Bay Slinging

Posted by arbocop, Oct 20 2009, 08:53 PM

20 July - Ilfracombe, Devon. Chucking gripper leads into the surf.

I had a single morning of the second part of the family holiday visting friends in which I decided I would try and catch a bass or a thornback. The nearby beach was good for both apparently, and I had caught bass and doggies here before on the rising tide. This was a two centre holiday visiting friends and I decided to have a go at 'bay slinging' as it would probably be my one and only chance this year. Dug out the Shakespear Salt Bass rods and my multipliers and checked the two up one down, flappers and wishbones etc. I still had plenty of leads amd shock leaders so I would be OK for a morning in the surf. I'll be honest - I don't really know what I'm doing! I do this beach casting malarkey about twice a year tops. One year I went five times, that was exceptional, but it makes a change and I like standing on the beach and casting into the surf.

I went to the local shop the day previous and bought my rag and squid and arrived at the beach at 10am with the tide turning. It looked great and my spirits were high despite having a hangover from drinking too much HSD the night before. I set one rod up and was baiting when a local came along. He chatted and advised me about the surf and tides. I had it all wrong apparently, he then laughed at me trying to hook my ragworm and in the end did it for me. He then laughed at my casting and did that for me as well! At least I managed to cast without bird nesting. It was useful advice though and he was a nice guy, and he hung around giving me hints and tips which I will remember for next time. The doggies were rife apparently and he said he would be surprised if I didn't get one, though he thought a bass unlikely on this tide.

He was partly right. I blanked. I had a brief moment where the rod top bounced away - just as I went to grab the rod and strike I spotted a gull flapping on my line just above the point where it went into the waves. I thought I had a fish! I also managed to drag in a load of weed as the tide reached the top. It took ages extracting the line and leads from the bladder wrack, thomgweed and sugar kelp . When I did, I discovered that the hook had caught a very decayed rabbit. The catch of the day.

One other embarrassing moment - my rods blew down with the tripod. Attempting to push the tripod in a bit deeper, I then lost my footing, I put my full weight on the cross beam and bent it so badly, the tripod wouldn't stay up at all. Finding a rock, I managed to straighten it slightly so that it would hold one rod and fished on. I saw the funny side after a bit.

Sea Fly Fishing 13 July

Posted by arbocop, Oct 20 2009, 08:17 PM

13th July - Fly Fishing for Bass. Pembrokeshire.

The Family holiday. An early morning attempt at catching bass on the fly. Despite a rising tide, and loads of sandeels around, I managed to catch nowt. I spotted a pollack and what looked like a sea trout leaping from the waves around 50 yards out - well out of range. A beautiful spot though, good for wildlife spotting.

Tried again the following day on a different beach. Very fishy looking but still no joy.

The following morning was the last chance as the early tide was getting later and the sun would be too high. I took a plug rod as well and started before light but still nothing.

I've managed to catch at this spot before on the fly and it looked fishy as hell, so I can only assume that there were either too many sandeels or too few bass.

A three day blank!

Big trout and flapping geese...

Posted by arbocop, Aug 4 2009, 09:52 PM

27th June. River Kennet, Thatcham.

5am ‘til 11 am.

Barbel (2lb ish), 6 or 7 Trout (I lost count, but I think I caught at least one twice) biggest 3lb 2oz, Chub (2lb ish) several dace and gudgeon.

An early morning session at the river, timed so that I can get back for brunch with the missus and 8 month old boy.

Dawned warm and hazy at 5am, but looking like it was going to get increasingly bright and sultry later. I decided to fish the second stretch available to me, downstream of my previous early season session. This time I took a 1.5lb TC Avon rod as well as the specimen trotter with the intention of getting a big barbel by trundling pellets, meat etc.

Selected an interesting deep undercut bank leading a shallow, gravel riffle. Started by trotting maggot on the pin, and caught several trout and a small chub in relatively quick succession. With hindsight this was probably a mistake as it would spook any barbel even though the deep undercut appeared undisturbed.

