06/06/2014 - Go local, go light!

Been finding as I get older (!!) that I'm less inclined to drag loads of gear with me when I go fishing. I suppose that's why trout fishing has regained its appeal, especially on small streams where all I need are my fly rod, landing net and a small sling bag to carry my bits and bobs. I'm also loathed to travel too far as distance = time + money in my eyes, neither of which are in great abundance nowadays! Fishing local and light means I can fit in short sessions as and when, as was the case today. Had a morning meeting down in Leicestershire, so left home a few hours earlier and headed for the small brook I'd had a couple of sessions on last year. This time I'd arranged prior access with the farmer, so I wouldn't be looking over my shoulder all the time! Arrived to find the brook running low and gin clear. With the sun rapidly coming up it looked like it might be a bit of grueller and so it turned out. Had a "bump" first cast, but then had nothing for the first hour, despite covering lots of ground and all of the usual spots. Was having to fish blind a lot of the time, because when did pop my head over the marginal vegetation all I saw was a puff of silt and a rapidly retreating bow wave heading upstream! Was beginning to get a bit frustrated when I dropped the nymph into a near bank run and got a proper rattle - fish on at last!   

Phew!

Eventually came to the "banker" pool, but even that was a bit dour today. Only managed to tempt one small, but very pretty, fish out of it. 

What a handsome fella'

Had not ventured past this point on the brook before, so went for an explore and spotted a fish holding station in a shallow run. However, I surprised to see that it was a roach. He looked like he'd had a run in with a heron, so I left him alone and carried on upstream to the next pool. First cast in I saw a a big white mouth open to intercept the nymph as it drifted downstream. Gave it some welly to get it out of the pool and away from snags. Was a really good big, dark fish and I could see every spot on it as it charged around in the clear water. Was getting ready to net it when the hook popped out with the fish just out of range - aaargh! Changed the fly and disconsolately dropped it in again. Was surprised to get another take and even more surprised when it turned out to be a little perch.    

Stripey

Was running out of time by now, but one more pool under a tree beckoned. The cast was bit awkward, but I managed to flick the nymph up into the deeper water - bang!  Was a nice, densely spotted fish that gave me a good run around in the confined space and a decent consolation for the one I lost.

Spotty

That one really did call time on proceedings, so it was back to the car and back to the grindstone.... 

21/05/2014 - Trophy trout from neglected streams

If you're familiar with Glen Pointon's blog (see my blog list) you'll have seen that he has been catching some massive trout from a relatively small and underfished river. It's certainly encouraging in this day and age that these waters and, more importantly, these fish still exist. That, along with Theo Pike's enthusiasm about urban trout rivers (see my links), has really inspired me to pick up the fly rod again and get out and explore. My latest trip was over to Derbyshire to fish a club water on a small tributary of the River Derwent. Took the morning off work when, with hindsight, I should have had the whole day. Had never been before but knew that a bit of jungle warfare was going to be involved, so took the 7 ft #4 outfit and the chest waders thinking I'd be spending more time in the river than on the bank.

Gateway to the unknown!

Dropped into the river and waded up underneath the railway bridge at the lower boundary. There were blizzards of gnats hovering above the water in places, but no visual signs of any fish, so opted for the upstream nymph approach with a size 14 goldhead GRHE. Had a couple casts into some likely looking spots with no interest from the fish before coming to the first proper run into a little pool. First cast - bump! Second cast - fish on! A decent one to start with as well. 

Beauty!

Carried on wading slowly upstream, picking off fish here and there, with the deeper runs next to submerged tree roots almost guaranteeing a take, along with the odd obvious "suicide swim"!

  

 Hit and hold!

The fish were quite variable in terms of colouration, but were all fin perfect and the ones from the more inaccessible spots from the bank probably had never seen a hook before. 

Perfect

Some of the pools were suprisingly deep. I was stood up to the front pocket of my chesties in one of them, casting up along some more tree roots, when I had a thump on the rod tip. Knew it was a good fish, but was conscious of snags, so really gave it some welly, pulling it by the nose into the main body of the pool. Let it charge around until it was ready for the net. Have to admit letting out a shout of "Yessss!" as I lifted it clear of the water. At about 41 cm this was easily my biggest, wild  brownie and a fantastic surprise.

Bruiser

Took a couple of photos and slipped him back into his tree root-lined hole to recover while I had 5 minutes myself!

Look at the paddle on that!

Could have quite happily finished and gone home at that point, but I still had a bit of time before I had to go to work and I hadn't reached the upstream limit of the fishery, so carried on. There were a few visual indications by now, with the odd fish rising and bulging under the surface. I'd spotted just one "proper" mayfly resting on the bankside vegetation earlier, but I couldn't really see what they were after apart from the millions of gnats, so carried on with the nymph. Had a few more fish including a couple of "fingerlings", a sign of a healthy population hopefully, and a really pretty, heavily spotted fish.

