Thursday, 25 August 2011

Tiny flies and Brown trout


I had a short trip to the Yorkshire Dove yesterday ,  the river was still reasonably fresh following the recent rains and although at a typical low summer level it was carrying a tinge of colour.  There were few signs of fish rising other than the the tiny fish that were in the fast shallow runs.  The best tactic I have found when the river is slow and there are few rising fish to target is to use a small CDC F fly either a 18 or 20 . This general pattern seems always able to winkle out the odd fish when cast to the holding places and in to likely lies.  Either that or a Nymph into the deeper pools.  Today it was the F Fly approach .



Today three hours fishing resulted in 3 trout it was hard going .  Two were about 4oz apeice the third was this beauty that was sipping something tiny from the edge of the reeds on a slow glide.  It gave a very good account of itself with that paddle of a tail. The fly was a size 20 on a 2lb point.



After witnessing a kick sampling session on the river recently and viewing the results the comment was passed that generally we all fish with flies that are way to large, this after seeing the average size of the nymphs and resultant olives that hatched in the sampling tray afterwards .  A size 20 cdc is about as close a match as you can get.  perhaps the trout dont care , but my view is that sometimes they do and sometimes its essential .  I think that strict imitative patterns are ok but generally what really matters is size and presentation.  So often I see anglers on the river with boxes of different patterns but only in size 14 and maybe 16 , perhaps its because that is what the shops sell.  Who knows?  but I probably use less than a dozen patterns for 95% of my fishing but I will have sizes right down to a 20 , I would have 22s as well but my eyes arent up to the job. I am convinced that fishing flies and nymphs down to a size 20 dramatically increases my catches...



The Dove carrying a little extra colour.....

Saturday, 20 August 2011

Autumn is on the way the Grayling are here


Surely the Grayling is amongst the most impressive of our fishes. The grace and colours make the description " the lady of the stream"  richly deserved. It is my favourite fish.


The Ure has now reurned to a sensible level and colour after weeks of extremely low water thanks to  the spates of a couple of weeks ago the river is now at a nicely fishable level.  In the pic below A couple of weeks ago the stones were dry out past the overhanging tree now we are showing a river at a healthy level..  The water now has a deep brown colour but not cloudy.Just like a good strong beer.   



The grayling are in the faster runs but fishing with a dry klinkhammer was difficult the water was so turbulent keeping sight of the fly was a problem . I had to resort to a klink with a bright red foam post.  Not a fly I would pick naturally but given the circumstances,,,




There were were many Olives hatching . You would describe it as a heavy hatch. but surprisingly hardly a fish was seen rising.  I fished a klinkhammer into the faster runs the result was four grayling three of which were of the " three to a pound" variety the fourth a better male fish pictured here.  Not a big fish but a good fish none the less on a day when fish were hard to win.  I didnt see a trout rise all day.







The foam post klink. Not a subtle fly but  workman like and now well chewed .  The Grayling at least seem to enjoy it.  Great for fishing the duo but also good for just staying afloat.  However I muct improve my tying as from time to time the fly was stuck on its side in the surface film,  a position when its not going to fool anything...

The wheat fields shows that Autumn is on the way.  Much as I hate the winter the months of Sept and Oct can bring such great fishing ,  a late sea trout run and the Grayling fishing can make a stunning end to another year.




Saturday, 13 August 2011

Mixed fortunes Some Trout and a few Grayling


Its been a while since my last post July is a month of mixed feelings and due to my desire to get out fishing as often as possible and a busy time at work and at home my blog has got badly neglected.  July saw plenty of fishing for me.  In fact I think I visited nearly all the rivers I fish. Its been a month of very low waters when the better visits followed straight on the heels of any rain that we had.  Or visits were at the very end of the day when the fish were moving into the faster shallow riffles where oxygen levels were a little higher.  Fly hatches have been very meagre at odds with this time last year.  The stone flies and Olives are the only flies that have put in much of an appearance


There have been plenty of wild browns to be caught this year,  the stocked fish seem to have cleared of into the depths of the deep pools.  Where they have been safe from me as I have fished dries pretty much exclusively apart from a couple of trips where I flirted briefly with spiders.  But the faster deep runs were so short of water the fish had slunk of downstream into the deeper slower runs.  I do fish Nymphs but not often not  because of any dry fly snobbery but I just find something intensely satisying about seeing that rise and take.  Saying that I need to improve my river nymphing skills and especially czech nymphing for the ladies.

I have caught many bonny fish this last  month from all the rivers .  The only thing thats now missing for the year is a sea trout. The local river has been deadly low and any storms seemed to have missed its tiny catchment. We want a few days of rain now. and plenty of it.



One this is certain there is a healthy population of trout at the moment evrything from adults to parr seems to want to be in on the act.

The last month have seen the grayling moving into the faster waters and taking the Klinkhammer with eagerness.  I havent connected with anything decent yet but there are lots of fish there.  I love the grayling I think they are my favourite fish .



I have been experimenting this year fishing the duo after watching it put to effective use one day.  So I have been tying some klinks with a foam post impressive results so far.  The foam post seems to make em damn near unsinkable, and the right colour makes them nice  and visible in the fatser water.



Even the tiniest of Grayling have been taking the dries this month.  I am hoping that the next few months brings me some of their older relatives..

So lets talk about the past year and the future...

  It really has been a strange sort of a year . A spring so wet it was biblical .  Followed by a summer that never really matured it was eit...