Absence "makes the heart grow fonder" ???

After a medically enforced absence, it was wonderful to be out with a very good friend and once again enjoying the Derbyshire Wye.  The rust soon polished away and we were blessed with a very good start to the Mayfly season hereabouts.  Here we are, filled with happiness, after a really grand day.

And here is the only fly your blogger used all day, there was no need for anything else... 

(It's basically a Grey Duster but with dyed Yellow Squirrel Tail wing and Pheasant Tail fibres for the tail.   http://dryflyexpert.blogspot.com/2011/03/confidence-booster.html )

Hopefully your blogger will be back again with more to report.  This first time back was very productive and days like this one certainly makes up for time lost with other worldly things.

 RR

 

 

 

Happy Fourth of July 2021!

 Henry is an old dog now but he still enjoys a fishing trip.  Instead of walking the few miles there and back to the lower beats of the Derbyshire Wye, we now take the car.  

Low light level just before the thunderstorm is my excuse for the poor quality

Yesterday, the Third of July, we started fishing in the rain at around 18:00 hours.  We only fished for an hour or so, before a violent, and very noisy, electric storm sent us away, but not before we scored a Derbyshire Wye McNab of a rainbow trout, a brown trout and a grayling!  

All three fish came to a Double Badger carefully selected from "Jack's Box", and in so doing, although we had never met, it made me think of him, to wonder what he might have liked, and what we might have discussed by this, justly famous, dry fly fishing water.  In the imaginary conversation I had to check the telephone to ascertain the date.  My word, Third of July!  I must remember to wish the good folk in the USA a "very happy Fourth of July"!

So have a great day and try to get some fishing done in celebration of your Nation's birth!

Regular Rod

Another Derbyshire Fly Box is (re) Born

 Well it took a few sessions, but that lovely old Richard Wheatley dry fly box now has every compartment occupied by families of new tenants.  During the tying sessions, immersing myself in Italian via Radio Garden, it became clear that to simply use this box, as if I'd bought it new, was not going to be good enough.  This had been a fellow dry fly angler's box.  Looking at what was left of his flies, even though the insects had certainly enjoyed some very festive banquets, it was just possible to discern what some of these dry flies had been.  This brought me to the conclusion that he had fished rivers in Wales and the North West of England.  Somehow this made him real.  We had never met, but there was still a connection...

Jack's Box:  The note is attached to a sheet of ethafoam in which I keep a needle. 
It fits neatly inside the leather wallet in the lid.  On every tangle Jack will be noted!

I contacted my pal, who had been so kind as to pass on this box, and some other fly fishing items of his late father's.

"What was your Dads' name?"

"John Charles William Wilkinson.  He was known to all as "Jack"."

"Thank you.  I want to keep a record of him in the fly box."

"That's a nice thought..."

Well it's more than a thought now.  Jack is duly recorded and every time I reach for my untangling needle, I will see his name.  Henceforth, this box is to be known as "Jack's Box".  It's full of Derbyshire flies in readiness for this season.  I hope he would have approved.

Regular Rod

Traditional Dry Fly Box Comes Back to Life

 A few years ago a pal, and member of the choir we sang in, very kindly gave me a box of some fly fishing tackle that had been his Dad's. In it, among some other items, was this immaculate traditional Wheatley Dry Fly Box.

This season, in an attempt to be better organised, I'm going to use it as it should be. The list of flies I need to tie to fill the box for the season is there, roughly in order of priority, and a little in order with what to expect at the start and throughout the season.

Updates to follow, meanwhile I must find my reading glasses!

Regular Rod

Let's be careful out there...

Here in the UK we are going to be allowed out soon, just in time for the start of the new season.  Apart from debris dropped by this winter's excellent floods, the rivers round here have benefitted from the lockdown and a reduction in folk dropping litter.  As a resolute "take it home and dispose of it safely" fanatic, this list caught my eye and reminded me of how we can all help and that it is worth our effort.