Derbyshire leopard

My time was really up at this point, so regretfully had to leave, having to ignore several more juicy spots to try another time. However, slogged it back to the car along the road well pleased with a dozen fish in about three hours of fishing, including my own trophy trout! 

04/05/2014 - At last, a Devon bass!

After my successful session after those Braunton brownies next up were those elusive, Devon bass. Headed off after breakfast to meet up with Joel Squires down on the estuary again. Had a quick catch up in the car park. Things sounded promising. The coastal marks weren't really producing yet, but Joel had been exploring the estuary and found a few fish. Continued our chat as we walked down to the shore. Was surprised to see that whole sections of sand dune had disappeared since my last visit. The old, wooden shipwreck had taken a battering as well - all evidence of the recent storms that had also demolished the beach hut at Saunton.

Seen better days!

It was slack water after high tide when we arrived, so we started off on the surface lures. Didn't take long for the tide to start to turn, so we slowly moved along with it. Joel quickly had two "basslets" in consecutive casts on a Patchinko, but with nothing more coming after that it was time to move further down the shore and for a change in method. Off came the surface lures and on went 4" Daiwa D'Tails on 14g swimmer jig heads. With the tide now ebbing strongly, it was a case of casting slightly "upstream", tightening up when the jig hit the deck and then keeping in touch with it as bounced along the bottom in the flow. We'd been casting and moving for a while, when I Iooked up to see Joel hit into a good fish.

  

Joel into one

He had just seemed to get it under control when........it came off, much to his disgust! However, it wasn't long before he'd had two more small bass and a flounder (hooked fairly in the mouth). Glanced over a bit later to see his rod bent over yet again and was wondering what I was doing wrong when I had a good solid, unmistakeable clonk on the rod tip. Phew! Was just a small one, but my first Devon bass after a while trying and therefore very welcome.

D'Tail does it...

...at last!

Joel's turned out to be about 2 lb. However, his next one was even better and the biggest of the day - a nice looking fish of 3 lb+.

The big one goes back

Unfortunately that fish also proved to be the last one of the day, the chances of any more ebbing away as we hit low tide. We'd covered a huge distance in a few hours fishing, so the walk back to the cars seemed to go on forever.

Big spaces

I'd also forgotten to put any sun cream on when we started, so was glowing as well as knackered when I got back to the bungalow! Was great fun though and thanks again to Joel. Check out his website via my links, or his new blog at http://joelsoul.com/, and look him up if you're ever in North Devon - he knows his stuff!

03/05/2014 - Braunton Brownies

Bank Holiday weekend saw me down in Saunton with the lads for our bi-annual surf trip. As well as catching a few waves and continuing the search for an elusive Devon bass, I also had my mind on the trout I spotted in the River Caen in neighbouring Braunton the last time we were down, so had thrown in my 7ft #4 brook outfit in the car along with the wetsuit and the lure rod.

Welcome to Braunton!

The river in question runs right through the middle of the town before dropping, literally, into the estuary via a fish ladder (apparently the river also has a run of sea trout).

River Caen fish ladder

Immediately upstream of this point the river meanders through an overgrown bit of a no-man's land between industrial units and a superstore. It was this section I decided to try, so set the alarm clock to get there nice and early before the general population of Braunton were up and about. Ignored the boring, uniform bit near the fish ladder and waded upstream. Bare patches on the banks of the first decent pool I came to indicated some local fishing pressure. However, carrying on up the less accessible tree-lined channel revealed more pools and loads of hidden runs, riffles and pockets. 

Trouty

Woody (and plastic!) debris

Even though it was early in the morning and still quite cold, there was even a couple of small trout rising to some small midgy things in the first run I came to. Catapulted a gold head GRHE up to the head of the run and let it trundle back towards me. Second cast I had my first wild Devon Brownie in the net.

Braunton Brownie

Carried on upstream, flicking and catapulting the nymph into any likely spots, picking off a fish here and there, but bumping many more that were just too quick for me. Had a better fish from a run just upstream of a graffiti-covered bridge proclaiming, amongst other things, that "Goths are c***s"! 

Pretty

Urban artwork

Hooked and lost a couple in the occasional bits of urban debris littering the bed of the river before tempting one out from right under the footbridge over to the superstore.

Urban Spotty

A few early morning shoppers had started to appear by now, but none expressed anything other than mild curiosity at me as I sneaked around in the undergrowth underneath their feet. However, had one more from a run in front of a block of apartments before I started getting self-conscious and decided to call it a day.

