way?

Regardless of how I feel about catching sea trout.  I am as delighted as anyone to see their numbers looking like they are increasing in recent years.  Last season maybe just wasn't as good, but the two seasons before that saw really good numbers in the river.  I caught 13 myself in 2016 that took my salmon flies so there must have been quite a few about for that to happen. That is the most trout I caught in a season since I stopped worm fishing around 2010.

Writing this in the hottest, driest June in history, I'd love a bit of water to swing a fly on and it might help to stock the pools up as at the minute the numbers of salmon, and indeed sea trout, in my local pools are very low.  As much as I love my low water fishing, it is just a waste of time if there is very little there to fish for.

The River Faughan at Dusk

I would like to see signs of a few trout arriving soon.  The trout can push on in low water conditions and when they do, sometimes a few grilse can push on along with them.   I went to the river just last night as it was getting dark to see if there were any signs of sea trout.  You don't even have to fish for them as you can sit on the bank and listen for the splashing and plops as they jump throughout the pools.  Nothing was seen or heard.  There is very little up the river this far just yet but with reports of trout being caught in the lower reaches, hopefully it won't be much longer until the trout start arriving upstream, in numbers, and bring a few grilse on with them.

Oh, for a good thunderstorm.

Ability, Gun Fit & Mentality...

As the title suggests, I believe that there are three areas that you must have covered to get anywhere in clay shooting. Yes, there are many areas that you must get right but there are three in particular that I think can hold people back from reaching a decent level of shooter at Club level. Or indeed higher levels of the sport.

The three areas are; Ability, Gun Fit and Mentality.

I can look down the list of names on the board at my club and have a fair idea of what is holding that person back.   From watching them shoot, talking to them, and the general way they conduct themselves on a line.  It can be frustrating to watch.  They are usually lacking in one of the above.

Ability

 

I believe that ability is the least important of the three.  Everyone who starts clay shooting has to begin somewhere.  When you start shooting, you really don't know what ability you have.  Through practice, listening to advice given and trying different things for yourself, ability can be learned.  You begin to know what works for you and what doesn't.

Of course ability is important, but sometimes ability can be hidden because of being told the wrong thing by the wrong people and bad habits setting in.  I honestly believe that every single person has it in them to be decent shooters. 

Getting people who are willing to listen though is another matter altogether.

Gun Fit

 

Gun fit is vitally important.  It is certainly one of the main reasons behind people being average shooters and being good or very good shooters.

In an ideal world we would all fly off to Italy or Germany or to some other far flung place and get measured up and fitted to a gun by the finest shotgun manufacturers from around the world.  Unfortunately this is only a dream for the vast majority of shooters.  We have to buy a gun off a shelf in a gunshop and hope we can hit clays with it.  Well, this isn't strictly true.

A good fitting gun can make hitting clays so much easier.  It is much the same as good fitting shoes.  Too small and you can't walk very far without hurting and too big you are stepping out of them making it so much of a chore to move around.  It is the same with poorly fitting trousers or jackets or anything at all.

There are so many people trying to shoot with guns that do not fit them.  It is painful to watch.  Unfortunately, there are some gun dealers out there who seem to be after a sale more than anything.  It makes me so angry when I see left handed shooters turning up to shoot with right handed guns.  "...aww the boy in the shop told me I could shoot with that alright..."! Talk about a facepalm moment!

Then there are those who get drawn to a brand.  Over the years I have seen so many good shooters who decide they've always wanted to shoot a particular brand of gun so buy one somewhere.  Shooters who have been hitting really good scores with a Browning or Beretta then take notion of something like a Perazzi or a Krieghoff.  It can send them backwards.  I've seen people going from consistently shooting 24 and 25 per line, dropping to 19 and 20 after changing to their 'dream gun'.

Guns can be very different.  Even within the same brand and model.  I once heard a top, TOP, trap shooter from Northern Ireland talking about the Beretta DT10.  He said there could be ten lined up in a shop and only one that he could shoot with.

Different guns have different characteristics.  In general, Italian guns like Beretta and Perazzi are a lot shallower in the action than a Browning or Miroku for example, which are usually higher.  Shooting for years with a Miroku and then switching to a Beretta can take a lot of adjusting and vice versa. 

If you can, try as many guns as you can to see if you can get on with them.  Failing that, take an experienced shooter with you that knows a bit about gun fit and check your eye down the barrel at least.  It could save a lot of hassle and frustration further down the road.

Mentality

 

So, you've reached a decent level of ability and have a gun that fits reasonably well.  Why are you still missing clays?