Now back to the fly tying vices with you all.  Don't be found wanting on Opening Day!

Regular Rod

 

Happy Birthday USA!

Have a great day everyone.  Maybe celebrate with some dry fly fishing this evening?

One Fly Only Day All Day

No your faithful correspondent has not been trying his hand in one of those one fly only competitions.  Today was a day when it might have been possible to catch more fish by chopping and changing flies.  There were many different species of fly on the water today and there were fish prepared to eat them too.

Never mind that though, this is mayfly time.  Early on in the day there were some spent mayfly spinners (the "Spent Gnat") still left over from the previous day.  It made sense to put on a suitable fake, the Poly Prop Spent Gnat (PPSG) and catch one or two of the early risers.  Later, there were solitary mayfly spinners coming back and laying their eggs on the surface.  These kept some of the trout interested and those interested trout kept your blogger from changing his fly.  It turned out to be a one fly only day, all day.

Poly Prop Spent Gnat

Sport was slow and hard won.  This limestone spring-fed river is gin clear and scaring a little fish that then shoots off, passing the alarm through great long stretches of river is very easily done.  Certainly it was easy to do today.

The trick is to seek cover and preferably find cover near places where the fish have cover too.  Here is a place that for decades has been one such very useful place.  Not anymore, the elm, which used to provide cover for many fine fish, has died.   Dutch Elm disease seems to kill our elms just as they are about to change from shrubs to trees.  The British Isles have no biosecurity worth a damn.  It seems any invasive species is made welcome here by this lack.  The beautiful elms featured in the landscape paintings of John Constable are long gone, and there is little chance we will ever get them back...

The Elm's Aerial cover has gone for ever

It's not the end of the world though.  The fish have simply moved to new haunts and even allowed this angler to get away with being lazy today and having a "One Fly Only Day All Day" !!!




Regular Rod

Big Yellow Taxi

Joni Mitchell got it right when she sang "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone..."

Recent events have certainly shown how much you can miss the things you love.  Being prevented from fishing, millions of British anglers have been peculiarly, and forcibly reminded of what they had "got".  Today, your blogger, like many others, made sure to enjoy what he's "got" by grabbing the opportunity to get out there and open up the trout season at last, now the lock down has been eased.

Much of Henry's athletic prowess has gone now.  His fishing pal, who loves him, and his company, so very much, is dreading the day when Henry can no longer go-a-fishing.  This time it's a case of knowing already what you've got, before it's gone!  He loved the day, but now he is exhausted and asleep in his dog bed.

The fishing, on this beat, of this exquisite tributary, of the Derbyshire Wye, is not as easy as it would at first seem to be.  The water is as clear as gin (but a bit more expensive!) and several times today, the fish saw the angler before the angler saw the fish.  This has the effect of putting all the fish, for about a hundred yards each time, completely off the feed.  It's actually hard to succeed here, which is why I love the place.  It demands meticulous attention to being stealthy and to being very observant.  There is no problem in "fishing where the fish are" as the river has a massive population of beautiful wild brown trout, that tend to be heavy, strong and very fast.  It is hard, but most definitely, it is a dry fly fishing Paradise too!

Being permitted on here is a special and rare privilege.  In return, fishing with restraint is a natural courtesy.  For this reason, a personal limit is self imposed.  Today, ten seemed about right, although sometimes six is quite enough.  The first fish took a Charles Cotton's Black Fly with some force, hooking itself in fact.  A decent flotilla of Blue Winged Olives began to sail down the whole river as the sun came out.  The old favourite fake, Kite's Imperial (variant) did the trick.  Then suddenly there was a violent crashing rise up river.  Why?  Aha!  There were Mayflies, the Drake, putting in an appearance!

A change to a thicker tippet and on with the Hair Winged Mayfly, and it stayed on for the rest of the day.

We packed up at ten fish.  Leaving for home, a few moments considering what I've got before it's gone reminded me how much I love these Derbyshire rivers, how much I love Henry, how much I love dry fly fishing and how lucky I am to still be enjoying AND loving them.

