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OwdTrout

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About OwdTrout

  • Birthday 07/11/1963

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Back breathing the free air of Lancashire
  • Interests
    My first love is wild trout in small wild streams. Though I will fish any river I can.<br />I can tie a fly, just about, and have a bit of a grasp of how the process works.

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  1. The two rules that have served me well are "Get one thing right before moving on to the next." e.g. If your rib isn't right don't wind the hackle, undo the rib and get it right. And... "Like in computing. Garbage in garbage out". Get the best materials you can. Along with this trust the person who devised the pattern. If they used a material for a particular property and you use something else your fly will not have that property. This is especially true with hair, particularly deer hair. Better attention to detail = Better fly tying. Cheers, OT
  2. How did they know it was German. If it was from its accent I would have had a lot of other questions for it Cheers OT
  3. OwdTrout

    Helmsdale

    Having escaped the confines of Manchester I'm off to fish the Helmsdale on Saturday. I'll be fishing the association water. Any advice or hot tips (other than make it rain Friday). I would very much like to connect with a silver tourist. Cheers, OT
  4. In simple your leader is not thick/stiff enough to "carry" the fly when you are casting. If you look on good quality, purpose made, spools of tippet material you will see an X number. This should be used to decide the tippet material you are using for a given fly. If you are using a tippet that isn't stiff enough the fly has control of the tippet and goes where it wants: usually into a tangle. The way to work it out is based on hook size. For a light medium wire hook divide the hook size by 3 and add 1 to get the x number you need. So for a size 12 light/medium wire hook (12/3)+1 = 5. Therefore you need a 5x tippet. If the hook is heavy wire or weighted (why would anyone weight a light wire hook?) use 4, or even 5 if it is very heavy, as the divisor. This results in a lower x number. (The thicker/stiffer the line the lower the x number). This may cause a reaction, but here goes. In choosing a tippet the breaking strain of the line is irrelevant. Treat breaking strain as a piece of information only. It is not the basis for deciding on the correct tippet. Stiffness of the line is. In fishing a fly you are trying to balance presentation and casting. Too stiff a line makes casting easy, but ruins presentation. Too soft a tippet gives great presentation, but leads to tangles. Would a tapered leader help? You use a tapered fly line, why? As the energy of a cast turns the fly line over it is used up. To make the cast turn over better the fly line is tapered. As the energy left in the cast diminishes there is less work for it to do, i.e. a thinner line for it to turn over. Then as the cast extends it reaches the end of the fly line. It has to turn the leader over. First it has to overcome the joint between fly line and leader. More loss of energy. Then it reaches the level mono of your leader. Now it has to do a constant amount of work but with a diminishing amount of energy. The result is that half way along the leader there isn't enough energy left to continue the cast. The rest of your leader lands in a heap into the middle of which plops your gold head damsel. Making an instant tangle. A tapered leader has a much larger butt, making a smoother transition from fly line to leader(less energy loss), then it helps with the turnover, in just the same way your tapered fly line does. The other solution is to come and spend a day on the river with Big Al (now truer than ever) and me, and we might initiate you into the secret right used to banish the tangle gremlins. I believe Al was first taught it by a creature known as a Badgerbunny way, way, way back in the mists of time. (Oops! wrong web site). All I can say is that, if you do come along, bring alcohol, oh and some lubricant. Cheers, OT
  5. Just one question; if they were not imported until the late fifties, how did you have them as a kid? "Ducking" OT
  6. You can buy one for about £20, or build one for about £4. Like I said the other way is use 90 second epoxy. It means you have to mix a new batch for each fly but it dries fast. I use it at demos, so I can hand out the fly without waiting for ages for it to dry. It will not run after about 45 seconds. If you are going to use super glue then I recommend using an accelerator, like Zip Kicker, with it. In my experience eyes stuck to deer hair soon come off no matter what you use to fix them. There are two other alternatives. Paint the eyes on. Or do what the salmon fly dressers do - use jungle cock!!! Cheers, OT
  7. That depends on the kind of eyes you want to attach. Weighted dumbbell eyes can be tied on with figure of eight wraps. If you want to add epoxy to really secure them then mix it with a little fine silica sand to help it grip. Teddy bear eyes do need to be epoxied on, and it will run if you don't rotate it. However 90 second epoxy will set fast enough for you to consider rotating them by hand. If you want to make a rotary drier then the motor which turns the plate in a microwave is ideal. (It runs on mains and at the right speed) Find an old microwave and use that. The foam discs that you stick the flies into are from the car polishing industry. Also get some crocodile clips from an electrical supplier and mount a pin in them, point out, where the wire would go. Then you can put the finished fly into the clip and spear it into the foam. This is easier to do than stick a hook in the disc and causes less damage to the disc. also can be done with the disc running. Cheers OT
  8. Hello again, i didn't think to mention this before but Greg's post reminded me. The main cause of rods being broken when landing trout is the angle between the tip and the line. Greg is right that the rod should be kept at 90 degrees to the line. When you get on a shorter line hold the rod away from the fish, especially when netting the fish. If 180 degrees is the line straight out from the tip ring, anything over 90 degrees reduces the length of the rod that is flexing. When the fish is close to the net, if your rod hand is close to the net handle, all the flex can be coming from the last 6 inches of the rod. If the fish makes a surge for freedom, that top six inches of the rod can not cope with the power, so it breaks. I was shown this by Tony at Stockport Fly Fishing Supplies on an old tip section. It is amazing how fragile a rod tip is. He broke it with just two fingers. It may look silly holding your rod at arms length behind you while netting a fish but it is the best thing to do to protect your rod. The beat stance is to stand between the fish and the rod, side on. net in one hand with that extended to the fish the other arm extended in the opposite direction holding the rod. A longer handled net helps. Cheers, OT
