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Post by halfstoned on Mar 20, 2016 16:42:11 GMT
First trip of the season today and not a bad result. Caught seven wbt three small but the other four between 7 to 10". Took four in row out of one small pot within a dozen casts and then mucked it up by catching the far bank and had to wade over to retrieve the fly. I'm sure there were more fish in there, it was like they were just lined up waiting to take! The river has certainly changed due to winter floods, some pools for the better, some pools no longer there, two now unfishable because of fallen trees. Next visit will definitely involve some pruning. It appears my neoprene waders have developed a leak over the winter, I can confirm the water is still rather cold!! All the fish took a copper tungsten pheasant tail fishe duo style,2.5 mm I think. Saw 3 LDOs and some midges but no fish rising.
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Post by pusser on Mar 20, 2016 17:26:00 GMT
Sounds like a great day!
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Post by halfstoned on Mar 20, 2016 18:57:00 GMT
Thanks Pusser, yes just great to be back on the river again( I don't get a chance to fish for grayling) after 6 long months. Can't wait now for some warmer weather and some action on the dry fly, roll on spring!
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Post by halfstoned on Mar 27, 2016 15:17:55 GMT
Braved the weather today and managed 4 fish to hand and 2 fish lost after brief contact one of which felt like a better fish ( don't they always). Plenty of L D Olives hatching but nothing rising. Water slightly coloured and the wind made the casting interesting. All fish fell to a pheasant tail nymph fished duo style, annoyingly today the nymph kept catching on underwater obstructions that you couldn't see in the cloudy water,twice on lumps of mud that had fallen away from the bank( I had to kick it up with my foot). Also, gaps that you could thread a dry fly into are harder to navigate with a weighted nymph on the end especially in the gust wind. Had to take shelter in the bowl of a tree through the worst of the weather but when the wind dropped and the sun came out it actually felt quite pleasant. Tight lines to anybody out tomorrow.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 3, 2016 15:13:26 GMT
First (and only) rise of the season today to my klinkhammer but I missed it!! Lots of fish to the nymph unfortunately a lot of them threw the hook,just one of those days I guess. Tried different sized hooks and different patterns, even sharpened the hook twice but they kept coming off. Got back to find England 130 for seven! They will have to go some to win from here, early wickets please.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 3, 2016 15:47:15 GMT
" early wickets please" thank you! Game on!
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 17, 2016 15:30:18 GMT
Nice three hour session today, 18 fish to hand ( a lot of small ones though) four between 8 to 10". Plenty of fly life about , gnats , sedges,dark olives and cochybondu type beetles. Not much rising and with a cold downstream wind the nymph did most of the damage but did manage two on the dry ( my first fish on the dry this year) and missed two more. I'm trying a new floatant on my furled leaders and after three hours it was still riding high and dry so I will try to remember not to reapply next session and see how long it lasts. Roll on some warmer weather so I can ditch the nymph, its very effective but I keep getting caught up on unseen obstructions and casting is trickier with the nymph. The other thing about the dry is that you don't have to guess so much when it comes to the take, I'm sure a lot of bites go undetected with duo ( I think I'm getting better at spotting them but I still find myself attached to the odd fish with no idea how it happened!)
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Post by boisker on Apr 17, 2016 21:13:14 GMT
Nicely done halfstoned.... I haven't put a nymph on for the last few weeks, definitely hard going on dry only... Didn't get out much over the weekend.... Set off today only had 2 hours.... someone already fishing where I headed.... So by the time I'd driven further up the river only had 30 mins on the water then decided to head home... Caught one, dropped one at the net and missed a take.... If they don't start more actively rising soon I'm gonna have to have a couple of weeks nymphing....
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 18, 2016 18:10:10 GMT
The two fish that took the dry really slashed at it , more of an attack than a rise. Next time out I will try dry only, looks cold for the weekend so might wait for the bank holiday, hard to stick to your guns when you know another method will catch but dry fly is so much more visual.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 24, 2016 15:19:16 GMT
Fished half the beat dry fly and second half duo today. Caught 6 on the dry including a nice plump fish of 10 1/2" on one of boisker's CDC biot emerger flies from the fly swap, rearly nailed the fly and needed forceps to remove ( a!ways a good sign). As usual the nymph was more effective, lost count of how many but certainly twice as many as the dry. One interesting thing for me was fishing a really deep pool that I normally avoid as it's too deep to wade, stood on the bank at the head of the pool and sort of high sticked the nymph with just the furled leader out of the rod rings. Four fish caught from under the rod tip with me stood right on top of them,none of the takes moved the dry fly I just felt them through the line. I haven't done any European type nymphing but it seems very effective anybody who really knew what they were doing could have caught as many as they wanted today.
