THE EDEN ANGLER BLOG

Resolutions and first outing of 2012

2012-01-21T16:41:00.000Z

I swore I wouldn't make any resolutions this new year as I never stick to them.
I've decided to make one but I'll probably fail miserably, and that one is to try to keep this blog up to date. The trouble is that I always set off with good intentions then the trout season will start and that will run into the autumn salmon run, and that will run into the winter grayling, and as often as I can get away with it, when I'm not working I'm fishing, and everything else, including this, is put on the back burner.

Anyway, here is the first entry of hopefully many in 2012

We've had a miserable wet winter up here in Northern England and my Grayling fishing has been a bit of a disaster, after a few decent sessions in October I didn't get out again until December and that was a short session fishing a swollen river but I did manage to save a blank - just !
I managed another session last sunday - to be honest the river was a touch on the big side but falling after yet more rain and another rise, but I decided to give it a go anyway.
The conditions suggested that a team of short lined bugs would be the method for the day and they did produce one grayling but it was a struggle in a big water. Happy with saving a blank, I was about to give up when I saw three fish rise on the flats, the only fly I spotted on the water was one Large Dark Olive that floated past and continued on downstream as far as I could see without being bothered.
So not being sure what these fish had risen to I decided to re-rig with a team of spiders, Waterhen bloas on top dropper and point and a small black spider in the middle. I never saw another fish rise other than to my team or to be more specific, the Waterhen Bloa on the point, it produced seven offers resulting in two Grayling to hand and two lost, two out of season Brown trout and an offer from a fish that I didn't see and it didn't connect.

Beautiful spring weather not doing fishermen any favours

2011-04-22T21:12:00.023+01:00

The weather is very much like last year at the moment and it's not doing us fishermen any favours. At a time of year when we should be enjoying the cream of our daytime sport the rivers are low and gin clear and the fish are keeping their heads down in the very bright conditions.
It hasn't stopped me going out though - you have to have an optimistic attitude as a fisherman, one of the things I have learned over my many years on river and lake is that fish can be unpredictable creatures at times, they don't always follow the rules so you can never say never, and I have been rewarded with some success on my occasional daytime foray.

I have managed a couple of outings on Ullswater on the days when we have been blessed with more seasonable conditions - the first was short and sweet, the weathermen were as accurate (or not!) as normal and the winds were about 15 - 20 m.p.h. more than forecast, there were 'White Horses' coming down the lake, but I decided to brave it, I wasn't taking any risks though - I live for fishing but I'm not going to die for it, so I stayed out of the rougher open water and worked a couple of calmer bays that I could reach safely and was rewarded with a few fish - my first of the season (below) came to a Zulu.
As it turned out it may have been a blessing that the wind restricted my wandering as my electric outboard died the death not long after I hit the water - nowadays I use the electric to keep my boat on line when drifting and I reckon I can't have given the battery a long enough charge after the long winter lay off.

Conditions were much more favourable for my second outing with the perfect scenario of good cloud cover and ripple. With the battery fully charged this time I had a problem free day and the fish obliged with a steady trickle throughout the session - they're still pretty lean after the winter and possibly not that fussy with fish coming to all three flies on my cast.

My third outing failed to get started as the good old weathermen were at it again, the forecast was ideal, a cloudy overcast day with a wind - perfect I thought, until I got up to the lake to find more blue sky than cloud, the sun blazing down and not a breath of wind. So then the decision had to be made - do I stay or do I go ?

I didn't want to risk wasting the only day I had to fish over the weekend floundering about in a flat calm so the decision was made - back home, swap the lake gear for waders and 5 weight then off to the river - as it turned out the forecast was right, just a few hours late and the lake would have fished in the afternoon, but, decisions have to be made and I had a good afternoon on the river. Any day fishing should be a good day, that is unless it's on a lake with the sun blazing down and a surface like glass.

Best of the season so far

2010-06-30T13:14:00.006+01:00

I had my best fish of the season at the weekend - this River Eden beauty was a tubby 19 1/2 inches (50cm) and weighed in at 3lbs 6ozs. These fish don't turn up too often on our local waters, I'm usually fortunate enough to get one each season so it will probably be my best of 2010 - but you never know.

The river is down to it's bones but it just goes to show that there is still some good fishing to be had. This beauty, like most of my other big river browns taken over the years, was caught on my favourite method, the upstream nymph.

As usual, the fish was safely returned after photographs and weighing.

Another catch up

2010-06-29T21:27:00.012+01:00

The weather has been too good this year and consequently my Ullswater visits have been severely restricted - cloudless sunny skies and calm days may be good for the tourists but are definitely no good for us fishermen.

We were fortunate on what turned out to be our last visit to the lake - mayflies (Danica) were hatching and the fish turned on to them once the hatch got going. It turned out to be a strange sort of day, first we found rising fish and mayflies hatching but the fish hadn't turned onto them, small black adult buzzer imitations took the first few fish of the day and then they turned onto the larger mayflies and stayed on them for the rest of the day. Initially the fish were taking freshly hatched duns and later in the day they turned onto the egg laying spinners, but you had to find rising fish to get any offers, speculative searching of normally productive areas produced nothing.

With hot weather and a very low and weedy river I wasn't too sure if we'd get much sport for two clients on their first visit to the River Eden the week before last, but thankfully the fish didn't let us down and a combination of North country spiders, nymphs and dries tempted a few fish and both Davids got their strings pulled.

Too busy working and fishing

2010-06-27T15:57:00.010+01:00

The updates have suffered lately, I've been too busy working and fishing.

I've had three days at Rutland with three friends, we were hoping that our trip would coincide with the the cream of the top of the water buzzer and nymph fishing but unfortunately it didn't happen - the only thing that really produced was sinking lines and lures, mainly blobs. Either that or fishing on the rudder in the main basin with Di 4's or Di 5's and Sparklers - which produced limit bags for my friends.

A farewell shot of Rutland

Back home I tried a touch of urban angling - fishing the lower Petteril among the mattresses and shopping trolleys - something I've often thought of doing but have never got around to until recently.

Well, that itch has now been scratched, it produced a few small fish which is what I expected, I'm sure that there'll be better fish down there but negotiating my way past mattresses, shopping trolleys, sheets of plywood and all the other rubbish dumped in this part of the river by our city dwellers is not something that I'll be doing too often.

Sport on a very low River Eden has been very good considering that the river is down to it's bones after the driest spring on record. The conditions seem to be suiting the flylife with excellent hatches of all our local species and some very large falls of Black Gnats earlier in the month with literally thousands on the water on occasions - the Eden beauty below was rising steadingly to Black Gnats when it fell for my offering, and as with all my wild brown trout, it was quickly measured, photographed and returned.

Ullswater blowing hot and cold

2010-05-09T10:06:00.005+01:00

All reports on the lake so far suggest it is blowing hot and cold - we have had good sport on some outings but it has also been frustratingly quiet on days when conditions seem perfect, I have often said that it will only tolerate so much pressure with the same areas being worked on a regular basis.

Having said that, we have had the best midge hatches I have ever seen, at times the water has been covered with discarded midge shucks so the fish should be feeding hard and maybe this is why there seems to be a lot of small fish about so early in the season - these don't usually appear in numbers until late May or into June.

If you look in the right hand corner of the picture above you may see that the air was full of midge.

Ullswater fish are still predominantly 'bottom feeders' - even though there has been very large hatches of midge this fish contained none, as is quite usual, it was full of Cased Caddis and a few Hoglouse.

Weekly fix.... half a day at Rutland's stockies

2010-04-06T00:15:00.006+01:00

It's taken a while to update this one - been very busy with work and not had as much time for fishing as I'd like.
The Rutland visit was a real bonus as I didn't expect to wet a line on an Easter visit to my sister's in Nottingham, but the rods went in the car - just in case.

I only had time for a half day ticket and restricting myself to a four hour stint, I decided to concentrate my efforts around the Normanton Church area, reports suggested that the shoreline from here down to the dam had been quite productive with black and/or green lures doing best.

