I was invited by John Sawtell, on Thursday evening, to fish at his syndicate water in Effingham. I met him close to Effingham Junction Station, then followed him to the fishery. It is very secluded and quite, well off the beaten track.
There are four lakes, some quarter of a mile from the parking. We fished the first lake, which is also the smallest, we came to. It has an island in the centre and the fish were feeding just below the surface but not on the surface. They were cruising about with their dorsal fins just breaking the surface. I fished with one of John's test flies, bit like a mayfly. I did have one take on it but it did not hook. John, on the other hand, hooked a fish but only lightly and he did not managed to land it. I had one or two problems with the trees behind but did nor lose anything.
We both moved on round to the other side of the lake. Here I had problems with the the undergrowth in front of me and kept on getting tangled up in it. John hooked another fish but as before it was only lightly hooked and it wiggled off. He changed his fly to a weighted Invicta he had made. He hooked a fish quite quickly and landed it. It weighed in at 1 ¾LBs.
He asked me if I wanted to fish at the same spot and I did. I had put on a new leader but no fly. I suggested one which which I had made which had a foam body and should float quite well. First cast I caught the tree and lost it. I put on a new leader and John suggested a weighted fly but the only one I had was a Black Flash Damsel, not my own make. My first cast was a little short of the pod of fish on the surface, my second was right on and I hooked a fish. It weighed in at about the same as John's one.
We decided to go on to the second lake. As we started to walk round it started to rain. As we got round the corner it chucked it down. I just had a quick look at the second lake before turning back to the cars. The rain got harder and never stopped.
Apart from the weather, although short, we had a very good evening.
