First signs of summer and first on a dry

Last season this upland stream was new to me ,  it was great to fish during those first few weeks when the high waters everywhere meant that this little stream was still fishable due to its pocket water nature and you could always find fish ,  moving on twelve months we have the opposite ,  following the driest march for 60 years the rivers are low , the ground is dry but the pocket water nature of the stream keeps things interesting 

It was a frustrating day to start with its a fair trek down to the river. deep valley through a couple of fields and conifer plantation .   which is not a problem normally and indeed is part of the charm but when you start fishing and realise that the very old silk line that you have used for years and passed the out of season checks is actually past it best and passed failed the giving it a tug test which meant a trek back to the car for a spare reel.  Which is even more frustrating given that usually I have a spare line and reel in the backpack but due to closed season cleaning I had taken the spares out.

Anyway here is my first brown trout of the season ,  small I grant you but very very welcome especially as it took a dry fly . There is no better way to start a season 

There were some clear signs from the huge winter floods the rock below that has been broken in half has the area of a ford focus and the slab is about 450 mm thick , had to imagine just done by water it isn`t me in the picture above. it is an older friend . I was having a breather and watching and learning , 

A couple of days after this I had my first trip of the year to my local chalk stream.  The river was as low as I have seen it and considering it should be bank high from the winter rains it is a worrying state. The stream is of course spring fed and even very heavy rain now would be lost in the ground and not make it into the aquifer.

On the day I took two rods , not something I normally do but the bamboo rod is a winter build on a set of blanks that were made by Barry Grantham and I wanted to try a line on it, Barry said it was based upon the Hardy CC d France taper  , I got it from him some time ago. It was nice to christen it in style .  I didn`t get the line choice quite right so after that fish I put it away and went back to my old faithful Streamflex plus ,

The fish were very fit wildies and this one tail walked up the river like a rainbow . I have had this rod for many years and I still think it is one of the finest longer river rods out there.

The fish  were in beautiful condition 

I couldn`t help taking this picture seemed like spring encapsulated 

Then on Saturday we had a work party on another local stream and afterwards myself and a friend walked the river to discover that the hawthorn flies have decided to show their face early this year. 

Its a pretty little stream and it has become an old friend ,  on the day i would have caught many more on a nymph but while there was a chance of a fish on a dry I was going to persevere , 

I think you can see the fly stuck in his jaw and that by the time I caught this fella the fly had already lost his legs ,  The first few I caught were , well lets just say well smaller ,,,,I don`t like fishing the hawthorn on very fine tippets so never go below 5 x ,  The wing and the legs make it a bugger for twisting the tippet. 

That day I used a new rod and for me a new material .  its glass. well S glass which i think is just glass but a bit faster.  When I was fishing the upland stream I was stumbling about due to me not being very fit after hardly fishing since before Christmas also my balance seems to be not getting any better due to a duff knee and ears that have being in the wars and have affected my balance ,  so I reflected that wafting a four figure value bamboo rod about isn`t the best idea on rough upland streams , Also  I here much chatter these days about the new glass rods so have got this one to try.  its a 7ft 3 wt and has an action very much like cane and not unlike the old Hardy featherweight carbon ,  Watch this space to see it it grown on me , but first impressions are good . 

A very surprising result

 So my last post used a racing analogy .  My Friday a couple of weeks ago  was another day that would be backing the long odds .  Until Thursday evening I had no intention to fish on Friday as the weather forecast was making Saturday look like a certainty for a good day . But late plans meant that on Friday I was heading out to the river again . I was very happily surprised to arrive at the car park, to find very light wind and warm temperatures.

The river looked in great form , rising fish that had been a rarity all season were showing . Not in great numbers but for me it was just right , enough to keep you looking and hoping .  Aware that in two more weeks the trout season would be over for another year .  By then nymphing would be the order of the day and likely nothing else until next summer . All the fish that came to hand were small and eager but ever so welcome .

