Charles Jardine's Fishing Diaries - "The Big R"!

publication date: Jul 14, 2008

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author/source: Charles Jardine

by Charles Jardine

I guess all of us have heroes – sporting heroes, film heroes and so on. Curiously- well…. maybe not …I have fishing ones.

Among the most enduring has been John Wadham: John has almost become synonymous with the Big “ R”: Rutland Water – this is a tad unfair as he is equally at home on any large water – or smaller for that matter – or would be, if he fished them. A good angler is just that, irrespective of species or places. But Rutland is where he mostly plies his craft. And bank fishing is his passion. A day, or even an hour’s fishing with him is a jolt to the senses and an object lesson in how one can so easily fall into the trap of tactical and fly driven, gear laden complexity, when situations and water; fishing situations even, crave and scream “simplicity”.

John sees the world of fly-fishing – any fishing - in simple terms. It is a great and often forgotten policy. He is – or can be, radical though. But when John suggests something it has the resonance of hard driven actual “on the water” experience and sound common sense too (a Fly fishing shortfall in most of us).

So when the call came from another Rutland water fisher Malcolm Sheppard that the fish were “really on” the Caenis (making my fly fishing life as difficult as possible for myself is an unhealthy and quirky part of my nature) I headed the call and agreed to meet both John and Malcolm at the lodge.

What so many fishers have also forgotten is that timing is everything. You do not have to fish most of the day to get value for money or see “pay back” for your toil. A few well chosen hours will quite probably offer you far more opportunity than a day long assault.
To drive the point home: I arrived at the lodge as a match (of some description) was disgorging its paired, and worn out fly fishers on the dock in a ragged procession of varied success and failure; every one looking as though they had battled unseen monsters for eight solid hours (which they might have: who knows). We just sat and watched (the vision of a huddle from last of the summer wine fleetingly drifted through my inner thoughts!), knowing that our fishing would be starting leisurely an hour or two hence – we were fresh to the battle. This “freshness” is often the difference and something that permeates casting, tactics, fly choice and approach, I digress.

The idea was to fish down towards Fantasy Island along the dam from the blue pipe and the three trees. And this is the very epicentre of fishing a water like Rutland – especially from the bank: local knowledge. These two words are success or failure. At best 3,000 acres is a big place holding big opportunities: at worst it is utterly daunting and mentally bullying. Most crumble at the latter. I have to say, though, the staff at the lodge are amazing. Helpful, accurate, informed, professional and damn good fishers to boot. Trust them, their assessment and advice.

Anyway, the consensus was to head towards Fantasy. Even as we approached, one angler was arguing a contest with something very lively, silver and upset at some twenty odd yards out from the bank and at the end of a tensioned fly line. His.
The bank side discussion revealed that the fly life was getting back to its former best, huge hatches of sedge, Caenis, buzzers during the earlier months – all in all a great season: thus far.

Dry fly was the favoured (and hoped for) recent tactic, but with a keen edge to the South Westerly we had to keep options open, Nymph seemed to be the appetiser to a hoped for, dry fly main course. Even then, a calm lane was oilily sliding down to the line of the bank, tantalisingly out of casting range, but occasionally disturbed by the noise of glooping and slurping trout nuzzling the slick surface.

On went an orange thoraxed PT on a size twelve medium weight nymph hook, and if John W and his cohorts have taught me one thing, it is that you simply do not have to be complicated or massive in fly choice. The leader lengths are also much shorter than you might imagine; John W’s dry fly leaders are a mere nine or ten feet. His nymph leaders about as half as much again and all those present on the lakeside– this Rutland bank fishing business is rather like joining a club with a meeting room called the great outdoors! - urged me to use the single fly, as opposed multiples – both in nymph and dry terms. It felt odd and very frugal! And well, not complicated enough.

Second cast, I kid you not, with the trusty Streamflex 10ft #5 (yep, that light!) and everything tightened. Fantastic. First blood. A Rutland trout. Blimey…simplicity does work after all!
Later into the evening everything changed up an inch or two and the surface was the playground. An amber palmer greased to grip the surface was de rigueur. Sadly, no Caenis though, they failed to show. But I have to say, the dry fly fishing that we had between 21.00 and 22.30 was among the best I have EVER experienced from a bank on any lake – anywhere. It was just amazing: wave after finny, silver-side wave, came nuzzling through the waves. I ended up with four fantastic fish in about an hour and half’s fishing - three to the dry fly and one to the nymph just as the sun was throwing up bands of peach and apricot from below the horizon and fireworks lit up the sky over towards Barnsdale.

As I said to John as we slipped through the gathering darkness: “nice of him and Rutland to put on such a show but they needn’t have bothered to celebrate in quite so lavish a style”. I am still not sure whether he thinks I was talking about the fishing or the fireworks.
Get there this weekend – before the bank fishing slides into its deep summer torpor; and it is getting very close to this now. Take dry flies, shorten your leader, listen to the lodge – and keep it darn simple!