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Post by halfstoned on Mar 19, 2017 16:43:59 GMT
First trip of the season today, standard downstream wind made casting tricky. First go with my new Wychwood river and stream but not really a fair test. I wasn't expecting much but happy to report that 2 1/2 hours fishing produced a dozen wbt to hand, best fish 11" with five or six coming adrift after hooking one of which felt like a good fish( they always do don't they). Some ldo's coming off and the odd fish rising but all the fish took the nymph ( fished klink and dink style). The same pattern I tied for the last fly swap. Interestingly unlike last years opening foray's when the fish were in the slow water at the tail end of pools or down the sides all these fish were in the fast water at the head of the pools, more like May feeding areas. The rod seems softer than my old leeda workhorse, much nicer for playing fish on and it felt to me that I had less hook pulls than usual. I bet that statement will come back to haunt me! Also tried out a new furled leader made from veevus thread, early indications are that it's not as good as the old 6/0 unithread , not for duo fishing at any rate, but further testing required. Tight lines to anyone who gets out this week.
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Post by boisker on Mar 19, 2017 17:04:28 GMT
Great effort I went over to the Yarty this afternoon, but someone was already there... only the 2nd time I'd seen someone there in 2 seasons. Started to head to the Axe, then decided to go home... still slightly hungover from a v late session after the rugby... putting a chicken in the oven seemed a better option Out all next weekend so looks like it will be early April before I hit the water properly... with a bit of luck it will have warmed up by then...
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Post by yeoman on Mar 20, 2017 20:13:51 GMT
Nice one, that's a good haul for this time of year.
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Post by halfstoned on Mar 20, 2017 21:50:29 GMT
Thanks guys, still a bit surprised myself at such a good start to the season, I expect normal service will be resumed shortly.
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Post by halfstoned on Mar 27, 2017 20:27:46 GMT
Well having done my bit to ensure marital harmony by trudging around b and q and homebase on Sunday I managed to persuade the nearest and dearest that a walk at Fingle bridge might be nice after shopping all morning. The river looked perfect and having spent today with a proper dose of trout fever I popped out tonight to do some bramble clearing and accidentally took my nymph rod with me. Unfortunately I just took the rod and whatever was attached to it and it was soon apparent that the leader was too short and the nymphs were too light to get down in the flow ( thought it would have dropped more by now). Anyway two small trout took pity on me and provided a much needed tonic for my affliction and I managed to open up three more pools for casting, a heron and a buzzard completed a nice couple of hours, just a shame the weather isn't going to last but a least now that BST is here evening fishing is back on the agenda.
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Post by halfstoned on Mar 30, 2017 20:24:17 GMT
Second try this evening at some tight line nymphing. It's obviously an effective method, 5 wbt to hand even though it's still March and the water was high and coloured ( this was between 5:45 and 7:30pm ) but something was missing! I think I just enjoy casting too much, as well as the more visual side of dry fly / duo fishing. I also found it hard to strike the bites with conviction because if you missed the take the angle of strike invariably put the flies into the trees above me, where as with "normal" fishing the strike is more back towards you as it were. Made my arm ache too. Each to their own I suppose, it should be fun after all.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 2, 2017 19:03:31 GMT
Having spent most of the day decorating I finally got to the river today by 4:30. Took my normal duo outfit only to find the conditions high and coloured ( really should have checked the gauge online) more suited to worming! Anyway managed 7 wbt by fishing the pool tails and back waters 5 to the nymph and took two fish on the dry klink, some places weren't fishable at all and the wading was a bit dodgy in places. Best fish was the first at 10" which fought well on my new Whychwood 3 weight, really lovely action for casting and playing fish. Forgot to add , saw some ldo's, plenty of midges and the odd hawthorn but only three rising fish, plus the two rises to my klink.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 9, 2017 16:57:41 GMT