Down The Line (DTL) is a mental challenge. I honestly believe that hitting the target is probably the easiest aspect of DTL shooting but you have to hit that target 25 times in a line and possibly another 75 times after that again in a 100 Bird Competition.  How can you hit 17 targets on a line and miss your 18th and then hit the rest?  Always seem to hit 22 or 23 in a line but can only hit 24 or 25 every now and again? Of course there could be a gust of wind that lifts or flattens the target just as you pull the trigger.  That is just bad luck. Accept it and move on.  What is 100% certain is that the target didn't break because the gun wasn't pointing where it should be.  Why though?  There can be any number of reasons but most of them are a result of your brain switching off.  You can get over confident, tired, distracted, thinking of other things; there can be a whole host of reasons.

It is mentality that is holding me back at the minute.  I just switch off in the middle of a line.  I'm fine up until around the 15 bird mark and then I'm almost guaranteed to do something just plain stupid.  Moving the gun before I see a full target.  Locking onto the target with my eyes and not moving the gun after the bird.  Really stupid, silly, things that just mean you've lost a full target.  I get angry on the line.  Not because I missed a target, I've dropped plenty of birds in my life and am not overly bothered at missing targets, but the reason why I missed the target.  Purely because I've went to sleep in the middle of a line, AGAIN!

At our club practice on a Thursday evening recently I was on a line and was shooting quite well.  In the middle of the line I started to notice grass growing up through the stones between the shooting stands and the trap house.  I started thinking about spraying the grass with weed killer before I went home.  Maybe it would be better to cut the grass first with the strimmer and treat it with weed killer later.  Before the line was finished I'd dropped a couple of full targets and had a second barrel or two.  WHY WAS I EVEN LOOKING AT GRASS GROWING!!! 

This is what I believe is holding far too many back from getting to the higher classes of both club and national level.  There are so many people shooting who have ability in bucket fulls,  have guns that fit them well but don't have the ability to keep switched on for the entire length of a line or a shoot.

To shoot DTL well, you almost need to turn the entire line into something robotic.  You turn yourself almost into a machine.  Watch the top shooters at registered shoots and they'll all conduct themselves the same for the entirity of the line.  Every target is approached individually and the routine involved in lifting the gun, closing the gun, shouldering the gun, the hold point of the gun, calling the target and the pulling of the trigger will be the same to last detail. This is what seperates them from the rest. 

Part of this mentality training could be to get used to starting on a specific stand and work out a routine for shooting from that stand.  I personally don't like starting on Stand 1 but have a routine worked out for starting on stand 4 which I can then adapt to suit starting on stands 2, 3 or 5 if necessary.  If I start on stand 4 and can get on a line with a reasonable pace of shooting, I find it so much easier to shoot.  I do exactly the same thing when stand 1 calls 'pull'.  The same thing when stand 2 calls their target, the same thing when stand 3 calls their target, the same procedure myself when it is my turn to shoot and the same thing when 5 calls their target and then back to shooter number one when the whole process starts over again.  I never see another person's target leave the trap.  The only target I am interested in is the one I'm about to shoot at. That is the only way I can shoot DTL well.  When I start seeing other people's targets, seeing sheep and cows in the fields round about, wondering if that's a Buzzard or some other kind of bird of prey, thinking that the traffic looks busy on the main road... I may as well close the gun and set it on the stand as I'm only wasting cartridges.

The biggest part of DTL shooting is between the ears.  Get the mental side right and you'll go a long way to consitently hitting good scores. 

Less than ideal conditions for fly!

Growing up, I was told that when the water was big and coloured I had to fish with worms or spin with a copper spoon or yellow Flying C.  When the water cleaned and was between 1 and 2 foot, I should fish fly.  When the water was low, it was back to worm and spinning.  I honestly believed that too.  How glad am I that I tried the fly in the 'unsuitable' conditions too.

I've really grown to enjoy fly fishing in low water as it is the most visual of all forms of salmon fishing.  A light rod, light line and low diameter leaders.  Creeping about, delicately casting so as not to disturb the surface.  Almost like casting dry flies for the most easily spooked of trout. Seeing a salmon rise at a fly is something to behold. Rising up to the surface, a flash in the water, a boil on the surface, while you're standing there waiting on the line tightening, which more often than not it won't, it gets the heart pounding and the goose pimples standing on end like nothing else in salmon fishing.  That is what I fish for.

A 'wee' cascade.

The prime time for this sort of fishing is from June to August.  From mid-August on, you really start to see the evenings shortening and getting darker earlier.  As the evenings get shorter, so does my interest in fishing.

I don't fish much at all after August.  The very odd day in September if we get big water.