Folks, please do enjoy what you've got and what you love, as much as you can, for it is too easy to end up echoing Joni Mitchell, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!"



Regular Rod

Winter Inter - Lude

Each Spring the Wild Trout Trust holds an auction of donated lots for its major, annual fund raiser.  Lots vary from items of tackle, to entire fishing holidays in all sorts of places around the world.  For the donor there is the satisfaction that the Wild Trout Trust is getting the biggest possible bang from the donor's gifted buck.  For the bidders that don't win a particular Lot, they have the satisfaction that their bids have helped maximise the value to the Trust.  The lucky winners of the Lots have their satisfaction in that they have made valuable contributions to the Trust's work and have got something rather special to look forward to...

Thus it was in the Spring of 2019 when your blogger was the lucky winner of a day of fishing for roach with Dr Redfin himself, Dr Mark Everard.  The prize was for two anglers to spend a full day with Mark fishing on either a very private stretch of the Bristol Avon, or on the Hampshire Avon.  Mark advised that we should fish late in the season for best results, although there is always the risk of inclement weather and high, coloured water in wintertime.  He being the foremost 'Expert' in all matters to do with the Roach, Rutilus rutilus, we took his advice and took the risk. 

This really is the COMPLETE book of the Roach

Sunday last, saw your blogger and his pal John heading south west for a three hours drive to the Cotswolds and the Mayfield House Hotel in Crudwell, Wiltshire.  We were met by Mark and his pal Frank at the hotel and, after a pleasant couple of hours relaxing, listening and learning more about what to expect, we went to bed excited at the prospects of the morrow.

Monday morning and Wiltshire was frosted and fogged.  After our hearty breakfasts we followed Mark to a private estate and its secret length of the Bristol Avon.  A minor snag with Mark's car was attended to and, then loaded up with coarse fishing gear, we had a steady walk down to the river.  Mark took us down to the bottom of the beat, where we set up and started fishing.  The flow was brisk and the river much deeper than the little streams and rivers in Derbyshire where we fish the dry fly.

The Swim!

Suffice it to say, the fishing was difficult for each of us.  Mark and John set up legering rods, your blogger, pig headedly, was determined to float fish, trotting with an ancient cane rod, called "Kennet Perfection" and using a centre pin reel (Grandad's old Speedia) and so eschewed the leger tackle. 

Looking upstream from the swim, the bread crumb balls went in the edge just here.

After an hour or so, feeding in hand squashed balls of bread crumbs well up from the swim and determinedly trotting the swim with bread flake nipped onto a size 12 hook, your correspondent was visited by his host.

"How are you doing?"

"Not sure.  Am I doing this right?" asked as I held the float back a little to accommodate a slight rise in the river bed.

"Looks okay...  Looks like you have a fish!"

The float had moved to the side and an old instinct had kicked in as your blogger set the hook.

"Yes you've got one... and it's a roach.  Would you like me to net it?"

"Oh thank you, yes please.  Net's here on the left."

Mark took the long handled net and sank the meshes.  The lucky angler drew the roach over the net and Mark did the rest.

"We must have a photo!  Wet your hands on the net."  (Sounded just like me with guests on my bit of fishing...)

The roach was passed over and held for a snap.

"Do you want angler and roach, or just roach?"

"Just roach!"

RR's First Bristol Avon Roach (photograph thanks to Dr Mark Everard)

The roach was then carefully laid back into the wet net and lowered gently into the river to swim free and go about its roachy business...

Some of the swims needed a level of skill beyond that of your blogger to cast into.  Mark could deliver his float anywhere with a flick of the wrist and his perfect execution of the F W K Wallis cast.  My attempts led to tangles and frustration.  That cast is a skill I will have to work on. 

