Another re-capture

I woke this morning to the sun beaming down and just knew the only thing I would want to do is be out in it fishing. I decided on a small local river and quickly set about on the vice tying up a couple of deer hair diver pike flies. I didnt have much in the way of materials to make them just a limited supply but was still pleased with what I produced. I'd not had a chance to try for the pike on the fly for abit so was looking forward to giving the divers a go.

 

One was tied in the normal fashion and i thought i'd try one with an upwards facing hook to try eliminate weed snagging, i tied some flurocarbon underneath so i could fix some split shot so that the fly would sit the right way up.

 

I got to my chosen river and set off with the pike fly outfit and the flies i'd tied prior to going out. As i walked through a shaded area I could the water was absolutely full of fish shoaled up, I dont really know why they were there but there was thousands of them.

 

 

 

I thought to myself, i'll have to come back for those with the #3 fly rod if the piking doesnt produce much!

 

After a short while I realised that i was not really getting the best out the venue with it being quite clear and the level had dropped allot making the weed more prominent on the surface. I made the decision to go back for my fixed spool outfit and the weedless frogs so that i could fish more acurately along and in the weed margin where i expected the pike to be laid up out of the sunlight.

I fished back up the stretch I usually catch on and abit further up too with not even as much as a take, i thought it might be difficult with the sun blazing down. I then wondered if the fish i'd seen earlier where shoaled up there out of the sun as it was a very shaded area, with the water being shallow it would warm up quickly.

 

I carried on knowing i would be coming into another shaded area and thought i might find some pike there keeping out of the sun, first cast along the margin into the shade and a fish took my frog, I could see it was a nice fish and seemed to be well hooked so i gave it abit of stick to get it in quickly so i could take a quick snap and get it back as to not distress it in the warm sun. I didnt weigh the fish as again I wanted it back and would rather have a photo with the time i had it out. It would have been a midish double. I also noticed it was blind in one eye probably from a lure sometime or bad handling.

 

 

When i got home later i realised it was a fish i'd caught back in august 2011, again on a frog and i didnt weigh her then either for the same reasons. Heres the fish below back in august last year.

 

 

You can see by the marking above the anal fin in particular that its the same fish, nice to know its doing well despite the bad eye, i always name my recaptures so i can identify them again on the bank so this one will be known as 'Bad Eye'

 

Despite having another 2 takes that failed to hook up it was proving quite quiet so i then decided to go back and have a go at the silver fish in the shade, a quick swap for my #3 fly rod and i was bank side again.

I soon started picking up fish with small nymps mostly rudd and a few roach, The small rudd below met its maker when i threw it back in, as soon as it hit the water a jack came from nowhere and smashed it off the surface, id not even seen the pike!