Thursday 31 March 2011

Fly tying

Well the new season is definitely here now and unfortunately my fly boxes are nowhere near ready for it. I have had a hectic few months searching and applying for PhDs (all sorted now, off to Cardiff so see you on the Taff!!) and completely forgot about the more important things in life, restocking my boxes being one of them. To get back in the swing of serious churning out I have signed up to a couple of fly swaps on various fora. The first was a beginners CDC swap, my contribution a very much tested sedge pattern which (together with the good ole CDC and Elk) tore the Derbyshire Wye apart last August.

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The second swap is a much more daunting prospect, some of the names on the list are phenomenally good tiers and I was a wee bit hesitant to put my name down but what the hell! The theme of the swap is mayfly (any life stage) and for me that really only means dry fly. I have chosen to merge a pattern I have used before to good success with one stolen borrowed from the Dry Fly Experts blog (if you havent read this, do). The original and result are below, hopefully it wont be too far below par for the swap.

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The only two reasons I changed this pattern at all were that it has been mentioned the varnished wings could impair hook-ups and that the varnished wings are a bugger to tie in neatly. Keep it simple stupid!

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Fragile deer hair was replaced by slightly less fragile pheasant tail, the rib was changed from thread to spanflex for a more defined rib and the wing was changed to white calves tail. Coupled with a more heavily hackled thorax it should float well.

Sunday 6 March 2011

6th March - River Avon

Recently I was given a furled indicator to test by a member of the FFF and to give it a fair whack I made the trip down to the bit of water I know best, the Wilthsire Avon.
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The little stream was in fine condition, a good height with a little tinge of colour, hopefully the fish would be feeding confidentally despite the bright conditions.

I started the day short line nymphing with the indicator on a small side stream and managed a few decent grayling, however I felt that when short roll casts are required the indicator was a bit detrimental and possibly spooky to the fish in shallow clear water. I took it off and just watched the line, the takes became more frequent although the fish were smaller?! It was a beautiful day to be outside and the small stream produced a dozen grayling and 5 brown trout in the two hours I was with her.

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The glide that leads up to this section of bushes always holds a good head of grayling, and occasionally a surprise lump of a trout (especially during the mayfly).

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A string of 3 good grayling all came to the indicator fished at short range, all were pretty much carbon copies from the same run.


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A few brutish browns put in an appearance to bend the rod, not long now before they will become fair targets for my dry flies.


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The top of the strecth is a weir that has to be packed with fish, although despite fishing it every time I pass, I have never caught anything from it. Had a follow once!


As I reached the weir at the top of the stream I decided to switch and fish the main river, it is a lot wider and probably better suited to the indicator, probably a better test. It proved to be a good call as after another hours fishing I had landed another 7 grayling and 1 more trout (not exactly a record breaker).

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The main river is a lot wider than the stream with a strong but even flow through most of its length, the grayling seemed to be held up off the edges of current created by the winters debris.

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It was good to see the future of sport here putting in an appearance, hungry little buggers.


It was a lovely bright day and the fish were feeding, I feel the furled indicators are a useful tool for certain types of fishing but probably a hinderance on smaller streams or spookier fish. On the main river it did allow me to fish at more range than normal and still deteect finicky bites. Useful tool to add to the armoury.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Avon Carrier - 26th Feb

Avon Springs was a bit too easy to scratch my real itch, I needed some proper wild fish and at this time of year that obviously means grayling. As we left the B and B on Saturday morning the rest of our party, being well and truly under the thumb, had to go home to scrub the toilet or soemthing similar, I decided on a detour for a few hours fishing on my favourite carrier.

It was a short trip as I wanted to catch the afternoon rugby (grand slam is coming!) but 2 hours on my little stretch beats 2 hours in front of the television. Setting up I got some odd looks from a couple of coarse fishermen who were soon cemented to the spot with all their gear, not the way to fish this river. You need to keep moving as the grayling are well spread, even now, and the shoals you do find spook easily.

My roving approach quickly paid off and I was soon bringing a fair few small grayling to hand. The weather was mild and they were really on the feed, short line nymphing was the order of the day and every twitch of the leader was struck at.

Evetually this resulted in a dozen small grayling and 2 WBT, not bad for under 2 hours fishing, sure beats watching eastenders omnibus anyway.

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Small but perfectly formed, this little carrier always produces for me.

Avon Springs - 25th Feb

Just realised it has been over a month since I last posted on the blog and unfortunately the reason for this is that it has been a month since I have been out fishing! My other commitments have left me house bound and as the end of last week grew near I was going mental with so long spent indoors. Luckily I had a day booked at Avon Springs with my Dad and Paul so the itch was soon to be scratched. None of us had ever fished Avon Springs before so didn't really know what to expect, the reviews on the internet did not seem great but who believes the opinions of people who post on the internet ;-).


When I arrived my first impressions were good, staff were friendly (as was the German Shepherd) and the water was gin clear. I tackled up my 5# and made my way to the far lake as there were already half a dozen guys fishing the first lake and no-one at all on the far one. I stalked all the way round the lake seeing absolutely nothing, my heavy feet didn't even spook any (perhaps this was why everyone else was on the first lake). When I got all the way round to the furthest point a glance back to the island produced my first sight of a fish, a dark silhouette moved against the clear gravel. A tungsten beaded hares ear was popped on his nose and he took it on the drop. The fight was spectacular, strong and fast the fish stripped line from my little 5# as he headed for the reeds. Once turned he still didn't give up and it was a good five minutes before he was in the net. About 4lbs of hard fighting, well finned rainbow trout.

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There were a good few fish moving out towards the island and the next cast produced an identical copy of my first fish, taken on the drop, on the same fly he put up an equally good account of himself. It seemed there was a deep hole just off the island surrounded by weed and the fish were holding over and in it. The pod was pretty impressive but the fishing not to my taste. A phone call informed me Dad and Paul had arrived so I walked back to the car to greet them.

I thought I was a little crazy with a 5# (a fair wind was blowing and these fish really fought) but all that was blown away when I saw what my Dad was setting up. I thought he must have been fishing the river for grayling as he set up a 4# with a good 15ft of 4lb fluorocarbon, but he was just a bit wrong in the head. We put Paul on the point with the pod and Dad and I went off stalking. Before we even reached the end of the point Paul was into his first.

Alongside the point there is a long narrow bay (can't think of a better word for it) that looked choked and lifeless, well except for the trout in the bottom of it anyway. Dad waved his little 4# to no avail so I very kindly showed him how it was done. A heavy spanflex nymph with dumbell tungsten eyes rocketed towards the bottom and was then twitched up and engulfed. An equally strong fight followed but with nowhere to run it was over a lot quicker, 3 casts and 3 fish.

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I think my Dad needs a bigger rod if he is going to be doing that with it!!

Moving round the lake Dad found some more fish and used his little wand to get a line out from between two trees in a spot the larger rods just could not cast in.

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He followed my example and 3 casts later there 3 fish on the bank.

The rest of the morning was spent leisurely stalking and I completed my bag with my best fish of about 5-6lbs.

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Dad manged one a smidgen bigger (as he always does) and we were bagged up by lunchtime and in the Mayfly pub an hour after. Dinner and beer followed by more beer and yet more beer was necessary along with some good chat as Hugh O'Reilly and some blokes from North of the Border joined us.

Off topic they fished the McMullens stretch of the Test the next day and Hugh is claiming a 3lb grayling, until I see photographic evidence I refuse to believe it! Jammy Bugger!