OwdTrout

I can assure you that is the most comfortable position, any higher and prolonged tying will cause damage. As for not being able to see then do what I have done. Get reading glasses with the focus set at tying distance rather than reading. There can be 50% difference. Cheers, OT

With the low diameter monos there is a problem in the way they are used. I'll give an example. An angler uses 5lb bs mono to his fly. When he sees the low diameter mono he buys 5 lb bs, that's what he uses. As a result two things happen. He gets more tangles and broken more often. "This low diameter mono is rubbish." He says. Then goes back to his old brand of standard mono. This has happened loads of times, it shows a lack of understanding of the cast, and the uses of these monos. The advantage you gain from one of these monos is in increased bs of the mono. The tippet needs to be stiff enough to "carry" the fly through the cast, while being soft enough to give good presentation. The thing to do is choose a low diameter mono of the same diameter as your standard line. Probabily about 8 lbs. If he had done this the mechanics of the cast would not have been changed. The knot strength, though lower than his standard mono in 8 lbs bs, would be higher than that of the standard 5lbs mono. That is why I stated the tippet size in X numbers, not breaking strain. X numbers are based on diameter. (They were the die sizes that gut was drawn through in the old days). My 5X frog hair is about 5lbs bs. Enormous for its diameter, but that diameter is needed to carry a fly of, say, size 14 or 16. I hope that makes sense. Cheers, OT

I use a furled leader of about 6' then a tippet of (for the fly sizes you mentioned) 6x Frog Hair. Works for me. The knots I use are figure of eight knots with either a tucked blood or Rapala loop knot for the fly. The loop knot is mainly reserved for spinner patterns where I find the resultant decrease in drag can up my take rate by 50%. Cheers OT

Get a screw that will fit in the tripod mount and get it welded to a length of chain. If Hazel screws it to the camera, and drops the other end on the floor, she can stand on it. Then pull up when taking the shot. End of camera shake. A low tech solution but I hope it helps. Cheers, OT

Hardly a lot. You are starting on a very steep learning curve. Soon though you'll have the satisfaction of catching on a fly you have tied. Its worth it. Cheers, OT

Get lessons... BUT get them from someone who can teach. That doesn't mean someone who can tie a good fly, but someone who understands how flies are tied and can explain it. If the instructor says "Tonight we are going to learn to tie a black gnat." I would be very suspicious of what they are teaching. You are not there to learn patterns. It is all about learning techniques and materials. As you get to know them you will begin to understand why a fly's designer has used a particular material in a particular way. Whatever equipment you buy, you will end up changing some of it. A good example has been my search for good hackle pliers. I've had dozens of them in my time. Everything from traditional English to rotary. The best hackle pliers are still the ones Alan taught me to use on my first fly tying coarse - index finger and thumb. However, you do need the tool sometimes. After years of buying, and making, hackle pliers I've settled on "Hackle Nabbers". As with many things I had to go through the process in order to realize how good they are. If you intend to tie more than three flies at a sitting avoid pedestal vices. They are very good for convenience, but, in fact BUT, you can not control the height of your vice. What height should you set your vice at? This is something that should be taught as the very first lesson in fly tying classes, but isn't. Get this wrong and you will be in pain very soon. Here is how to get it right. Sit in the chair you will use for tying, put your fist under your chin with your elbow pointing down. Your vice should be set at the level of your elbow. Hands up everyone who has their vice higher than this. Now, hands up everyone who gets pain when tying more than a dozen flies. In most cases it is because you are supporting the weight of your arms, very quickly your shoulders neck or back will start to protest. With your vice lower you are tying in a relaxed position. I used to tie up to 10 dozen a day, without the aches and pains usually associated with tying. There is of course a problem with this. Even a clamp vice will not normally go this low. You need a vice extension. That is an L shaped bracket that fits in your clamp and holds the vice away from the table. It should be used as an L shape not the other way up (as most seem to). Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of the game here. You are wanting tools and materials. Tools - Vice - To start you can do much worse than an under lever type vice. One will cost you under £20. Bobbin holder - Get a good one. Ceramic tube is best. Don't go silly the ones that rewind the thread are not worth it. Especially at £85 a time. Scissors - Here you can save money. An expensive pair may last you 5 years or more but the ones I use are better value than that. Bexfield Embroidery scissors, with plastic handles. Last ones I bought cost £1:42 + VAT. After a year I throw them away. A top pair of Tiemco scissors will cost £65+. They may last 10 years. That's £6;50 a year. You work it out. For heavy work toe nail scissors from the chemists are good. Dubbing needle - Like Alan said, but I use a sewing machine needle. Ball end type (no that isn't a medical complaint). Hackle pliers - If you are willing to pay £10 + then Hackle Nabbers, if not traditional English. There are lots of other tools, some are even useful. The above are the most used. Materials. Do as Alan said. One last thing. Get some hand cream, and use it. Carry it with you. Use it every time you wash your hands. Which you need to do more if you are going to start tying. the better the skin on your hands the easier you'll find tying. Any questions you know where I am. Cheers, OT

