Short season update...

[boisker]

Following the nudge for lack of posts from halfstoned, i’ve developed a bit of a lethargy with all the forums and haven’t posted much on any, so I thought i’d pull my finger out and do a short update...
early season.... for a change rather than persisting with dry I pretty much fished ‘euro-style’ with a longish leader (about 30’); i was also using the same leader for occasional dry dropper rather than switching to fly line. Unsurprisingly I caught more at the start of this season than any other, majority to euro long leader with 2 nymphs. I found the fishing to be really productive and was getting 10-30 fish a session... compared to winkling 2 or 3 out on previous seasons with the dry. Largest fish came from the Otter, a 17” brown to a nymph, battered old dog of a fish, I fear it won’t make it through another winter.
Fished the Axe in March and the Otter / Tone April onwards.... Axe improved on last couple of seasons, I must give it a try during the next few weeks.

I’ve decided to max out my fly fishing to a new ‘nerdy’ level and have been using a thermometer to track river temps

Attended the Monnow River Social, so 3 days fishing the social, sandwiched between 2 additional days.... so five consecutive full days fishing... bliss.
River behaved themselves and had a few good session on the dry. Fished with Mr Notherone both days, good company and we caught quite a ‘few’... my largest about 15-16”... in all fished the Edw, Honddu, Monnow and Usk... stunning rivers.

Since then been out for quite a few short sessions... few hours on the Hillfarrance, few Mayfly about but not really hitting them... probably a week to early... picked up a few.
Last few days I’ve been hitting the Otter, plenty of Mayfly about, not in large numbers but enough to interest the fish. I decided to take a leaf out of John Tyzack’s book and have spent a lot of time just sitting and watching, trying to find larger fish. Funnily enough it works... had a number of fish around 14” and have found one short stretch with some really good fish. Found them 3 days ago... and have since have had the worst run of missed fish I can remember... and no reason I can put to it. I lost 3 two nights ago, all bigger than average, then four last night. Called in again today and the same fish as last night managed to spit the hook . But I know where he is and will have him soon . Got a proper look at him today, he’s way bigger than my pb on the Otter... properly large... May be tomorrow
Having thought a bit more part of the problem could be they aren’t always fully confident taking the Mayfly dun, so tying up some new cripple/spinners tonight!

Off to the Monnow to catch the end of Mayfly in 2 weeks... 3 days on my own, 14 hr days on the river... can’t wait

[boisker]

Headed back to the Otter this afternoon, perfect conditions- overcast, 19C and a light wind.... and i’d remembered to charge my camera at last.
There was loads of fly life, olives, midge and Mayfly and the trout were rising again.
There’s a really good average size of fish at the moment, I was quickly into them and picked up 5 and dropped two in the first hour... 2 at 12”, 2 around 13-14” and one at 16”... an amazing hour. I sat down to smoke a cigi and study a pool whilst quickly looking at my photo’s...

Sadly I found about 12 shots of ‘nicely’ blurred fish... i’d left the camera on supermacro setting
Anyhow there were plenty of fish still rising so not a problem, I then had a run of 4 rising fish, hooked and off again after varying intervals.... including the larger fish from the previous day... for the probably the 3rd time!
I was about to head off....there’s only so many fish I can lose in one session... but wanted to check one final pool with a large back eddy. There were 3 or 4 fish rising and as potentially the first one hooked could put down the pool so I sat down to work out which seemed the better size.
Out of the corner of my vision on the far edge of the pool I noticed a large fin... it kept appearing, infrequently in random places under very low hanging branches. I settle into a spot where I could cover 2 small openings... trouble being he was so unpredictable all I could do was wait for a rise/fin and then predict which direction he was heading and slot the fly into the most likely opening. After about an hour and 6 or 7 casts I was sure I’d covered him... nearly time to head home.
So I tried one change of fly and promised myself a few more casts and as soon as I knew i’d covered him, if he didn’t inhale i’d head home.
2nd cast and bingo...

A proper lump, thankfully for once I’d thought ahead and cut off my 5X extension to the leader and had 4x. No room to let him run, so after about 5 mins of proper old fashioned bullying he was in the net.
My Scott rod has measurements on the blank... between 22 - 23”
Apart from the missing top lip... a stunning fish, very broad across the back and fat belly... the photo makes him look a bit skinny... but he was a proper chunk

Frustratingly I am busy Sat/Sun... but hopefully they’ll still be playing ball on Monday

[Pete Tyjas]

Many congrats Boisker a wonderful fish.