Mark and John concentrating into the gloom

Through the day and into night we fished on but Mark was the only one to have any further success.  It didn't seem to matter.  We were enjoying ourselves too much to really notice.  Mark is a helpful host and it was a pleasure to meet him.  We learned a few things and, as is always true when learning stuff, we recognised that there is a lot more to learn...

Venus (top left) Looks Down on the Bristol Avon

The Bristol Avon is a beautiful river.  We struggled.  That roach was largely a matter of luck and of being put in the best swim by a kind host.  It would be wonderful to revisit when the river was lower, clearer and not quite so cold. 





Regular Rod

Happy Birthday USA

Have a good time folks.  Maybe celebrate with some fishing?

Happy 4th of July from Regular Rod

Busy Day

It was another chopping and changing day for your correspondent and his pal, Henry.

The Hawthorn flies seem to have finished their honeymoons for the year and most dry fly anglers hereabouts will be willing the Drake to begin theirs as soon as possible.

No Drake yet but lots of flies around of a variety of species.  This is what made the day a busy one, and added a certain something to the proceedings. The first few fish came to a size 14 Double Badger, which was chosen because there were no fish rising "four to the minute" with their attentions fixed on a specific fly.  The Double Badger makes a good fake for many different real flies and looks to be a decent mouthful.  Anyway it was working.



Then the fish started to rise more frequently and it quickly became clear that they were choosing something specific from the buffet bar near their sky.  What was it?  Aphids!  But not green ones.  Fat little, dark brown creatures that had gorged on sap to the point when Gravity took them from the leaves in the canopy.

On with a size 20 Sturdy's Fancy and the next fish was the biggest of the day! A fine brown trout with all fabulous colours that Lathkill Brown Trout are so famous for.

After a few more fish it all went quiet.  The Double Badger went back on to continue its coaxing duties.  Henry and Regular Rod continued to wander up stream, picking pockets as we went...

Mid-afternoon saw the first flotilla of duns sail by.  Untouched for a good ten minutes.  Then it started.  What a sight!  Fly choice was easy.  The slight backward angle of the Blue Winged Olive's wings is very distinctive.

Chop off the Double Badger and change to a Kite's Imperial and choose your fish!

This river is always a bit of a test for the angler.  Here the water is so clear the fish can see you from quite a distance.  Creeping about is the only way to earn any real success.  Scare a fish on the mother river, the Derbyshire Wye, and you put down all the fish in that pool.  Scare one on the Lathkill and the effect can spread over 100 yards!  These banks may be mown a little bit but the river has lots of cover so careful casting is required.  The back cast has to be watched as much as the forward cast.  Failure to take this precaution will get your fly stolen by that precious, fish-holding, cover.

Very soon the Drake will be on the menu.  On some days the fly will go on at the start of the fishing and only come off when packing up.  Meanwhile, I reckon we may well be occupied by another week or so of chopping and changing!




Regular Rod

Minimalism anyone?

Now past the usual allotted span, your faithful correspondent lays claim to still having the enthusiasm of youth.  It must be so, as events today surely prove?  In the rush and hastiness to get tackled up and down river to begin fishing this day, the old Brady shoulder bag was left behind on the garden table! 

Fortunately the Kite's Imperial, chosen simply because the day was so bright and sunny, had been tied on AND... anointed!  This proved to be of vital import when, after a couple of miles wandering down river to sit by the tail pool of Ogden Island on Derbyshire's River Wye, the bag was reached for and found to not be over the shoulder where it usually is.  Calamity!  I've never fished one of those "One Fly Only All Day" competitions and I don't believe I'd do very well in one if I did.  Ooh!  Careful now, the floatant is at home, as are the scissors, leader material, fly boxes and other apparatus.  Lose the fly and, although there are many in your hat band, they are not ready to repel water!  Now dashing off like that must go to show that the youthful enthusiasm for our "Great Sport" is still there...  Or does it only show that advancing years have rendered this angler.... forgetful?

Henry!  Don't sit on the landing net!  We will need it soon!

The choice of fly was a good guess.  Sport was not brisk but it was still to be had by sitting quietly, observing carefully and letting the fish show us where they are.  

