Where would you want to live?

If I were a trout I am pretty sure that I would not really want to live here.....

However I think that I could make a stab at surviving here, I would of course have to evade the Egret you may be able to see.....

So the obvious question is what is the difference between the water visible in these two pictures? The sad thing is that they are both the same river and both of the pictures were taken from the same bridge. The fundamental difference is that the upstream reach is an unfenced field, allowing unfettered access by all and sundry, and the downstream stretch is fenced.

Before and After

Fairly straightforward and as referred to in the previous post...

Hook - Size 10 longshank
Tail - Pheasant tail fibres
Body - Pheasant tail fibres
Rib - Fine copper wire
Wing - Deer hair
Hackle - Natural game

Before

 

After

 

Frustration and Success

A couple of recent trips to the Wey were, on reflection, a perfect distillation of what continues to delight, frustrate, fascinate and intrigue me when it comes to hunting our spotted friends with our confections of fur and feather. 

The first trip started off with a lively fish extracted from a tricky seam and I thought the portents were promising for a lively evening of sport. How wrong I was I managed to raise interest from all the likely spots but I pricked fish after fish. I just could not connect with anything, from the smallest sips all the way through to porpoise rolls through the fly. In terms of fly selection I had hedged my bets and was fishing a CDC & Elk flush in the surface. 

Tricky seam

The second trip was the polar opposite of the first. The Mayfly emergence was in full flow and the fish were locked on to the emerging duns. The emergence resulted in a flotilla of emerging duns on the river and it was possible to track individuals. The ‘will it, won’t it’ as the dun bobs along the river is the height of suspense. I was fishing with a pattern tied with a pheasant tail body and tail with a deer hair wing and a red game hackle. Very loosely based on a conversation that I had with Philip White many years ago. Initially I had interest in the fly but no success. I was beginning to fear that I was repeating my form from the previous visit. But once one fish was caught others followed and I had a memorable session fishing only for actively feeding fish that were individually targeted. The fish were interested only in the emerging fly and my pattern fooled a more than a few. The highlight of the session being this bruiser that was caught from under a bridge. 

Troll trout

The stream really is in fine fettle at the moment. Plan for this week is to visit the Avon to see if I can catch the spinner fall.  

Cold and Windy

Scratched about last night for a couple of hours, wow was it blustery. I tried to find some shelter in the more treelined stretches. Not much happening, a very few pale wateries apparent and a few desultory rises. I was able to cover a couple with a CDC Emerger and was rewarded with a single 9" brownie.

It certainly does not feel like May yet! Hopefully not too much longer before the big boys put in an appearance...

Trout in the 'The New York Times'

I found this opinion piece quite thought provoking. On reflection the one thought it does provoke is am not entirely sure if this chap ever really enjoyed fishing!

The Cost of Trout Fishing

I would certainly echo his sentiments regarding the processing of marine fish to create pellets to feed to fish to be stocked into freshwater. In plain terms it is simply unsustainable and for me it is the primary, although certainly not the only, reason why I simply do not like the notion of stocking trout.

I certainly agree with the comments regarding protecting native fish and I still struggle to understand why it remains acceptable to stock running water in the UK with non native rainbow trout. 

The logic regarding stocking fish and catch and release is pretty hazy at best. Although I accept that the risk of fish, either stocked or native, mortality must be increased by catching and subsequent release I have never seen any data that would confirm that ‘survival rates of hatchery fish in the wild are very low, especially after hooking damage and exhaustion associated with repeated catch-and-release encounters.’ Interestingly the author fails to provide any evidence to support this statement. My personal feeling is that many fish stocked into rivers are never caught simply because they soon get swept off downstream - imagine what benefit could be wrought if all the money ‘invested’ every year into the purchase of fish for stocking was ploughed instead into activities that are both durable and tangible. 

In my own personal Utopia there would be no stocking and the habitat would support a healthy population of fish that can be fished for. Although I am typically a catch and release angler in such a scenario I see no issue whatsoever with any angler taking the occasional fish for the table.

Fishing!

So I have actually been fishing, I have managed to fit in a couple of evening sessions since the start of the month. This evening was clear and bright with a brisk easterly wind. Very little insect activity. I pricked a small fish but that was that. Given the conditions not really a surprise. A similar session last week was much more benign and I was even able to record my first capture of the season. A moment of quiet reflection on the bank revealed that this was my first brown trout since the close of the 2013 season, a gap of some 18 months.

This was caught from a short stretch of club water that pretty much nudges up to the Surrey / Hampshire border. I know how fortunate I am to have access to this water, a true chalk stream, very close to home. This water has been un-managed until recent times and it is interesting to see the gradual changes being wrought on this water through sympathetic management.

Consider the following...

Looking upstream this stretch screams 'trout here',

Looking downstream some of the changes are more apparent, the banks have been fenced, the channel has beeen narrowed, note the faggots, and it is possible to discern flow deflectors. The 'pond' area is principally to enable horses in the field to continue to drink, but without damaging the banks as before the fencing was installed. This area my also act as a haven for fry to shelter from the main current.

Last shot, one taken this evening from the top of the stretch. This little chalk stream really does have the character of chalk stream carrier fishing,

On stocking

The following is an excerpt from the fly fishing ezine Eat Sleep Fish, written by a river keeper of longstanding. Click here to read the full (and very interesting) article.

I am not sure that I totally agree that the final hurdle is the paying rods. I think that they are certainly part of the problem, on the other side of the equation I think that we have to consider those that ‘own’ the fishing – the riparian owners. When you look at the prices that some of these beats are able to charge then I can quite readily understand why it looks attractive to plonk in a few monsters. I must stress that in this instance understanding does not equate to acceptance. To be frank I would have no compunction about banning stocking and would far rather see fishery owners invest in habitat to support the wild fish that make up the fishing rather than relying on stock fish. But in my utopian ideal the riparian owners will still be wanting to ‘sweat’ their assets and I readily agree with the article that not all fishermen many people will pay prices such as these to fish for wild chalkstream trout in the typical 10 – 15” range....

Perhaps this is little more than semantics. I am in broad agreement but wonder how we can realistically get to a situation where these rivers are managed for the benefit of the inhabitants rather than for the humans that stalk them. Given that it seems to have been almost a gazillion years in 'consultation' to get to the point where only triploid trout can now be stocked I doubt that we will ever get to the point of no stocking. Combine this with the evidence above that these stocked trout clearly support some very substantial cashflows and I become even more sceptical. 

Fortunately the evidence is that there are now more enlightened keepers and more and more clubs and syndicates are managing their fishing in a more holistic manner. Perhaps the most likely outcome is a kind of cultural osmosis where these practices spread up and down the rivers, streams, bournes and rivulets. Of course there will be outliers, remnants of the old days left behind, but through time and as enlightenment spreads they will become increasingly scarce.