Big water fishing is my next favourite type of fishing.  Casting into a fast current of water and trying to slow the fly down.  Looking for the eddys and back waters where a fish might be resting up.  Even wading in big water is so relaxing.  You can almost lay your weight back into the current and it's like sitting on your favourite arm chair fishing.  'The Take' in big water can be heart stopping.  The fish turning with the pressure of water behind it almost feels like you've hooked a shark, only to discover it's a wee 4lb grilse.  We very rarely get big, fishable, water on the Faughan now.  We get a flood that is completely filty and by the time it cleans that water has gone.

Some of my most memorable days fishing have come in big water.  I remember heading to the river one morning around 20 years ago with a big brown flood on.  There was one pool I enjoyed fishing worm at the tail of and you used to see fish 'heading and tailing' as they entered the pool.  It was back in those days when I used to take two rods to the river.  I had fished with worm and hadn't got a touch.  I tied on a big yellow Flying C and hadn't got a touch either.  I was all set to go home when I thought I'd try the fly rod.  I'd already wasted a morning so a few casts with the fly rod wasn't going to do any harm.

I was fishing from the bank and my poor attempts at a roll cast were only getting the fly out to the middle of the river.  I only had a few casts when the line tightend and I had a fish on.  It was safely landed and weighed around 8lb.

My biggest fly caught salmon also came when conditions were less than favourable.  I went to the river one morning to find it rising.  I wasn't sure of how much rain there'd been or how much it would rise so I didn't want to cross the river just in case I had an even longer walk home again.  The water was colouring too and I thought the colour was coming out of a burn upstream so I thought, if I got above that, the water would be more fishable.  When I got to the burn, it was just as dirty above it as it was below it.  I might as well go home. I'm only wasting my time.

I don't fish from this side of the river much. As I'm walking home I come to a stream that I very rarely fish. There's a nice movement on the water, this is usually flat calm, so I thought I'd give it a throw to see how the line fished round in that height of water.  I was about half way down the stream when I cast to the far bank and was allowing the fly to come round to my side again.  About 4 foot from the far bank, the line tightened and I had a fish on.  With the current of the rising water, I wasn't completely aware of the size of the fish.  With the colour in the water, I couldn't see the fish at all.  I got it across the current and about 10 feet blow me and I could see where the line entered the water.  Suddenly, this huge tail gave a kick about 3 feet behind where the line enetered the water.  It was then I started panicking.

It seemed like an eternity, in reality it was probably only ten or fifteen minutes, when I got the fish into the net.  It was over 15lb in weight had had taken a relatively small size 8 'Editor'.   How it even seen such a small fly in the dirty water, I simply do not know.

I remember going to the river only a few years ago when there was still a lot of water on the river and it was far from clean.  It was dropping and starting to clean but again, they were less than ideal conditions.

It was dodgy enough crossing the river in that height of water.  The current was still very heavy but I managed to get across and get to one of my favourite 'Big water' pools.

As I was getting into the neck of the pool, there was a guy fishing from the far bank further upstream.  I had only ever seen him fly fishing but he had a spinning rod with him and was spinning away.  I gave him a wave and he called to me "...it's too big and dirty for the fly".  I called back "If I can't fish fly, I can't fish at all".  I literally hadn't taken six casts when I had a fish on! It wasn't big, probably around the five pound mark, but it fought hard with the help of the extra current in the water.  I got it into the net, hook out and released it again with the minumum amount of fuss.  I looked upstream to where the guy had been fishing and he was down on his two knees beside the fly rod, almost tying himself in knots trying to get the rod set up so quickly!!!  I hooked another 2 fish after that but lost them.  It was one of my most memorable days at the river.

A Bann Special in larger sizes can be a very good

choice in coloured water

While it is possible to catch salmon on the fly in bigger water, please do not put yourself in any danger.  I would not even consider wading somewhere that I didn't know well.  There are places that I know very well that I simply would not set foot into when the water gets above a certain height.

Looking back to the advice I was given growing up about when I should fish fly, those conditions are now probably my least favourite for fishing now.  As, I've said previously, my fishing is pretty much finished by the end of August.  I do fish the odd day in September if I get 'Big water' but for the most part, my rods and reels are usually cleaned and away by the middle of September.

Fishing in a foot of water towards the end of the season, that's filling up with leaves and waiting for the line to tighten, really does nothing for me.  I could catch fish, probably catch more than I have in the summer months, but for me, it is not all about catching fish.

Fly Tying Introduction

I was always a bit strange.  When the other boys in my class in school were drooling over 'Fast Car' magazine, "...Ohhhh, Maclaren F1,  0-60 in 3 seconds...." etc.  I was drooling over Trout and Salmon magazine. "...Ohhhh, Ally's Shrimp, caught 14 fish in one day on the Tay..."!  Fishing was my main interest back then. Or,should I say, trying to catch fish.