Janet, you didn't did you? Kirton should have put up a warning. something like "THE ABOVE CONTAINS AN IMAGE OF OT ONLY TO BE VIEWED BY PEOPLE OVER 85 YEARS OF AGE SUPPORTED BY BOTH PARENTS. VIEW AT OWN RISK DO NOT ENLARGE". At least he got me from a good better angle. Come on then Kirton... Show us yer fish. Enjoy next Saturday, I'm sure you'll be in good hands. Cheers, OT

Not that long ago I couldn't bend down that far! Cheers OT

Steve, do you double haul? if you do you will get a much tighter loop. Its not just for distance! If you don't, the way to learn was shown to me by Philip White. Learn the action without a rod in your hands. it is like learning to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time. If you are right handed point your index finger of your right hand and make a casting movement. Move your hand back, the back cast. Then move your left hand down and up. Move your right hand forward, the forward cast. Move your left hand down and up. Practice this move. As you get used to it, you want to time the move of your hands so that the movement of your hands coincides. That is that your left hand finishes its down and up move as your right hand completes the casting stroke. Once you can make this move without it feeling strange then try it with your rod. The rod will give you the timing. I struggled with this, until Philip White showed me this technique. It is always better to try to learn one thing at a time, doing it this way you are. Another tip that helps is that if you are dropping your back cast, cast in front of your face. then if you bend your wrist you hit yourself in the face. You will not do this twice! Right its Saturday morning... Time to go fishing Cheers, OT

It is, I agree, but if this carries on its going to be impossible to cast round his ego to get to the river! Even more testament is that he got it out without disturbing the pool, 10 minutes later I took this from the same spot. Cheers OT

In Fly Fishing small streams Gierach describes a small stream as one you can roll cast across. Seems a good working definition. Cheers, OT

3 or 4 feet with a single fly is perfect. Don't forget to use loop to loop for the tippet as a knot will cut the leader when you get a fish on. The force on a loop to loop is compressive (If properly formed) whereas a single piece of mono put through the loop and tied is a shear force. Not good! If you look after a furled leader it will last you several seasons. My current one is on its third. Its just like yours only about 8 feet long. I have made them down to 18", but only for a demo. Try casting the leader with your hand. you'll be amazed how well it turns over. If you want to practice casting indoors with your new rod take about 8 feet of chenille and tie it to the ring one down from the tip, put it through the tip ring and try casting that. You will need very little power. It takes a lot of practice but will help you on the river. Cheers OT

I can make you a shorter one if you like. That's why I started making them. I couldn't get leaders short enough. (I know I could cut down a tapered leader, but I loose most of the taper if I do that). Don't forget to grease the leader and degrease your tippet. Cheers, OT

Steady on there, yes its a good fish but please if you carry on like this he'll be impossible to fish with!

