Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith

Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith

Neither I nor my brother have done very much fly fishing but a trip over to see him this week included an opportunity to visit Earith in Cambridgeshire and tick one of my targets for this year.

Ever competitive Pete and a mate been there for a sneaky casting lesson first!

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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith Th_69f6fe325b2687e01c63f5c6ac9fb4fa_zps13389947

They'd rounded off their lesson with bagging up, sneaky maybe but at least we knew which fly patterns were currently in favour as a result and tied on variations in green damselfly nymphs

With the wind blowing hard we reckoned the downwind end of the Earith lake would be where the natural hatch and the trout would be and we positioned the punt accordingly.

I was quite surprised at the size of the anchor, twice the weight of the one on my own boat - but as we were to find out the lake bottom doesn't offer much grip and the wind dragged us from time to time pushing us closer to the bank and rowing back against the wind was hard going.

Predictably Pete was in first
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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith 13972000d89b3343c7f4acd38e19171a_zps163cf9cc

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My first ever Rainbow followed soon after,
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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith Ba8d287608b7e5bf38cf9bf7b6eaba97_zps1fb4e566

And then next cast I had another, putting me in the lead
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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith 15868c22c69ddc7380b96cbea084cb80_zps41c7f4f9

But not for long as Pete pulled ahead again,
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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith 2aed56c5615254ca36df1c87ef483bfe_zps014daeeb

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6 hours in to an 8 hour ticket it seemed Pete's bead eyed damselfly nymph was out fishing my gold head version, he was returning fish and with my rod too quiet for far too long we swapped rods
- next thing Pete hit into the biggest fish of the day ON MY ROD!

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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith 3d17b4166846da2a98705c1dacbef8c0_zpsa0760de5

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The photo doesn't do it justice really but it scrapped well and it's a broad shouldered estimated 6lb Rainbow - that is a pound oversized in the take rules at Earith ( unless you pay extra) and after a quick discussion back it went without being weighed.

This fish like some of the others had a scar on the side which we which think are Cormorant strikes.
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Somewhere Over The Rainbows At The End Of The Earith C3cad63e66c58d7b951760e66d64908f_zps0345ccb7

I promptly swopped back to my own rod and was pleased to hook the last if smallest fish of the day, we'd time left on the ticket but we were shivering by now, desperate for a pee and with our 8 fish limit accounted for it was time to call an end to a brilliant day

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