After an hour’s trotting I fed a few pellets and dropped the baited pellet rig in the current following its slow progress along the bottom with my fingers on the line. After nearly an hour of nothing, I switched to hair rig pellet on leger – still nothing! I decided that the aforementioned trotting had ruined everything, so moved downstream to another stretch with a glide followed by a sharp bend.

Starting again on the trotting (I’m addicted) I caught a really good 3lb trout on the second or third run through. It pulled and rushed around so much I was convinced I had a barbel at first. Once landed, it was carefully unhooked, weighed and photographed – it was a wild one as well. I was really pleased with this and carefully held it in the current until it swam away as it had really tired itself out. Following this I managed a barbel of 2lb or so (I didn’t weigh it) and then a couple of dace.



I then tried the trundling, but I had probably ruined the swim by my obsessive trotting. Apart from a chub of around 2lb I got nothing on the trundled or legered pellet, meat or large bunch of maggots. A large extended family of geese started flapping around in the river in what appeared to be an attempt to get the young to move out – I wondered whether this had affected the fishing.

As I was walking back to the car I passed another angler who was setting up in the swim I fished previously. He was legering pellet in the same swim as I was. He appeared pleased when I confirmed that I had already been fishing and feeding the pellet there. I’m not sure I would be!

My season so far on this stretch had been a bit of a disappointment on the chub and barbel front – the trout however had been happy to oblige! Pity they weren’t when I tried to catch them on the fly in May – only managing one.

Urban Mink

Posted by arbocop, Aug 4 2009, 09:51 PM

21st June. River Kennet, Reading.

An overcast early morning session, less than a mile from the town centre. 5am ‘til 10.

8-10 chub to 2lb (lost count) 10-20 dace and roach (lost count).

Trotted maggot caught a chub almost every trot through for the first 30 minutes up to 2lb. The followed by dace and roach to 8oz or so then the swim went dead. In the last two hours I only managed two dace. When the boats started I went home. I pondered whether the chub are put off if you don’t use a keep net (I never do) as this sudden switch off with chub has happened before.

Wildlife – mink (again), birds - cettis warbler (amazing so close to town), reed warblers and a whitethroat.

Happy dreams only lead to disappointment!

Posted by arbocop, Aug 4 2009, 09:50 PM

17th June. River Kennet, Thatcham.

7 chub, biggest 3lb. 5 brown trout to around 1.5lb, 30-40 dace (to 10oz), roach (all small), perch (not much bigger) and loads of gudgeon. In addition, 4 crayfish managed to hang on the hook long enough to go into my bag. Crayfish sandwiches for lunch tomorrow.

First day of the coarse season for me and a day off work! A fairly sleepless night dreaming of large barbel and chub was followed by a relatively overcast morning. Arising at 4am, I was on the water by 5am. Two anglers fishing the boilie had caught a couple of 7 and 8 pounders which was promising. Other than them I was the only angler.

I had missed the trotting over the close season and was determined to catch some large dace, chub and possibly some large barbel, but I always struggle to land barbel when trotting. I have no idea how Chris Plumb manages it (note to self - must ask him about it sometime). I decided that I would start with bread and corn, and consider maggot if these didn’t produce. I walked the bank in my usual roving approach. Several barbel were visible spawning on the shallows, thrashing around. I steered well clear of these areas although I watched them for a while. Most seemed relatively small, certainly no more than about 4lb. An eerie barking indicated the presence of a muntjac deer, this was confirmed when I went round a bend and came face to face with it – both of us jumped and I don’t know who was more surprised!

Fishing a slow stretch with a bend about 40metres downstream, I caught dace, roach and chublets on bread flake or corn, feeding mashed bread and the odd bit of corn. I decided that I wanted more than this and moved off after a couple of hours. I tried another stretch and managed a couple more chub up to about 2lb on bread flake.

Again moving around, I tried a long deep glide and trotted maggot, hoping that the barbel would move in. They didn’t and instead I caught chub, dace roach and then 5 brown trout in quick succession. When I started to get plagued by bleak sucking the bait to death I decided I’d had enough.

