R.I.P SUMMER 08

It dawned on me today that the summer is more or less over, the leaves are starting to turn, theres a pleasant chill in the air and it's too dark to fish after work. Every year about the same time i start to look back on my summers fishing, or rather, from the beginning of the trout season till september-ish.
In reflection this year has been very different from what i expected. Normally i would fish a local burn for trout 2/3 times a week, making regular trips into the hills in pursuit of spotty creatures aswell.
This was always my main interest, despite being a very keen coarse angler and enjoying many trips for pike, or evenings on the canal with a waggler.

However, at the tail end of last summer i planted a seed. An innocent idea.
I took my fly rod to the canal, more out of curiousity than anything else as i had often struggled to catch roach when they were feeding on the surface. Despite the fact that they proved incredibly difficult to catch i really enjoyed it.
Then i tried for perch (and snapped a 2 weight in the process)
And by autumn i had bought myself a pike fly outfit.

By the time this spring came around i was eager to start where i left off and chase coarse fish on the fly, negelcting my beloved trout for them.
I think this year i have fished for trout maybe 6 times. I would have done that in a fortnight last year. I became obsessed with catching the often overlooked species on fly gear. To be honest, its not something i feel ive truly "done" yet. Rather than a phase i can see it becoming a major, perhaps dominant factor in my fishing.

The start of the summer was very, very poor for me. All my experiments were failing miserably for a whole load of reasons. From poor weather, to poor venue choice, things just refused to click.
By the time july rolled around my fishing improved ten-fold. I was achieving similar success rates to last year except with a fly rod as opposed to a waggler set-up.

In summary, the last 2 and a half to 3 months have been some of the most amazing times ive had fishing. Eventually my experiments paid off, plans came together and new waters began to bear fruit.

Of course there are many trips i never made, many plans that never came to be and many days aborted due to mince weather but i dont want to dwell on them. This year, like the last few has been all about exploration and experimentation. New waters, new methods, new species and perhaps most importantly, new friends through fishing.

At work today i was trying to think what my most memorable trips/ sessions / fish were of this summer.
Was it the day spent in a remote glen in torrential rain with buzzards circling overhead, and the feeling nobody has wandered here in decades. catching FAT black trout with golden bellies on nothing but klinkhamers. with the water rising almost a foot in an hour?

Or was it the day i logged here, the true beginning of my coarse fly success, catching little aggressive perch and pristine roach on my favourite rod, the three weight, from the local canal?

Perhaps it was more recent, my pike fly escapades of the last fortnight, watching near double figure esox taking flies at my feet and making my 9 weight rod look like a piece of spaghetti?

Maybe it was an evening spent fishing tight to lock gates and beating my pb perch 3 times in an hour?

The truth is, its impossible to say. But i know im gonna enjoy this debate in my head all through the winter. Round about now i begin to plan my last trips for trout till march 15th again. My focus shifts (or stays) with pike and perch. Last winter proved to be very trying. I blanked for almost 4 months! I am determined that this wont happen again. I now have new skills to utilise, and new waters to tackle. Im almost looking forward to the challenge that frosty mornings or ice cold gales are gonna present in the coming months!

Hopefully over the coming weeks i will have plenty autumnal predator and trout stories to share.

Scott.