A quick search of my fishing bag revealed no lure box, I'd forgotten it, so rather than risk hitting the water lureless, I purchased a few of the recommended flies. As usual I needn't have bothered, I once did the same on an evening visit to Grafham and ended up catching on my own flies, and so it was today - I set up with the bought lures on top dropper and point, and found a Cormorant in my box so this went on the middle dropper. A slow retrieve with the Kelly Green intermediate produced two fish to the Cormorant

After a fishless hour and a half of searching with the lures I decided to change to the buzzers, I'd been told that they weren't producing but I'd had a couple of fish and was more than happy with my lot so I had nothing to lose.

I stuck with the Kelly Green and black buzzers top and bottom with an orange one in the middle - a long cast and slow figure of eight retrieve produced four offers in six casts with two sticking to the orange buzzer.

Small fish saves first blank and Ullswater

2010-03-28T21:57:00.007+01:00

I managed a couple of hours on the river yesterday afternoon before having to rush home for the Penrith Anglers social evening where Paul Procter delivered an excellent talk and slideshow about fishing in Slovenia.

The river was dropping and clearing after the band of rain that passed through our area on Thursday night/Friday morning and it was just fishable. Once again, there was a distinct lack of Olives - I saw three, so it was on with the nymph again.

My first blank of 2010 was just avoided when this 8 1/4" (21cm) fish saved the day.

I was on Ullswater today, guiding for Peter and John. They were first timers on the lake and unfortunately the weather did not do them any favours - with a bitterly cold and at times very strong westerly, making fishing difficult and pretty uncomfortable at times.

Sport was slow but they both did well considering the poor conditions and managed to save their blanks with a fish each.

Second outing 2010 - The River Eamont

2010-03-27T09:56:00.006Z

This (above) is a sight that we're not enjoying this year as we fish the River Eamont - the host of golden daffodils are nowhere to be seen, they like most things, have been slow to make an appearance this year. The Large Darks (Baetis Rhodani) remain sparse - I only saw about six today, so hardly surprising that there was no surface activity.

My favourite method - upstream nymphing, was the method for me today and although sport was slow it did produce four good fish for the session. All were quickly photographed and returned safely.

The first was 14 inches (36cm)

The second was 16 3/4 inches (43cm)

The third 15 inches (38cm)

And the fourth - this tubby 15 3/4 incher (40cm)

All four fish came to a Size 10 Hares Ear Goldhead nymph - some I've talked to express surprise that I use a size 10 but in my opinion one of the most important aspects in chosing our general imitations is size and at this time of year any invertibrates that are reaching maturity are quite large - and there's not a lot but we should expect to see, Large dark Olives (Baetis Rhodani), March Browns (Rhithrogena Germanica) in some areas (although I haven't seen one around here for years) nymphs of The Large Brook Dun (Ecdyonurus Torrentis) should be reaching maturity and towards the end of this month and into early April we should start to see the odd stonefly nymph.

Here at last - The glorious 15th

2010-03-15T23:08:00.004Z

It was great to be out after the Trout again after the long and very cold winter lay off - I've been looking forward to this day for weeks.

I saw my first Large Dark Olive at 1200 and caught my first fish of the new season five minutes later - a 14 1/4" (36.5cm) Brownie on the nymph.

Three more olives appeared on the water and I took my second fish of the season, a 16 1/2" (42cm) fish, fifteen minutes after the first and also to the nymph - I wondered if this very slight piece of invertibrate activity had woken these two from there slumber in the hope that there would be more food on offer. Well there wasn't, I didn't see another fly for the rest of the day and didn't get another offer.

But I'm not complaining - I expected a slow start after the coldest winter for 31 years and am more than happy with a couple of fish on opening day.

Check this out

2010-01-24T10:37:00.001Z

Check this out, Catch Magazine - A bi-monthly online fly fishing photography and video clip magazine, not a lot of reading material but some stunning photography.
See their Blog for back issues http://www.catchmag.blogspot.com/

Last Weekend

2010-01-17T09:36:00.005Z

After saying that we wouldn't get out last weekend - we did. By lunchtime on Sunday the temperature had risen to a balmy 3 degrees C so we decided to brave it.

The river was iced up in places but we managed to find our way in among the grue (ice) and wet a line.
Sport was slow though, the icy cold water had definitely taken effect. We managed to hit on one pod of fish which produced six grayling and that was it. We did the usual when it's slow and rang the changes, tried heavy flies then light ones, large bugs and small, short lining and indicators - all to no avail - the fish were having none of it.

It reminded me of when we used to get cold winters and the fish at this time of year usually shoaled up in the deeper holes and could be hard to find, especially on a big river like the Eden.

We've had the rain now and the thaw, and the rivers are up, so no fishing this weekend.

I need to make time to stock the boxes up for the coming season, and have Salmon flies to add to the list this year. I've just received an HMH tube fly tool from Pat Stevens at Flytek and it looks the biz so can't wait to have a go with it, so maybe it's time for my annual winter break for fly tying and the jobs at home that need doing before the Trout season starts - but then again, if the weather is okay next weekend ?

Could be a bit cold to wet a line this weekend - or could it ?

2010-01-08T22:39:00.015Z

Even though the night time temperatures were well below zero last weekend, the daytime temperatures rose to a bearable level, encouraging us to brave the elements and get on the river.

Our efforts were rewarded with a few fish - they were hard to find but when located sport was good to a variety of weighted bugs.

Guess this was deposited during the last floods - shows how high the river was

By midweek the night time temperatures had dropped dramatically, reaching -14.5 by Wednesday and on Thursday we saw the first signs of ice on the river.

River Petteril as it enters the River Eden

River Petteril

With the daytime temperatures holding around -8 for the remainder of the week and not much of a change forecast, I can't see us braving it this weekend - but you never know, it won't take much of a rise in temperature for us fishaholics to be tempted

Be Careful what you wish for !

2009-12-28T18:54:00.017Z

I'm sure that like me, you sometimes hope that you will pursue this great sport forever or maybe intend that when the day comes your ashes are scattered on a favourite stretch of river or lake in the hope that you can spend eternity in your favourite spot - well maybe you should think again...

As the great G.E.M. Skues reminds us in his tale about Mr Theodore Castwell (below) - maybe we should be careful what we wish for !

Mr. Theodore Castwell, having devoted a long, strenuous and not unenjoyable life to hunting to their doom innumerable salmon, trout, and grayling in many quarters of the globe, and having gained much credit among his fellows for his many ingenious improvements in rods, flies, and tackle employed for that end, in the fullness of time died and was taken to his own place.
St. Peter looked up from a draft balance sheet at the entry of the attendant angel.
"A gentleman giving the name of Castwell. Says he is a fisherman, your Holiness, and has 'Fly Fishers' Club, London' on his card."
"Hm-hm," says St. Peter. "Fetch me the ledger with his account."
St. Peter perused it.
"Hm-hm," said St. Peter. "Show him in."
Mr. Castwell entered cheerfully and offered a cordial right hand to St. Peter.
"As a brother of the angle-" he began. "Hm-hm," said St. Peter. "I have been looking at your account from below."
"I am sure I shall not appeal to you in vain for special consideration in connection with the quarters to be assigned to me here."
"Hm-hm," said St. Peter.
"Well, I've seen worse accounts," said St. Peter.
"What sort of quarters would you like?"
"Do you think you could manage something in the way of a country cottage of the Test Valley type, with modern conveniences and, say, three quarters of a mile of one of those pleasant chalk streams, clear as crystal, which proceed from out the throne, attached?"
"Why, yes," said St. Peter. "I think we can manage that for you. Then what about your gear? You must have left your fly rods and tackle down below. I see you prefer a light split cane of nine foot or so, with appropriate fittings. I will indent upon the Works Department for what you require, including a supply of flies. I think you will approve of our dresser's productions. Then you will want a keeper to attend you."
"Thanks awfully, your Holiness," said Mr. Castwell. "That will be first-rate. To tell you the truth, from the Revelations I read, I was inclined to fear that I might
be just a teeny-weeny bit bored in heaven."
"In h-hm-hm," said St. Peter, checking himself.