On the day most fish fell to a cdc and elk , if after a few casts the targeted fish wasn’t playing then a size smaller cdc f fly usually worked . I was determined to avoid the nymph to make the most of the last of the warm summers day 

I was using a Clifford constable 9 ft light line bamboo that I had bought very cheap on eBay , I knew the handle needed some attention but when I looked at it I knew it was past redemption .  Rot had got into the cork and even the bottom inch or so of bamboo was shot .  So a new handle was spun on the lathe and a modern reel seat fitted .  It’s a fine rod but a bit tiring to use all day . The 8ft hollolite I use is the correct weight but a tad short .  I keep thinking a 8ft 6 inch Hardy Phantom might be joining the family . 

Fly line was a Moxon silk half line 

The day as it turned out was a fitting end to the season . I did make another trip back there with a guest . Although the day was very good with excellent company two lost decent fish and a busted landing net took the edge of things .  But it’s hard to complain when you are privileged to fish on such a stunning bit of chalkstream . It won’t be long until next season . 

First on a Dry...

 

I am not sure why the above annual headline is so important to me but I guess its pretty simple really ,  I have always been and always will be a fan of dry fly fishing .  not for any snobbish reasons but simply there is something fascinating to see that moment of the take.  It is that wonderfully visual moment when your deception has been successful. As a small boy before I tasted fly fishing for trout it was always the float that was my chosen method.  On rivers trotting a float effectively is a true art when done properly,  like fly fishing it is also obviously a very visual form of fishing and one also that teaches you an understanding of watercraft and reading currents and understanding the importance of drag . There are so many similarities with fly fishing. Looking back It is 50 years since I took up my first fly rod I am afraid that since then the coarse fishing has gradually slipped away and is now simply a whim or a walk down memory lane as my recent trip with my late fathers gear in the recent blog post.

So there we are,  my first brown trout on a dry of the season on a day when there was low cold water very little fly life and a nasty cold wind. Truth is I was convinced I would not do any good on the waters surface, but I think the river just took pity on me and provided me with one small but beautifully marked rising fish that took my seals fur bodied F Fly and allowed me a moment to admire its perfection.  On the day I also managed to catch two larger but stocked fish , well they weren`t getting a photo, This river produces the most beautifully marked brown trout . The one on the front banner of the blog was from this very section of river,  that is not the largest Brown Trout I have ever caught but every time I look at the picture I recall how perfect that particular fish was .  So far this season has been very strange, the second day of the season was as warm as a summers day and when I visited the river I was greeted by many rising fish ,  trouble is they were all out of season grayling ,  since then I have caught many grayling and few trout, so it was great today to catch no grayling and just brown trout...

The signs of Spring are now well established this tiny island hosted a swan every year when I last fished this section of the river which is actually around ten years ago .  I was amused to thumb back through the catch return back and see my reports still there from all that time ago.  As I stood to take the photo below I recall that many years ago I was sat there having a doze and break and became aware of an agitated buzzing ,  my hearing is pretty poor and it took a while to register that I was sat on the hole to a very large wasps nest . I moved carefully and slowly and managed to avoid stings .  Moving slowly was something I learned as a coarse angler when digging out nests for wasp grubs . I also remember how effective dry cleaning fluid aerosols were as a first line of defence. 

The river is looking pristine at the moment although the signs from the feeder streams are showing low flows already. Without some serious rain in the next few months it will be a very low river indeed by mid summer.

The smell of wild Garlic was pretty overpowering as I walked through it making my way upstream.  It is one of those evocative things that gives a strong sense of time and place ,  it also makes a damn fine soup with a suitable chicken stock. 

long time readers of the blog will recognise this view ,  it hasn`t changed it is still a beautiful river.

