Early season trout

If I'm honest I was quite looking forward to the closed season as this more or less coincides with the beginning of the trout season which gives me a change in my fishing. I chop and change between fly and lure as personally i find enjoyment and advantages in both. Early season though i do much prefer the lures, the fish are less willing and I'm just keen to start catching so prefer the ease of lures too. A few of the venues i fish are so overgrown that fly can be a real struggle and more often than not you are spooking them by getting into position and lining yourself up with some casting space.

So for the purpose i built myself a new St Croix 5' 6" rod designed just for the job, you can read more about the rod build here http://fishfooler.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Rod%20Building

I had a couple of hours Tuesday as a planned session on  opening day fell through, but I met up with John today to spend abit more time and although Ive caught on the rod i wanted to test it out for what i had built it for. I was fishing with small soft plastics on a size 6 2g jig head and was able to cast an amazing distance with such a light weight.

 

This beauty was a nice way to test out the rod and it coped with it no problem, I wasn't expecting anything of a decent size so early on but it was more than welcome, even had the start of a small kype jaw which is i think the first Ive had that Ive noticed.

John wanted to give the fly rod a go so we had two approaches, we might have swapped about more if the fish had been coming thick and fast but it was quite slow really but to be expected early season and the water was still very cold to the touch.
A nice fish took a liking to Johns streamer which was a good moment when the line just pulled tight from the take.

 

Not a bagging up session at all but very nice to be back on the trout which were all in very good condition and went off fit and healthy. The fishing will only improve now as it slowly warms up and i look forward to a bit of dry fly fishing amongst the lures and streamer fishing.