Apart from the surprised muntjac I spotted numerous butterflies - painted ladies, commas, meadow brown, small tortoishell, and brimstones, a mink, the ubiquitous red kites, buzzards, as well as sand martins, swifts and swallows in profusion and several kingfishers.

This wasn’t the day I’d dreamt of and nothing really stretched my tackle, but at least I had got back on the water and spun my pin for the day!

Mayfly - and a trout in a pipe!

Posted by arbocop, May 28 2009, 08:48 AM

A long planned trip to the Kennet at Barton Court with a fellow professional. We had been watching the weather forecasts eagerly as it was approaching peak mayfly time and a dull day would keep them down. I had scant time enough to commit to my fishing these days, Patrick - my trout hunting colleague - was a consultant and had even less. I only ever see Patrick at Conferences and this was to be our first day out fly fishing. We both wanted a good day out. True to form for many of my early season trips out, the day didn't deliver on the weather front, dawning blustery with drizzle - the maximum temperature was going to be 14 degrees.

We had arranged to team up at the car park as he had not been there before. Arriving first, I wandered the water searching for signs of life - there was nothing other than a few sedges, and no signs of rising trout. When he arrived I took him on a tour of the water and he started to get excited. We set up in the car park and I mocked his old rod which he said he got when he was 11 - I can't recall the manufacturer, but he claimed to have caught a 13lber on it.

Comparing flies, I set up on the nymph with a PTN, he tied on a grey wulff. We set off down a feeder and started to fish ata couple of likely looking holes, but the wind was terrible, and after an hour we had nothing to show for our efforts, but at least two fish had started to rise.

Moving in different directions I found a small pipe feeder on the opposite bank which had scoured out a swirl. Casting the ptn near it I followed the current back towards me, but on the third attempt I dropped the ptn right on the sweetspot and it was taken immediately. A hard fighting but stocked brownie was landed. At around 2.5lb it was a good start.

After a tot of tea (we had nothing stronger!) we started again moving up the feeder stream, this time in the same direction. I had another offer but was too busy watching a water vole and pulled out of it. Patrick had still had nothing but the mayfly were starting to move even though the wind was blowing them along the water like racing yachts. We listened to yellowhammers, reed and willow warblers, and suddenly spooked a hare which promptly took off upon seeing us. This and a few splashy rises warmed us up and we chatted while we fished.

We cast to a few fish, and they were not really intersted, by now I had tried the gold head grhe, mayfly nymph, olive nymph, ptn, coves ptn, but there had been little interest. We walked to the end of the fishery and spotted a huge fish cruising the edge of weed. But it was in the fast water and we had to cast over the lillies in the slow silty water for 10 metres before we could reach it. We agreed that I would cover it as I spotted it first. Two casts and I got the fly in front of where I thought it was - the surface was riffled and I couldn't see it. Pulling for a second cast I snagged the weed and had to pull for a break.

Watching it again Patrick decided that he woluld have a go. Changing the dry fly for a killer bug he covered it first cast with his crap rod, he saw the white mouth open and bingo it was on! He kept it's head up and somehow managed to get it over the weed without it struggling and it then fought it in the shallow water above the weeds close to the bank. We landed what was a near 4lb brownie. Maybe the rod was OK after all.

We went to the pub for lunch, after a hearty steak and kidney pie and some fat, pub chips and a pint of West Berkshire ale, we felt ready for the rest of the afternoon. We covered more water as the weather got better and were joined by more anglers, reducing our available water. By now there were more mayfly showing and we were both on the dry fly. We discussed over lunch the need to let the trout take the mayfly before striking, I rose at least three over the next hour and lifted, or struck too early each time!

