This was the first large reservoir trip of the year. The winter had hung on later than normal being cold although the previous days had produced some near normal weather. The wind the previous day had been from the south and consequently the fish had previously been found on the northern banks in the bays. However, on the day of our trip the wind had shifted to a more westerly direction. Most of the day it was very heavily overcast although there was the rare glimpse of the sun later in the afternoon.

With the water still being quite cold and the wind chilly then what effect would the new wind direction have? Read on and find out.

All the boats, all ten of us, headed for the northern bank – that was where the fish had been the previous day. Results were mixed. I suspect that it depended on how big and deep the bay was and whether or not the fish would stay there. Of the ten anglers eight were using floating/intermediate lines with buzzers or Diawl Bachs type flies. Some found fish but others did not. Ray managed the best bag with a full house of eight fish using this technique but others did not. Jeff and Mick did not appear at the finish because of a mix up in the finishing time but Mick had bagged up and Jeff also had a good bag. All praise to Bill Johnson who caught a browny and put it back into the water only to catch it again (foul hook) and again return it. A sportsman!! – especially as it was the only fish that he caught. His partner, Roy, managed a nice bag of six fish.

So much for the northern bank.

Eddie and Frank moved away from the northern bank over to the dam, eventually the southern part of it. But they were still using floaters in what was deeper water although it would probably have been a bit shallower towards the southern end of the dam. They picked up quite a few fish, Eddie taking seven, again on buzzer type flies.

But the fun went to Allen and Dave. They started at the northern bank with Hi-Dis and boobies but after 90 minutes concluded that it would be very hard there. Had the fish moved with the wind? So they moved to the deeper wind by the dam onto where the wind was blowing. Bingo. They had a bonanza, fish everywhere, deep down on black boobies. Drifting along the dam a few hundred yards out they were getting fish on every drift. Although they were losing many many fish (what excitement) they never the less had bagged up by 3pm.