[boisker]

Cheers Pete... it was one of those very rare sessions, perfect conditions and large fish moving about. Pretty much as I always do late eve when reflecting on the days fishing... i was thinking back on the afternoon and funnily enough it wasn’t the fight or how stunning the fish was when I got a chance to see it properly in the ‘hand’, but rather the excitement when I first noticed it’s fin sticking right out the water.... felt like electricity running up the back of my neck. The following hour was that mix of excitement and a huge nervousness not to stuff it up.
To be honest I was quite happy just watching it, that typical big fish thing where they cruise just under the surface and don’t break the surface with their snout, just suck it down and leave a few rings without making a sound. When it did take I couldn’t see the fish due to the shade, I knew it had been about 4’ away but no idea which direction it had headed.... one minute the fly is on the surface, then it suddenly had disappeared, with hardly a ripple... love it

[yeoman]

Stunning, it'll keep you smiling for a while that one.

[Pete Tyjas]

Yes, it is funny what you do remember and it isn't always what you expect.

It still has surprised me how good and varied the hatches have been this season although the fish, where I fish, took a little longer to get on the dries.

[boisker]

Same over in the East of the county Pete.... I’veI had the early season on the ‘dark side’ and only really switched properly over to dry fly at the Monnow Social weekend 10th May... in part because I just wasn’t seeing regularly rising fish, just oncers dotted around. But they seem to have woken up now.

It’s the first year i’ve really got into nymph fishing, a couple of sites helped.... anyone looking for a really comprehensive discussion and info should look at Domenick Swentosky‘s site troutbitten.com/the-mono-rig/ i’ve found this and Devin Olsen / Lance Egan’s 2 vids really opened up the technicalities of ‘euro’ nymphing to me, and moved it way from ‘lobbing’ tungsten.

[Pete Tyjas]

Also, if anything, I've thought the size of fish has been marginally larger too. Judging by photos posted here it may be the case too?

I guess this may be to do with mild winter and then then the cold snap that made fishing challenging for a short time.

For me, the first fish to come on the feed at the surface are the smaller ones for grannom in April followed a short time by the larger fish. I think the cold snap stopped the fish coming for grannom at the surface in any meaningful way and so the bigger fish came into play along with the smaller ones when things settled. Just a theory.

I'm off to guide this afternoon and if the wind drops it might just be perfect for mays, fingers crossed.

[boisker]

Yeah, definite increase in size on the Otter this season. Year before last I had a really good average size on the Otter, lots around 12-14” and a fair few bigger; last season the size was down, loads of fish caught but the average being 9-11”, and I hardly caught any bigger ones. My experience was replicated by a fellow club member who I know well.
There’s is the obvious in year affect of mild winters and less high water spate conditions not taking out so many fish; but a friend who is a fishery biologiest/scientist also mentioned the yearly fluctuations do to class size. He felt that such a big change in average size, indicated that there was an age class with much reduced numbers. I’ve no idea of growth rates for the Otter (or anywhere else for that matter), but as an example 5 winters ago could have been a really bad winter with lots of peak flows, or just coinciding with peak spawning time, resulting in very low numbers in that years age class, so five years later there are hardly any fish of the size relating to that age class... hence very low numbers of 12-14” fish, but loads in the year class below,

Hope Dartmoor treats you well, looks pretty perfect conditions in Branscombe.... although it could still be snowing on Dartmoor

[Pete Tyjas]

Interesting.

I was on the Taw. Perfect conditions, saw fish rising when we got there and assumed they were on the early stage of a may hatch. We covered some but nothing happened but thankfully I spotted a masked hatch of medium olives that the trout were keyed in on.

I really love these moments!

[boisker]

I had something similar the other day Pete, there was so much fly life about I never really worked out what they were actually snacking on, but the larger May patterns weren’t working, or even a smaller emerger pattern.... tried the old faithful Griffiths and game on

[Pete Tyjas]

I said recently at a demo; "if you're ever in doubt, go small and black" !

[boisker]

Best from a quick session this afternoon...

[yeoman]

Interesting regarding the fly life.
I do the riverfly monitoring on two locations and I've had the best spring counts since I started doing it, with all key species present in good numbers.