Here's a few more clues...
The clue is in the thick overgrowth of brambles, nettles, meadow sweet, willow herb and other assorted thorny, stingy, trippy, tangley and grab hold of you-y plants. All the fish came from places unfished by most other rods. At this time of the season, on a popular water, it can be a very productive strategy to deliberately seek out the unfished for fish. Their quality is usually superb. The tangled banks provide cover to compensate for the difficult casting. It is a wonderful way to spend a couple of days of the late season and I commend it to you all. Get away from the car parks. Go a bit further than normal. Be prepared to make long round walks to get to the place you want to begin your fishing and then...
Fish!
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| Paradise found! |
Regular Rod
At first I was going to say that all of the fish were extremely nice looking fish :) Great point made here. Many a time I have walked past those spots and there goes a beauty of a trout from underneath it. Now I try at all costs (flies included) to get my line to get under the branches, weeds and banks where some of those beauty fish you speak of are sitting. They always seem to attack with a vengeance and put up a great fight on the 3 wt. Thanks for the great tips. Excellent fish and photos. Those rainbows are so cool looking. Tight Lines.
ReplyDeleteThe top boundary is very sensitive to angling pressure. It usually takes a few days to settle down after a visit from even a half way compitent angler. These places only exist because a small number of anglers fish for a short time and long may it be like that. Forth one down and the brownie at the bottom are two of the best looking fish I've seen from the Wye this year.
ReplyDeleteGlad you like the fish. The fourth one down was caught in the a garden up from the horsefield (hence the close mown lawn). The brown trout was from the lasher in the high weir and required a very weird manipulation of the rod to keep the fly in dead drift.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about sensitivity to angling pressure in the more intimate places. Restraint is vital. One fish per pool is a good way to discipline one's self from doing too much harm. Competence does not need to go hand-in-hand with gluttony.
Nevertheless, there are many other places that are rarely fished on that same wonderful water...
The maxim to "walk further and walk longer" is a good one anywhere where folks may use motor vehicles to get to the fishing.
Regular Rod
You make an excellent point. Also I have found that fishing when conditions are less than favourable on heavily pressured waters pays dividends. The River section I fish gets waded through several times a day on good days. I have fished it when bad weather has kept it angler free for a few days and by fishing it sooner than others has rewarded with more and better fish..
ReplyDeleteAndy