See!  I told you we would be needing that net!

At one point the fly was broken off in some trailing vines of ivy, dangling just a bit too low for the attempted side cast. Happily it was possible to lasso the fly with the tip ring and recover it to hand and retie it onto the, now slightly shorter, tippet.  

A bonus was watching a Big Momma Grayling on her redd.  The snaps aren't very good.  Laziness led to the 'phone being the only camera to hand. 
  

The mother river this year is in amazing condition.  Clear, higher than usual, teeming with life and ready to give her presents to those ready to receive them. 

Maybe a copy of the check list needs printing off again and pinning to the garden door to be read just before stepping out onto the riverside footpath?

Best wishes to you all.


Regular Rod

Alert! Alert! Urgent! Urgent!

For the next three weeks, if you are fishing in the North Country rivers of Great Britain, you are very likely to need some suitable fakes of the Grannom.  May I please suggest you get back to the vice and tie a few if you have not yet done so?  

On Monday I was vexed to see that I only had one in my fly box and one in my hat band.  

"Cobblers' kids are always barefoot!"  

Hence this URGENT public service message!


Regular Rod

Change of plans...

Henry and your faithful correspondent spent some of this last Winter in reconnaissance.  The changes to the river within its upper reaches (nearer to home than down towards the confluence) were all cheerfully observed and committed to memory.  The snowdrops were marvelled at.  The newly scoured gravel beds were smiled upon.  The large woody debris, much of which had been relocated by the floods, was observed with satisfaction.  In the mind's eye, of the dry fly angler, a scheme for making the most of Opening Day was pictured, with prospective ambush points already planned.

What actually happened was somewhat different.

The angler overlaid!  

This All Fools' Day the plan was to open the season on the Mother river in and around the places already reconnoitred.  This river has more anglers to fish it than the tributary waters usually chosen for a Regular Rod's opening day.  Being at least two hours later than intended, space would likely be at a premium.  The decision to change plans was an easy one to make... 

Dog, tackle and angler were therefore loaded into the motor car and a short drive to a parking space at the top end of the lower beat was followed by some furious threading of line and speedy tying on of a Double Badger.  The walk down to the bottom of the beat, on the right bank, was a brisk one.  The walk was just enough to get the brain in gear and fully into waterside resident mode again.

Back to basics, we had not done any reconnaissance down this end of the river.  No fond imaginings had prepared us for where to set to for some fishing.  

So what did your blogger do?  

He sat down and hid from the fish, observed the water and fished where he saw the fish were.  That's what he did!  

It was not completely straightforward.  Very few fish were to be seen rising (normal for this early in the season).  

The first fly was invisible in the lighting conditions so that was changed from a Double Badger to a Red Hackle.  Visibility problems over and done with and the fly now cast more accurately had the first fish coming to the net, much to Henry's delight and his Dad's relief.  Blanking on opening day is horrible.

Sport was, as expected, slow but satisfying.  It was good to say "Hello!" to so many anglers today.  It was good to watch Henry working the marginal flotsam to gather up lost tennis balls together with a yellow racing duck!  (No doubt from last summer's charity plastic duck race through Bakewell).

Reconnaissance is a great tool for the dry fly angler, but sometimes it has to be done there and then, rather than in advance!

Have a great season everyone...



Regular Rod

Happy Christmas and A Good New Year to You All

A few winters ago, 5 minutes after this exposure (made with the 8x10 view camera), the blizzard came so thick the river was invisible from this viewpoint!

Trout are not Carp

Do be quick and careful with the trout please.

In the 1950s a chap, who many years later would be a pal of mine, used to transport carp around in the boot of his car.  They were simply wrapped in wet moss and sacking.  They all survived well.  Today, watch a TV programme about carp fishing and you will see them out of water for several minutes, while the cameras are put to work.  They then go back with no ill effects.

