AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

So much for a relaxing evening on the river! I seem to be going through  a bit of a (what's the opposite to purple? Green?) patch at the moment. Tonight looked so hopeful, a very gentle breeze, slightly overcast, insects hatching all over the place but how wrong it all went. I saw 2 rises in 2 hours fishing and managed to raise a couple but couldn't hook them up. Still even with the blank it would have been a lovely evening on the river with the gentle sunlight and warm breeze, that is if I hadn't witnessed the death of a good friend. With a nasty crack my 8'6'' 4# streamflex decided to become a 5 piece. I am absolutely gutted as I loved that rod and I know how notoriously bad the Grey's replacement policy is. Bugger or stronger words to that effect!!!

Taff troubles

Had my first few short sessions on the Taff this week after moving down to cardiff last wednesday and it has been a real baptism of fire. The banks along the club stretch are so enormously steep and high (some kind of flood defence) they would have a mountain goat crying for its Mum. I have also been attacked by a dog and propositioned by a chav all in its a fair bit more "colourful" than the sedate chalkstreams I cut my teeth on. Once you have evaded the angry dogs, refused the amarous Burberry clad masses and plummeted down the ravine you land in a little piece of heaven. Clear waters flow over enormous boulders which conceal our quarry.

So far my clumsy wading has limited my success but I am getting used to wading these fast heavy waters without a staff and am becoming more stealthy with every visit. I recently watched a John Tyzack presentation at the game fair where he pretty much summed up the approach I attempt when fishing. Feeding fish are easy to catch, scared fish are impossible. Our task is simply to get close enough to present a piece of fluff gently in front of a fish without it even knowing we are there. Easy right? Not with the mating call of the chav, barking of the alsatian and a vertical 20ft drop to the river it isn't.

Tight Lines

Time to Fish

Finally I have been able to get out fishing! I had two days of small stillwater fishing to scratch the itch over the weekend. The first was at Withern Mill, a lovely little venue with clear water lakes in Lincolnshire. They have a stretch of the River Oo running past the lakes and our day started by chucking dry flies about and catching a few trout from behind weedbeds. A pint bet on the biggest fish of the day soon had us on the lakes though chasing some of the large double figure fish we saw swimming around our feet, there were atleast two doubles that passed us in the day without showing any interest in the flies. In the end the largest fish was caught by me, a lovely brown trout of about 2 and a half pounds. I also achieved something I have been trying for a little while, catching a rudd on the dry fly.

The second session was on Ketsby syndicate lake and I very nearly achieved another first! I hooked my first ever blue trout, the bloody thing jumped and jumped and then jumped off. To make things worse Dad then laughed and laughed and proceeded to catch another blue. He is still winding me up about it now.

The only other fishing related news of the past few weeks has been my spending habit. Whilst I am still a working man before going back to Uni I decided to complete my river set up, I have purchased another Streamflex (I love my 8'6'' 4# and use it almost exclusively for all my fishing now), this time I have added the 10' 3# to my arsenal for short line nymphing. I am also the proud owner of the cheapest and smallest rod I have owned since I was a kid. I now have a 7' 3# Shakespeare Odyssey and at £30 with a tube provided it is an absolute bargain. I haven't tested it yet but the aesthetic and feel of it are surprisingly good and I have a sneaking feeling it is going to be a joy to fish with. Finally I have bitten the bullet and upgraded my river reel, the old plastic faithful is going on the 7' and a Danielsson Nymph is on it's way to me for the Streamflexes.

Got a lot of fishing coming up with a trip to the Eden planned as well as some small stream fishing nr. Bath. I am sure I will also find the time to fish my new club waters on the Taff with FTAC.

Hope you are all fishing more often than me at the moment!
Dan

21st May - Buckland beat on the Usk

I am off for a three day fishing and drinking extravaganza next weekend on the Welsh Dee so thought it would best to get my eye in so I dont look quite such a tit. A trip house hunting to Cardiff gave me the perfect opportunity for a sneaky afternoons fishing on the way home.

After struggling to find the beat (all the Welsh sign posts look the same just full of Ls) I nearly killed myself getting down to it! The footpath was more of a climbing wall as I descended the valley like a drunken mountain goat. The view at the bottom was more than worth the near death experiences though.



I walked down to the very bottom of the beat, well beyond the beat actually but we will get to that. The fly life coming off was incredible there was everything I can identify and more. BWOs, yellow mays, mayflies and sedges as well as some large olives which I can not identify. I started fishing a klink and dink approach with a tan and yellow klink hoping to imitate the yellow may duns as the fish seemed quite keyed into these as they took off. A few slashy rises for the dry and nothing to the nymph soon saw me cut the nymph free and just fish the dry. Needless to say with the sheer lack of skill I have with a dryfly I managed to catch nothing but a small salmon parr on my first walk-up.


The sign of good fishing to come! I hope these are coming off in force next weekend on the Dee!


I want to live here!

Next time through and I changed to a foam mayfly I acquired during the mayfly swap on ukflydressing.com and the first, and largest, trout of the day was quickly to hand.



The mayfly seemed to disappear then so I made my waw back down to the bottom of the beat and watched swathes of small olives boiling over the water and delicately touching down, I presume to lay their eggs, before taking off and disappearing into the swarm. To imitate the gentle impression these olives were making on went a griffith's gnat. A bit of a bogey fly for me this one, I had never caught anything on one before but somehow it seemed right to try again.

