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.

Rewilding

A really interesting article on rewilding. Usual nonsense from the Angling Trust towards the bottom of the piece.

A Soft solution to a Hard problem

So encouraging to see an holistic solution, especially when it would be so much 'easier' to dredge and concrete. An awesome landscape should evolve,

An interesting article from the Guardian,

The best fish of the year

The fact that, at the time of writing, it is the only fish of the year is entirely beside the point! It is this little grayling that confirms that I can still be considered a fly angler, rather than someone who spends too much time thinking about fishing and very little time doing.

The river looks absolutely splendid,

I

 

In terms of the shoulder - one more operation and more physio to go....

Cork Handle Part Two

So as promised, ages ago, the next step in the creation of the cork handle. In Part One I had already inletted the grip for the reel seat, prior to turning. To manage this, while turning I have to build up the mandrel to stop the inlet from misbehaving - this is done with some electrical tape;

In this next photo you can see my crude lathe set up, perfectly adequate for turning cork;

Now ready to start on the cork. First step is to turn the cork to a rough cylinder, using a surform. It is always handy to have the template on hand for reference;

OK, done with the surform;

Rough shaping with a file now,

And then onto progressively finer sandpaper,

Until finished;

Nice to get this completed with no major dramas!

On (Not) Fishing

I am not fishing, not by design I hasten to add. I broke my collarbone, playing rugby, in early April and the subsequent operation that I have had to insert various ironwork means that I am in a sling until the end of the month; at the earliest. I am left handed, no prizes for guessing which collarbone I broke.  And then I will commence on physio, which threatens to be pretty much the most painful part of the process. And to top it all off there will be another operation before the end of this year to remove the ironwork.

So all in all how do I feel about this? Pretty crap really. It looks as though most of the season is going to be compromised by my recovery and rehabilitation. At this time my elbow has not been above chest height in six weeks and given that the human body works on a use it or lose it basis I am expecting very little movement in the short term and that casting will be painful. My favoured approach to fishing is immersive and intimate. Small streams basically, i.e. the type of fishing least accessible to those without a full range of movement. What am I missing the most? 

That word immersive is important. Ultimately fishing is the only activity I perform that takes me away from it all, to another place where all I am doing is interacting with a dynamic environment whilst wrestling with a continually changing range of inputs whilst trying to gull a wild creature. 

But I know that this is a temporary hiatus, patience is required, I will be back before too long.