Like most things I get into, they always seem to start by accident.  Fly tying is no different for me.

I was about 14 or 15 when I was at my aunts house one Sunday for some reason or another.  I'm not sure why we were there. My friend from school, Craig Smith, lived a few miles up the road from my aunts so I borrowed one of my cousin's bikes and went up to Craig's house to see if he was in.

I don't know how the craic came round about fishing even, never mind fly tying, when he said he had some fly tying equipment that he had brought from America or his aunt had brought from America or something along those lines.  He said he hadn't used it too often so I asked if he would sell it.  He agreed and I gave him the vast sum of £10 the next day at school.  I still have the vice I bought in that kit from Craig and still use many of the tools to this day. Another passion had been born for me.

Some of my early 'tyings' were more than a bit ropey and that is being more than kind.  Trying to use the small selection of materials to create masterpieces.  I was well out of my depth.

A few of my very early creations.

It is so easy now to learn how to tie flies.  Youtube is awash with brilliant fly tyers showing their tips and techniques.  Internet forums where many people are only too glad to give their advice and help if there's something you are having trouble with.  The number of blogs etc.  There is information available in seconds.  When I started in 1994 or around that, the 'Internet' wasn't even a thing.  Most of my early tying was done by trial and error with more errors than anything else.  There wasn't even anyone locally that I knew who tied flies that I could ask for help.  It was up to me with occasional assistance when Trout and Salmon Magazine did a Step by Step feature every now and then.

My parents had a Caravan at Benone on the North Coast of Northern Ireland.  I was dragged there every weekend and for most of the summer when I was young.  I probably did enjoy it when I got there but to me now looking back, it just took me away from my river and my fishing.

Again, my dad tried his best.  Taking me to Portrush to do some sea fishing off the rocks at the Blue Pool or Ramore Head.  The weekly shopping trip to Coleraine involved a run to 'The Great Outdoors' or 'Smith's Country Sports' to buy rag worm to fish with at the beach in Benone.  You dreaded to hear the words, "I'm sorry, we're sold out". It passed a few hours but it wasn't the same.  The Faughan was always on my mind.

I used to take the fly tying equipment with me to Benone and while the normal kids were away on bikes, spending their days at the beach, trying to chat up girls, I was sat in the caravan wondering how many salmon were getting caught in the river.  It used to drive a mum mad when my dad would arrive after work and tell me my neighbour got 5 salmon and they'd never seen fish like it in the river.  God how I missed the river.

It used to drive my mum mad too that the caravan looked like a turkey producers during Christmas week with feathers lying everywhere.  You'd be sat at the table and a gust of wind would come and stuff would be flying everywhere.  It annoyed her too when she went to knit something and found pieces missing out of a ball of wool that I'd cut as I could find the end and wanted to try some weird colour on a fly.

It was at Benone that I put a pile of stuff on a hook one day.  I remember it had red and blue wool for a body and there was some Golden Pheasant tippits in there somewhere.  I can't remember what else was on it.  It looked like nothing.  A real mess of a thing.  Imagine my surprise when it turned out that that mess I'd tied in Benone, while putting in the days until I got back to my river, would be the first 'fly' that I would catch my first salmon on!

That was over 20 years.  I dare not even think what I have spent on tools and materials for fly tying in that time.

Fly tying now is so much a part of me that it a passion on it's own.  I could pack in fishing tomorrow but would still tie flys.  I enjoy it so much.  The creativity and ideas of what materials will look well with others etc.  I just enjoy it so much.

I am still learning and trying different techniques and patterns.  I suppose that is what keeps in interesting for me.

I will continue to try to improve and try new techniques and patterns.

I'll hopefully get a few patterns added soon.

Fly Fishing Introduction

I have been fly fishing since around the age of 10.  I was given an old Shakespeare Alpha trout rod with a reel and a line, given some basic instruction on how to get the line out in the middle of a car parking area and that was basically it.  No one really taught me how to fish fly.  I was basically left to work it our for myself and I have really enjoyed the journey since!

I really enjoyed the warm summer evenings as a boy in the streams of my local River Faughan, catching small brown trout on Black Spiders and Black Pennels. Of course I really wanted to be catching salmon.

Other anglers grew up being taught how to fish by their fathers, grandfathers or someone else that they knew.  I was trying to learn it all on my own.  God love my father, he had the patience of a saint.  He would take me to various parts of the river throughout the season and spend time with me until I got bored and had to get home.  He had no interest in fishing himself but would be there with me, in sometimes awful weather, and bring me hooks or worms or other bits and pieces on his way home from work.  I really can't thank him enough for all he did.

