Llangollen

This week Phil and I had a few days on the River Dee just outside Llangollen with the llangollen and District angling club for some late season trout and early season Grayling.

It was a great river, a decent flow, clear, over boulders and wide enough not to be able to cast to the far side with my 4 weight. There were fish rising most of the time that ranged in size which changed my technique. I was expecting to get the french leader out with czech nymphs, however who could resist a couple of days of dry fly fishing. My timing seemed all wrong as i struggled to find what they were feeding on. I managed a few takes on black but my flies seemed a little bit too big. By the time i had a rest and did some sampling it was then Phill that found a small black knat they wanted and had a good few fish. By the time i caught on i was already behind. The same happened the next day too as they seemed to change to green from black and i was still be hind the curve.

However i did still have a few nice Grayling and brown trout too. I also managed a few Salmon par, one of which was a decent size and deceived me until i could see the finger marks on it's side. Another great place to fish and whilst away it was good news that the Barclays team managed to beat the BOS - another great result.

Bit bashing

Another fishing trip for my nephew Oliver was well overdue and too help out in the summer holidays i thought we could have a bit of "man time" Heyford fisheries in Nether Heyford is a simulated canal where you can practice pole fishing the far bank but rather than for tiddlers they put some decent fish in. In addition to this they have what the call Acorn lake to keep the kids or "those not catching" enternained and i thought we could fish this and be guaranteed a bit. Well i wasn't quite prepared how may bites as they kept coming one after another all day. My arm was aching like mad as i did all the baiting up and with 4/5 maggots at 30 second intervals it was definitely a Repetitive Strain Injury. It was interspersed though with me also doing the un-hooking which as we counted i must have done 67 times! Using a whip and then a few sections of the pole it was great sport and ended with a brilliant net full at the end of the day. Great Angling!!

Barclays National 2015

This years National was again at Pitsford over two days and was set to be quite difficult. On practice day Mike and I struggled to find many fish apart from a few browns wich would need to be put back after you kept one. However we had noticed that they had tipped a stocking in over the causeway and for the last two hours decided to see if we could catch a few - especially since I hadn't done much for a while. I was amazed that after a short while of getting the position right and reducing the size of the Orange blobs to 12's and 14's we got into a rythem and we must have had 30 fish returned by the two of us. I had not done this for a long time and gave us both a boost of confidence. However as always competition day was different and was absolutely chucking it down and the fish had moved to into the corner. Mike and Ash were on them first and all but bagged up. We then jumped in their spot and started catching but by then they had thinned a little and were moving around more. However I had 4 for 8-4 which was not bad on the day. On top of that I can't remember having fished with John Clarke before and it was a shame because he was brilliant company and made it a really enjoyable day.

Overall the most successful team were Thames and Solent with 16 fish for 40lbs 8ozs who managed to find the better quality fish in Sailing Club Bay including Shane Tibbetts with a 3-8 and Ross Jordan taking the best fish Trophy with a rainbow of 4lbs 3oz. Oscar Boatfield 3rd individual with 6 fish for 13lbs 4ozs.

Second place went to Barclaycard helped by Ash Cooper leading the way to finding the early fish and Mike Philpott taking the best bag of the day with 6 fish for 14lbs 8ozs. These stockies were a little fresher and liked the orange blob too much before they had a chance to feed up! Third place went to Clearing Services and Vernon Beak took 2nd place and the most fish trophy with 6 fish for 13lbs 13oz

Derbyshire Wye

What a fantastic river in the Moseldale Valley. The Cressbrook and Lyton beat of the River Wye was our destination for the day and how dramatic and picturesque it was. After a civilised briefing from the warden we took a slow walk up stream to see what we fancied. There was a decent flow on the water that was fairly clear but it did have a bit of colour in it which maybe a tinge of peat. We were hoping for some mayfly but as there was no rises anywhere it was probably a wait for the weather and hatch to warm up so i started on a nymph. After a few dabbles in some small pools it was difficult to get a decent run but as i walked up there was a lovely pool with a fast run in and then split round both sides of an island.

I sat on the bank behind a small bush and as i cast upstream on the edge of the faster water it felt fishy. It wasn't long and the sight indicator twitched and i was into a superb little brownie and you always feel better when you get the first one in.

I then got into it and realised there was a few fish in the pool including some cracking rainbows and didn't realise that this was one of the very few places that the breed in this country. I managed 8 fish from the pool and they kept getting bigger and bigger -I was over the moon.

Phil and i had lunch looking over the river and we saw a few fish rising so Phil had a flick and caught a fish.

This got us going and we both fished the dry for the next few hours catching a few fish but it tailed off. I managed to pick up another couple of rainbows from a deep pool which gave a great fight as i perched quite precariously on a steep bank so i could flick the fly under a tree. What a great place and i'll definitely be back.

