Back in the old days when I was living down in the “Big Smoke” you would
really look forward to Daylight Savings. It
meant that if you could get away from work just that little bit earlier you
had time to head up to the nearest river for the evening rise.
For me, the two closest rivers were the Yarra up around Warburton and
the Goulburn around the Breakaway. It
was always a bit of a rush but more times that not it was very rewarding.
If the traffic allowed you would normally be on the water with a bit of time
to spare before the action started. It
was a time to sit and watch and hope that nobody else wanted to share that
stretch of water that I had selected. Selfish
thoughts maybe but I just wanted the evening to settle down around me and
watch nature come to life for their evening activity.
One would always live in hope of a fabulous hatch of Kossie Duns that would
bring every fish in the river up feeding on the surface but when you live so
far away from the water, you have to take pot luck.
Those evenings that you did score by
being in the right place at the right time were securely locked into the
depths of your memory bank. They are
never forgotten and we dream of striking it rich again one day.
So let’s forget those one in a hundred quick trips and talk about what
really happens. Not long after that
sun has dropped low down on the skyline, we see the first fish make a
splashy type of rise; it is normally only a small trout but at least it is a
start. It reminds me of penguins
returning to their rookery at night; first there is just one or two that
come in to the shoreline as if to check out the lie of the land.
It is not too long before a second fish leaves some rings and a couple of
swallows start dipping. We live in
hope that the wind dies away as the sun starts to sink below the skyline.
A few more swallows start to zip around over the surface but at this stage
it is impossible to see what they are taking.
Another ten minutes and the Snowflake Caddis start to dance around
the willows or other selected riverside vegetation.
Slowly larger fish start to touch
the surface as more and more bugs come up to play.
Midge are around all season and often they account for those rises where you
cannot see a thing on the water and should never be discounted, as on some
waters they account for the highest drift forms in the system.
This is a good early evening pattern, especially if you see a lot of
Swallows dipping and the occasional trout boiling near the surface and that
telltale rise-form where the top half of the tail breaks the surface film as
the trout rolls over. Fish it just
under the surface, watch very closely at that point where the leader enters
the water and strike on any draw down of your tippet.
Moths and Beetles tend to join in on the evening action; Caddis start to
skit across the river and if there is a hatch of duns, that will help bring
up more fish.
So what we have is a real smorgasbord of bugs playing around and the fish
seem to be taking anything and everything. Then
to make it worse, you get a lot of one timers; they rise once and then they
are gone.
Constant changing of flies in the hope of finding the one that works more
than once takes up most of the evening and before you know it, it is all but
over with just a few fish steadily rising.
It’s then time to put on one of those flies that have that magical touch
“just on dark”.
There are three and all Caddis patterns.
They are tied with parachute hackles to sit low in the surface film.