Well done. Cheers OT

The complete story is now available here. In all its terribleness. Cheers OT

The FOGs Raid Tykeland. Despite the forecast of rain all day, Alan Roe and I agreed a covert raid across the boarder. The plan was to meet up at about 11:00 hours, disguised in flat caps, and speaking strangely. Just as I was getting my gear together Al phoned to say he had left early. Well I had planned to arrive a little early myself so no real drama. While on the way to our clandestine rendezvous I received a telephonic communication from Al. The prat had forgotten his waders. He would have to go into Silsden and buy some. Three tackle shops later he had a pair of Ron Thompson nylon thigh boots. He was also walking strangely from the pain in his wallet at having to pay the full RRP on them. When one is desperate, negotiation is difficult. It had taken three tackle shops to find a pair approaching the right size for his enormous coal barges. The reason for these rather over sized feet became obvious later. Meanwhile I had arrived at the RVP (Rendezvous Point) and gotten a brew on. Al arrived five minutes later, sans headdress. Another item he had "forgotten". After a refreshing cuppa we moved on to the fishing. To my utter astonishment he had remembered to bring a rod, reel and line. He'd even remembered to bring some flies. Though that wouldn't have stopped him raiding my meagre supply. It also emerged that he had lost his sun glasses. Fortunately he had a spare pair. On putting them on he promptly found the errant pair. We had parked at the top of the length so walked down river staying back from the edge. There is no point frightening the trout you are going to fish for later. Stopping at one pool to cast a prospecting fly proved first fruitless then painful. On making my way away from the pool I slipped climbing the bank and landed on a rather rough lump of cast concrete. Banging and cutting my left thumb. I don't mind the sight of blood, so long as it isn't mine! It still hurts now. Old age is catching up with me in that I don't bounce as well as I once did. There was not much activity of the fishy variety as we wandered down but after a couple of hundred yards we came upon a glide with a few rising fish. Al had first chuck at them and after a couple of casts declared they didn't want my Stuck Shuck Emerger. Changing to, what he called, a "chocolate biscuit fly" (Half a chicken wrapped around a hook) he cast again. A few casts later, a fish ate it. After "playing with his food" for a while the trout rolled on the surface. The reason for the fight extending beyond the usual 4 seconds became apparent. It was an above average fish. Well to tell the truth it was a ******* monster. Throwing his net at me he asked me to do the honours. (That's an insurance policy - if he lost it it would have then been my fault). It was a good job I was using Al's net as mine would not have taken the beast. Anyway I managed on the second attempt to get it into the net. A camera was needed. You may have seen the images on the board but here they are again. The first time Al got his new waders wet was returning that fish, which he nursed back until it swam off strongly. That's the way to christen new waders. Time for a cuppa. This is where the size of Al's plates was explained. On lifting his brew kit I immediately sank half an inch into the ground! Al set up his field kitchen and made tea. TEA I ask you? Yuck filthy stuff. What's wrong with a cup of coffee. No waste to drag back. By the time Al had dismantled the mess house, and attended to his "other needs", fish were again rising in the glide. My turn. I made a few casts and missed a couple of fish by tightening too quickly. These fish had a much more lazy rise than the fish in the faster water of the Irwell. Slowing down I finally managed to connect with one from the same place as Al's monster. Not as large as his but a respectable 15 inches. This is a small stream by Girach's definition (i.e. one you can roll cast across). That was to be the last fish of the day for either of us. The Grannom had started to hatch and that was the fly the fish had been rising to. By next week the hatch will be history. Much to our surprise Al spotted a few early, very early, mayfly hatching. Hmm better get some tied I like a spot of mayfly fishing. Moving downstream we came across 5 other fishermen, all were fish less. It was crowded on the river that day. Seven anglers on a 3 mile stretch is a bit shoulder to shoulder for our tastes. Late in the afternoon we retired to the local hostelry for refreshment, only to find them not serving food over the holiday! However the fish and chip shop a couple of doors down was. Fish chips and mushy peas accompanied with Dandelion and Burdock taken on a bench by the river in spring sunshine; a great way to round off a day. Al made his escape back across the border and I went to set up camp for the night. Though the dammed mobile leash was tugged, and I had to return home about 22:30. "He is risen - He may be, but the trout arn't" - Easter Sunday Off to the Ure today. As a school child I spent a week in Keld as part of the Duke of Edinborough's Award Scheme. I fell in love with the Yorkshire Dales, and I still am. Just being there is a medicine for the soul. Though when you visit remember that it is a tough landscape and those who work it for a living have a hard enough time winning a livelihood from the land without us getting in the way. We all know the country code, or should. That's a good start. Stay out of their way while you enjoy the land. Don't stand and watch a farm worker stop his tractor, get out and open a gate. Open it for him, and remember to close it again. The Ure is a lovely looking river, but was in a dour mood. I fished two of the lengths. On the first I spotted only one feeding fish. What it was feeding on wasn't apparent. He didn't want any of my offerings. The second length did have fish feeding. On midges so tiny as to be impossible to catch. When they refuse a #30 suspender buzzer as too large you will struggle. I did. Not a single fish rose to my fly all day. I tried nymphs and one or two very fancy flies that usually do the job in these situations. The midges used my fly to crawl through the surface, one trout rising and taking the midges off it! On this length I came across another angler who had bumped into Al earlier in the day. Al had attempted to show him his fish from yesterday. Having taken his memory card out of his camera to down load the images he had forgotten to replace it. His decent from prat to pillock is now complete, official and witnessed. Still it was a beautiful day in the magnificent Dales. What more could I ask for. I will be back. Cheers, OT

Not bad, now get yourself back and get one of the big ones! It is amazing that that club think that water needs stocking. If that isn't a truly wild fish it is an overwintered fish. Something had to start going right after the disaster that you began with! (I'll put the details in my blog Monday) It seems the demon jumped from you to me. After that session I was just setting up camp when work phoned and I had to traipse all the way back home. Just about to set out again. See you in Haws later Al. The grannom hatch is now well under way. Today should be the big hatch and they'll be done by next week. As Alan proved, a bushy size 12 or 14 will get the job done nicely. Alan did see some mayfly's coming off. They are very early but it looks like I'd better get to tying WWWW's (Wally Winged Weir Wulff's). Right back to the fishing. Well done Al. Cheers, OT

