With Grafham fishing so well I decided to have another crack last Friday afternoon. Conditions were a lot different with a stronger wind from the NE but I decided to go back to the same natural bank area that I went to the previous Tuesday.
Because of what I’d seen a few days prior I decided to use some newly acquired, blue foam damsels.
This turned out to be the right decision with many splashes and follows, at first on the top dropper and the on the point fly as well for a while.
But while casting and moving I had created a a small mud cloud around my wading boots and noticed a load of pin fry in it .
After a while I noticed this huge Perch at my feet clearly after the pin fry, so I tried dropping a killer shrimp pattern that I was using in front of it with no reaction, so decided to concentrate on the Perch!
I changed point fly and put on a small minkie and dangled it in front of the Perch with an immediate response, it taking the fly and running off.
Not the most spectacular of fights compare to the near 4 lb Bows taking a surface damsel fly but one hell of a fish.
I weighed it on my fold up Mclean landing net at 3 1/4 pounds and the next day for interest tested them with a 3lb weight and they are spot on !
with top dorsal up
I need a hair cut !!
I’ve never used a surface damsel before !!!
Cracking rainbow forth session