Last one

Headed back to the bungalow to find the others just starting to emerge from their pits and feeling pretty smug about my trip into the "Dalek Zone".

Exterminate!

Roll on October when we'll hopefully be back again.......

21/04/2014 - Bank Holiday bass

Last day of the holiday and the first morning where low tide actually coincided with first light, so I was itching to have a session after the bass. However, the weather hadn't been brilliant the day before - cold, windy and wet - so when I drove down to the estuary at Lawrenny just before dawn I wasn't feeling 100% confident. Got there to find the wind funneling down the inlet, pushing waves up against the incoming tide and rocking the boats on their moorings. 

Windy

The wave action on the shore had caused the water to colour up slightly, so I swapped my usual Megabass X-120 for its bigger, brighter brother - an X-140 in pearl rainbow. Had been casting away for about an hour, getting less and less confident, when the tip went 'round out of the blue. Just a schoolie, but very welcome.

Baby bass

Carried on with renewed enthusiasm and a few casts later hooked a fish that took off like a scalded cat, making several runs and taking line off the clutch before I got it under control. The reason soon became apparent when I got it in the shallows - a grey mullet hooked firmly in the tail!

Not quite a first!

There had been a few showing - some jumping clean out of the water - so there were obviously a few around. However, I've got plans for these chaps in the summer, so wasn't too disappointed that my first mullet on the bank didn't really count. By this time the margins had really started to colour up as the tide pushed up the muddy shore, but I decided to stick it out a bit longer. Moved up the shore slightly and tried a few casts along the boundary between coloured and clearer water.

Feature?

Was rewarded with another clonk on the rod tip and another schoolie.

Spikey

Had a few casts around the corner in the relative calm of the main estuary, but without any further success, so called it a day and headed home for breakfast.

17/04/2014 - More spotties and a bar of silver

Tried a different section of river today that I'd found on Google Earth, this time several miles upstream of where I was previously and therefore quite different in nature - a faster, shallower channel hemmed in between a steep wooded bank and the site of an old trout farm, with the only access by wading down the river itself from a ford upstream.

Into the valley

Fished the pockets and the deeper, steadier sections with same team of flies as before. First fish was an 8", solid bar of silver that spent more time in the air than the water. Unfortunately it wriggled out of my grasp before I got a photo, so I was left guessing whether I'd caught my second ever sewin, or my first ever salmon. Was spotties after that, including best fish of the holiday so far that punched well above its weight in the fast current.

Fin perfect

Again it was the goldhead GRHE on the point that took the honours, with just a single fish coming on the top dropper.

One on the Partridge

There was some good news when I got back to the house - Angus had decided that he'd had enough of being hungry and mobbed by crows, buzzards and squirrels and had allowed Alex and and his wife, Emma, to finally catch him after four days on the run.

The wanderer has returned!

Found him safely installed on the lawn looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but then again who'd argue with him?!

16/04/2014 - Welsh spotties

Packed the trout and bass gear for our latest trip down to the in-laws in Pembrokeshire. Was particularly looking forward to catching a few Welsh Brownies again. Often used to pop down to the local river with the fly rod but, for one reason or another, had just got out of the habit. However, first job was to assist with "Operation Angus"! My brother-in-law, Alex, had recently purchased an immature White-tailed Sea Eagle for his falconry business and was in the process of training him to fly to the glove, but on his second free flight he decided to go AWOL. Fortunately he had a radio transmitter on, so the majority of our first day was spent helping to track and keep an eye on him until he was in the mood to come home. By late afternoon he seemed to have settled down on the roof of a barn at a local farm, so we left Alex to babysit him and await reinforcements. Took the opportunity for a quick trip down to a free section of river I'd fished regularly in the past - about 400 metres of nice riffly water sandwiched between a high wall alongside a road and some private gardens.

Nice!

There wasn't much in the way of fly life visible when I got there (it had been sunny, but with a cold breeze all day), so set up a cast of three wet flies consisting of a gold head GRHE on the point, a Greenwell's Glory on the bottom dropper and a Partridge and Orange on the top, all size 14. Waded in at the top of the section, aiming to run the flies down the line of trees on the far bank, and had a take second cast from a little Welsh Brownie that scrapped in the current all the way to the net.

Welsh Spotty

Fished on slowly downstream for an hour or so taking eight more as I did so, including a "double shot" on the point fly and bottom dropper. 

Two at once!

Caught on all three flies, with the gold head marginally taking the honours. Didn't quite make it down to the bridge as a chap and his lad appeared and started casting from the wall just downstream of me. That's the trouble - "free" sections of river in this neck of the woods don't stay free for long! Called it a day at that point, but was pleased with my first recce.