GWWFA team join GAIA Anglers on the Little Ouse
On Sunday 19th January Christopher Faulkner, Peter Hartley and Mark Brinkman joined a team of anglers from The Game Angling Instructors Association (GAIA) as guests of Babs Craig and the East Anglia Fly Fishing Club on The Little Ouse.
Only an Hour from Grafham we arrived at the meeting location, a set of farm buildings, in the village of Little Ouse just by the Brandon Bridge, for a 0930 briefing from Babs. She is a very keen fly fisher having grown up in Kenya and started EAFF as the UKs only fly only course fishing club. She is clearly very passionate about course fly fishing and spent a number of years searching for some water before securing a lease on the Little Ouse.
Following our briefing and armed with 9 or 10 weight rods and lines we headed for the banks and fishing commenced. The rive is much like a true Fenland drain, steep banks and lots of reed and weed beds along the edges, as well as barges moored up on the far bank providing perfect cover for the pike. Very natural with areas cleared for casting. There is 1.5 miles of water so plenty of great places to fish and the walking helped to keep us warm on what was a cold morning with a light breeze.
After an hour or so with some of the other rods catching small pike Mark decided to change his fly for a much larger one and it did the trick – two fish in fairly quick succession, the first being a beautiful 13.5lb pike.
We then fished till 1230 the agreed lunch break where the river is left to rest for an hour. Picnic lunches were accompanied by some delicious damson gin to warm us up and it was much appreciated especially as my morning had taken a different turn. Standing on the reeds I took a step forward and to my shock I ended up in the water, hanging onto my rod and the bank with my boots filling with water. Up to my thighs in cold water – no change of clothes or boots and feeling somewhat foolish. At the time I was fishing next to Peter Hartley who could not hide his amusement at my misfortune but luckily he did not have a camera.
Back to the fishing – well by lunch Mark had 3 pike safely caught and returned, Peter had hooked one and it got away and I had not had a touch. The other rods had caught a few so overall a great mornings fishing. It seemed that the larger flies were the ones to be on.
In the afternoon Mark and I walked down towards the far end of the stretch and then fished alternate spots coming back to the meeting point. Peter left early afternoon and Mark and I stayed till we have fished right back to the cars, by which time the temperature was drooping and all the others had headed home. Mark caught a further 2 fish in the afternoon so ending the day with 5 – 13.5lb, 9lb , 9lb, 6lb and 5lb and a huge smile. I failed to catch any pike but was hooked by the location and the fishing.
Mark and I shared a car and on the way home the idea of a GWFFA membership was born and I am delighted that Babs liked our idea and we now have 4 memberships of EAFF.