CDC Floatants which work best ...my thoughts on a few

A few weeks ago I managed to leave behind my normal CDC floatant when I went out fishing .  I have been using Miracle float for the last couple of years and have been happy with it apart from the cost and the difficulty of buying it .  Anyway I resorted to my red mucilin tippet floatant which I had with me and just made my finger ends greasy by the merest touch of it then worked the CDC between thumb and forefinger . I was astonished by how well it worked as well as anything I have tried, that prompted me to have a bit of an experiment . Over the last few years I have used red mucilin on tippets. Dilly Wax on hackles and miracle float on CDC and have been happy enough .  

As for drying and enhancing your CDC I use a frogs fanny alternative I use the Toads Tush on ebay  and its a fraction of the price and just the same It is just as good as the brand names..

Up front and Just to Clarify that all these were purchased by myself and are a bit of a random selection obviously favouring those that market themselves as CDC products. .  I have tried to get a decent representative sample of whats on the market .  

Its difficult to do a meaningful test on this sort of stuff but this is how I had a go and the conclusions I came to.

The first test was to simply see how long the flies would stay afloat with a single dressing . The two top right were the benchmark both just untreated CDC .  The one without the label is my bottle of miracle float I have been using for quite a while . I repeated this with different new flies including a batch of my home tied fuller dressed ones and the results were very largely the same .  As can be seen the products were by : Loon , Gulff, Veniards , Hends ,Guideline, Miracle Float and Trout hunter ,Dilly Wax and red Mucilin

So the tray with treated flies and a couple of untreated flies .  The f fly without liquid floatant but with the Silca powder treatment worked very well at the first time of treatment 

The two untreated CDC sunk first one sank within a couple of minutes the second at 4.5 minutes , which itself was pleasing as it showed that to some extent the products all worked .  Just as a note in a effort to get identical flies I prevailed upon my mate Richard who is the proprietor of https://www.barbless-flies.co.uk/ who kindly supplied me with them in the interests of Science , I tie my own and very few are identical and I wanted to have new flies for each trial .  The remaining flies all stayed afloat apart from the Loon treated one and after 20 minutes I started tapping the end of the tray I figured this would cause similar disturbance for each fly .  the level of tapping was increased and any further sinkers was noted with the times.  I repeated the test several times the results were remarkably similar .  

The results were as follows: 

The ice cube tray test demonstrated the following :  Flies were just floated without agitation to start with all the treated flies were similar and remained afloat . I allowed them to stay there untouched for 20 minutes . Then I agitated the flies increasingly hard until eventually resorted to pushing them below the surface.

When the periods of agitation were over all but one treated flies still floated each fly was then in turn pushed below the surface .  The flies that kept popping back to the top the best were the Guideline , Miracle float . red Mucilin and Silicon powder , However when the test was repeated with flies that were dried and retreated with floatant the floatability was not as good even for the Silicon powder only .  However when the treated and dried flies were dusted with Silicon all the results were as good as using a new fly with liquid floatant.

Okay so the test report is a bit rambling , but after checking the above results with a bit of riverside checking over the last month or two  this is my conclusion.. 

 1, With CDC floatant its all about getting the amount you use correct, this is influenced by lots of things , Consistency of the product , The thinner ones were harder to apply correctly, the key is having a greasiness between your fingers and then massaging the feathers if there is a real wetness then you have to much , I found the Trout hunter , Gulff , Veniards and Loon Lochsa were on the thin side . The Gulff Nozzle was well designed and helped. The loon nozzle dispensed to much to easily. The Hends and Guideline were good but a little to stiff , after they spent a few minutes in the fridge they were very hard to dispense ,  not ideal for cold days .

2, The best and easier in the field for me are the Miracle float and the red Mucilin which surprised me but to me performed as well as anything as long as the user has a feel for the right amount to use , which is the key to using any of them successfully .

3. Once you have your fly treated initially the key to success is not treating the CDC with more floatant but it is to dry it with Amadou or kitchen roll. ( The bamboo kitchen roll  stuff is best ) or use the elastic band twang trick. just dry and the apply silicon powder to the fly I have caught up to a dozen fish on the same fly by just washing of the fly and going through the process. Doing this test has reinforced what I had been doing for years and it appears that treated flies once drowned and dried seem to retain a slight stickiness which enables the Silicon to stick to the CDC fibres . They work better than flies that had not been treated .