At this point a brilliant old man came hiking up the banks I struggled to pass all day as if they were paved. He politely informed me that I had dropped down too far and was in fact poaching his water. We chatted for a little bit and he kindly showed me the very well hidden marker for the end of the Wye and Usk beat I was meant to be fishing.

I was incredibly embarassed, really don't like poaching and especially when I get caught!!! even if it was truly an honest mistake.

From that point I only had about 2 hours left but the fishing exploded as the olives carried on their dances for the rest of my time there and some buzzers started hatching. One particular swim left me incredibly satisfied. A large rock had split the current in two and between the flows was an area of slack water with a few fish rising in it. The water below was too deep to wade so the only approach was from the side across the nearest fast water.



The cast was a tricky one as I am a pretty average caster at the best of times. The best I could do was to deliberately overcast the spot and let the line ping back creating slack in the tippet and then before it hit the water make a dramatic upstream mend to land the line in an S across the fast water. This introduced enough slack for the little gnat to sit perfectly still in the slack water for about five seconds before the current dragged it under.

I waited for the first rise and plopped the gnat right in to the rings with the slack and it was immedately smashed by a little wildie who left the water with my fly wedged in his scissors. Two more followed in quick succession from the same eddie before I decided to elave them in peace and began to slide and curse my way back to the car.


Not the biggest fish I have ever caught but pretty and the tricky cast made it one of the most rewarding.

CARPe Diem

I apologise for the unforgivable pun I really couldn't resist. On a trip back to the area I grew up in (Sussex/Kent) I managed to find a few free hours on a quiet hot friday evening, and I certainly seized the day. By chance I had my 4# outfit in the boot and new of a little estate lake within walking distance of the house I grew up in that I used to float fish as a kid.

It had been a few years since I had even seen the place but I knew that on a flat calm evening the carp there would be slurping down the buzzers and other insects hatching from the surface.

I only had a 2 hour session but managed to land half a dozen carp all around the 5lb mark which were brilliant fun on the light outfit. All were caught by chucking a size 10 hares ear emerger in front of feeding fish, much more purist than my normal dog biscuit approach.


The lake was completely flat calm when I arrived, except from the rings caused by carp topping that is. There are two fish rising in this picture the closest was my first victim of the evening.


A beautiful little common carp. I really don't think that name does these fish justice, they are stunning to look at and fight like a steam train, anything but common!


This plump little mirror nicely finished off a fantastic evening of reliving my youth, only this time with a fly rod instead of wagglers.

I left the lake feeling like a little kid again, and went up the Anchor for a pint of Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter, the taste of home!

Syndicate Oxfordshire Trout

Managed my first trip in a long time last monday as a guest on a local syndicate water for an evenings buzzer fishing. Not much to report really, the water was crystal clear as always and the fishing was as hard as I remember it.

Buzzers were hacthing all over the 20 acre lake and fish were taking them with anger, many head and tailing in the classic feeding rises. Could I get one to take my dry fly? NO. I think the sheer number of naturals on offer made it unlikely that my little dry fly would veen get noticed and the size 18 shuttlecock weas undisturbed for a good 2 hours before I gave up.

Out came the 6 weight rod and on went a team of two superglue buzzers under a foam suspender buzzer. within a few casts I had my only fish of the evening a nice well recovered stockie rainbow.


The only other excitement came as I was stripping a minkie (did I say that out loud?) through a shoallow weedy bay. A sudden flash of green and a pike had severed my leader.

Still don't think I have cracked this lake, no where near, and hopefully I will be invited back. There are some truly monstrous resident browns caught by the pike guys well in to double figures. Next time I may bring sinking lines and large streamers in the hope of latching in to one of them.

Added a bit of a "twist" (pardon the pun) to a couple of my favourite lures before I start hammering a few reservoirs over the next week or two. Hopefully they will catch a fish or two.

Twister taddie


Hook: Size 8 longshank korda carp hook (very heavy)
Tail: Chartreuse marabou
Body: Black and chartreuse chenille wrapped together
Hackle: Black hen
Head: Orange thread as a hotspot

Twister Kitten


Hook: Size 8 longshank korda carp hook (very heavy)
Tail and wing: Chartreuse marabou
Body: White and chartreuse chenille wrapped together
Biots: Fluoro orange
Head: Orange thread as a hotspot

On the topic of the hooks I have been using carp hooks for a few of my lures (and big buzzers) for a little while. They have an awesome hook hold and are completely indestructible. Also they weigh an absolute ton so are good for getting flies down without the need for a beadhead. Only issue with them is they are teflon coated to "aid with a smoother hookup" for the carp boys and as a result are slippery in the vice.

Thoughts and comments as welcome as always
Tight Lines
Dan

Fly tying sessions

Had another long tying session today trying to get the hang of tying with turkey biots. I cant thanks gareth Lewis enough for his article here, http://www.ffisw.com/?p=7557, which really helped me get to grips with tying them in properly for the desired effect.

Anyway here are my efforts, not in the same league as his but I am relatively happy with them, any criticisms or suggestions? How many of you tie with turkey biots and what sort of flies do you use them for?

Olive paradun, probably the messiest fly i tied today but it floats really well in the glass of water test and i like the effect on the abdomen so thought i would share.


Tying the biot in the other way round results in the heavily segmented body seen in this CDC dun, not sure which i prefer?!


really liked the effect it created on the bodies above so decided to whack it on a buzzer. Was happy with the effect, the biots seemed to glow in the bright sunlight.


Cheers for reading
Dan

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.



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.


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!


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.

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.

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.


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).


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.




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.



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).


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.




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.