A strange day of two halves today. Started about 12 ish and caught well for the first hour and a half catching about a dozen wbt best fish 11 1/2". A few fish were rising but they ignored my dry fly and took the nymph fished duo style. Then I came to one of my favourite pools on the river, a fallen tree has created a deep pot at the head of the pool and the current runs down both sides close to the bank so you can wade up the middle casting side to side. First cast produced an 8" fish and I thought a red letter day was on the cards. At this point things started to unravel, 3 fish hooked and lost in quick succession, I checked the hook and even sharpened it, made no difference. Still in the same pool I hooked a good un but as I reached for the net it threw the hook up into the trees above me and I had to pull for a break ( I will be back with the pole saw for those ), not wanting to disturb the pool I re tackled in mid stream and promptly dropped the nymph into the stream never to be seen again. I tied on a different nymph and cast into the magic spot only to pull out of yet another fish!! By this time I'd had enough and decided to take a break in the sunshine and collect my thoughts. When I started fishing again it was clear that the conditions had changed, a fresh breeze was blowing down stream ,the fly life had disappeared and there were now no rising fish. The rest of the session was a real struggle with just a few small fish for my efforts with four more better fish coming adrift. The strange thing is the small fish were all hooked really solidly with some needing tweezers to extract the hook. On previous outings the jig hooks have proved to be excellent so today has been a confidence shaker. I tried different sizes and patterns but the fish just kept throwing the hook no matter which direction I struck or how quickly. Maybe the change in conditions affected them and they weren't really nailing the fly like before but it was bloody frustrating and perhaps this affected my approach. This isn't the first time I've had a bad dose of rubber hooks syndrome but it was definitely the worst, the clear water and sunny conditions meant ( with sunglasses on ) I could see the flash of the fish as I hooked them and some of them would have been good trout for my little stream. Bugger.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 16, 2017 19:30:09 GMT
After the losses of my last trip I decided to try a smaller hook and rather than using my standard tucked blood knot I used a loop Knot to allow the nymph to move in the current. Managed to catch 16 WBT but still lost three good fish after brief contact, best fish was a nice 10 inch trout hopefully pictured below. This stretch can be a bit tight in places but the fish are there if you can get a fly to them. This chap was caught from the above spot with a bow and arrow cast. I even managed one small one on the dry Klinkhammer, but all the others took the nymph.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 23, 2017 20:27:05 GMT
Nice little hatch of these chaps today, I would call them medium olives but happy to be corrected. Anyway it was really nice to cast at rising fish with no nymph attached. A soft hackle dry brought about a dozen fish to hand before the hatch petered out. In the low clear water you could see the trout fin up from the depths to intercept the fly, very exciting but I missed a few by striking to early. Around 3 o'clock the action stopped and I went back on the duo for the last hour and caught some more on the nymph, but it was great while it lasted. And just to prove that its not just Boisker with the photographic skills
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Post by halfstoned on May 12, 2017 20:36:49 GMT
Fished from 6:30 till 9 tonight, very quiet in terms of surface activity. Spent the first 1 1\2 hours trying different dry flies but could only manage one small fish on a whickhams. More out of desperation than expectation I decided to have a go at streamer fishing, not something I've done much of but I'd tied up some wholly bugger type things after an article in ESF. Literally second cast produced a plump 10" trout followed by many many more, it really was deadly and a lot of the fish were a good size with the best just short of 12". Has anyone tried this before, I missed a lot of takes, are you meant to strike or just keep pulling? Do the fish just hook themselves or not? Give me a nice hatch of duns and rising fish any day but it was very effective and I had two or three great scraps, the fish were in excellent condition.
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Post by halfstoned on May 19, 2017 19:15:16 GMT
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Post by terry on May 20, 2017 11:33:13 GMT
Interesting this screamer lark. You are definitely having some success with the wolly bugger. Are you using your normal river rod? I intend to try this on the duchy this year but would like to use my normal 4 weight as I can't be arsed to carry a heavier rod for the occasional use. Well done anyway and great pics. Terry
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Post by halfstoned on May 20, 2017 13:16:16 GMT
Hello Terry, this is my first season trying it as like you I didn't want to carry a heavier rod. It was a bit tricky casting it on my 3 weight but you soon get used to it, one of the most effective ( and safe) techniques is a roll cast and then twitch the fly back with the rod , no line retrieved at all. Lots of fish have several goes at the fly and its hard to stay your hand and keep pulling, and I seem to miss plenty as you don't really have time to strike. In the fast water at the head of pools you have a job keeping up with the fly and some fish have taken it and I've felt nothing they've just been on as I raised the rod to recast, in the slow water I've used a short strip retrieve mixed with flicking the rod etc.. It was a chat with Mike Weaver when we both mentioned seeing lots of minnows breeding in the Yeo coupled with an article in ESF that convinced me to try it and although I prefer fishing dry fly it is very effective as a last resort. If your interested the fly is tied on a size 12 jig hook with a 3 mm tungsten bead, black marabou tail, black seals fur body with a grizzle palmered hackle ribbed with silver tinsel, simples. Tight lines.
