The days have become short and cold and the rains have arrived.

Time to reflect upon The Season That Was:

It was a tough start to the season with Covid and all of the hoops I and my clients had to jump through. Restrictions on travel and border crossings had many trips postponed and rescheduled to other days. Regardless of the difficulties leading into the early season it turned out to be a fantastic season.

The weather was pretty much perfect and stream levels were up but not too high. Nymphs were going well all season but Big Dries were also popular and resulted in many big fish hooked and landed.

One of the Killer flies of this season was the Stick Caddis.  It has accounted for so many fish over the season and some of them were absolute stonkers.
Big Dries and Stick Caddis dropper flies were the most popular setup for the season.  Varying the dropper length and fly weights was required throughout the day as required for different sections of stream and if the effort was put in; the results spoke for themselves.

Rob Gee and I spent a fair bit of time exploring and hunting for big Brownies this season.  Many hours in the car and bashing through thick steep scrub to hunt some fantastic waters. We put ourselves and gear to the test well and truly on these days.

Our Korkers Boots were very handy on these trips as it allowed us to use a hiking sole for the trek in and once were at the stream; we would change over to the felt soles to keep us upright (Mostly) whilst wading then back to the rubber hiking soles for the trek back out.

We were fishing 4wt Glass rods and using 2X & 3X for the tippet and nymph droppers. Mainly we used large dries tied on #10 hooks for the dry and generally a #12 nymph being either a Stick Caddis or Black Betty did the most damage on these bigger trout. Some of the trout we uncounted were well and truly Trophy Class. The best to hand for me was 8.5lb and sight fished from just over a rod length from me.

There were a few fish hooked that would have been larger but without landing them we will never know their true weights. These fish will haunt both of us for some time.  Some were on for mere seconds while others came tantalizingly close to the net before gaining freedom.

For now I am cleaning, repairing and storing my gear in readiness for next season and healing my body after the abuse it has sustained throughout the season.

I will post more stories and pictures over the Off Season.

Till then; Cheers and Happy Tying