What a Difference a Week Makes

So you go out fishing with much expectation, but you blank.  This happened to me last week, which was surprising given the conditions - warm weather, some cloud cover, river clear and level good.

What was the problem? Hard to say but it may have been the rain over the previous weekend, river did seem slightly colder and that must have been enough to slow the fish down. There was an abundance for fly life from Sedges to Olives but the fish weren't turned onto them. Even fishing a nymph proved fruitless!

But as the title suggests, it hasn't all been like that recently.

The week before, I was fortunate enough to have an afternoon free and went down the lower end of the clubs waters (Wye) on a nice glide above the 'Fly Run'. I managed to take a couple of fish on the top but observing the water there were lots of fish turning in the top of the water so I decided to tie on an extra length of flurocarbon to the bend of my dry hook and attach a nymph - fishing the duo, New Zeland style (possibly my favourite fishing method).

To start with I used a small size 16 Gold Head PTN. This is where the action really took off. In the next hour I took 8 fish, some small some over 1lb and all from the same place that I blanked recently.

I also visited this (sometimes) productive spot over the weekend when the wind and rain arrived and took 4 good size Grayling, again on a nymph - this time a pink body with red ribbing and a Silver Bead.

Brownie on the dry



Brownie on the nymph

Salmon Parr

Best of the day - Grayling of 1lb+

Grayling with the pink fly in its top lip

Yes fishing can be frustrating at times but just being out in the peace and quiet is often enough to relax the mind.  I took a break from the lashing wind and rain and found shelter under a couple of trees. As the wind subsided and rain eased I sat there watching as a gorgeous Kingfisher took flight along the far bank, up and down the river several times before disappearing back into the bank. To be honest I enjoyed seeing the Kingfisher more than catching the fish that day!

One thing I was told when I first started fishing again was:
Its called Fishing, if you caught a fish every time it would be called Catching.

A very simple statement but how true it is. Everyone loves to catch fish, it's why we fish. However, some people get hung up on catching and being better than everyone else (something which has resulted in a lot of discussion recently about Competition fishing - something I hope to talk about again). When these anglers realise there is much more pleasure to be taken from fishing than hooking a 6" 'monster', I think they will really see the benefits.

Until next time...

Predation

Is predation an issue for you?

This is a subject I've touched on with my newest Fishtec Blog post (http://blog.fishtec.co.uk/is-predation-spoiling-your-fly-fishing).  However its something I wanted to elaborate on a lot more.

Let me just summarise how this season is going:

• On my private syndicate lake there were anything up to 6 Cormorants at one time and also Mink.
• On the Rivers Wye and Irfon there are reports of a re-introduced family of five Otters. As well as Cormorants and Goosanders.
• On my Angling Clubs (Builth Wells AC) newly redeveloped Coarse lake we have had to install electric fencing as the Otters (reintroduced to the river) had eaten the majority of fish - after significant loss and cost, the lake now restocked and we're preparing for opening soon.
• Rhayader AC has a Cormorant/Goosander watch record sheet at Llyngwyn, which is regularly updated with sightings.

But what can be done?

I support the Angling Trusts campaign 'Action on Cormorants', which has called for Cormorants and Goosanders to be added to the General License (shoot/kill) making it legal to protect our fisheries. Currently you have to apply for a license, which isn't granted all that often - this takes time and money, something Angling Clubs and Fishery owners don't have.   Check out the campaign www.anglingtrust.net/cormorants

Otters on the other hand are a protected species under UK and European Law.  Their conservation is paramount or they could be lost from the countryside, something that nearly happened in the early 1980's.

I don't support mindless culls of the birds but we need to be given an option. There are fine lines between conservation and control and you must look at them as one issue. Unfortunately if the Otters are there, there isn't much we can do. However, I was told recently it's better to have Otters than non-native inhabitants such as Mink. With native species, the 'circle of life' will settle down and the fish will thrive once more.  Lets hope that's true.

Our rivers have been quiet, we put this mainly down to the Otters as they had been seen on the banks and basking in the sun on some of the exposed stone islands. Recently, the Shad arrived for their yearly spawn run - 8 of them were found dead on one of my favourite fishing spots not 2 days after they were first spotted. To confirm if it was in fact Otter predation, I sent this picture to our club Secretary Lance:

 



 His response made me chuckle:

The prosecution would like to sum up :-

The slash along the side is consistent with an incision to gain access to the roe of the fish. I cannot think of any other animal other than an otter or a fish eagle which is capable of catching a Shad and inflicting such a wound. I believe that the presence of a fish eagle would have been noticed and commented upon and, in the absence of such observations, the weight of evidence supports the theory that an Otter, or Otters caused the mass fishicide. The little swines!

Despite the comical nature of his response, he was quite right!

But with fish stocks under threat and people's lively hood potentially under threat, it's doesn't look like there is anything 'legally' we can do.  With bird numbers booming and Otter reintroduction seemingly apparent, what is the next step? I'm at a loss.

Despite these issues, I have been catching plenty of juvenile fish. 

Could it be they are simply too small for the predators? Or are things not as bad as they seem? Only time will tell I think.

Until next time...

The Airflo Story

Guest blog from Fishtec.

Take a look behind the scenes at Airflo. Be part of an 'on the water' and 'in the factory' tour explaining Airflo's patented materials and Fly line manufacturing process.