It was not long before Mr. Castwell found himself alongside an enchantingly beautiful clear chalk stream, some fifteen yards wide, swarming with fine trout feeding greedily: and presently the attendant angel assigned to him had handed him the daintiest, most exquisite, light split-cane rod conceivable – perfectly balanced with the reel and line-with a beautifully damped tapered cast of incredible fineness and strength, and a box of flies of such marvelous tying as to be almost mistakable for the natural insects they were to simulate.
Mr. Castwell scooped up a natural fly from the water, matched it perfectly from the fly box, and knelt down to cast to a riser putting up just under a tussock ten yards or so above him. The fly lit like gossamer, six inches above the last ring; and next moment the rod was making the curve of beauty. Presently, after an exciting battle, the keeper netted out a beauty of about two and a half pounds.
"Heavens," cried Mr. Castwell. "This is something like."
"I am sure his Holiness will be pleased to hear it," said the keeper.
Mr. Castwell prepared to move upstream to the next riser when he noticed that another trout had taken up the position of that which he had just landed, and was rising. "Just look at that," he said, dropping instantaneously to his knee and drawing off some line. A moment later an accurate fly fell just above the neb of the fish, and instantly Mr. Castwell engaged in battle with another lusty fish. All went well, and presently the landing net received its two and a half pounds.
"A very pretty brace;' said Mr. Castwell, preparing to move on to the next string of busy nebs which he had observed putting up around the bend. As he approached the tussock, however, he became aware that the place from which he had just extracted so satisfactory a brace was already occupied by another busy feeder.
"Well, I'm damned," said Mr. Castwell. "Do you see that?" "Yes, sir," said the keeper.
The chance of extracting three successive trout from the same spot was too attractive to be forgone, and once more Mr. Castwell knelt down and delivered a perfect cast to the spot. Instantly it was accepted and battle was joined. All held, and presently a third gleaming trout joined his brethren in the creel.
Mr.Castwell turned joyfully to approach the next riser round the bend.Judge, however, his surprise to find that once more the pit beneath thetussock was occupied by a rising trout, apparently of much the samesize as the others.
"Heavens," exclaimed Mr. Castwell. "Was there ever anything like it?"
"No, sir," said the keeper.
"Look here," said he to the keeper. "I think I really must give this chap a miss and pass on to the`next."
"Sorry, it can't be done, sir. His Holiness would not like it."
"Well, if that's really so," said Mr. Castwell, and knelt rather reluctantly to his task.

Several hours later he was still casting to the same tussock.
"How long is this confounded rise going to last?" inquired Mr. Castwell. "I suppose it will stop soon."
"No, sir," said the keeper.
"What, isn't there a slack hour in the afternoon?"
"No afternoon, sir."
"What? Then what about the evening rise?"
"No evening rise, sir," said the keeper.
"Well, I shall knock off now. I must have had about thirty brace from that corner." "Beg pardon, sir, but his Holiness would not like that."
"What?" said Mr. Castwell. "Mayn't I even stop At night?"
"No night here, sir," said the keeper.
"Then do you mean that I have got to go on catching these damned two-and-a-half pounders at this corner forever and ever?"
The keeper nodded.
"Hell!" said Mr. Castwell.
"Yes," said his keeper.

Acknowledgement: Mr. Theodore Castwell is an excerpt from Fisherman's Bounty, by Nick Lyons, published in 1970 by Crown. In the Acknowledgments he credits the source as "taken from Sidelines, Sidelights, and Reflections by G.E.M. Skues. Copyright 1947 by G.E.M. Skues." The original story appears in that book, (first edition) on page 347 as "Some Letter," with the notation "Fly-Fishers' Club Journal, vol. 19, No. 73. Spring, 1930.

Cold snap slows sport

2009-12-24T14:45:00.018Z

The cold weather that we've had recently certainly seems to have slowed things down, not killed it... but fish have been hard to come by on my last few outings.

And now it seems that I may have the same problem as last years Christmas break when I intended to to put in some serious fishing time - last year it was rain and a high river that stopped me, this year its snow and ice with the river up and coloured after overnight rain and a slight thaw at the weekend

Grayling have been hard to locate when I have been out, they appear to be hugging the bottom with most taking when the bugs are at their deepest - bright coloured flies attracting the most interest, no matter what the water clarity.

I've sometimes wondered if I should save myself the trouble of freezing in the cold water and just head out for the last hour of daylight as my hard work during the bulk of the day has brought little reward - then as daylight fades the fish have came on and sport has been hectic in the fading light.

100mm ! make that nearer 300mm

2009-11-20T14:03:00.008Z

Well, the forecasters underestimated slightly - instead of the 100mm forecast on Wednesday, some areas of Cumbria received over 300mm of rain

As you can imagine, the effects of all this rain were devastating, with the areas around Cockermouth, Keswick and the west of the county worst hit - 100's were evacuated from their homes and bridges washed away in the worst floods since 2005.

The flood defences built around Carlisle since the 2005 floods appear to have kept the flood water out of the city which I would imagine is a massive relief to the residents that were flooded out last time

Flood banks keeping the water out of Carlisle

Stoneyholme Golf Course

Never Say Never ?

2009-11-18T22:24:00.007Z

Never say never...... well apart from this coming weekend because we won't be fishing around here - after 100mm plus of rain last night the rivers in this part of the country are in the fields and with another 100mm forecast for tomorrow I wouldn't like to think what sort of a state we'll be in on Friday.

The pictures below were taken at the end of October 2008 but if I'd had my camera today the shots would have been the same.

On a positive note.... I did manage an outing on the Eden last weekend - A call to the Environment Agencies Rivercall service last Saturday stated the river level was o.75m above summer level and falling - a touch high, I thought. Another call on the Sunday gave it at o.5m and falling so I decided to go for it.

The river at Penrith was still a touch coloured but worth a go - my philosophy in these conditions is 'give them something they can see' so on went a bright pink bug on the point, bright orange in the middle and bright yellow on the top dropper plus BB shot 150mm up from the point to ensure it was bouncing bottom.

Unfortunately no pictures from the day - my camera was playing up - but sport was good considering the conditions, my first fish was a 17" (43cm) Grayling to the pink, followed, two casts later, by a 16.5" (42cm) one to the orange.
Six more followed, all to the pink - so it turned out a good session in a water that I would have said wasn't worth fishing a few years ago and some still do, I had the river to myself today - It just shows, you can never say never.

Salmon fishing again

2009-11-10T22:34:00.005Z

For some time now I've had an itch that's needed scratching and that itch was salmon fishing, so this year after a sixteen year break, I decided to do something about it and get back into it.

My Trout fishing has suffered badly but I thoroughly enjoyed the season - and didn't do too badly considering that by all accounts this year has been very poor for Salmon on the Eden, I caught two, a 7 1/2 lb Cock on the fly and a 15-16lb Hen on the spinner (shown below), the Hen was caught after the 10th September when all Eden Hen Salmon must be returned to the river

The damp weather continues, curtailing any hopes of getting out for the Grayling - I've only managed one outing so far this winter, the river has been out of sorts for the last two weekends and prospects for the coming weekend are not good, with yet another band of rain and strong winds heading in from the West on Friday - How Depressing !

Our green and pleasant land

2009-05-24T11:35:00.006+01:00

We fishermen certainly are a lucky bunch, we often have the privilege of fishing some great rivers in truly spectacular surroundings - of which there is no shortage here in North Cumbria, with the beautiful valleys of Eden, Eamont and Lowther on our doorstep as well as the Northern lakes/waters of Ullswater, Derwentwater, Haweswater and many more.
Its just a shame that my meagre photographic efforts can't really do them justice.

On Thursday I had planned a day on the Eden for a client (Tim) but heavy showers the day before had brought it and it's main tributary the Eamont up with colour and unfishable, so a quick change to Plan B saw us on the River Lowther - always a good bet if the others are out of sorts, it's waters held back by Wet Sleddale dam at it's head and often the last to flood, if at all.