I watched Patrick walking down a dead end feeder which went into the woods - what's he doing I thought? he crouched and I watched him cast - then lift and a fish was on. How did he get one there I thought, but it was so overgrown he was going to struggle to land it. I went towards him and he lowered the rod and nearly poked my eye out (had I not been wearling sunglasses). I said 'You stay there and I'll go down here - when its tired, pull it this way and I'll net it' He hadn't heard me, and followed me to try and play it from my end of the feeder. The feeder had a pipe which fed the main river. You guessed it - he hadn't noticed it - as he played the fish past it the fish went down the pipe! He was still attached to it, but the fish was swimming in the pipe! Now we had a sitation! I was laughing and went down to the other side of the pipe, with the net covering the exit. Two water voles scarpered as got down into the water. I hoped that the fish would go down the pipe as Patrick let line out, giving me the opportunity to cover the flow with the net, but the flow just pulled the net away. Before we could do anything else the hook pulled, and we both let out a sigh of relieved laughter.

The rest of the day was spent chasing rising fish, they were very tetchy. Some would come up and nose the fly before turning away. For duffers fortnight these fish were challenging. We managed four each all on the dry mayfly before finally calling it a day at 6pm. We checked the book - we had done well many had blanked.

It was alovely day of widllife too, the rare but increasingly frequent cetti's warblers were banging out their loud song. The ubiquitous (in these parts) buzzard and red kite were soaring above. Brimstones butterflieses, speckled woods, small copper, loads of orange tip, small tortoishell and speckled wood.

A wet afternoon

Posted by arbocop, May 18 2009, 07:01 PM

17th May. Fly Fishing, Bushyleaze, Lechlade.

Weather was breezy and wet. In fact, to quote Black Adder it was 'wetter than a haddocks cod piece'. I had the opportunity to go out fishing but due to the weather forecast I had nothing planned. What to do with my time? Watched the weather and then decided at midday to have ago for some trout with my new Greys rod. I decided to go to a commercial fishery - not normally my thing, but I fancied getting my line pulled, and having been to this place before, I knew it would be a good option at short notice. It's also not a bad fishery, the trout go like the clappers and the fly hatch is good too. I had two 2lb perch on a previous visit on coves pheasant tail - one was a surprise, two was almost unbelievable.

Arrived at 2pm, it was still wet, but was now windy in strong gusts. Several anglers were already into a few fish so I was hopeful of not being in the wind and rain too long. Swallows, swifts, sand martins and house martins were whizzing over the water and taking hatching insects. On closer examination it appeared that there were both sedges and olives hatching but I got the distinct impression that mayflies were hatching as well - the splashy rises were giving it away. It was very choppy so I decided to fish the surface layers, and include a bushy fly that I could use to create a wake if I wished. I like fishing the wet fly in these conditions. I duly set up with WF#6 and a two fly set up, a bushy invicta on the dropper and a diawl bach on the point - just in case . Walking to the bank I heard my first cuckoo of 2009! Surely a good omen?

Casting was difficult, but I was managing to get a decent line out and from the position I selected, on a point with the wind from left to right, it was perfect for letting the wind do the work and move the flies round for me. It wasn't long before I got my first take, an easy steady draw which I tightened into then almost immediately lost. Around 30 minutes later the same happened again. This was getting annoying. The rain then turned into a really heavy squall with very strong wind so I took shelter for around 30 minutes and drank my tea. I pondered my new rod, and decided the action was very similar to the broken GRX and overall - for the money - the Accuflex was well worth it.

When the rain and wind died down the cloud broke, and it very quickly brightened up, and although the wind was still gusty, it was quite pleasant. By now there were very clear indications of mayflies hatching so I decided to have ago for them with the dry fly. I retied a leader with a single grey wulff. I partly treated it with Gink, but didn't make to much effort, it was so choppy I would simply fish it drowned if it sank. I wasted a bit of time chasing rising fish but they were moving fast, by the time the fly had been lifted off and recast they had moved on, and not always in the obvious direction. I therefore fished it along a crease of choppy water with a slick along the edge. I always find that when fishing with a mayfly pattern, you need to allow the fish extra time before tightening or striking and this proved correct. The first two rises I had I tightened far too early in eagerness, but finally connected with one - then lost it! What was going on here? I was starting to get desperate and panic a little!

