First of the year

It is a little bit chastening coming in here. Months since my last post and five weeks into the trout season and I have not even strung up a rod. What is going on? 

Well of course the answer is apparently simple but actually really quite complex. Life happens. Fishing is a passion of mine, it is not an obsession. I draw a huge amount of pleasure and satisfaction from the time that I spend fishing but that applies to other activities that I do. And these are the nice things that have to be fitted around all of the other more important facets of my life – work, domestic and family commitments. I appreciate that all of us have these various commitments, I just wish I had more time. 

But I am hoping to be able to fish a little more this year. I have just finished wrapping this rod and tied up a couple of flies. Mayfly is just around the corner. Let’s get going…..

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.