Easter - the first long weekend of the season. With the long weekend coming up plans had to be made, kit has to be replaced. Unusually for me I looked up the weather forecast. I say unusually as for many years I have known that the weather can not be forecast with accuracy. Past experience has taught me that the Met Office can not be trusted, so, on the recommendation of Alan Roe, I consulted Met Check. Friday for my post code area it said it would rain all day, starting between 06:59 and 07:00. "Hmm" I thought, "This is more like a weather forecast". Based on that I made today my prep day for the rest of the weekend. By 11:30 the promised rain had not turned up. I'm wasting a good day here I may as well get some fishing done. Off to the Irwell I plodded. Conditions looked good. Overcast, warm, falling and clearing river. This could be good. Not a rise in sight. Some olives were hatching but not many, one spinner floated by. Well it has warmed up considerably so they might take a nymph. Half an hour later, not a touch. Then not 4 yards away a small fish rose. Time for the dry Fry. A well used CdC and Elk Upright, went on. Meanwhile another brownie had started to rise a yard closer. The second fish was much larger I noticed when he rose again. To cover either of these fish I needed to cast then make an aerial mend upstream to let the fly drift naturally. The fly drifted down the fish rose, ate it, and I lifted the rod. Exactly on the stroke of 7am! At least by the Met Check clock. It must have been 7 am as right at that moment it started to rain. Britain, all your clocks are wrong! Put them back 6 1/2 hours immediately, then the weather forecast will be right! Back to the important stuff. The fish fought hard, leapt once and came to hand nicely. Before returning him I measured him against my rod, with the fork of his tail at the foot of the real seat he came to 1/4 inch past the lettering. That made him 14 inches dead. (Well not dead, I returned him alive, taking care to revive him well). Not bad at all, and not the biggest I have had from there. With lots of river dropping on me from above I decided to call it a day. This afternoon I have to go to the outdoor shop for some bits and pieces. All that remains is to ask: "are meteorologists just protrusions into our reality of of hugely intelligent, pan dimensional, beings entertaining themselves by winding us up?" If you don't have a clue what I am talking about look up "White Mice" in H2G2. The day before the last Chatsworth show I slipped and broke my coccyx. Now, if the weather is about to change, it lets me know. Maybe I should offer this facility to the various weather forecasting institutions then my arse could work along side all the arseholes making such a mess of the weather forecast. Who are the highest paid civil servants? Met Office weather presenters. Why? Right back to the packing then off to the shop. Cheers OT

Well done Ian, but honestly not giving it to you would have been a joke. I've known Ian for some years now and spent good times with him drinking Jim's whisky when he was with Carron Rods. Congratulations. OT

That about sums it up. The reason it is so inelegant is that you look a pratt fishing in a helmet or hard hat to protect yourself while casting. In fact this looks almost as bad as wearing a baseball cap! Cheers, OT

For some reason the link I posted earlier isn't working so here is the URL. http://www.graysofkilsyth.com/fishing-knot...'s-loop.htm A better way of attaching a loop of mono than the standard needle knot in my opinion. (Don't trust that see what you think!) Cheers OT

It depends greatly on what you want when you say enlargement. Back in the 80s, I once saw a 8' x 6' "Duratran" (Display transparency for placing on a back lit display box) that was taken from a 35mm Kodachrome original. It had very little grain. The enlargement was made by first making an "interneg" on 5" x 4" stock then making the enlargement from that. Stunning result, but very expensive. You would have to go to a top end photo processing house to get it done. For really large enlargements that is the way to go. I suspect it would be less expensive to upgrade to a digital camera with reasonable resolution, say a Nikon D3x, than pay for ten of those. That would enable you to print to A2 without any problems. Cheers OT

Another nice day and the usual start in the same pool. Once again the successful fly was my stuck shuck emerger. A couple of fish came to it. Nothing unusual, both about 12 inches. Time to explore further. The next pool up seemed devoid of trout. About 50 yards further upstream I spotted a rise, close to my bank (there is no access from the opposite bank. Carefully I waded up a gravel bank mid stream to where I could cast at the fish. Twice I rose the fish and twice miss timed the tightening of the line. Large dark olives trickled off and still the fish rose. Four youths came along the riverside path and started to shout abuse. This was soon followed by bits of wood and stones up to half brick size. They had taken up position in just such a place that they blocked my only egress from the river. Totally exposed with no where to go I could only weather the barrage. After that I had lost my composure and couldn't really fish effectively so called it a day. As I came out of the river I spotted the youths again. One of them turned and walked away from the group toward the industrial units I was standing amongst. I ducked round a corner and waited. When he arrived I got a good hold on him and "explained the error of his ways". I now have names and addresses for them all. Well next week looks like a week off. Photos to be taken on Saturday and other tasks are conspiring to keep me away from the river.

Will a bite alarm really work on fly line? Cheers, OT