I changed to the previous set up and decided I would move around for the last couple of hours, seeking out fish. I changed to a mayfly nymph on the point, and then changed the dropper fly to an Irish style drowned mayfly. As I went round the lake I got chatting to various anglers, wasting my fishing time, but that's all part of it I suppose. When I was fishing, I was still not having to much success and the mayfly nymph was bumping bottom and continually being festooned in weed so I changed again. This time from nymph to a thunder and lightning wet fly and back to an invicta on the dropper.

Finally, I managed to connect with a fish and land it, then another in fairly quick succession both on the invicta. It was now nearly 7pm and I promised that I would have a short session and be back home for my sons bed time. I therefore duly left pondering what should have been a bagful, but was in fact only a brace of 2.5 lb rainbows. I decided that the fish were probably chasing the sedges rather than the mayflies and I got obsessed with the mayfly. It didn’t account for the missed opportunities and my overall poor result from a relatively well stocked lake.

As well as the cuckoo, nothing more was notable in terms of wildlife, apart from the continuously calling willow warblers and chiff-chaffs. Plenty of wagtails as well. I spotted several carp in the shallows, and a largish perch - was it one of the fish I caught last year?

A bad day

Posted by arbocop, May 2 2009, 04:54 PM

River Lambourn, Shaw. 2nd May.

Weather promising. Had been clearing out tackle and reloaded another line on my Scierra reel leaving dragonfly ready for selling on e-bay. Everything was ready for another early onslaught on the Lambourn trout followed by an early afternoon trip out with the family.

Arrived at the river at 4.30am, tackled up by the car and went to the bank. First cast snagged and had to pull for a break. Damn it - last size 16 GRHE. Never mind, a new tippet and off again with another fly. Just after pulling for a break I saw a fish rise. Quickly grabbing the leader, I pulled line off the reel - except I didn't. I snapped the tip off the rod!

Normally, the drag is set loose, but last night I had of course been loading it with line and for some reason tightened up the drag. My #5 rated GRX was busted and I had no spare rod. I was back home at 5am! I spent the rest of the time scouring
t'interweb for a bargain. Found an Accuflex which fitted the bill at a bargain £50. Not the best rod in the world but a good replacement for my GRX. Duly ordered.

Had a few beers in the afternoon!

Spooky trout

Posted by arbocop, Apr 25 2009, 03:08 PM

River Lambourn, Shaw. 25th April.

The weather forecast the night previous was promising so I planned an early assault on the trout of the Lambourn. I had to go out with the family at 11am so this was to be an early and short session. Checked the fly box and made up some leaders with new tippets so that I would be able to fish the dry and the nymph. The fish are spooky in the clear water, and this is a public stretch so there waryness in clear shallow water means that a careful approach is essential.

Arrived at 4am, it was misty and the water looked fantastic. Apart from a reveller from the night before staggering down the path towards the bridge I was the only person around. Carefully stalking the banks, several fish were visible on the church stretch but the fish were all located in positions that made it impossible to cover them with a fly. The water was too deep to wade so I had to leave them to it. A couple of glides where the water was too deep, and surface glare too intense to see to the bottom, looked like they might hold fish. A few speculative casts with a ptn were unproductive. Changed to a goldhead grhe and tried again, this time lifting at what seemed to be the right point I saw movement at the bottom and the slack leader tightened briefly - probably a grayling. Tried again, and this time the leader tightened while the fly was on the drop and I connected with a lively brownie of around 20cm which promptly shed the hook! The sudden movement spooked a coot, which set off upstream running and flapping on the surface making that loud panicked call. The commotion would have scattered everything fishy so I moved downstream to try again. Ignoring a fish rising in another impossible position I tried a wide smooth glide before the water disappeared into the next section.

This time I could see fish, so got myself into a reasonably unrestricted position where my backcast was at least respectable and got the fly in the correct position on the third attempt. The line was held up in it's downstream movement and I tightened into another small brownie aroound 15cm. Working upstream I was casting into likely looking holes and glides but the water is only around 3ft and the sun was rising fast, glinting off the line and spooking the fish. The bank is also high and my shadow was therefore long in the early sun. Several times I saw fish dashing upstream or downstream past me.