The Lowther's a beautiful little river and usually a favourite of the dry fly aficionado, but today, with a cool downstream wind there was little sign of any fly life or rising fish so we resorted to spiders in the few runs that I thought may hold fish and we continued to ring the changes throughout the day trying upstream nymph, dries and 'The duo' - but other than a couple of small fish and a few half-hearted offers sport was slow.

Saturday saw me on Ullswater, with a strong-ish Southerly breeze and good cloud cover sport looked promising but as with a few of my outings on the lake this season - the fish forgot to read the script. Or maybe I expect too much sometimes as I did get fish albeit between long periods of inactivity.

I was hoping to see Mayfly and fish on them, as they're usually here by now, so I started with the Olive Ullswater muddler on the top dropper. Nature seems to be a touch behind this year and there was no sign of the Mayfly, not even any discarded shucks in the surface but the muddler still scored well, pulling some quality Ullswater fish to the surface, although not all made contact with the fly.

Sunday saw me on the Eden for a short evening session. The upstream nymph produced a few good fish (including the fifteen incher below) before a rise started at about 20.30, which prompted a change to the spiders fished down and across, a touch lazy maybe but easier than straining to spot a dry in the failing light.
Olives, Yellow May Dun and small sedge were on the wing so I tried a combination of Waterhen Bloa, Partridge and Yellow and Hares Ear nymph with all three producing in a rise than lasted forty minutes before the river 'switched off'.

A rough ride on Ullswater

2009-05-04T21:48:00.009+01:00

We didn't get the heavy rain that was forecast for today (Monday) but we certainly got the wind, with a strong South - South Westerly blasting down the lake for most of the day.
The pictures don't really do it justice, with quite a large swell it got a bit hairy at times, the local Yacht club had an outing with a circuit set up but they weren't out long, it was either a short race or they were blown off - I suspect the latter.

Reports from some of the regulars have been a bit disappointing lately with either poor sport or only small fish (6-8 inches) encountered, more akin to June fishing when the small fish provide the bulk of the sport as the warming upper layers of the lake seem to push the more average 12 inchers into deeper cooler water.
In my opinion, by June stratification of the lake has taken place and the upper layer, the epilimnion, has warmed to the extent where it is not comfortable for the larger fish to remain in this zone, even though this is where the bulk of their food is as this is where we get the greatest light penetration and all the benefits that it brings, plant growth etc. - the larger fish still have to feed though and they still come into this zone, they just get a bit more selective with their feeding times.

I did catch and move fish on my first drifts but as reported there were none above 8 inches - these came to 'The Ullswater' on the top dropper.

After a lunch break in one of the few calm areas I could find, I decided it was time to brave the elements with a team of Muddlers stripped through the waves.

It wasn't comfortable fishing with strong winds and frequent gusts making casting difficult but the muddlers, an 'Ullswater Muddler' and a 'Glister Muddler' did produce a few fish although it was still a bit slow for the time of year - another couple of weeks should see the arrival of the Mayfly (Ephemera Danica) and hopefully an improvement in sport.

Grannom and best to date

2009-04-19T21:42:00.013+01:00

The good weather (maybe not so good for us fishermen at a time when we should be getting some of our best daytime sport) is certainly suiting the Grannom (Brachycentrus Subnubilus), they were coming off in their thousands today - I'd of liked to be about when this lot started egg-laying.

Another sunny, cloudless day meant that I decided to delay my visit to the river until teatime for an evening session.
A few Grannom had hit the water but the egg-layers were not out in force - there was the odd one on the flats producing sporadic rises from a few Grayling, but as they are out of season at the moment and no sign of any Brownies showing an interest, I decided to concentrate on the runs and riffles with my favourite method - the upstream nymph.

My first fish of the evening was this beauty, at 20.5 inches and weighing two pounds fifteen ounces it is my best of the season so far.

After a quick measure, weigh and photos it was safely returned.

A few more came to the nymph - mainly Grayling, before a sparse hatch of olives at about 8pm and a few rising trout prompted a change to the spiders. The rise was short and sweet, only lasting about half an hour, but a few more fish were caught, missed and dropped before all went quiet.

Photos from A.A.P.G.A.I. Open Day

2009-04-11T11:12:00.007+01:00

Here are some shots from the A.A.P.G.A.I. open day that I mentioned in the piece that I did on the 29th March.

As I mentioned then - for anyone interested in going down the instructor route, I would definitely recommend a visit to an A.A.P.G.A.I. event, it will give you an idea of what is required to attain the necessary standard and the opportunity to mix with, and see some of the countries top fly casters in action.

Everyone is very friendly and extremely helpful - for information about the association and future events check out their website

Good sport in wild weather

2009-04-05T23:21:00.006+01:00

It turned out to be a wild day for our first outing of the year on Ullswater, the weather forecasters were nearly spot on - showers early in the day, 13 - 15 mph (and a bit more as it turned out) south westerly winds, gusting to 25 mph, remaining cloudy but brightening up towards teatime.

Prospects looked good and we couldn't have had a better start, hitting fish on the first drift, my first of the year on my old favourite 'The Ullswater' on the top dropper.
Normally at this time of the year I tend to stay out of the rough water as the fish seem to favour the calmer areas, but not today, the fish were in the waves and that's where we spent most of the day.
It was like being on a bucking bronco at times as we rode the waves in the strong winds, the boat was moving fast and the fishing frantic - casting was difficult with the strong tailing wind and the retrieve had to be fast to maintain contact with the flies.

Some areas were and had to be avoided as it was just too wild, it's not worth taking too many risks - I never use a drogue on the lake, especially in these conditions, if you got it wrapped around one of the many protruding rocks you could be in big trouble, and I always wear a lifejacket.

We motored south after lunch but initially couldn't and wouldn't go beyond Schelly Neb - the 'White Horses' were charging down the lake and it was just too wild but the wind had calmed by the third look so we risked going a bit further south for pastures new and were rewarded with a few more fish.
Most fish came at the surface, pulled up by flies like, The Ullswater, Glister Muddler, Zulu and Ullswater Muddler.

We did have quite lengthy lulls in sport throughout the day, but were more than satisfied with our lot considering the time of year and conditions.

29th March - River Eamont and A.A.P.G.A.I. assessment

2009-03-29T21:46:00.008+01:00

So much for my plans of a first outing of the season on Ullswater - as soon as I woke this morning I was at the window to see what the weather was like - a touch of frost, a cloudless sunny day and not a breath of wind, definitely no good for the lake.

I had to have my weekly outing somewhere but anywhere would be tough in these conditions, I opted for the River Eamont and I was right - it was tough going.

I was late to the river, an accident reduced the motorway to one lane and I got stuck in the tailback.
When I eventually got to Yanwath I set up with a pair of nymphs as I wasn't expecting much in the way of surface activity, there were a few Large darks coming off the water throughout the afternoon but I didn't see one fish move to any of them so I stuck with the nymphs.
Searching all the likely looking spots and areas that have produced for me in the past was proving fruitless, I'd virtually resigned myself to a blank on what I knew would be a tough outing when a change to a copper beaded nymph produced the goods - a rather slim but welcome fourteen inch brownie was quickly photographed and returned.

That was my only chance of the afternoon, I fished on for a while before calling it a day, happy that my hard work had been rewarded.

It was nice to get out today as I've hardly fished since Christmas - I'd signed up to do my AAPGAI (Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors) advanced assessment in March and have spent as much time as possible over the last three months practicing my casting and doing the necesary studying for the assessment.

I'm very pleased and proud to say that I passed the assessment and am now a full member of this exceptional association.

For anyone interested in going down the instructor route I would definitely recommend that they go along to one of AAPGAI's open events, it will give you an idea of the standard required and the opportunity to meet, and watch some of the countries top casters in action (plus you couldn't meet a friendlier bunch) - this spring's event was held at Woodall Farm near Cockermouth where we were treat to some outstanding double and single handed casting demonstrations from John Legg, Lee Cummings, Tony Reilly and others, plus a fly tying demonstration by Gary Champion.

