Thursday 28 May 2015

The Mayfly

I have not found time to write recently, thankfully though that is not for lack of fishing. The last few weeks have seen several trips to the club water and to the river Wensum in Norfolk. None of these were particularly memorable trips and although fish were caught the going was hard.

More recently things have looked up thanks to the mayflies making an appearance. I saw my first mayfly on the 17th May.

Ephemera Danica
Although the fish were taking the odd dun I could not tempt them to a dry mayfly. They were happy to take a big klink though and I had a good day catching 20 (10 trout, 9 grayling and a chub) fish all told. I did resort to a black gnat to tempt one good fish in a slow pool that proved tricky to catch.

Tricky one on a black gnat
A good fish taken on a large Klinkhamer
By my next trip on the 22nd the hatch was in full swing. This was a Friday evening trip and the fish were taking spinners. I managed to lose the only two spinner patterns I had after only a few fish. I was fortunate that the fish were not too selective though and would take a Danica PHD freely.

16" Trout taken on a Danica PHD
This fish was the best taken on that trip measuring 16". An accurate cast was needed as it was feeding on spinners drifting into a small back eddy near the head of a deep pool. Casting as I was over the main flow I could only manage a second or two of drag free drift, but that proved to be plenty as the fish nailed the fly as soon as it hit the surface. This was a productive trip yielding 12 trout several of which were over 12".

My most recent trip was on bank holiday Monday (24th May). I fished with my friend Eliot who I have fished with since I started fly fishing a few years ago. You could say he's responsible for my getting into fly fishing as it was he who suggested going on an Anglian Water beginners course in the first place.

Anyway, we arrived around lunchtime and from the off it was clear that mayflies were going to be the order of the day again. I caught a small fish bow and arrow casting in the very tight bottom of the beat.
Bow and Arrow casts are needed at the bottom of this beat
Eliot was into the first good fish in a pool containing several rising fish.

A good trout for Eliot
The day continued with us regularly rising fish to our flies. Unfortunately Eliot was having trouble getting them to stick and only managed two more fish to hand. I was more fortunate managing 11 including my best fish of the year so far.

I had tried for this fish on my last visit. It sits under the low overhanging branch in the centre of this picture. The pool is slow and there are trees and bushes making a back cast impossible. Slotting a fly under the low branches is not easy and one bad cast puts the fish down, as I learned to my cost on my last visit.

A tricky cast to get a good presentation under the low
hanging bush in the centre of this picture
This time however I managed to pull it off and no sooner had I done so the fish nailed the fly. Life was made somewhat difficult by the deflector in the foreground of the picture as the fish made straight for it and I had to quickly wade up the river to head it off before it snagged me. That achieved getting the fish to the net was a relatively simple affair and I was rewarded with my biggest trout of the season so far. The fly that did the damage today was an OE Mohican Mayfly tied for me by Ben Lupton.

A fat 17" fish from a tricky spot and a happy angler
I'm hoping for a few more mayfly adventures before they pack in for this year and its off to Yorkshire again in a couple of weeks too.

Saturday 2 May 2015

Closer to Home

I had more or less half a day to fish today. I was able to get away at 12 and needed to be back for 5. Not wanting to waste time in the car I decided to fish a small river that is much closer to home than the main club water. This takes about 25 minutes off the journey giving me more fishing time.

The river is very small, just two metres across in many places with some wider sections. The lower half of the beat is very overgrown, real jungle warfare. Having heard this and not having fished this river before I opted for a 7ft 6 4wt rod. As I was expecting to be fishing nymphs predominantly I left the french leader on and stuck on a couple of nymphs.


This is one of the pools towards the bottom of the beat looking downstream after I had fished through. It was bow and arrow casts through here and the pool below but I managed to pick up two small fish to put any thoughts of a blank to bed.


This unassuming pool came next. It didn't look much, I had half an eye on the pool under the bridge which looked even more promising but I expected there to be a small fish or two to pick up on the way.



I flicked my line upstream and about half way down the pool the indicator stopped and I lifted into a feisty and much bigger fish than I expected.

 That little copper head PTN doing the business again
Photographed and released I continued up this small pool not expecting another fish having already taken this good one. Just a few feet further up my indicator darted away again almost the moment it touched down. I lifted into something very solid and which kept its head down. After a spirited fight this fish glided over the net.