Fished the second section upstream which is deeper and waded in, so that I could get the fly upstream in the reedy section where bank fishing is impossible with the fly rod. After about an hour of casting around I noticed a fish around 20cm holding in the current, not far in front of me. Lifting the rod as the fly came back towards me I saw it move sideways, I tightened speculaltively and it was on. I was very close to the top of my waders when I hooked it and nearly breached them a couple of times.

I fished the last 50m of the section without any offers and it had started to drizzle. No fish were rising and the park was filling up with early morning dog walkers. I fished the last pool which was very fast with a heavier GRHE and got a 20cm grayling first cast which I very carefully unhooked. It gave a notably poor account of itself as it was obviously spawning. I held it in the current before it swam off so it was not unduly harmed by it's experience. Two more small grayling and a trout, the biggest 10cm, added to my final tally. A large trout around 3lb swirled at one of the small 5cm grayling I was bringing in and it gave me quite a surprise. I would never land it on the light gear I had so I decided to try for it another time with a heavier outfit and a fry imitation.

Wildlife was not too notable today - buzzards, a pair of foxes, and a kingfisher. Something was bashing around in some reeds but it never showed itself - fox?

Stained water....and a blank!

Posted by arbocop, Apr 13 2009, 08:25 AM

Kennet Mixed Fishery, Speen, Newbury.

The weather had been good for a couple of days now, the cloud was breaking again and another good day was forecast. I decided to have another go for the trout at a mixed fishery I had access to. I had not been to this stretch before so it would be an opportunity to fish for the trout while also checking out the potential for the coming coarse fishing season.

I got to the water at 7am, it was brightening up and all sign pointed towards a hatch. Unfortunately the water was stained, presumably run off from the motorway. It was odd that I didn't notice it on Saturday while fishing further downstream - it must have been just the same, if not worse. I put it down to excitement at being near the river with a rod in my hand....

The fishing here was dry fly only. I checked around and there were a few olives floating down as well as some grannoms. Duly selected an olive klinkhamer, tied it to a 3lb tippet and off I went. I set off down a feeder which looked like it had quite fast water interspersed with fallen trees and areas of glides. I quickly got to dense woodland with fallen trees accross the path and into the water - having not been here before was clearly a hindrance! However, I persevered and hacked through the dead hogweed and bramble, snagging my line several times as I went. I found a bend which looked interesting and at least permitted a cast. I watched for a while before a delicate rise attracted my attention - a trout? It rose again but in a different place. I decided it was a trout although it wouldn't be very large. Five casts later I decided I had either spooked it or it wasn't interested. Further round I discovered the main stream. This looked more likely although I had to admit it was much more chubby than anything. I spotted some very large shapes at the bottom of a lovely glide which I assumed were barbel. Noted their position for June!

Found a weirpool and a very fast bit of water draining it with ranunculus - this looked more likely. The fast water looked lke a River Test feeder but no trout showed. A few exploratory casts revealed nothing. Moved up to the weirpool, this looked inviting although the ubiquitous dog splash area hinted that the fish might get disturbed regularly. Had several casts and then sat and watched for a few minutes, nothing much moved. Explored every bend and glide on the rest of the fishery but no more fish showed on the surface. One of the other feeders that went beneath the A34 hinted that it might produce a trout and I went t the very end of the stretch. I could see a fish beneath a patch of streamer weed at the end of the stretch, but it showed no interest in the dry fly.

Therefore - caught nothing - not even an offer! Oh well, never mind. The fishery is lovely - surrounding a woodland nature reserve it is alive with butterflies and wildlife. I saw a nuthatch and several woodpeckers were drumming in the background. Lots of butterflies -notably brimstones, speckled wood and peacocks. The sight of a water vole made me recall that as a kid they were everywhere - not an infrequent sight at all. The increasingly common buzzards were whirling overhead and a red kite - known as Oxfordshire sparrows these days due to their booming populations - made an appearance as well.