fossil-fish
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A StruggleHave not managed to get out in a month. The forecast for yesterday appeared OK, so I grabbed a 4hr C&R ticket at Woodford. Turned out that although the weather was dry and sunny, the wind was really akward and cold. There seemed to be two choices, fish on the sheltered side and catch nothing, or fish into a biting cold wind where the fish had gathered. Although I did move from time to time for comfort, I deceided that you have to fish where the fish are.
Casting into quite a strong facing wind really was beyond my limited ability, but I have found in the past that in such circumstances the fish can be much closer to the bank making the challenge less daunting.
There was one little spot that allowed you to cast along the windward bank in relative comfort. I never got to try this spot as one guy planked himself there for the whole day without moving. When I left he had taken 18 fish. Do not think he was doing anything wrong or breaking any rules, but this is the first that I have encountered this situation in fly fishing. I feel that although I may have spent longer here than in other spots, I tend to fly fish on the hoof, continually moving. Like I said this is something very new to me, maybe fishing mid week I have just been lucky up to now.
Anyway, struggled with the akward cold wind and managed to hook 4 fish and land 3 of them. A very satisfying catch under the difficult circumstances. I do not think very much, if anything at all, was caught from the sheltered side. I had to fish a sinking line to be able to cast into the wind and stop the line being blown back when on the water. A challenge that really was a struggle, but we mananged to catch fish.
One fish came to a small marabou bloodworm pattern and the others to an orange blob, all fished deep and very slowly. I am going to have to tie up some bloodworms and orange blobs for when the fish are feeding on bloodworms and very small oranges.
ff
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sydb
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CatchesSounds like a struggle FF but at least you got a few. Thats one of the things I want to see Stevie about - casting into the wind is virtually impossible for me.
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fossil-fish
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Likewise Syd, the only thing is, the worse the conditions, the closer the fish are. The wind and wave action also make the water impossible to see through so you really can get away with being close to the fish. It is harder to cast, but I think it is more forgiving of bad casting. The real problem was the cold, after a while you just needed a break from it.
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sydb
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catchesBy the way FF do you mean Mandarins or Clementines 
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fossil-fish
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Satsumas
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Watty's Rock
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I know how you feel FF. Had a couple of hours this afternoon on Straid in a boat and struggled with the wind, although believe it or not, it was quite warm and pleasant.
I was still drifting with two anchors out but perservered and managed to boat 2 fish and lost one for two hours fishing. It was a bit of a challenge in the windy conditions, and more time was spent sorting out leaders and flies.  
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Darren
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Sorry you encountered one of Woodfords (stockie bashers) fish counters FF, but there is no rules to say that an angler should move or stop fishing after he has caught a certan number of fish, but I think that most anglers would get bored and move to give themselves another challenge after a while.
You will come across alot of these anglers on your travels but hope fully not to many.
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FIREY BROWN
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Woodford in the windahhhhh yes Fossil,,,you will unfortunately meet lots of anglers like that,,infact you`ve yet to meet the ones who watch YOU catching fish after fish and then they proceed to join you casting their flies from within 2 inch`s of yours,,,sad people really but rest assured they are far and few between...
you did however stick to your guns and produced the goods through difficult conditions thats what makes a good angler
Regards
FIREY BROWN
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fossil-fish
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Not a problem at all Darren. I really was not sure what the score was. Like you said, you would get bored running the same line over the same fish all day. Part of the real pleasure in fly fishing is the ability to move about and fish different spots. Even after catching fish I tend to move on. I didn't want to sound like sour grapes because he was catching lots and I wasn't, but it was certainly a new experience for me.
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