For updates on AAPGAI events check out their website

The Glorious 15th

2009-03-15T22:15:00.007Z

50 years old and I still look forward to the 15th March like a child looking forward to Christmas, it's a feeling I don't think I'll ever lose.

We were on the water by 10.30 this morning, I'd set up to fish a single nymph on a tapered leader giving me the option for a quick change to the dry if I came across a rising fish.
Large Dark Olives were hatching sporadically by 11am and the odd fish was rising to them, a change to an Olive Comparadun produced no respone so I soon changed to my 'old faithful' the Klinkhammer and rose, and lost a fish straight away before taking my first of the new season, a nice 14 inch brownie.
The Klink scored twice more before lunch but only one came to the net and just as things were looking good for an afternoon on the dries, the sun came out and put an end to that, the hatch of olives petered out and we never saw another for the rest of the day - large darks have never been real sun lovers.

With not a rising fish in sight, the afternoon was dedicated to the upstream nymph and another five fish took a liking to it, the best, a nice but relatively thin 16 incher - I'm not complaining though, a seven fish opening day is a great start.

I won't get out next weekend but hopefully the weather will be suitable the weekend after for me to get excited about my first outing of the new season on Ullswater.

Time for a break

2009-02-02T14:11:00.008Z

We had about four inches (100mm) of snow in Carlisle this morning and there was no way that I was getting to my job in the country, so I took the dog for a walk along the Eden to get a few photos and to let him have a run in the snow.
He was like an excited little kid - running all over the place.

We got caught in a few heavy snow showers, but it was beautiful down by the river and great to be out.

I guess when all this snow melts the river will be up again, but that will be nothing fresh, it's been up most weekends so far this year due to either rain or snow and I haven't been out since the beginning of the month.

I usually have a break in February so that I look forward to the trout season more, but I'd decided to bring it forward this year as I have plenty to do to prepare the the new season - flies to tie, leaders to make.

I've always liked making my own leaders, it gives me the option of different tapers for different applications - to aid leader turnover when using the dry fly or the nymph, or if it's calm or windy. Different lengths for different situations - longer for a large river or on the flats, shorter for small streams or fast turbulent water where more control is required which is not always possible with longer leaders.

I made my first tapered leaders some time around the mid 80's and they were based on Charles Ritz's formulas in his book 'A Fly Fishers Life', and this was where I first came across the 'Perfection loop' which I still use today for all my loop to loop leader connections.

Looking back at this excellent book I can't remember why I stopped using Ritz's leaders, I'll have to make some up again and have a play with them, most of my leaders today are based on George Harvey's formula's which are a mix of stiff and soft nylon, and that could be the reason that I changed - the stiffer Ritz leader is very accurate, lays out straight even in the wind and maybe I may have thought at the time, a touch severe for the dry fly where the Harvey leader with it's softer tippet lays out in soft curves giving a better presentation of the dry fly.

I think, maybe it's time I tried the Ritz leader again, I like the the sound of it and there are other ways of avoiding drag with the various presentation casts that we have at our disposal.

No matter which formula you follow, most are based on the 60/20/20 rule advocated by Ritz which is 60% strength or butt section, 20% taper and 20% tippet although I have heard of double taper leaders which are 40/20/40 but have never tried them, for anyone interested in making their own leaders http://globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/leadercalc/ is worth a look.

Last day of 2008

2009-01-01T01:48:00.009Z

The cold weather continued into the last day of the year - the temperature held at -2.5 degrees C all day, but we're hardy souls in the North West, so we decided to brave the elements and finish the year off with a day on the river.

It promised to be hard going today - our hands were freezing just setting up - we thawed out over the warm air vents in the car before venturing into the water and giving it a go.
With the water so cold the fish were likely to be deep so the method for the day was short nymphing and a team of bugs, wet line travelling through the rings was kept to a minimum as it just resulted in ice ups - I once read somewhere that vaseline on the rings prevents this but I've yet to try it.

It can sometimes be like looking for a needle in a haystack trying to locate fish on a large river at this time of year but we were fortunate today and hit on them straight away - we couldn't have asked for a better end to the year with consistent sport throughout the day, most fish came to the bugs on the hang, in fact after a while it became a case of hang and hold, the takes were very gentle and you had to watch for any movement of the line as it swung downstream and came to a stop below - the activity helped us to withstand the freezing water but I still had to get out regularly for warm-ups and a wander to get the blood circulating.

That's another year over, - where's it gone ? it's quite frightening how quickly they seem to pass nowadays - I didn't manage as many outings as previous years, what with my wife breaking her ankle and not working, and driving for four and a half months, and we moved house - hopefully I'll make up for it in 2009.

Best wishes and a prosperous new year to all (and of course - Many tight lines!)

First Pike on the fly

2008-12-30T23:02:00.004Z

Below is a photo of my first fly caught Pike - it was 15lbs (approx.7kgs) and was certainly one of the highlights of my 2007 season.

I thoroughly enjoyed the outing and had one more that season when I was fortunate enough to get 5 fish but none as large as that first one.

I didn't manage to get a Pike outing in 2008 but it is certainly something I would love to do more of given the time and money to buy the gear necesary.

You can never say never but if I do get into it, it will not be in the near future as finances will not allow it at the moment - I think my main and only purchases in 2009 will be another trip to Lough Corrib in Ireland and a Salmon licence - it was my 50th year in 2008 and having given in to an urge I've had for some time now (I decided to start Salmon fishing again after many years away from it), my present from my wife was a new Salmon fly rod.
So it could be a busy time at the vice for me - tying for the new Trout season, tying for Corrib and now I'll need some Salmon flies.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2008 and I'm going to see it out with a day for the Grayling - I hope it's not as cold as it was today - it was still -6 mid morning and didn't get above freezing all day.

Jack Frost returns

2008-12-27T18:18:00.005Z

I woke up today to find the frost had returned - everything was white, so I decided to delay my outing until lunchtime.

The banks stayed frozen all day and with the river looking lifeless I set up with the bugs but sport was slow today and I didn't get a touch for the first hour, then a good grayling came to the pink bug on the point.

Sport remained slow and another hour of trying different areas and depths passed before I took my next fish, a trout, again to the pink bug.

I decided to give the flats a go with the indicator and this got me two more grayling before the light was lost.

The reason for it being so slow? - I'm not sure, it could have been the sudden drop in temperature after it has been so mild, I have had this before in similar conditions - I don't think they are shoaling up yet (even though they can be hard to locate on a big river like the Eden when they do) as the three grayling I caught today were well apart and usually if you hit a shoal one fish almost always leads to more.

Lost weekends

2008-12-20T22:54:00.007Z

So far December has been a complete loss as far as Grayling outings are concerned, the river has been up every weekend, snow melt brought it up the first weekend and rain in the latter half of weeks two and three meant those weekends were lost also.

My last outing was a short affair at the end of November - it was during the cold spell, the day started and stayed bitterly cold with a severe frost and a freezing mist hanging over the river.

I'd decided not to bother but by lunchtime temptation had got the better of me so I loaded my gear into the van - that was after thawing my wading boots - they were frozen stiff after being in the garage all night.

I don't know if you've heard the saying 'More skins than an onion' but that was me today - my neoprene waders are leeking so it was out with the gortex ones and to make up for the lack of insulation 4mm of neoprene provides, I had a few layers on - two pairs of thermal longjohns, a pair of thick fleece pants, two pairs of socks, thermal vest and two fleece shirts - I could hardly move !

I got to the river at 2 o'clock, so it would be a short session as it would be dark by 4.30 - it was too cold for anything longer anyway.
The start couldn't have been better with fish 2nd, 3rd and 4th casts, all coming to a pink bug - pink works really well for me at this time of year.
These fish all came on the hang - which was surprising as I expected them to be deep in the cold and lifeless conditions, the rest of my catch didn't disappoint with all coming when the flies were at their deepest - takes were gentle with only the slightest movement indicating a take but all fought well.
It was too cold to get my hands wet so they were played to within reach as quickly as possible then gripping the barbless fly, the fish were shaken off and all swam off without any problem.

So my last outing was very cold and very short, and now after a few lost weekends I'm desperate to get out again - looking at the river and the weather forecast it looks like it's this weekend.

