Brick Farm, 15th November 2009

Well, the day after the latest big storm my son and I went to Brick Farm lakes for a few hours of fun. While I was fishing for trout my son had a stick with some 4lb line, a tiny hook and some bread. he had a great time getting muddy and pulling ickle fish out of the lake. The owner Keith had given him permission to do this as long as fish werent harmed and he didnt disturb anyone. We were the only ones there.

Well, I decided to use my new 5 wieght snowbee rod and greys xflite reel. I put on an intermediate line with a 9 foot leader and dady long legs fly. Spent ages doing slow retrieves, fast retrieves etc and got a 1.5lb trout, and a few tugs.

Decided to move and change to a floating line with a 9 foot leader and same fly. Had a few missed takes and then had a really hard take, played a decent fish for a few minutes and landed a beautiful 3lb rainbow, my best size ever. After that it got a bit quiet until I had a really gentle pull and brought in a skinny little fish of just over 1lb. Unfortunately the lake has a non release policy and I had to keep all the fish.

Only had one heavy rain shower but with waterproof jacket and waders on I didnt care. The rest of the time it was a lovely sunny day and my son and I had a wonderful time. Going back again this sunday if the weather is any good.

Hi all,

I havent had a chance to update but here goes. I have been a couple of times but on both occasions I seem to have lost the plot and not done very well.

I went to Brick Farm saturday morning with my son, and driving there in the soggy weather I wondered why I bothered. When I got there I remembered why, it seems to have its own microclimate and at the bottom lake it was lovely and sheltered. I have been a couple of times before and always fished the top lake. This time I wanted to try the other one and practice my casting as recently its been awful.

Anyway I bought a 2 fish ticket and set up with my 10' 7/8 wt rod and cortland camo intermediate line with a gold head hares ear. First cast, let it settle and the retieved. Straight into a nice rainbow and into the bag. Changed the fly to a rubber daddy long legs (wanted to try lots of different flies to see how they do) and second cast whack and another nice fish. Sent my son up to the office to buy a 3 fish ticket as I didnt want to go home so quickly.

While he was up there I took the fly off and practiced my casting. Slight wind from behind but I was amazed that I was able to get more casts right rather than wrong. Also while he was getting the ticket I set up my light weight 8' rod with a cortland floating line and put a dry fly on it as there was some hatching going on. I fished dry for a bit (must get some floatant) and had one take which I missed. I have now promised myself that I am going back one warm evening to do dry fly fishing as its addictive.

Anyway, young man came back and I carried on, tried different flies but for a while it went quiet. After a while I had a great take and handed the rod to my son who pulled in another lovely fish. After another couple of casts I hooked into a nice fish and again gave the rod to my son, he grabbed the rod and started the chase, I held the net. I looked round and he was swetting as I hadnt realised the size of the fish that he was fighting. He gave me the rod and as he did the fish took off for the weeds, I applied some side pressure but being the heavy handed goon I am I gave it too much and it straightened the hook and took off. never mind, but next time I wont make the same mistake.

I moved round the lake a bit and quickly caught the last fish for our ticket. I was a very happy chap as the last two times I have been I have struggled to catch anything as I seemed to have forgotten everything.

I cant wait to go again and thanks to the owner Keith who is always friendly and helpful. What a great place.

Mike

First Lesson 09/04/2009

Today was the day of my first fly fishing lesson. I met up with my teacher Peter (Lagoon bait and tackle in hove) at 10.00am at Brick farm lakes fishery. Brick Farm is near Herstmonceaux in East Sussex and is a 2 lake trout fishery that is very reasonably priced for this sport. The owner met us and we had a brief chat and during the chat he said there were'nt many fish left as they hadn't restocked but would be putting loads of fish in the lakes at lunch time. I have never seen this and at about 12pm a lorry turned up with a big container on the back and the driver put loads of fish in the lake with a net.

I Paid £15 for a 2 fish ticket (this means that I can take home 2 fish that I catch) and made my way to the top lake for the lesson. I had booked Peter for a half day.

Peter's half day lesson included checking my gear to make sure it was usable and the lines, reels and rods matched, check the rest of my gear including fly selection. Casting lessons, tackle setup, tying flies to leaders, leader info and practice. Amongst all of this was a constant feeding of information so by the end of the half day I have a much better understanding of the sport.

Unfortunately for me the first rod, reel, line gear I had bought was rubbish, I don't mind as it was dirt cheap but it did teach me to take advice from now on when buying gear. The rod was a leeda streamfly II with a cheap reel and line. Basically it was almost impossible to cast with it. Peter lent me one of his training rods (Cortland rod with a Leeda reel and Scientific anglers floating line, all low cost items), this demonstrated the difference straight away and in no time I was able to cast (1 in 10 good dropping to 1 in 5 good casts after about an hour) across the lake. I continued practicing on his set up for a couple of hours until Peter decided that I should try for a fish or two. So we put on a fly (Dawl bach) and I then cast around the lake trying to catch. As a beginner I missed loads of Bite (pulls or takes) and even caught a few trout only to lose them in battle. Then it went quiet. I asked Peter if I could try my lightwieght set up (snowbee 8' 4 weight rod, Greys GTX 4 weight reel and Fullers Mill 4 weight intermediate line), and he said yes and then put a cats whisker trout lure on it.

Almost immediately I hooked a rainbow trout of just under 2 lbs and off it went like a train, after a tustle lasting a few minutes I landed it. Wow what fun i'm now hooked on this if you will excuse the pun. Once I had sorted that one out I then spent some time casting and again was rewarded with another rainbow of just under 2lbs in weight, this one really fought and Peter had set the drag on the reel for me and I was able to play it using the reel. Usually you play the fish using the rod and line but he wanted me to see how the drag on the reel worked. Again stupid grin on face.

That was my first lesson over, many thanks to Peter for his patience and help, I cant wait for my next lesson.

I took the fish to my girlfriend's house and cleaned them, froze one and my girlfriend then did a beautiful meal with the other. She stuffed the fish with mushrooms, herbs, orange zest and juice of the orange and some lime juice, covered it with seasoning and herbs and baked it in the oven. Wow what a delicious fish and many thanks to my girlfriend for cooking it.

Fly fishing is probably the hardest thing I have ever done as it is very technical and there are so many things to think about let alone the complexities of flies, fish behaviour etc. However its the most fun I have ever had, by the end of my lesson I was the happiest man alive, its so much fun.

Anyway must go but I will put some info about the gear I use on this and some pictures when I have some I have attached some pictures of the fish from the day. When I next go to the lake I will take some pictures of the surroundings and post them here.