Trout cannot bear more than very few seconds out of water, especially big ones after a tough and long fight with an angler.  The best policy for such trout is to simply return them straight from the net with no delay for photographs at all.  We can get away with a quick snap if we have everything ready before taking the trout out of the water.  Net the fish, remove the fly, put net and fish back in the water, ready the camera, lift net and fish out and make the snap then put the net back in the water, lower it and let the fish swim out to freedom and oxygen.

If you don't.  If the fish is posed with for several photographs then tragedy like this can happen.

 

 

Alive this would have been a little bit over 10lbs., dead it can never make another Angler's day...

Sorry for the lecture folks, it's just a reminder that these fellows are not as strong as some of the other types of fish we are lucky enough to catch.

Enjoy what is left of the season.


Best wishes




Regular Rod

Happy Birthday USA

Happy 4th of July to all.

Unsure of the traditional celebrations over there, but surely a few hours by a stream wouldn't be out of place?  Whatever you choose to do, enjoy yourselves.






Regular Rod

Watch this Video please...

It's best to go directly to YouTube and watch it full screen.

https://youtu.be/2kLAsQf9Jic

This is the only limestone spring fed river in the British Isles.  The upper river, about two miles of it, dries up every summer due to historic industrial activity that still makes the upper river a death trap for everything that moved into it during the winter and spring.  Fish rescues only catch some of the trout and nothing rescues the millions of invertebrates that die when the river dries up.




Regular Rod

Delayed Action

2018 will be remembered for its persistence in reverting back to winter after every brief spell of sun! 

It brings to mind the old music hall joke about the English summer: "Oh we had a wonderful summer last year.  Unfortunately I missed it...  I was shaving at the time."

Here we are, almost a month into the season and the wind is cold, the sky is leaden and the flies are showing themselves only in little flurries of activity.  Today the Lathkill, that beautiful, limestone spring-fed tributary of the Derbyshire Wye, was calling.  This winter the keepers had worked very hard on giving this beat its pentennial "haircut" so a natural curiosity to see what things were like was only to be expected.

Click it to see it bigger.  See how there are none of the yellow Lesser Celandine flowers opened up.

Yet here we are with Lady's Smock, blooming well, supported by the grasses around it.

The river looks amazing.  There has been so much rain this year that the flow, which usually chuckles along, today was steaming through like a mountain torrent.  The fly line had to be managed at break neck speed to maintain contact with the fly.  The river may be high and swift but the water is as clear as gin.  Too much caution therefore could not be exercised in the approach.  Crawling into position was still vital.

There were some Large Dark Olives skittering about on the surface, dragged hither and thither by the erratic breezes.  Not one was being eaten.  Very occasionally a singleton Grannom would appear and, in one or two cases, these were eaten... with alacrity!  On with the Fresh Grannom then onto the knees and a careful sneak into position. 

He really is behaving himself here.  Just behind me there is a pheasant and I've told him "Stay!"

Waiting and watching was frustrating for Henry but he behaved himself and refrained from distraction so that his pal could concentrate on the quarry.  The first fish was a brown trout typical of this water, dotted to perfection and with bright red rays to the lower edge of her tail.  This strip of red was augmented by the red adipose fin giving the impression of redness all over, although buttery yellow was the predominant colour really.

All were brown trout except for one wild rainbow trout that zoomed all over the pool twice before being tricked into the net.  Henry was very relieved to see it there (so was I)...

The "haircut" has been a success.  Casting here is now quite easy yet the fish still have their overhangs and other cover to lurk in.  It's a beautiful place and, even though we are still under the cold hand of a late winter, there is Sport to be had, if we turn up to fish.

Fresh Grannom

The Grannom is really over now, so don't waste time tying any up for this year.  Just makes sure you have some for April 2019!

On St. George's day there were Hawthorn flies about, which meant they were two days early, St. Mark's day is when they are supposed to appear.  Next week they will be around so Charles Cotton's Black Fly will most likely be the best bet, especially if we finally get a bit of sunshine...

Regular Rod