Merry Christmas and many tight lines in 2009 to you all

It's a big river down here

2008-11-07T17:43:00.007Z

I decided to give the lower Eden a look today, maybe not the best idea - it was bitterly cold with a quite severe upstream wind which would make fishing a touch uncomfortable as you don't get a lot of shelter down here.

The river looked dead - no flylife about and consequently no sign of any surface activity. It was too cold to mess about with too many changes so I decided the best idea was to zip up tight to keep the wind out, get the bugs on, stick with them and search.

The Eden is a big river down here and those not used to it may find it quite intimidating, but like any other large expanse of water you just need to break it down into likely fish holding areas, then fish what you can and where you can as efficiently as possible.

One method that is becoming quite popular down here is to suspend your bugs below a bite indicator - I know some are against bite indicators and say it's float fishing and not fly fishing - although it's not a method I use a lot as I find it a bit boring I have nothing against anyone that does employ it as on some days, especially in the depths of winter, the indicator can be the difference between success and failure, it can also be a very effective way of searching large and sometimes inaccessible areas of water like we have here on the lower river.

Sport was slow today and as usual with sub-surface fishing depth was crucial , constantly changing weight to suit water velocity and depth did produce a few Grayling with most takes coming when the bugs were bouncing bottom - I did have to resort to the indicator in some areas.

The fish remain in excellent condition and definitely seem to punching above their weight so far this winter.

First Outing

2008-11-02T23:12:00.012Z

We managed our first outing of the winter on the Eden this weekend and were rewarded with eighteen fish between us and a few missed and lost.
The river was relatively low and clear, and with no sign of any surface activity we both set up with bugs - the starting method was short line or Czech nymphing.
I nearly had the perfect start with a fish second cast but it dropped off as I brought it to the net, this was quickly followed by a 15 3/4" (39cm) grayling, then another dropped - three chances in the first six casts, the fish in excellent condition and fighting hard - this had the makings of a good day.

We saw our first trickle of olives at about 1230 and the odd fish started to show an interest in them, sport on the bugs had slowed and I was contemplating a change to a team of spiders when Andrew beat me to it, so I decided to persevere with the bugs as I was still picking up the odd fish.

Andrews change was justified when he took a fish on a Greenwell's spider and rose two others before they started to ignore the spiders - a quick change to a dry fly produced a missed take.
Fish continued to rise sporadically throughout the afternoon but on closer inspection we found that there was midge on/in the surface and after watching several olives float downstream untouched we decided that the grayling were more than likely on these.

I continued to take fish on the bugs right up until dark, although since early afternoon when we first saw fish rising, they did seem to want the bug higher in the water with most fish coming to the top dropper as the team swung downstream and began to lift.

Back at last

2008-10-27T22:06:00.026Z

Well I suppose I should get the moaning out of the way first - what a disaster the last four months have been from a fishing point of view - first, my wife broke her ankle and couldn't work or drive, then we moved house and my line provider took eight weeks, many phone calls from me and a complaint to Ofcom to transfer my old number - so consiquently, I've hardly done any fishing and have just recently got back online.

But now things are getting back to normal and I've built up a serious amount of brownie points, I think, not sure if the other half will agree though but that will be put to the test as soon as river levels allow (see below - the River Eden at the weekend) as I've got big plans for the Grayling this winter.

The Eden in the fields downstream of the M6 motorway bridge at Carlisle

The forecast for the week isn't too bad and hopefully we'll be out at the weekend, so I'm busy replenishing my bug stocks

I did manage an outing on the Eden the weekend before last with a couple of clients (Christian and John) - it was their first ever outing on a river and the Grayling didn't let me down - fishing a mixture of bugs and spiders they caught five Grayling to 14 inches and missed others

Christian into a fish

Two happy Grayling fishers

Lough Corrib

2008-05-30T19:57:00.019+01:00

I'm sorry that there's been such a gap since my last post but I've been trying to catch up since my first visit to Lough Corrib in County Galway, Ireland.

At nearly 42,000 acres Corrib is vast and although tempted to go it alone, we decided to book the services of local guide Larry Macarthy of Corrib Angling ( http://www.corribangling.com/)
Larry's vast Knowledge of the lough proved invaluable - on the first day he took us to the southern end of the lough where he said that there were some big fish - how right he was, he suggested that we start with a team of buzzers (apparently buzzers account for a lot of big fish)and I had a fantastic start to the week with a magnificent brown trout of approximately five and a half pounds on our first drift.

The next two days were windy and wet at times, more condusive to pulling wets and fishing dries, so that's what we did and we got fish - mainly small ones with the odd better fish of approximately a pound to pound and a half.
The second best fish of the week for our party came on day 2 - a two and a half pound fish was caught on a dapped natural mayfly by Tim Rowley - we collected naturals on some of the many islands that we stopped on for lunch.

Although we managed to collect good numbers of naturals on the islands we didn't see good numbers on the water and locals reported that sport was slow because the fish weren't on the Mayfly yet .

On day four the wind was up and down and during a flat period we witnessed a shoal of fish cruising around picking midge from the surface but they never really got within casting range - long casting did produce offers but all were missed.
We witnessed the potential of this great lough when a trout that must have been very close to double figures launched itself clear of the water in front of us.
We stayed on the lough late on day four in the hope that we may get an evening rise, something that the boys said was worth witnessing when large trout can be seen working areas picking off midge and sometimes picked off with a carefully placed dry - unfortunately the temperature dropped and the rise did not occur.

Day five brought windy weather and mainly small fish to pulled wets.

For anyone thinking about a visit I would definitely recommend it, but if it's your first time I would also recommend you book a guide, although it is a beautiful lough, is it also a potentially dangerous lough with large areas of shallows and some very large rocks close to the surface to catch you unawares.

Plans based on weather forecasts

2008-05-04T15:24:00.015+01:00

You'd think with the technology available today that weather forecasters might get it right on a regular basis - but if you're like me and are constantly checking the forecast on the television and various websites with a view to a fishing outing, then it's quite obvious that they are pretty useless on occasions.
Take this weekend for example, I had a fairly good idea earlier in the week that I wouldn't be working on Friday so I started to check the forecast out to plan a couple of outings - one on Ullswater and one on the river.
The forecast for Friday was for a bright start with light winds in the morning, clouding over with the possibility of rain in the late afternoon - not very good for the lake so we went to the river.
What we got was a cloudy start, quite windy with showers, heavy at times, clearing skies late afternoon and a sunny cloudless end to the day - not quite what was forecast.
We had a decent day on the river, there were a few Large Dark Olives coming off and the odd fish rising, we stuck to the dry fly all day and did quite well.

The forecast for Saturday was originally light rain spreading from the west and hanging over us for most of the day which later changed to a cloudy start with light winds, then for the afternoon, stronger winds, gusty at times and rain, then heavy rain for Sunday - Saturday sounded perfect for the lake, so we were sorted.

What we actually got was light wind and mainly cloudy in the morning with long spells of sunshine and varying winds in the afternoon, wind direction remained south, south easterly all day, not quite sure how that's going to bring rain from the west, and it didn't - not a drop all day.

Despite the conditions we had quite a good day, we caught from a number of drifts in the morning, had a very slow afternoon while it was sunny, then had a good finish to the day when we started to get a bit of cloud cover and the sun started to drop.

Whilst on the subject of the lake, contrary to what some may report - two pound fish are not regularly caught - I first fished Ullswater thirty six years ago and after drifting away to concentrate on rivers and reservoirs for a while, came back to it and have fished it regularly for the last fourteen years and I have only taken one fish over two pounds (pictured below and quickly released after being photographed) and very rarely hear of any being caught - no more than two or three in the last three seasons.

I would estimate the average size to be about twelve ounces (up on what it was some years ago), a fish of fourteen to fifteen inches is a very good fish for the lake and a two pounder is a fish of a lifetime.

Although the lake is quite large, the majority of it is very deep and the actual fishing area is relatively small, and in my experience it will not stand a lot of boat pressure with areas going 'off' for some time after a boat has been through.

