Sunday, May 4, 2008

Plans based on weather forecasts

You'd think with the technology available today that weather forecasters might get it right on a regular basis - but if you're like me and are constantly checking the forecast on the television and various websites with a view to a fishing outing, then it's quite obvious that they are pretty useless on occasions.
Take this weekend for example, I had a fairly good idea earlier in the week that I wouldn't be working on Friday so I started to check the forecast out to plan a couple of outings - one on Ullswater and one on the river.
The forecast for Friday was for a bright start with light winds in the morning, clouding over with the possibility of rain in the late afternoon - not very good for the lake so we went to the river.
What we got was a cloudy start, quite windy with showers, heavy at times, clearing skies late afternoon and a sunny cloudless end to the day - not quite what was forecast.
We had a decent day on the river, there were a few Large Dark Olives coming off and the odd fish rising, we stuck to the dry fly all day and did quite well.


The forecast for Saturday was originally light rain spreading from the west and hanging over us for most of the day which later changed to a cloudy start with light winds, then for the afternoon, stronger winds, gusty at times and rain, then heavy rain for Sunday - Saturday sounded perfect for the lake, so we were sorted.
What we actually got was light wind and mainly cloudy in the morning with long spells of sunshine and varying winds in the afternoon, wind direction remained south, south easterly all day, not quite sure how that's going to bring rain from the west, and it didn't - not a drop all day.
Despite the conditions we had quite a good day, we caught from a number of drifts in the morning, had a very slow afternoon while it was sunny, then had a good finish to the day when we started to get a bit of cloud cover and the sun started to drop.
Whilst on the subject of the lake, contrary to what some may report - two pound fish are not regularly caught - I first fished Ullswater thirty six years ago and after drifting away to concentrate on rivers and reservoirs for a while, came back to it and have fished it regularly for the last fourteen years and I have only taken one fish over two pounds (pictured below and quickly released after being photographed) and very rarely hear of any being caught - no more than two or three in the last three seasons.
I would estimate the average size to be about twelve ounces (up on what it was some years ago), a fish of fourteen to fifteen inches is a very good fish for the lake and a two pounder is a fish of a lifetime.

Although the lake is quite large, the majority of it is very deep and the actual fishing area is relatively small, and in my experience it will not stand a lot of boat pressure with areas going 'off' for some time after a boat has been through.
Like most wild brown trout fisheries you need cloud and wind, if it's flat calm or the sun is shining - go fish a river somewhere.

Back to the weather - as I write this at 1630 on Sunday afternoon we still haven't had a drop of rain this weekend, not that I want any but as a fisherman trying to plan a day out on river or lake based on the forecast, it would be nice if they were a bit more reliable.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I enjoyed reading your blog - goodstuff!