  9. Two things, get them on the reel, and if there is cover use it. Initially after a take you will have to hand line the free line in, but once you have full contact with the fish get all the line onto the reel. I do this by trapping the line to the fish under the index finger of my rod hand and the line to the reel under my little finger of the same hand. Then the other free hand reels in. When I feel the line touch the back of my middle and third finger I know I can let go of the line and use the drag on my reel to play the fish. This is smoother than trying to control the line in your fingers. Also it stops the risk of loose line getting caught up. Which, given that sods law is the only fixed rule in angling, increases with the size of fish you are playing. In one of his books Dick Walker wrote about playing fish and explained that the fish is trying to get away from YOU, not just this strange resistance it is feeling. If you hide, behind a bush for example. the fish will come in much quicker. He quoted playing times for comparable fish to support this, but my memory isn't that good that I can quote them. I do remember there was a significant difference. If he hid behind available cover it took less than 50% of the time that it took if he stood tall out in the open. On the weight of rod/line you use, the average size of fly you are using should dictate it. The size of fly gives you the size of tippet, which in turn gives you the weight of fly line. Most people seem to go the other way around and choose the rod first. It doesn't work that way. Cheers, OT
  10. Youtube Video -> I'm not sorry if it makes you cringe. If you forget your glasses forget fishing. Nuff said. Cheers, OT
  11. Yesterday the Mayflies were in full flow, and for the first time the trout ate them. Presuming your water has them, whats your favourite pattern for them? I use one of the Wullf flies mostly, but tied with Wally wings to keep the weight down. (They don't fall over like the hair wings do.) Cheers, OT
  12. Well done indeed. One of the great things about fly fishing is that you don't need a trolley to carry all your gear. I am puzzled about one thing though.. Why would this lead to your sexual amusement ("chuffed")? Is it something to do with the cooking method? If it is I will decline, in advance, any dinner invite. Joking apart, well done, and welcome to the gentle art. Cheers, OT
  13. Hi Ian, Though I don't do this kind of fly fishing I would choose: Rod: sage TCX 10' 7wt Reel: LAW anti reverse Lines: LeWullf Triangle Taper (Floating), AirFlow Di 3 & 7 (sinking), Fast & Slow Glass (intermediate), Rio Midge Tip (Sink Tip) Net: Can't be specific here but there is a man in the North East that makes the most beautiful landing nets. Works out of an old Post Office. Maybe someone can enlighten us. I used to see him at the game fairs. Fly Tying Vice: There is only one choice - LAW Bench Vice. With "C" clamp and extension. If you want proof go to any big fly show. You will see more of the tiers using this vice (Or one of his others), than you will see using any other vices, all makes put together. When I first tried one, it gave me better access to the hook than any other vice, and I've used a lot. The Reel and Vice will not be easy to get. Lawrence is snowed under and can't keep up with demand. You may have to wait a year or longer if he is taking orders. Cheers, OT
  14. Alan arrived first at the river and had three or four fish before I joined him. While he got a brew on I had a cast, taking one of the rivers natural population. It was too small to be one of the stockies being only 7 inches long. After refreshment we headed downstream. Soon I was thankful that I had remembered my waterproof. Today the rain was a good thing, adding just a touch of colour to the river, and bringing the trout on the feed. In a deep riffle we came across a number of rising trout. As Alan had had several fish he graciously left them to me. This riffle is close to the bank we were approaching from, so a little wading was required. Once in position I tried them with a variety of flies. Rising one or two fish but not connecting. The first fish I connected with felt large but wasn't. It was foul hooked and lead me a merry dance before I could release it. To my great joy May Flies were hatching. Not many, but seeing them about I reached for the large mayflies: wrong! I should have looked more carefully. Large black midges dotted the surface. These, not the May Flies, were the fishes target. (By large I mean about size 18. Big as midges go in these parts) My Little Black Bug was the ideal imitation, but impossible to spot in the riffle. I drew more rises, but missed them all, through not being sure they had come to my fly. Several I bumped off. A solution was to fish a larger dry on a dropper. Then I could strike at any rise in the area of the large fly. In the end it was the oversized Elk Hair Caddis that accounted for this. Not the largest of trout but a good one around 15 inches. Also not a stockie. Look at the tail! Several years ago I fished the Bolton Abbey water on the Wharfe. Under the trees on the far bank a steady stream of May Flies rode the current, the trout rising madly amongst them. "Great," I thought, "an early May Fly hatch." Putting on a large mayfly I proceeded to draw not a single rise. After a lot of changes of flies and removing the splinters from my fingers, from a bout of head scratching, I sussed out what the trout wanted: Aphids. Greenfly had been falling from the trees in large numbers, driving the trout wild. I had to go from the largest flies in my box to the smallest. I should have learned from that to look again. Obviously I didn't. We fished on, the rain came in waves, the fish ate our flies. That was about all there was for the rest of the afternoon. satisfied we decided to retire to the local tea rooms. Disaster again struck. The tea rooms closed at 4:30. Nothing else was left so we parted and headed home. A satisfactory day, despite the problems we had. Next week maybe the trout will be on the May Flies... But I will double check. Cheers, OT
  15. Didn't he? For the sake if taste and decency, I didn't publish the shots that followed! (Or maybe its for blackmail later) OT
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