So after a long fishing layoff I finally made it back to the water. On Saturday morning I woke up at 5am, packed the car, and was on the road by 5:30. Just over an hour later I pulled up to the gate at Colmonell. FAIL! I’d forgotten my gate key. Luckily for me Western was following me up, so I gave him a call and then started the wait.
Then it was time to keep myself occupied…I taped up my leg and kitted out 2 fly rods. This took me all of half an hour so I whipped out the camera and took a few misty photos. This killed another 30 minutes so I made a few phone calls. All in all I managed to occupy myself for the majority of the 3 hour wait.
After what felt like an eternity Western finally arrived with the key and we were in. FAIL! I’d never fished Colmonell, but you have to wade through a little marsh to get to the water. I held me breath and prayed the cast taping was water-proof.
Fifteen minutes later we were flogging the water in cold, misty conditions. This was soon forgotten as I hooked into a fish on my third cast. It turned out to be a decent sized Rainbow which gave two or three good jumps during the fight. Western was then made to wade out through the weeds to retrieve the fish, since we’d forgotten the net in the car. It was a good sized fish of around a kilo and was soon back in the water.
Sadly the rest of the day did not go as well. We didn’t manage to land another fish, although it was still fantastic to be out there flogging the water. It was a pity Western didn’t net a fish, but there’s always next time.
All in all Colmonell seems like a good dam with some decent sized fish in it. During the morning I spotted a few rises and a couple of big fish. Sadly after lunch we didn’t even see a fish. Still, its worth another visit.