I fished with all the legal methods allowed on the river, worm, spinning and fly, but had never caught a salmon. That finally changed on a summer's evening in low water.  I came home from school and, of course, couldn't wait to get to the river.  "Don't be long, your dinner will be ready", my mum was shouting.  I remember the river being low and clear.  I had a wee spinning rod with a size '0' mepps type spinner on the line.  I was casting out and watching small brown trout, maybe 6 or 7 at a time, follow the spinner in as I wound. I thought this was brilliant.  They were quite difficult to see in the streamy water so I though I'd try one of the calm pools downstream a bit.  When I got there, it was completely shaded by the trees so it was even harder to see.  I'll give it a throw anyway.

I cast out and was winding in again when I saw a flash in the water, it didn't really register with me at that second until the line went tight and the line was screaming off the reel.  I had just hooked my first salmon.  What do you do now???  I really hadn't a clue.  I was so used to hooking brown trout that you just wound on in but this thing was taking line off the reel.  I'd better tighten the tension.  What if I tightened it too much and the line breaks or I pull the hook???  What if I pull too much and the rod breaks???  I hadn't even got welly boots on.  I was only out for a cast before my dinner and only had a pair of trainers on.  How am I going to get this over the back if I do get it into the side.

After what seemed like an eternity, the fish eventually tired and I got it round into the side.  I slid down the bank onto a small patch of sand, through thick patches of stingy nettles.  I managed to grab the fish and get it threw up onto the bank.  You may think this was a monster from my fear of breaking the rod and stuff, but it was only a small grilse of about 4lb weight.  It didn't matter to me though.  I'd caught my first salmon.  I got some stinging from those nettles trying to get back out of the river again.  I had blisters and blotches all over me as I got stung from head to toe but I didn't care about that either.  I did some parading around with that fish that evening.  I almost knocked on every neighbours door to show off my catch.  I cringe now thinking about it but those are the things you do when you are young.

It would be a good few years after that, or so it seemed anyway, before I managed to land one on the fly.

I still had the old Shakespeare trout rod but if I was going to be catching salmon then I'd have to buy a salmon rod. Right?  My first salmon rod cost me the pricely sum of £20.  I bought it off a neighbour at the time.  An ABU Salmo 5810.  12ft Hollow glass with nice gold eye whippings.  I still have the rod. Looking online since, they were first introduced in the late 1960's.  An old catalogue that I have found online describes the rod as "An ultralight, farcasting and very powerful 2 handed rod".  I wonder what they were comparing 'ultralight' to back then?

I had to learn casting all over again.  There was a lot of water thrashed to a foam, many (many) flies hung on bushes and a lot of aches and pains in my shoulders and my back before I got the thing casting anyway decent at all.

One Saturday afternoon then in September I think it was, I was fishing in good water in a stream near my house.  I was basically going through the motions of getting the fly to the far bank and allowing the current to bring it to my bank.  There was a stump of a tree that sat out into the stream slightly on my side.  As the line came round towards the tree something strange happened.  The rod seemed heavy.  It was the weirdest sensation I'd ever encountered while fishing.  My immediate thought was, "I've hooked the roots of this tree stump and that'll be another fly lost". Then the reel started going the opposite direction than I was used too.  What is going on.  It still hasn't registered in my naive little brain.  I grabbed the reel to stop it going in the wrong direction when I look up and there's a fish going ballistic, thrashing on the surface.  I thought I was in the Twilight Zone or something.  The fish stopped thrashing on the surface and the rod went back to how it was meant to be.  It was literally only a few seconds but it felt like ages.  I'd just hooked my first fish and hadn't realised until it was over!

That really got me determined.  If I could hook one, I'm bound to be able to hook another, eventually?  It did happen again.  A few weeks later in the month of October.  At the tail of a small pool with a good run of water through it, the rod went heavy again but I knew this time what it was.  I played the fish as I would have on my spinning rod, allowing it to take line when it wanted to run and keep the pressure on it as much as possible and I was able to land it.  A cock fish of around 8lb.  What made it extra special was that I'd got my first ever fly caught salmon on a fly that I had tied myself.  I felt 10 feet tall.

That was probably 1997 I think as it's the only salmon I ever landed on that rod.  In 1998 I was 18 years old and had bought my first brand new fly rod.  A 14ft Daiwa Whisker Fly.  That was when I really started to get interested in fly fishing and fly tying.

I've learned an awful lot since then and am still learning every season and long may it continue.