Like most wild brown trout fisheries you need cloud and wind, if it's flat calm or the sun is shining - go fish a river somewhere.

Back to the weather - as I write this at 1630 on Sunday afternoon we still haven't had a drop of rain this weekend, not that I want any but as a fisherman trying to plan a day out on river or lake based on the forecast, it would be nice if they were a bit more reliable.

Out at last

2008-04-27T21:29:00.013+01:00

I'd thought or at least hoped that going self employed would give me the freedom to get out on river more but so far it's had the opposite effect - I'm usually on the river more in the first week of the season than I've been in the six weeks since the start of this one !

I managed an afternoon session on the Eamont at Yanwath Hall today - there was the odd Olive on the wing but none on the water and no fish rising so I started with my favourite method - the upstream nymph

The River Eamont at Yanwath

I like nothing better than working my way upstream searching as I go with a pair of weighted nymphs and watching for the line to stop or dart forward as a fish takes - my first of the day was a small ten and a half incher, then my best of the session, a seventeen inch beauty followed soon after - it was in great condition for this time of year and fought really hard jumping three or four times before it was subdued and brought to the net for a quick photo before being released.

I was using my new Sage ZXL today and have been really impressed with the way it performs when playing good fish in fast water, I've found I can stand my ground and really play them hard (without fear of a break off) to get them under control without having to chase them downstream, as I have with previous outfits.

My next fish was fifteen and a half inches and like the last, it fought like a tiger jumping repeatedly before coming under control for another photo and quick release.

The Eamont produced some really good fish last season - the best on Penrith Anglers waters was a 4lbs 5ozs. specimen taken on a dry fly and a number of fish around the 3lbs mark were reported - judging by the quality of today's fish, this season may be the same, my fourth and last fish of the day also came to the nymph - another hard fighting beauty measuring sixteen inches.
A very heavy and prolonged shower of rain at about six o'clock convinced me it was time to call it a day.

The Last Cast

2008-03-23T08:37:00.013Z

River Eamont - 22nd March

A bitterly cold northerly wind and wintry showers made an afternoon session with a client on the Eamont a bit uncomfortable at times - Ullswater is still pretty full so the river was at a good level and carrying a touch of colour.

We hit the water at 12.30 just as the wind eased and a trickle of Large Dark Olives (Baetis Rhodani) came sailing down the river - enough to encourage a rise, you would think, but not today, apart from two oncers the fish were keeping their heads down. Nevertheless a few speculative casts with the dry was worth a go but it was soon obvious that the dry wasn't going to produce so a nymph was added - 'The duo' can be a good searching method giving the fish the option of dry or nymph.

We had just started to work our way up a really fishy looking riffle when we were interrupted by eight canoeists so there was no point in carrying on and we moved upstream to another run where I hoped the fish would have had time to settle after the canoes had been through.

A change to two nymphs and a BB splitshot (a nymph fisher should never be without his splitshot) to help them reach the required depth produced a take but it was off in seconds.
The rest of the afternoon was slow - the river seemed dead and I began to think that the conditions had beaten us, but a change to a pair of nymphs fished upstream produced the goods.

A lovely Brown Trout weighing 2 lbs 4 ozs. came to a weighted Pheasant Tail nymph on what was literally the last cast of the day.

I always think that if you have the methods you will always have a chance - no matter when you go to the river and whatever the conditions - we tried a variety of techniques throughout the afternoon - dry fly, duo, north country spiders (down and across), czech nymph or as I prefer to call it, short line nymph, upstream nymph and were eventually rewarded with a good fish in very difficult conditions.

So, you may ask, why so many changes in such a short session ?

Dry Fly - our arrival coincided with a hatch of olives, two trout rose and the amount of olive duns on the water was increasing so there was a chance that more fish may be looking to the surface
Duo - no more fish rose so maybe the fish were on the emerging nymph, so the combination of a nymph and a dry gives the fish two options as the hatch increases
Czech or short line nymph - we moved to another area, a fastish run, the fish were very unlikely to be in the head at this time of year but could be in the deeper mid section, so we had to look at depth required and water velocity. To fish this area effectively required two weighted nymphs plus a BB splitshot fished on a short line to minimise drag and to fish at the right depth and speed - one fish hooked and lost
North country spiders, down and across - We moved to an area of water that could best be described as 'flats', a relatively broad expanse of water with even pace and depth - the fish could be anywhere on the flats at this time and a good way to search the area is with a team of flies consisting of a pair of spiders on the droppers and a nymph on the point fished down and across or maybe across and down would be a more appropriate term
Upstream nymph - after fishing the spider/nymph combination down the flats with no response from the fish but still convinced that there had to be fish in the area we had to conclude that the fish may be lying deeper and as this area of flats did not really lend itself to short line nymph then the right method would be to work our way back upstream fishing an area of what seemed to be a slightly deeper channel with a pair of weighted nymphs - result: a 2lb 4ozs. Brown Trout

So in my opinion, to be consistently successful Trout hunters we have to be prepared to change methods depending on water types and changing conditions encountered throughout our fishing sessions.

The Glorious 15th

2008-03-16T08:43:00.004Z

My first outing of the 2008 Trout season – it was a calm and damp start to the day, the choice was the swollen rivers Eden or Eamont, a high but maybe just fishable Petteril or Ullswater - I had a few jobs to do in Penrith so I opted for the lake.

I got up there at about 11.30 to find the lake virtually flat with just a slight ripple here and there - a waste of time in my view, but, I was there so I decided to see if the boat had overwintered okay.

As I was checking the boat the wind picked up and was soon a moderate north to north - easterly, so I was on the water by 12.45 and after dropping a fish third cast, I was netting my first trout of the season by 12.55 - it came to my Glister Muddler on the top dropper.

It was great to be out on the lake again - I know I miss some potentially good sport on the rivers but I do struggle to tear myself away from it between now and the end of June given favourable conditions.

Sport was slow and the fish were lean - only to expected for the time of year, but I'm not complaining, I did okay for the first day of the season, there was a time when I wouldn't have dreamt of being on the lake this early in the year.

Apart from the fish I caught and moved to my flies, I only saw one fish rise and there was little in the way of fly on the water – I saw one midge fly past my nose and that was it.

I met one other boat and saw two others - the occupants of the boat I met had only one fish between them for the day and reported sport was slow.

Fishing will always come first

2008-02-09T20:02:00.000Z

I got up this morning to find we had some decent weather at last - a beautiful springlike day.
I did a few jobs to keep the better half sweet and then it was decision time - Newcastle were playing Aston Villa on Sky TV, so should I stay at home and watch a load of overpaid primma donna's prancing about a field or should I give in to temptation and hit the river.
Not a lot to consider really - I was on the River Eden just after one o'clock for an afternoon session for the Grayling.
Even though it was a warmer day than we've had recently I didn't expect any activity at the surface so it was on with the bugs and a spot of Czech nymphing.
They didn't let me down - third cast I dropped a fish and two casts later I was into the first of the day - a 43cm (17") Grayling to an Orange bug on the point.
Judging by the scale samples I've taken in the past, a fish of this size would probably be about three year old (a third winter fish) - Eden Grayling tend to be fast growing and three year olds are usually in the 38 - 45 cm bracket - my best measured Eden fish was 49cm (19 1/4") and weighed 2lbs 14ozs.
The Eden has produced some very good fish in the 40 - 47cm (16" - 18") range over the years but the downside of fast growth is short lifespan and we have yet to find a fish over four years old.
My second fish came soon after the first, quickly followed by a third and one dropped in between - all coming to the pink shrimp on the top dropper, these were 28 - 30cm fish.
Another one came to the pink shrimp in the next pool down plus a few tentative tugs when the flies were on the hang and that was it.

The Flies for the day - The Orange bug and Pink shrimp

In 2007 the Eden Grayling population definitely seemed to be on the increase again, we've been in a bit of a trough for a while so hopefully this is the start of a peak period, which we haven't really seen since the late 90's - long may it last.

