It was what I called a P&N sort of day-more on that shortly.
Days had turned into weeks with less than ideal weather, after all it was Autumn and we always get some slightly dubious conditions in Autumn and again in Spring, just in time for white-baiting.
The rest of the year is balmy, a bit like this writer at times.
A sizeable high with a capital H was on the weather maps, so picking the day I headed up to the lake. On the drive up, for a start it was cold and clear, but this turned to cold and foggy as a fat slug of wet, thick mist, slimed it’s way down through the hills into the Grey Valley. It’s a c-c-c-cold katabatic system we call The Barber (it’ll shave yer beard off mate) Once in the Arnold Valley the mist became fog, but I knew that pointed to lovely blue and gold conditions at the lake. As I chugged on, the fog turned to mist then disappeared, so I finished the run in the sun.
I put 5 bucks in the ramp honesty box (it’s the best policy eh) and slid the Silver Fog er Frog into the drink. Yarmy started on only the 2nd attempt and I nudged the boat toward the entrance to the bay. Only other human on the water was a bloke on a paddle-board and I was stunned to note he was in shorts with a bare midriff and torso. The temperature was still in the low, single figures, so why he chose to show off his figure and get almost naked was a puzzle. Perhaps it was only skin-toned lycra and I “shoulda gone to spec savers”.
I decided to head to familiar, favourite spots that have been kind to me before, but found the light air movement required me to make an up-wind move so I could catch the drift, something I’ve not always been good at! Making the Yamaha go to full noise, I went further out to another favoured location that would allow a good drift along in the very light airs. Drifting in a floating stalk is a good way to operate when on your own in a the boat, as it needs only a few oar strokes to keep it in the right line for casting. There were hordes of black swan and for a start they regarded me with disdainful suspicion, but on getting a bit closer they began to exercise their “flapology” skills, flailing away until airborne and heading in an away direction. My optimism levels were sitting nicely at about medium to high and I was hopeful of getting my favoured fly, the “lady in red” in front of Salmo Trutta, but alas and alack there were none to be seen. This state of affairs went on for a while, then suddenly nothing happened. Oh hang on there’s a fish, or is it a stick? Yeah a stick, but yuh never know, so out went the fly, whereupon I lined the stick which hurriedly took off. Good, that was one, so lets find the next one around here somewhere. Look, there’s another, so I got the fly out ahead of the creature which came around for a look but there was no tell-take white flash of its mouth opening to eat the offering and that one also went west. There must be a heap of fish somewhere out there in the west.
Only two fish sighted and it was stomach growling time, so I rowed into a sunny corner and broke out the comestibles. That is just one of the grand things about fishing, it takes you to very nice places, even if it’s just to have lunch. The water was flat calm, sun was shining, birds singing and all was well with the world, well here on Lake Brunner anyway. After lunch I fossicked around and saw but one other trout, so thought of a former mentor’s advice which went along the lines of “If you’re not seeing trout, move.” Well I’d moved a number of times and with the dearth of fish decided to give the boat a good run back to the ramp. This time of year once the sun sinks well into the west it gets cold quickly and I also didn’t want to get tangled up with the 9 school buses that go past our place each day. Once while reversing the boat up the odd angle of our driveway, I saw to my horror the buses were coming through and I held them up while manoeuvring in. The angry look on the lead bus drivers face was enough, so that was once and once was enough.
Why then did I call it a P&N day? There were both Positives and Negatives. but you probably guessed that-clever you!
