Nice little Rainbow Trout caught on the Black Skin Nymph at Dean Reservoir, Ballarat/Daylesford.
On the 31 of May I decided to have a go at a lovely little lake called Dean Reservoir near Daylesford in North East Victoria Australia. It was the last day of Autumn and it was pretty chilly but it was sunny enough with a slight breeze. I got there about 1.00 pm it was the first time I had been there and I found it quite quaint and very picturesque and even though it is a man made water supply it looked actually like a natural creation because of the high water mark reaching out into the natural vegetation.
I set up my fly rod, an old Redington 4 piece 6 weight that I bought in the U.S.A about 14 years ago but still does the job and put a Black Skin Nymph size 14 on. I worked the bank searching with little slow retrieves with the breeze passing over my right shoulder and plenty of sunshine but no action. At the time there was no one else there so I could fish where I wanted and decided to walk 300 meters around the corner away from the breeze. This area on the water was shaded by some big pine trees and the wind lane would have shipped any food source in the water for Trout such as nymphs, snails,etc into this area. I soon realised this because I could see a group of fish all swimming together sipping the surface in this particular area. These fish were well within range so I made a cast to a one and I was on straight away .
I decided to keep this nice little Rainbow because it was a good eating size and the lake is continually stocked. An autopsy revealed that it had been gouging on snails that must have been drifting and congregating into that particular area. The Black Skin Nymph was about the same size, maybe a little bit bigger but even so turned out to be a good snail pattern.
Not long after another Fly Fishermen appeared and proceeded in passing me by until he noticed my catch laying there on the ground. Turns out he lived locally and he was quick to “boast” that he was a very successful “Fly Fishermen”, and that the fish in this lake were very finicky and as a result the hardest fish to catch out of all the lakes in this region. He doesn’t sound too successful to me ! I didn’t see him catch any so I guess you can’t be successful all the time, he could cast a Fly alright though, I might add.
As I later watched this gentlemen ” unsuccessfully ” Fly Fishing, I thought to myself, I don’t think anyone can class themselves as a “Successful Fly Fishermen” or should I say ” Successful Fly Fisher Person ” to be politically correct. The way I see it, sometime’s you are successful and sometime’s you aren’t, but if ” boasting ” that you are a ” Successful Fly Fishermen ” can some how boost’s one’s ego after looking at a Trout that some one else has successfully caught, well good luck to you.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the footage, it was a good day and the lake refreshed my memory on how important it is study the behaviour of the water such as wind lanes and wind direction in that it pretty much controls where the trout’s food source will end up and as a consequence so too the trout.
