Day time sea trout?

[Pete Tyjas]

I was wondering if anyone likes to target day time sea trout?

I know they can sometimes be a pleasant surprise when trout fishing but does anyone else deliberately go after them?

[treefella]

Hi Pete There used to be a chap years ago who fished the Taw Fishers waters between ours and Egglesford. Nearly impossible to fish in the daytime let alone the night in some places. His method was to drop a dry fly onto the water from any vantage point he could find a tree or overhanging bank. If I remember rightly his favourite fly was a Bluebottle as it made a plop when it hit the water. My best Sea Trout of 4lb was caught on a dry fly in the middle of a hot August day on our stretch of the Taw above Taw Bridge. I think a few other members have had them on a dry fly but not fished intentionally. Nice drop of rain. David

[Deleted]

I do.

Small wet flies on a leader that often carries a small silver stoat double on the point, a Haslam in the middle and a black & peacock spider or a mallard and claret up top - if I fancy a three fly cast that is (although often I just fish the silver stoat). Pilks at the Arundel Arms swears by a coachman, which, like the butcher, I have never even had an offer to!

In water that is clearing after a dirty spate, when it becomes more akin to night time fishing, I will employ bigger flies, but generally in normal conditions I use around size 10-12.

Daddy long legs dry in September.

[kevzim]

Had a nice school peal from the Tamar last Sunday on a size 12 Stoat's tail - saw the fish move whilst working into position for a salmon pool , somehow managed a decent drift over the tail of the pool (given trees etc was quite pleased with that). Tend to focus on them when the water carries some colour and the trout / grayling are slow...

[Pete Tyjas]

Jul 24, 2015 15:06:23 GMT treefella said:

Hi Pete There used to be a chap years ago who fished the Taw Fishers waters between ours and Egglesford. Nearly impossible to fish in the daytime let alone the night in some places. His method was to drop a dry fly onto the water from any vantage point he could find a tree or overhanging bank. If I remember rightly his favourite fly was a Bluebottle as it made a plop when it hit the water. My best Sea Trout of 4lb was caught on a dry fly in the middle of a hot August day on our stretch of the Taw above Taw Bridge. I think a few other members have had them on a dry fly but not fished intentionally. Nice drop of rain. David

Thanks for posting David, really interesting. I have caught a fair few during hot days by knowing where they hang out and if they are in. I had one the other day during a caddis hatch and have caught them during BWO hatches along with Mays too.

Mark, I know we have talked about this before and whether they feed or not when in the river or if the feeding is just reverting to instinct or even memory from their time in the river before they headed to sea. By the way, I assume you swing the wets, how about the daddy, upstream or down?

Kev,nice fishing buddy. I think most people do go for them when the river has some colour (makes sense) but I love having a pop in normal, bright, non sea trout conditions too.

[Pete Tyjas]

Spookily enough was working for a gent today and caught some trout and was hoping to have a crack for salmon as well, no joys but bumped into this sea trout instead.

[kevzim]

Cracking fish, he looks really chuffed too. Good skills Pete.

[robmason]

Yes, well done to him!
I felt sure I would get one myself on Sunday on a falling river, but not a sausage!

[Pete Tyjas]

Thanks Kevzim, was one of those days that we were after trout but felt right to have a swing for salmon, it didn't happen but this was a really nice surprise.

Rob, felt like that yesterday too, my wife got a whack off something and we saw a couple of salmon that looked like they were running. River will have dropped right back now, back to trout today!

[Deleted]

Jul 26, 2015 8:44:32 GMT Pete Tyjas said:

Mark, I know we have talked about this before and whether they feed or not when in the river or if the feeding is just reverting to instinct or even memory from their time in the river before they headed to sea. By the way, I assume you swing the wets, how about the daddy, upstream or down?

Yes I swing the wets whilst often employing a slow figure of eight in fast water and pull or even strip in slow water. I fish the dry daddy upstream in likely spots. Never caught a big sea trout on the dry, just peal, which brings us back to the feeding question.

[Pete Tyjas]

Mark, thanks!. I think this is really interesting. The mayfly hatch tends to coincide with the run of the bigger sea trout where we fish. When working I have had a few big ones come for a may fly but have only been on a short time, exciting though.

I don't take them but have seen the odd photo of fish that have been opened and are full of food yet others empty.

[yeoman]

A few seasons back I caught a nice fresh 14 inch Peal whilst trout fishing which I killed.It was absolutely stuffed with tiny black beetles. Interestingly enough, I caught it on a black foam beetle, although mine was about 50 times bigger than the ones it had eaten!

[Pete Tyjas]

Thanks for posting Yeoman. Does a belly full of beetles mean it was locked on to a particular food source and was therefore actively feeding as a river brown would?

[yeoman]

I think it was happily feeding away,along with the browns, as there were plenty of other fish rising in the pool.

[Pete Tyjas]

Aug 10, 2015 9:22:02 GMT yeoman said:

I think it was happily feeding away,along with the browns, as there were plenty of other fish rising in the pool.

Great thanks Yeoman, I have seen pods of sea trout feeding too. Lewis caught a rising one last week on a midge pattern and I was working for someone on Sunday who hooked one too.

[kevzim]

Had one of 60cm yesterday as Tamar was rising on a black winged orange bodied double, size 13. Broke the monotony of salmon blanking nicely. ::-)

[Pete Tyjas]

Aug 14, 2015 20:36:07 GMT kevzim said:

Had one of 60cm yesterday as Tamar was rising on a black winged orange bodied double, size 13. Broke the monotony of salmon blanking nicely. ::-)

Nice one Kev, had to convert to inches as I haven't gone metric! (23.622 inches)

[Deleted]

Aug 15, 2015 6:14:01 GMT Pete Tyjas said:

Aug 14, 2015 20:36:07 GMT kevzim said:

Had one of 60cm yesterday as Tamar was rising on a black winged orange bodied double, size 13. Broke the monotony of salmon blanking nicely. ::-)

Nice one Kev, had to convert to inches as I haven't gone metric! (23.622 inches)

Yes - well done Kev.

I had to convert it too Pete. Kilograms, centimetres, it's all double-Dutch to me!

[kevzim]

For some reason the very bad pic didn't upload... It was big n' heavy is enough for me generally, but if I estimate length I'm crap in imperial.
It was around 10cm short of my net frame diameter, which is 28 inches, and I round down when talking fish!
Tend not to take trophy shots as the chance of stressing the fish increases, as does than chance of dropping my phone in the river, but did risk a blurry one of fish submerged within gye net.

On a more techie note - there were several rising to sedges before the water coloured up, and will certainly be trying a big stimulator at last light over a few choice lies. They are interesting buggers to target by day. So far I've had two from the Tamar on salmon flies this summer, both in the morning with bright sun.
In the past have had on sedges, sherry spinners, and PTN (those on chalkstreams); GRHE on the Usk at dusk, plus a couple from the Dart on "F-Flies" in the early evening.

One to play and experiment with, and was interesting to see the contents of your fly box t'other day Pete (Halford was spinning in his grave at a high rate of revs!).

[Pete Tyjas]

Kev, wait til you see my salmon box!