Its a very interesting video especially if you like to know what goes into making your favourite fishing gear.

Click to see The Airflo Story

Until next time...

If It's Not Broke

With the rivers not really satisfying my fishing hunger due to them being unusually quiet (due to the weather) and having picked up a summer permit at Llyngwyn I spent this past Sunday there.  Having netted 15 fish on my last visit I was optimistic, you can see my previous last post (http://finallyfishing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/llyngwyn.html)

Tactics remained the same - Intermediate line, counted down 10 seconds, Cats Whisker , stripped back with a short sharp retrieve.  This lead to 16 fish to the net and at least half a dozen more on an off.  Plus I managed to catch a full compliment of trout species from the lake; Brown, Blue, Rainbow.

In this post I wont go into any more detail just give you some pictures, which hopefully you'll enjoy.

A panorama shot of the lake from the boat house bank

The bay - BIG Carp live here

The Boat House

Gorgeous Brownie - safely returned 



Rainbow

Blue

The Island - a view from The Bay



The Island - a view from the Boat House Bank



And it's goodbye from him

 Until next time...

Llyngwyn

Llyngwyn Lake, run by the Rhayader and Elan Valley Angling Association.

This was the second time I visited Llyngwyn in the last couple of weeks (I have one post on the Fishtec blog), having now taken a summer permit to fish the lake I’ll be spending more time fishing there.


A view of Llyngwyn trough the trees (boat house side)

Llyngwyn holds fond memories for me being the place I caught my first fish on the fly.  The previous visit  was difficult, the wind was high and it was bitter cold.  This time round it was a milder day and there was barely any wind, however, there was still a bite in the air.

I was fishing with a good friend Dan Graham, we met up by the lake and went to get Dan’s day ticket and also get the keys to take out a boat.

At the lake, as is common practise given the weather, I put on my Simms freestone waders, Guideline jacket and Buff. I tackled up 2 rods. A 6wt Flextec with an Airflo ridge intermediate line to pull the lures, I added 10ft 8lb G3 leader and a black Zonker. I also tackled up my 4/5wt Sreamtec Nantec rod with 15 ft 7lb G3, with a bloodworm on the point and 2 black buzzer imitations on the droppers. To be fished under a strike indicator.

We loaded the boat, and made out way from the boat house out into the lake.  The water was smooth as we set anchor about 30-40 ft from the boat house.  It was safe to say we weren’t the best boatmen! Having finally got ourselves sorted, we cast out. 

Boat House

I was casting with the wind behind me, towards the bank whereas Dan was casting into the light wind out into the middle of the lake.  All around us there were ripples on the surface, the fish were obviously up on the top and taking but we couldn’t work out what.  Even on close inspection of the water we were at a loss.  I carried on with the lure, stripped back on a short, fast retrieve having given the fly only time to get wet once it hit the surface.  Before long I was in, a good rainbow of 2 ½ lbs.  Catching him was the easy bit, as neither me nor Dan had ever really fished from a boat, landing him was an issue – a bit of teamwork finally did the job.  After a couple more casts another fish, this time a blue trout (unfortunately the pic I took didn’t come out!).  Both fish were spooned but they were empty – didn’t really help us did it.

Having had 2 and Dan none, we switched places and Dan was soon into fish.  His 2^nd of the day was this gorgeous blue trout.
 

In from that spot I had 2 and Dan had 4 before the wind really picked up.  Despite the anchor being down, we kept drifting and drifting.    We bobbed around on the boat until just after lunch when we decided to head back to dry land a fish from the bank.

By the time we set up on the bank, most of the other anglers had left for the day having not been too successful.  We decided to fish the lure again.  Within minutes I was in, and again, and again! Things were going crazy.  Dan moved up to where I was fishing and immediately caught.  The fish were probably relatively fresh stockies patrolling along the bank close to where they were put into the lake but I didn’t care… it was so much fun.  Dan casually asking how many I had caught, I was up to 6 (he was on 5), suddenly things turned into a friendly competition.  Fish after fish after fish came to the net.  I took this gorgeous 4lb rainbow, the pic doesn’t do him justice but he went back in to grace other anglers net.

We worked out the fish were moving in shoals.  Things went quiet for us both, then an angler at the one end of the bank had a fish, all of a sudden I was in and so was Dan.  I’ve never had sport quite like it but it really was seriously good fun.  I don’t care about having the biggest fish or the most I just really enjoy catching fish and as they were coming in so frequently it was bliss.  If you were wondering, I finished on 15, Dan 17.  Now to some people, this may not seem like a huge amount of fish to be caught in a day but from Llyngwyn you don’t see these numbers coming out all that often, especially given that 15 had been caught but the other angler down the bank the same afternoon. 

I don’t regularly take my bag limit of fish but due to the frequency of the stocking at Llyngwyn it is encouraged – here are the first 4 caught on the day.

Not just the fishing but the wildlife is great too.


Red Kite on the hunt

Im definitely heading back soon.  I bought myself an new 9’ 6wt Greys GRXI+  and a Greys GX500 reel from Fishtec in the week and I’m waiting on the new Airflo Super-Dri lines to come into stock so I’ll get a review written for them.  I’m buying both a wf4 and wf6 line so I’ll review them from both the river and a Stillwater.

Until next time…