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Post by terry on May 20, 2017 14:05:15 GMT
Thanks for that, your WB dressing is pretty much what I use so I,ve stuck a couple in my box for the next trip. By the way I would like to apologise to everyone for the rain dance I did two weeks back, it's ok you can stop now we have had enough. I know what you mean re the dropping water I hit the West Dart just right for once and had a couple of really good fish on a "Pilks favourite " ( now established as my favourite also) wet fly. Funny you mentioning the fry I've noticed plenty of much bigger then normal fry on both the West and East Dart this year, maybe a good sign, who knows. Thanks again, Terry
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Post by halfstoned on May 21, 2017 20:36:44 GMT
Managed a few hours this afternoon, but the river still seemed a bit cloudy. There was the odd one of these about ( not much of a photo I'm afraid). I used a sort of CDC partridge mayfly and caught some nice trout . But really struggled to get the timing right on the strike, either missing or just pricking the fish. There was also a hatch of bwo and some of the fish refused the mayfly and I think they were taking emerging duns but I failed to find a consistent pattern, two fish took my bwo soft hackle dry but others refused, one that I spent ten minutes trying different flies on finally took a black gnat but I missed it. I even lost a good fish when the top of my rod got caught in a branch above me and I couldn't free it in time to stop the fish going into some roots. Still I fished dry fly all session,nice to not have to worry about getting snagged every cast, but left feeling like I need to polish up my dry fly fishing.
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Post by halfstoned on May 28, 2017 20:12:23 GMT
Great fishing this afternoon on the Yeo. Lots of Mayflies about but the fish weren't really taking them, I had a few splashy takes to my partridge type Mayfly but failed to hook any of them. A few minuets spent watching the stream revealed that none of the rises were to Mayflies in fact I couldn't see what they were taking so assumed it must be emerging duns of the blue winged olives that were drifting past me in the stream. A soft hackle dry and later a compara dun both brought good results with at least two dozen wbt to hand best fish 10" plus the usual missed rises and lost fish that threw the hook. Unfortunately all the pictures I took were accidentally deleted by my youngest while she helped me with the camera, but by about half past eight I found a number of sherry spinners on the trampoline in the garden so thought id post some pictures after all. Perhaps I should of stayed for the evening rise!
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Post by halfstoned on Jun 4, 2017 19:26:36 GMT
Back on the Yeo this afternoon from 4 till 7:30 unfortunately forgot my camera which was a shame as I caught some nice trout, nothing huge but two in the 10 to 11" class. Nothing hatching, a few sedge and black gnats plus the odd mayfly spinner and bwo's, so I expected sport to be slow but not a bit of it, I must say thank you to Boisker for posting about split winged CDC patterns, I tied some up this week and decided to try one today. After taking 7 fish from the first two pools I kept a careful count of fish landed and in 3 1/2 hours the total was 20 fish plus the usual missed rises and fish which threw the hook. Pattern was size 19 tiemco bl103 baetis zelon tail , olive body and split wing CDC, definitely worth having these in your box, I can't wait to try them in an actual hatch, thanks again for posting, great fly.
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Post by boisker on Jun 4, 2017 21:28:28 GMT
Great stuff halfstoned, it's been my most successful fly so far this season.....
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Post by halfstoned on Jun 4, 2017 22:05:39 GMT
Cheers Boisker, I think the most pleasing thing was even the fish in the flats, which normally refuse the dry, sipped this pattern in no problem I assume taking it as a spinner, I even induced some takes by twitching the fly , you could almost pull it under and have it pop back up, deadly in the fast water too. More to be tied up this week I think!
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