Not that there was ever any doubt as fishing will always come first but my decision was confirmed when I got home to discover that Newcastle had produced another poor performance and suffered a 4 - 1 defeat.

The Ullswaters

2008-02-07T15:08:00.000Z

I think I've started every post so far with a negative, so why spoil the habit, I'm sure there'll be plenty of positives once the season starts - yesterdays local news confirmed what I suspected, that is, January's rainfall was twice the average for this time - how depressing.

On the tying front I've got my stillwater box well stocked with my Ullswater flies.

The Ullswater series started about 14 years ago, I wasn't into naming flies then, so it was just, my palmered hare's ear. The fly was so successful for myself and my good friend, Andrew Dixon that he said I should give it a name - as it was tied for the lake it had to be 'The Ullswater'.
Since then I have added - The Golden Ullswater, Silver Ullswater, Olive Ullswater, Orange Ullswater plus muddler versions of them all and the Golden Slipper (Originally tied for, and very successful on the peat stained water of Keilder reservoir)
The Original is still my top fly every season but the others aren't far behind and the golden version nearly pipped it last year.
The olive version and the Golden Slipper come into their own once the Mayfly (Ephemera Danica) time starts but are always worth a go if the others aren't producing.
As most lake or loch fishermen will tell you, it's not just Rainbows that want the flies moving and creating a wake, sometimes the Brownies love it too and this is when the muddlers shine - you don't always need a good wave either, I remember having a great day with a size 10 Olive Ullswater muddler, in a very light ripple it was part of a three fly cast and the fish picked it out every time.

The Ullswaters do work elsewhere, Andrew had success with them in Sweden while practicing for the World Championships (he has been a member of the England team for some years now) and they have worked for me on other wild trout fisheries I have tried.
Once word of them got out, they became quite popular with local anglers and are now sold by John Norris of Penrith.

One of the things I love about fly tying is that it gives you the freedom to experiment and I certainly do that - I am always trying different patterns or variants of traditionals on both river and stillwater, to me, that's what it's all about - it adds to the challenge and enjoyment of this great sport.

The right footprint

2008-01-28T17:57:00.000Z

Even though the horrendous weather and subsequent waters have meant an enforced break in my Grayling fishing since the week before Christmas, I'm going to try to stick to my guns and have my annual break which usually starts at the beginning of February and runs until the 15th March (unless out with clients) - this gives me the chance to catch up on some fly-tying and means I really look forward to the start of the Trout season.

At the moment, I'm reading (for the second time), 'A Modern Dry-Fly Code' by Vincent C. Marinaro - for anyone who hasn't read it, it is an excellent book.
When it was first published in 1950 it was described as being far ahead of it's time.
In chapter three Marinaro describes what the trout sees, it's window of vision and the importance of the 'footprint' - the impression that the fly makes on the surface of the water and seen by the fish in the mirror before it reaches the window .

He also believed that Dun imitations should be winged - the footprint alerts the fish to the fact that a fly is approaching and the wing is the first indication that it is entering the window.

I guess this could be why, on occasions, we have seen fish move some distance for the fly - the footprint is seen in the mirror and the fish goes to it rather than waiting for it to enter the window or it moves off line to intercept a fly that would otherwise miss the window.

A Large Dark Olive Dun (Baetis Rhodani)

In my opinion the footprint is not always that important when fishing our northern freestone rivers. For example, when fishing the dry in riffles, this water tends to be faster, more turbulent and shallower - trout in this type of water are closer to the surface therefore their window is smaller and they will not get time for a good inspection of the faster moving fly, and they are usually not so fussy about what you chuck at them.
As the riffle slows and deepens into the pool then this is where we should, on occasions, think of the impression our fly is making in or on the surface. Here the fish may be lying deeper, it's window is larger and it gets a good view of the mirror around that window, and anything that is piercing or creating a footprint on that mirror.

So when I'm tying my dries, I try to cover whatever the fish may be on - emergers, drowned or crippled duns and a variety of duns in the hope that on any given day one of them will create 'The right footprint'

Versatility brings success

2008-01-06T20:55:00.000Z

So much for getting out early in the New Year, I had to cancel a days fishing on the 2nd after checking the River Eden on New Years day and finding it dirty and rising and reading just over four foot on the gauge at Langwathby

Then plans were changed again on the 5th after rain on the 4th brought the river over the gauge which meant it was five foot plus, and dirty, and definitely not going to fish.

With the busy lives we all lead nowadays we can't always go fishing when we want to or when conditions are perfect, so in my opinion, to be a successful Trout and Grayling hunter you need to be versatile and be prepared to fish whatever the situation demands.

This means that you can no longer decide before you leave the house 'today I will be mainly fishing the dry fly' which you probably could have done some years ago when hatches were better and there were more fish in the rivers, although we do tend to look back through rose tinted glasses - from my recollections, going back some 30 odd years, it wasn't always great, although they were more regular and predictable than today, there were days when there was no hatch and apparently no fish in the river.

Hatches can still be relatively good on occasions and you may be surprised at how many fish are in the river when they are really 'up and at them', but we aren't always able to be on the water at the right time, so, to be successful you need to be able, and prepared, to fish spiders (upstream and down), upstream nymph, czech nymph, duo or New Zealand dropper, and streamers if necessary.

We will still have our favourite methods, my personal favourite has always and probably will always be the upstream nymph - I have always found it a very enjoyable method and there aren't many occasions when it doesn't produce results.

When it comes to the perfect rod for the versatile fly fisher, I think a 5 weight takes some beating, it's a good all round weight that will cope with most methods.

2007 Review

2007-12-30T06:19:00.000Z

The Brown Trout fishing started really well in 2007, with the milder winters we are experiencing nowadays the river temperatures were relatively high for the time of year and a lot of fish seemed to be in their summer lies from day one (15th March).

The nymph scored best for me in the first few weeks of the season and produced my best trout of the year from the River Eamont at the end of March - a 55cm (21 1/2 inch) specimen which weighed 3lbs 8ozs.

Even though we did have relatively good hatches of large Dark Olives (Baetis Rhodani) on occasions, the dry fly didn't come into it's own until mid April but from then we had some fantastic surface sport with good hatches of various species including Yellow May Dun (Heptagenia sulphurea), Medium Olive (Baetis vernus), Small Dark Olive (Baetis Scambus), Iron Blue Dun (Baetis niger) and others (proof that the Eden system still has a wide diversity of aquatic species) - even when hatches were sparse to non existent you could still pull fish to the surface when speculating with appropriately sized dries.

Ullswater did fish well on occasions but not as well as in previous years - I think that was down to angling pressure, there was definitely more boats on the lake than we've had for some years and this does affect the fishing.

From June onwards we had long periods of wet weather and the rivers rarely got back to summer level, which, for me, did appear to take it's toll on dry fly sport, good hatches were rare whenever I was on the water, Blue Winged Olive (Ephemerella ignita) hatches were very sparse and evening sport was slow with poor falls of BWO spinner, although if you did hit it right we did have some very good hatches of Sedge on some evenings.

My best Grayling of the summer (47cm) came to the nymph

The Grayling fishing has been very good this year with good sport on dries, spiders and light nymphs into early November.

The first prolonged frosts of the winter lowered water temperatures and the grayling dropped back into the slower deeper water forcing us to revert to deeper fished nymphs to locate them, and thats the way it stayed until the end of the year.

BEST WISHES AND TIGHT LINES TO ALL FOR 2008

The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray

2007-12-30T04:08:00.000Z

Well they certainly did in my case - I had great plans for the few days between Christmas and New Year, and they all involved the River Eden and Grayling.
That was before we had approximately 65mm of rain on Thursday (28 December) and the river came up about 3 metres plus.

A river runs through it - somewhere!

The River Petteril where it enters the Eden

Thursday wasn't a complete loss as I joined six fellow members of AAPGAI (Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors) for a casting session, we must have looked mad, seven of us in the middle of a field Double Hauling in the pouring rain but I don't think any of us cared - the 'crack' was good and we all enjoyed it.

With a bit of luck and fine weather the river should drop back quickly and an outing may be on the cards early in the new year.