OPENING DAY ACTION Laurence Farr describes his 2017 season start and offers a few tips for early season. First light is magic - and cold and with great reflections
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or those of you who remember last seasons (2017) opening day, the weather prediction appeared bleak for the big day! However, that didn’t stop an army of enthusiastic anglers dusting off their waders and warmest clothes to hit the water on the first day... At 5:45am on DAY ONE I stood on the edge of a flooded, frozen lake… it was a windless on the central plateau, nearly a foot of snow blanketing the ground, a thin layer of ice; a jagged mosaic, extending out from the bank into the fog. Had we come too early? Were we too eager to be the first line in the water? Would we suffer a whole day of cold hands, numb cheeks and aching toes, only to be held away from our spotted golden prize by a layer of relentless ice? I embraced the warm outside of my pocket thermos stowed inside my jacket as daylight arrived, illuminating the thick air and with it came optimism. It was as if the sun had seen enough of our suffering and arrived just in time to save these mad souls. As the fog lifted, the open water of the lake became visible — our first chance. A dark fur fly, surely the most humble of flies, seemed fitting, and was my choice for the season. Its maiden voyage however presented a challenge, frozen guides, frozen and stiffened line and tippet as well as rock solid fly that offered no movement in the vital first portion of a retrieve if kept out of the water for more than a few seconds! A manual de-icing of each guide was necessary by blowing on them with precious warm air. I had to make each cast count, I told myself. A glance along the bank revealed a second defrosted patch around 50 metres away. A much smaller patch than the first. High water levels had inundated a previously exposed grassy depression, forming a secluded defrosted bay, well outside the normal margins of the lake and no more than 10 square metres in diameter. Fishing News - Page 36
An unmistakable and heartening ripple emanated from this little bay and what followed was one of the most unforgettable observations of wild trout behavior I have experienced in my short time fishing. My heart rate rose as I carefully prepared my outfit, whilst watching carefully the bay ahead. As I stood almost lifeless a commotion of water and fins erupted. It seemed multiple fish were working together on a school of galaxiids in less than a foot of water. It was all I could do not to stumble head over heals as i raced across the snow into position, crouched in front of a bush roughly 4 metres adjacent to the tiny bay. Knees shaking, hands
fumbling I extracted an unweighted black and olive green minnow, switched flies, swiftly wet the fly across my lips and watched the astonishing scene unfold. The trout appeared to be completely tolerant of each others presence, two were visibly parked at the only exit, while three were more or less lurking concealed in the grass tussocks throughout the bay. Moments of calm were followed by upheaval, as one fish came across prey scattering the bait school across the surface as they attempted to escape, only to be met by the open jaws of the other aggressive trout.
Snow, ice and tough conditions
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