A Missing tip

Back on the River Test and the Saturday started off quite poor. I put my rod together quickly and rather than put a line through it thought i would walk up to Beat 11 with Grant. When I arrived i looked at my rod and there was only 3 sections rather than 4, Damm! A walk back and a good luck around convinced me that it was lost so i pulled out my spare rod and got on with it. The weather was great and quite mild, the water was a little coloured but that would help not to scare the fish so easily. A fish in the morning and another in the afternoon would be a good start. We wanted to get Les a few fish after a blank last time and Mick took him on the Main river first thing. A few fish later including this one and he was full of confidence. In the afternoon Phil was sure that a salmon or sea trout jumped in front of him and a minute later Les was into a fish that stormed off and snapped. It would have been brilliant if he had landed a Salmon!

Refreshed the next day and i thought i would go exploring and a good walk down beat 6 and 7 ended up with beat 3 as far as i could go. Not feeling confident i fished it down with no success and then sat on the seat to put up a new cast. After a quick natter to Shane in his car i was feeling rejuvenated. A decent duo cast fished upstream and it felt much more pleasant. As i kept up with the line coming downstream i saw the fly go under and thought it was sinking so lifted off to cast and there was my first fish of the day - thats better!

The next couple of the fish were the same and i kept thinking my fly was sinking. However confidence is an amazing thing and the next one only twitched the klink and i lifted into a fish. I was on fire now and i landed at load more after a couple of other times up the pool.

As i releaxed and thought about returning i turned on my phone and there was a surprised voicemail from Grant saying he had found my rod tip, fantastic! It's a good job he was the other end of the beats as i could have kissed him. What a great morning, very enjoyable!

Leopards

You can't get too much of a good thing and once again the test was fantastic. It forecast two days of continual rain but that never showed and it made for a pleasant trip and a great group.

It started well and i had this lovely brown on Beat 11 in the morning. It came up and took my size 16 klink brilliantly. However there was a hatch of Pale Watery Dun's sailing downstream and i couldn't imitate them properly. Another couple of grayling and a brown made for a lovely day.

The following day we thought we would take the long walk top beat 3 as neither Phil or i had fished that far down before. It was a lovely morning with the sun glinting on the water and plenty of wildlife about. Can you beleive it Mick was there already and had taken his car, never mind there was plenty of room. There were good numbers of fish rising but i didn't have the perfect flies. Fishing a duo of a black klinkerhammer gold bead hares ear gave me a few options and a bit of stealth kneeling behind the reads and an old tree stump gave the fish confidence to keep rising. I had two brownies that were very different and almost leopard like spots. They were very colourful fish.

A i walked back up river i knelt by a bend in the river and i could see a shoal of small grayling sitting on the bottom. I took the dry off and and dangled the hares ear in front of them. It took me ages to get any interest but i found by lying the fly on the bottom and lifting infront of a fish triggered a take. They were a bit fussy but i managed to induce a couple.

A few more fish later and the evening was pulling in and we started to head back a Buck and Doe Fallow Deer put in an appearance until they got scent of us and made a run for it.

A win at last

Once again it has been a while since I had done some fishing but I had committed to Shane that I attend the annual BOS v Barclays match. This time I was looking forward to taking part but a bit nervous about whether I could properly compete. The BOS team is full of cracking anglers these days and feel that the last few times my thought process has been naff and keep doing the right things but at the wrong times. We had a good trip up and a few walks around Stirling before my obligatory Haggis Supper - Mmmm fantastic! Practice day on Lake of Menteith was overcast in the morning and then as the mist and cloud lifted the sun came out gloriously. It did put the fish down a few feet but if food was in front of them they would still take. The wind was a big factor and with a gentle breeze they were more confident to take.

While everyone was on Midge tips this cracking fish took on a Di7 which gave me great confidence that is was more about the depth and presentation than anything else and that stayed with me. At the team talk in the evening there were fish over most of the water with the two main concentrations in and around Loch End or from the cages to Mallin Shore. The lines were mainly midge tip although Ross and Ash had done well on Slow and Fast Glass. The flies were similar with 2 small boobies (Cat, candy, Coral) with small flies in between (crunchers, buzzers, cormorants, daiwls). The team was great and sharing of flies and tactics really helped me to get my head in the right space. On the competition day it was similar weather with the sun changing the conditions in the last few hours. I was drawn with Derek Purves and I was really looking forward to a good fishing day out.

The first bay we went into and I was 3 down in a very short period of time to Derek’s Midge tip and the doubts started to creep in. I knew I hadn't quite got the depth right on the midge so decided to change to the slow glass. As we turned back into the bay for another drift I soon connected and two on at once. The fish were so hard fighting that there was no way I was going to get both so when one dropped of it was a relief and I was up and running. I then had another 2 on the next few drifts and all was well with the world at Loch End. We then traded fish until Derek's Midge came into its own and caught a rapid 5 fish. I was pleased at the end to have done as well as I had although being beaten 12-8 is not always so good for the team. We took the Jeff Bailey trophy for the best boat and I the top bag for Barclays. The rest of the team put up a great consistent performance and we were able to pip the Scots by 67 fish to 60 and take our first win for a good number of years.