16" Brown Trout
The first fish was well over 12" so to get another sizeable fish out of a small pool was a very pleasant surprise. I added a third of similar size to the first out of this pool on my way back to the car later on on a dry fly too. Its not more than about 3ft deep and quite a narrow run too but is clearly a favoured lie for several good sized fish.

I continued on. This fish was small but I post it because of its very silver colouration, strikingly different from any of the other fish I had in the day. 


About 3pm a few LDOs started hatching and it wasn't long before the trout started rising in a pool ahead of me. I picked up a small fish further down on a dry fly using the french leader and the noticed a number of fish rising here.


I tried a few casts but the wind had picked up and I was having trouble getting the french leader to present the dry fly with the wind coming directly downstream. Switching to a standard line allowed me to rest the pool and watch where the fish were rising. They were clearly enjoying themselves, several fish coming completely out of the water in their efforts to catch the hatching duns. I picked up this fish on one of Bens barbour paraduns.

Unfortunately there I had to leave it and drag myself away downstream, I had to get back home and left the hatch in full swing.

Yorkshire Days 2 and 3 - The Wharfe and Pale Wateries

After fishing with Danny I headed up to Ilkley to meet up with some guys from Invicta FFC. I recently joined having been invited to join one of their winter programme evenings, an excellent talk by Steve Cooper of Cookshill by Norman Shippey who I met at the Rutland Fly Fair. This was my first outing with Invicta.

We fished the Bolton Abbey stretch of the Wharfe. Oscar Boatfield joined us on the first day to give the members some instruction on french nymphing techniques which was new to many. It was helpful to have some tips from Oscar especially on a larger river where a longer line is needed; not somewhere I've use a french leader before. 



The water temperature was noticeably lower than the smaller rivers I'd fished the day before. Around 6C according to the river keeper and he reckoned we'd pick up a few fish but it wasn't going to be easy.

As we set up there was some discussion about fly choice.


I was surprised at the weight of the flies Oscar recommended but he proved to be right of course and the jig back nymphs I had tied over the winter proved ideal alongside a large PTN with a 3mm bead head.

In the morning Peter Oldham and I made our way downstream to fish whilst the other 4 had some instruction from Oscar to get them started. Both Peter and I had used a french leader before so we let those who hadn't have some instruction first. I was quite keen to get on with it too having had a late start due to traffic on the A1.

We fished a lovely pool which was wide enough for us to fish side by side and each work a different bubble line. About half way up the pool and shortly after Peter had reminded me that I needn't be polite and wait for him to catch the first fish, my indicator darted away and my rod bent into a good sized grayling. This was quickly released.

A few metres further along the indicator stopped and I struck into my first Wharfe brown trout. I was pleased and surprised to get such early success.

First Wharfe Brownie
First Wharfe Brownie
It wasn't long before Peter was in on the action too as he struck into another grayling.

Peter plays a grayling
Peter picked up a further trout from this pool before we wandered back to join the other for lunch. They were still occupied so we went upstream and found a couple of nice pools to try for half an hour before they stopped for lunch.


There was a sparse hatch of LDOs coming off and I did see a couple of fish rise but it was short lived and so I persisted with the nymphs. I took a further trout and another grayling from this pool.


Peter had a good grayling in the next pool along too. 

We stopped for lunch after that. Unfortunately the afternoon proved much more tricky, apart from a few missed takes I had nothing to show for my efforts the rest of the day. I didn't mind really as I'd already caught loads of fish the previous day so it was nice to relax and explore. I walked quite a long way upstream after lunch to see what lay ahead for the next day. Great pool and riffle sequences are ten a penny on the Bolton Abbey water, loads to go at and a good stamp of fish.



Not many fish were caught at all in the afternoon, but it was pleasing that all in the group managed at least one fish in the day.

I was looking forward to day two but unfortunately I was struck down overnight with food poisoning and there ended my trip. I didn't miss much apparently as the fishing was even harder the next day with most blanking. Not much consolation when you're dealing with entirely the wrong kind of pale wateries.

I can't complain though, what a fantastic few days in Yorkshire. I'm going back in early June too...