Kentmere 24th June

The forecast was for heavy rain at 4am this morning followed by light showers until about 10am. Then overcast with some sunny spells. I therefore decided to wait until the kids had gone to school before heading to what is becoming my favourite destination – Kentmere – I set off at about 9am there had been no rain at all but the skies were overcast with the odd break letting the sun through. I got tackled up and started fishing with the Balloon Cadis pattern that I got from Hillend Dabbler. There was a flat calm with just the odd rise here and there. I got a bit of interest in this fly from the few rises that were there, but no fish landed. I moved round to the south edge of East Bay where it is a bit more sheltered and continued for another ½ hour with the Balloon Caddis with no success. I changed the fly to my Old Faithful hopper with Green tinsel Rib, just as a slight breeze put a gentle ripple on the water, and had success of sorts straight away. 1st cast with this fly and I had a very splashy take, which I unfortunately was a fraction late with on the strike. I put out another and again another take this time more subtle that the first, but again to late on the strike. I cast out for a third time and this time the take was as subtle as the 2nd one but I managed to lift into it and the fish was hooked and landed after about a 5-minute fight. I continued with the hopper with many more takes but no more fish were landed.

Kentmere Trout

I have not been doing much fishing over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to a knee injury. So feeling better today with the knee giving me no trouble, I ventured to Kentmere to try my luck with a fly that I had seen on Hillend Dabblers blog, the Balloon Caddis. I tied a few of these up over the last couple of nights using Awesome Possum Golden Stone for the Dubbing. Having got to Kentmere at about 9am I set about watching for rises and looking to see what was hatching. After about 15 minutes of this I decided to have my first cast on the Western side of East Bay and got a splashy take straight away. I continued for a further 20 minutes with a couple more splashy takes but no hook up. I moved round to the Big Lake, and had a few casts to rising fish, with no success. I then crossed over the finger of land separating the Big Lake from East Bay to where the lakes flow into each other. I tried the Balloon Caddis for another ½ hour with a few fish taking an interest but not enough for them to actually take. I then changed to the small Hopper with Green tinsel rib that I have had success with in the past. No sooner had I cast out and I had my first fish of the day, a beautifully marked 6oz Brownie. The fish just kept coming to this fly I caught about another 6 about the same size, all of them returned safely to whence they came. I continued for about another hour and was just about to pack up before the sun got too hot to bear when I hooked and landed the best fish of the day, a 1½ lb Brownie. The trout was quickly dispatched, and taken home for a neighbour. Another great day out in the Lake District was complete.