4 .  So my recommendation would be to use either red mucilin , miracle float or guideline. But indeed most of them work but some are just a hell of a lot easier to apply correctly.  Each perform slightly better as temperature varies ,.  Personally I shall use the red mucilin. The other treatments may well end up in the Christmas raffle at my local club.

So.... A new fly should be treated with floatant then after a few casts or when it is drowned,  dried and have Silicon powder applied .  I think that reapplying floatant is counter productive ,  If you have never used any CDC treatements before most will work but the Miracle float and guideline are a good consistency to allow the right amount to be dispensed easily.  If you are used to CDC then I think any will work although a few of the thinner ones were impossible for me to apply correctly ..

This is CDC that has been treated with floatant then fished and dried and had powder re applied 

CDC fly with Silicon powder like toads tush. which clearly clings to flies that have been treated and dried. This is after a few fish and a lot of fishing. 

Underneath Untreated CDC fibres 

I am sure people will read and disagree,  but the key is like a lot of things its not what you use but how you use it.  Incidentally I have been using Silicon powder from the internet for years just filling up the old bottle . If you want to know what I buy then feel free to PM me .....

A little stream and Blue winged olives .

When it all comes down to it ,  as a fly fisherman who loves small streams I guess it does not get any better than a summers evening on a pretty stream with rising fish .  When you analyse it all there are really only a couple of months maybe three at best when the evening rise has a chance to develop properly .  This year apart from Covid lockdown we have had a strange year ,  months of unbroken sunshine which followed a very wet winter , then after the recent hot spell the last few days has seen heavy downpours with rivers rising several metres almost overnight .   Anyway last Friday after viewing the weekend weather report which was for thunderstorms starting that evening and getting worse over the weekend  I decided to risk the weather.  The rivers were fairly settled and it was very warm and sticky. I decided on stretch of river based on how near I could park my Jimny if I had to exit quickly in case of downpours. 

Not big but from a tricky lie and on a dry , it will do nicely 

 I love this stream pretty wild and challenging  but a lovely place to be .  It has a good head of fish to 

It was nice to see rising fish almost immediately ,  not huge numbers but enough to promise an interesting evening ,  there were BWO coming of and so choice of fly was easy .  A size 18 fly fly with a dubbed seals fur body.  Well seals fur and artificial dubbing , I find just seals fur a pain to dub on small flies.  but mixed with some artificial dubbing it works much better.

My only company were these sheep.  They were very curious .  

This is the F Fly pattern I use this is a size 18 .  Love the spikiness of seals fur.  Body dubbing colour varies orange , olive and black are all good depending on whats hatching ,  also plain black thread body and stripped quills ,  It is a hell of a pattern

After a dodgy first 10 minutes when I caught a tree and two clumps of Grass I got into my stride. the fish were rising well but were very spooky ,  generally you only got one cast and in the very tight surroundings you have to get pretty close often roll casts between bushes were the answer ,  but you tend to do a lot of improvised casts , also you seem to spend more time checking behind your arm than aiming at the fish ,  which is why roll and spey casts are so useful as least you can keep the line in front of you.

 Lots around this size were caught ,  The bigger ones were hiding .

My car was well populated with resting fish food when I got back to it .

The highlight of the evening was the fact that the Grayling were rising to dries to . Sadly the best one of the evening was the best one I nearly had after shaking the hook and saying goodbye.  When I got back to the car it was covered in Flies, Mainly BWO but also a few Sedges and I think Olive Uprights .  I drove home after best part of four hours fishing ,  saw a few rain drops and heard the odd rumble of thunder but very little wet stuff. Only three or four miles into my Journey and roads were awash so not just a good night it had been a lucky one .