Last Sunday, seven of us went down to Chalk Springs, Arundel for the annual match between Surrey and Sussex Fly Dressers Guilds. I arrived at about 8am, two of the others were already there as were some of the Sussex team. All the others arrived over the next half hour. The weather for the day was not good for fishing, it turned out bright, sunny and very warm by lunchtime. We were all given a fishing schedule of when and where to fish. The fishery has four lakes and they were split into three groups, East Lake, South Lake, West Lake and North Pool (these to be fished as one). Each hour a whistle was blown and we would all move in a clockwise direction to the next lake. Franco and myself started on East Lake moving on to South Lake then to West and North. There was a break for lunch and a very good bar-b-que put on by one of the Sussex members.
The one thing about chalk springs is that the water is crystal clear and you can see right to the bottom, even when it is twenty feet deep. The frustrating part is that you can also see the fish, and even worse you can see the fish come up and look at your fly and even taste it, turning away at the last minute. My first fish was caught in South lake using an Olive Rambo. I had walked around the back of the lake as there were several people fishing the 'easy side', there are trees and bushes quite close the the back of the lake. I only got caught up twice and that was not behind but from trees next to me.
Franco was at the bottom end of the lake and indicated that there were fish there and quite big ones. I had tried several flies up until I tried the Rambo, with no luck. Shortly after catching my first and largest fish about 3¼Lbs, the whistle blew and we moved on to the West and North Lakes. No luck at either of these lakes. It seemed that the fish in North Pool had no interest in anything apart from moving out of the way of our flies.
The East Lake was our last before lunch. Eventually here I tried my Hairy Mary after a few casts I had my second fish on the bank. I gave one of them to Franco, I saw that his retrieval was very fast and I said to slow it down and sure enough you could see the fish starting to follow. But you could see them turn away at the last moment. The whistle was blown again and it was time for lunch.
The bar-b-que was put on by Chris from Sussex and I can only assume that he had a lot of help. It was a excellent spread that they put on burgers, sausages, salads, puddings and drink were all on offer. After it all we were back to fishing, back to South Lake for the next stretch.
Franco and I went back to the bottom end of the lake which is also the deepest part of the whole complex. There were some enormous fish here, just cruising about. Even just letting the fly sink down to them soon had the rushing off, they were so very elusive. Maybe that's not the word as we could easily see them. Franco noticed that they were they were taking something that appeared to be orange. He changed his fly to an orange one a soon had a fish on. I had one of my Blue Flash Damsels on. I cast over the where he was still fighting his fish and low and behold my last fish was hooked.
For the rest of the day everything avoided my flies. At 4:15 the final whistle was blown and it was time for the weigh in. Mine came in at 7Lb 12ozs. The totals were 70Lbs for Sussex and 43Lbs for Surrey. Then there were some calculations as Sussex had more members than Surrey. Surrey lost. As a day's fishing everybody agreed it was very hard.
