River Wye

The river wye was looking excellent again this year for our annual trip. The water levels were quite and with a good flow, there were plenty of insects coming off. 

I had a good walk even though i was laden down with man-flu, and started in the pool in the second field. I like this pool in the mornings as you can fish the nymph really well in the flow that comes through, letting it fish a bit more naturally. I then like to wander the stretch fishing the dry as you can then cover more new fish. 

I started well and had a lovely brownie on my second cast and managed to add another 2 brownies and 2 rainbows to that as the morning went on. 

I went for lunch and met the others and as i was doing a bit better i thought i would go back and keep going. As i sat on the bench i saw a movement on the far bank and it was a water vole. Really large, brown with longer fur and a snubbed nose - brilliant. It was the first one i had seen for many many years. As i was walking back it was like buses and there was one swimming across the river without a care. What a fantastic scene. I hadnt seen them there before so i'll have to read up if they are a natural population of re-introduction. Either way it is great to see them. 

I stayed where i was for the afternoon but the fish had gone quiet. I then went a walk with the dries and it appears that i had missed the hatch and it had gone quiet now. 

Anyway still a lovely day day. Very enjoyable!

50th Anniversary of the Barclays National Fly Fishing event

 Draycote was the venue and we had a great turnout from people who had fished in the past, including a nice touch of embroidered caps with the initials DJT on the back in memory of Derek Thompson who have fished with us for many years but passed away recently. 

The day was a little wet with 3 wind direction changes and the fish were either switched on or switched off. With the maximum of 24 fish the winners were Thames and Solent with Shane Tibbits, Ross Jordan, Dave Curry and Matt Irons. Great effort. Neil Oshea took the Best bag of 13lbs 1oz. 

I managed half a dozen and ended up 5th which i was pleased with as i hadn't fished for a while. My partner Frazer Duffy Snr looked after me giving me an orange eyed booby for the point of a washing line and i took all my fish on that. 

Quick evening on Pitsford

I managed at last to get Mike and Adam out at pitsford for an evening on a boat. It was quite a late start and lots going on.

We started in the small half where it was a little quieter and Mike was casting good.

We swapped with Adam and headed to just past the gravels. Had a good drift across and returned to a better anchor hold.

There were a few fish around but not really that interested. Tried damsels, Daniel Bach’s, fabs and daddies.

We had the benefit of a great sunset to see us in though.

A double booked Wye

 Yes when we turned up in the car park on the Wye there were other anglers there and we started to get worried. The keeper explained that they had a new system for bookings and there had been a couple of teething problems. However he said that our party could fish on the members water today - what a treat!

It was a bit damp and there wasn't much fly coming off at all so fishing was hard. I went up the pool with different dries and nymphs without success. however what a fantastic place to be. There were dippers and great wagtails bobbing around all day and as i looked through the bridge there was a water vole just crossing the river. 

I thought the fish would be in the deeper water so for the afternoon i decided to try upstream where the flow was a bit slower and see if i could target fish. Martin had fish rising in front of him so i walked a little further upstream and there was a fish rising on the far bank between two bushes. I did a really smart cast across, mended my line and saw the fish come out of the deep and hammer my black klinkerhammer. What a beautiful brownie.

  

I had a few other takes on the same method but they didn't stick. The mayfly by now had started to come off and as i sat by this pool i watched one hatch by the bush and drift downstream only to be hammered by a trout. So i changed to a Grey woolf and cast the same way and crash, it had taken me and i landed another brownie. 

A little wile later i could see martin into a fish that was really bending his rod so went along to net it for him - it was great 2 pound rainbow. 

It was definitely a real treat to fish the members water and learned loads about the beat should i ever be lucky enough to fish it again.

A wet Draycote

Its been ages since i fished with Mike so a day on Draycote was eagerly anticipated. However after some decent weather it was forecasting torrential rains and very high winds. 

Fortunately they hadn't called it off but had restricted it to just half the lake. It wasn't a great disapointment as we were going to fish just up from the Sailing club anyway. The rain was due at lunchtime so we agreed to get on with it just being a 4 fish limit.

Mike was on form and first cast he was into fish. Can you believe it 2 on his cast and fighting like fury. He managed to net one, and played the other on his net till i netted it. 2 fish up on me already. I turned round to get out and there i am in a tangle. I manage to get out of it and Mike is in again and it is all over the place. I manage to get out of the way while he finishes playing it and netting it. As i cast back over i am in a tangle again. Can you believe it but as i cast out again Mike is in. That 4 fish down and i've not had a proper cast yet - mad!

We then started to catch together. They were taking on a Damsel or green buzzers. mike was on a 15ft midge tip and me a 3 ft midge tip. He had the depth perfect but i had to leave it a little but they were coming and by lunchtime i had 3. It then started to rain and got persistently harder. After an hour we were getting bit more miserable. The banter had increased and i was put under massive pressure to catch my last. However i hung out as long as i could and just after he had reeled in and said thats it, i managed to catch. 

We hot tailed it into the cafe to dry and then to the pub before we had to get back for the weigh in. 

Clearing had won and barclaycard were second. My team Radbroke was a person short so never expected to be in the prizes. However we had both had a really eventful day.   

Pitsford Coaching

 We are back up and running with the Pitsford coaching again with Cid secure measures in place. Anyone can book on a an hours free casting lesson as this link. 

Book a Casting lesson

Del and Jack

It's been a long while but i gave Jack a Fly Fishing experience for his birthday and Del came along as official "net girl". After a quick casting lesson in the front of the lodge he picked it up really quick so off we went and being afloat on Pitsford was an experience itself.

It was good weather and after the dog days of summer it had been fishing well in cloudy conditions. However today was forecast to get a bit bright so we had to get going quick. And we did but it was me with one first cast off the dam on a Red Daiwl Bach. I was hopefull if it stayed like this it would be good.

However the day just got brighter and harder and the fish slowley turned off. I managed to pick up another as we drifted towards the boils but i couldnt manage to get jack his first trout. It was a great day and as a carp fisherman he is used to not catching so spirits were not dampened and we will try again