No Fly Line, Fly Fishing!

I had promised myself for weeks now that I would get out and give the presentation leader to hand a go. I bought it months ago from Jeremy Lucas and tried it once with a shorter rod but wasn't comfortable with it so today,  I left the cane at home and switched for a one off day with carbon, I can be excused for using the carbon rod as it was made in Scotland so its only just allowed.

Now I know they say a 2/3 # rod should be used but I wasn't going out to buy one specially for something I'm only going to use every blue moon so the 5# carbon would have to suffice.

Last night I sat & removed the fly line from one of my reels and left the backing only and replaced the fly line with the presentation leader, I also bought a couple of bead sight indicators from a friend so that was attached as I wanted to concentrate on nymphs.

I've fished the long leader before with a coiled indicator attached to fly line which I enjoyed and had some good success with, but this was slightly different and a bit of a learning curve.
I arrived on the river which was very peaty coloured and set up with three beaded nymphs,
( Some I tied earlier) 
After trying to get my head around telling myself not to try and cast too far, I settled in to the swing of it and before long had my first fish on the bank.

I was content, I had at least caught a fish using this method but I have to say I prefer the coil style indicator to the beaded ones, I found I was straining my eyes at times to see it & it doesn't float so cant be rested on the water like the coiled ones, nevertheless I was going to give it a few hours and see how I faired.

Before long I had another fish on the bank, this time it succumb to the red beaded nymphs I tied up last week so that made it even better, I know knew they caught fish.

I can only say that after this things took a turn for the worse, I released 4 other fish all at long range and started missing fish as I couldn't see the indicator properly due to the light and the river so personally for me I much prefer the coiled indicators.

Then I hooked another trout which I estimated to be around 2lbs and had some lovely colouring and if it was a stocked fish it had been in the river for a long time as the fins were almost perfect and disaster struck, as I went to take a picture of it, it flipped I tried to catch it and the camera and my hand parted company and yes you guessed it the camera went for a drink. That was it another camera down the tubes, I'm getting quite a collection now, that's 3 pocket camera's I've wrote off in this way.

The rest of the afternoon went on pretty much like the way it started off, me straining to see the indicator but I was catching fish, and loosing them. I finished the afternoon with 7 trout & 1 Grayling on the bank and quite a few lost.

Will I use it again, probably not, Although it caught fish I prefer using a shorter leader attached to my fly line  with a coiled indicator but we gave it a try and caught fish, and an afternoon on the river certainly beats sitting in the house, although I'm short 1 pocket camera!