It has been a few years since my last visit to Latimer Park Trout Fishery, which benefits from the crystal clear waters of the River Chess, as it flows from the chalk of the Chiltern Hills to form a pair of lakes, set among parkland designed by Lancelot Capability Brown. The fishery, run by Latimer Flyfishers, holds wild brown trout, rainbows and grayling, my host being life long friend and Latimer regular Peter and despite a forecast of rain, I was looking forward to reaquainting myself with the hard fighting rainbow trout.

Arriving before lunch, the threat of rain had given way to light drizzle under a leaden sky, with gusts of wind sweeping the surface, not ideal, but fish were feeding on the surface, which was encouraging, but no-one was catching. Peter said that the bush telegraph had advised size 12 Klinkhammers, or Emergers, but I opted for a silver bodied bouyant Muddler with Daddy style legs out the back.

Peter is used to speedy results at Latimer and was soon changing to another pattern, keeping up a busy work rate, while I prefer a steady approach, happy to cast out and leave it, then slowly twitching the muddler back through the wave with a bow in the line. First cast produced a boil as I lifted off. One fish followed the lure in, nibbling at the tail, but would not take, veering off ten feet from the bank in the clear water.

Peter was IN at last, a one and a half pound rainbow fighting all over the surface. I wandered up to him. He was now using a tan foam bodied Daddy Long Legs. He released the fish and recast. A fish rose immediately, but he missed it! He rooted around in his fly box and gave me a day-glo orange foam Daddy, which I took back and tried, but the wind had got up, blowing in my face, with the Daddy acting like it had a parachute attached. I cut it off and put on a size 12 Brown Buzzer and tied on an orange piece of indicator wool, with the buzzer a foot down. The lake is very shallow close in, being a flooded valley, much of this area is slightly weeded, where fish browse, so it was worth a try. I had a series of bobs and dips. One fish swam away without taking the indicator under. I missed all these fish.

Peter called out. “I’ve cracked it!” as he struck into his second rainbow. I walked up to him again. He was now using a size 14 black glass buzzer on a very short link to an indicator. It figured. These tiny buzzers were just hanging in the surface film. Another delve into the box and Peter handed me a tiny Black Buzzer. I’d been on the right trail and went back to cut off the heavily dressed size 12 brown buzzer, tying on the much smaller black one. This left a tail of 5 inches to the indicator wool. Ideal.

The wind was gusting now and a successful cast depended on the lull between gusts. A few more cast and the indicator disappeared. I struck and At Last a good fish. Aware that the tiny barbless hook was all that was between me and a long rainbow, I kept the rod up and let the fish do all the work, letting it take line from the reel, then gaining it back on the reel each time. Peter was soon by my side with his new landing net. With very few fish being caught, the bailiff was watching too. “Today would be nice” he commented. If I lost this fish, he probably would have said that I had rushed it. That’s fishermen, always know better! I guided the rainbow into the net and the hook dropped out.

A long slim rainbow of about 3 lb. In better condition this would have gone 5 lb. I kept it in the net for a few minutes to recover, then lowered the rim and it flicked it’s tail and was gone. One of the locals came up for a look. He had been there since 9 am and hadn’t had a touch. “What did you catch it on?” I showed him.

Peter took his net back and I tried again and missed a rapid take, feeling the fish, which left a spreading boil on the surface. There was another call from Peter, as his rod bent into fish Number 3. “First cast with a Blue Flash Damsel!” He’d changed his fly again. Shock tactics often work. Having agreed to fish for another half hour, it began raining hard. Time to get under cover of the gazeebo and pack up.

According to the bailiff, the previous day had been very productive for the visiting anglers, with Big Daddies catching many fish, depite the lack of actual flies on the water. Oh well that’s trout fishing. What works one day, won’t neccesarily work the next. That’s why we all have boxes full of pretty coloured flies of all shapes and sizes.

I’d enjoyed my day, although casting a Weight Forward No 6 Floating line on an 8 foot fly rod, takes it’s toll on untrained muscles. Peter had one more treat for his old friend, two packs of his own smoked rainbow fillets. They will go down well on some scrambled egg on toast.