Beanhill Lake Report

We have had so much rain that, apart from the rivers being impossible, even still waters became badly discoloured. One of our regulars recorded an unusual blank at Beanhill, which at one point had so much suspended solids in water normally clear as glass that visibility was down to 4 or 5 inches. I came down to try the lake when the colour had changed from milky coffee to something like thick beer. I guessed it would be hard going, but thought maybe a big Damsel, Bloodworm or something similar sunk deep would account for one or two. To my surprise, I had one of the most interesting days I have experienced for a long time.

It was still raining, but unusually warm for January, being about 14 degrees and initially without wind. And quite a few midges were hatching, not only the tiny winter ones, but also some of the larger black ones we normally see in March were hovering over the deeper water near the dam. Best of all, now and then a rainbow disturbed the murky surface with a head and tail rise. Interestingly, these fish kept showing in the same places like browns, indicating they might be long-term residents: one in one of the shallow bays up towards the first island; one behind a tower of weed in front of the dam; several more in the trench alongside the sedge beds from the corner of the dam along the farmhouse bank. So I left the 6 weight rod on one side for the moment and set up the little 5 weight with a double tapered line, a 14 foot leader ending in degreased 4 pound fluorocarbon and a little anorexic and unweighted black PTN, tied on a size 14 Kamasan B170, the point having been offset slightly with the pliers. First I went after the fish in the shallow bay, and he latched on to the fly with gratifying confidence after the second cast. Exactly how rainbows manage to see such tiny objects never ceases to amaze me; this is a creature with exceptional eye sight. A spirited tussle in shallow water resulted in netting a slimmed down and muscular 3 pound rainbow, almost completely silver in colour. The fine wire hook gape had opened up during the fight, so the needle nosed pliers were needed again to correct that, before trying for the fellow by the weed bed at the dam. He wasn’t so confident though, twitching the line twice as he picked up the little fly and ejecting it as soon as he felt the weight of the line. The same thing happened twice along the trench by the sedge beds without a connection. I went back to the tackle box and thought about using an indicator, but opted instead for a really small fly – a tiny speck of Hare’s Ear fibres tied just behind the eye of a size 16  Kamasan B175, again with the point offset to improve hooking. (A tiny Snipe and Purple from the river box would have been the next try). This time the fish by the weed bed took it properly and duly ended up in the net. I moved on to the trench where a third fish made the same mistake with a fabulously solid take and causing me a lot of trouble around the dead sedge stems.

There seemed no chance, however, of taking additional resident fish from these disturbed areas, and in any case by midday the rises had ceased. I went over to the heavier rod and fished around with a size 8 Pulse Damsel on a slow sink line. A couple of fish did fall for this, but they didn’t want it retrieved at all – both takes were on the drop. One slammed into the fly as the leader was still lying on the surface and subsequently took the whole fly line and part of the backing across the lake at a rate of knots. This is the kind of action we normally see in the spring and the line was slicing its way through dead weed stems like a cheese cutter.

In the final hour of the short winter day leading into darkness, a cold north-easterly began to blow a stiff ripple into the dam. But the midges were hatching again, and just occasionally a smooth patch would show as a rainbow breached while facing into the wind. I went back to the floating line and the little Black PTN, letting the wind tow it round in a curve just a few inches below the surface. Every 10 minutes or so, the line would tighten up hard as a fish took the little fly. Quite a few came off during play, but I netted two more, leaving me smiling in darkness at the end of the day and very happy to have taken 7 quality fish. With one exception, these were all in the 21/2 – 3 pounds range, pale green on the backs with the silver sides of winter rainbows, the magenta colour being confined now to the gill covers. The exception was a little fellow of a pound, the only small rainbow in the lake, which I remember putting in during October. It was good to see him again.                                       

Oliver Burch
10/1/07