Ravensthorpe Opens!

The eagerly anticipated start to the season was there, all the kit had been sorted, organised and packed away again. I confirmed my season ticket yesterday and thought right that's it I fancy fishing Ravensthorpe. I am not really a cold weather fisherman so the thought of Trout Fishing in February doesn't normally fill me with enthusiasm but the weather is just warming up and I have a bit of time spare so was just in the mood. As I arrived this morning you can see from the picture below it looked great. Not cold, flat calm, mysteriously misty and just waiting for the forecast sun to break through and mist lift. Bag up I thought!
Well I was wrong!

The day before the wind was nicely along the dam left to right and a few fish were caught especially a 7 on bloodworm by the white stick. I started by the pipe - bet you can't guess why? - Well yes that was the main reason but Phil Cross and Nathan Riley were already there and had pull. For the next hour we persevered and when the wind got up even though it was into our face and cold we thought it would improve. But No!

Phil and I then moved around to the platforms rather than the first three where it seemed a bit shallow we chose the next two. We started on floaters and worked our way through the lines, sink tips, slow intermediate, slime and Di3. I was mainly using two small lures on an 18ft leader swapping around between White/Green, Olive, Black/Green and Orange.

I had one on the slow intermediate but unfortunately it come off after it headed for the middle. From the 4th platform I had clear water at full cast a small weed bank at half distance and then it was clear closer in. This was a bit of a nuisance as they were a little deep but you couldn't leave it for too long because you got the weed. I ended up on the Di3 and picked one up straight away. It took a chain bead Green Pea at full distance after just a few pulls and I thought I had it sussed. However with a big bush behind me i was restricted on the casting direction and therefore felt as though I was flogging the same water too much.

Although the boats don't seem to be catching too many the boat out in front of us seemed to be doing best and saw then catch 4 or 5 each at least. They are in a good holding spot and seemed to be on Di7's retrieved on a constant slow retrieve. As in the picture below they were well wrapped up for the day.
The other side of the bush the guy had 3 on the floater and daiwl bachs. He wasn't restricted on the casting and I think the weed bed finished before his swim but he fished the best of the bank anglers on the day and out of the other 10 bankies I was aware of there were only a couple of one's.

One of those was Phil, his casting is improving as is his repertoire of fish catching flies. His perseverance paid off and he caught one on a small cats whisker on the fast intermediate. It was a lovely fish that looked bigger and bigger every time you examined it. It had a deep, belly and a wide back and must have been between 2 and half to 3lb.

Returned to the water we both stood back and said that at least neither of us blanked on our first trip of the season.