Forgot to add , once again had this seasons obligatory down stream wind so tried not shooting any line on the forward cast with the duo as advised by Pete, much better turnover and more accurate, still so much to learn!
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Post by boisker on Apr 24, 2016 16:24:23 GMT
Excellent work halfstoned... I keep meaning to have a session on the nymph, I bought a Hanak rod and French leader for grayling over the winter but hardly used it due to the high river levels... I should have been using it the last month but find it hard not to just fish dry.... I'll try and get out with it this week if it's not to windy...
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 24, 2016 16:44:56 GMT
Agreed boisker,hard to resist the allure of the dry fly but i imagine your French leader set up would have been the dogs danglies on the Yeo today.
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Post by halfstoned on Apr 30, 2016 16:53:52 GMT
Afternoon session this time, plenty caught on the nymph but lots of small fish. One pool had some rising fish ( small dark olive hatch) managed to catch three on boisker emerger but as always best fish threw the hook second jump. Still fighting against this seasons cold downstream wind so not easy to get decent presentation. Water still cold but the river had dropped quite a bit from last weekend, mainly fished the top end of the pools. Saw a few black gnats starting to gather over the faster water and my first mayfly, still seems like early season even though were nearly into May.
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Post by halfstoned on May 8, 2016 13:47:33 GMT
Dog walking this morning at fingle bridge , saw some olives,black gnats and a few rising fish. The leader of the opposition could see that I was getting a bit twitchy by the end of the walk and suggested I should go down the river when we got home, rude to refuse I thought. So rushed back,quick change and fishing by 11 o'clock, unfortunately the river was cloudy ( caused by cattle upstream) lots of rubbish being blown off the tress,nothing hatching or rising so back to the nymph. Caught about 6 or 7 and then in the penultimate pool finally found some rising fish,took off the duo and whilst pondering which fly to use one of the fish had a go at a mayfly. I'd been itching to have a cast with the mega may I copied out of ESF so i thought I'd give it a try, first cast up the fish came without hesitation but either out of shock or because I was used to striking quickly with the nymph I struck too soon and missed it. Still, went on to take four fish out of that pool and one more in the next all on the mega may so a big thank you to Duncan Raynor for sharing his pattern with us, hopefully it will see a lot more use over the next few weeks!
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Post by paul on May 8, 2016 19:07:14 GMT
Hi all, A different Yeo- the leapfrog Yeo- no google the Lapford Yeo- CFFC's new water! As I have whined on this forum, I have had ten blanks going back to mid september last year - 8 months fishes and not for want of trying- resulting in a crise de coeur and the risk of rods and reels rather than teddies being thrown out of prams! Finally, fish, river and me came together at the same point in time. I took myself off to CFFC's new water- thankfully free of bovine accompaniment and suddenly life changed. I caught three fish in about half an hour- all on nymphs. Then, as I sat down for a rest, magic happened. ad the fish started rising! To what I could not see, but I tied on a size 20 F-fly and that magic another 5- with a lot more that missed my fly or I missed them. Suddenly, the rods that were to be ejected from the pram are now back safely where they belong!
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Post by halfstoned on May 8, 2016 21:15:26 GMT
Look's like a good fish, congratulations on breaking your unwanted run.
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Post by Pete Tyjas on May 10, 2016 6:53:18 GMT
Halfstoned, it makes my day when I hear that something we have put out has helped an angler a little bit. Good to hear!
Someone I was guiding on Fri rose a fish on a mega may but sadly missed it.
Paul, great to hear you are amongst the fish again. As the old saying goes "form is temporary, class is permanent"
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Post by zimtrout on May 10, 2016 9:49:52 GMT
Dog walking this morning at fingle bridge , saw some olives,black gnats and a few rising fish. The leader of the opposition could see that I was getting a bit twitchy by the end of the walk and suggested I should go down the river when we got home, rude to refuse I thought. So rushed back,quick change and fishing by 11 o'clock, unfortunately the river was cloudy ( caused by cattle upstream) lots of rubbish being blown off the tress,nothing hatching or rising so back to the nymph. Caught about 6 or 7 and then in the penultimate pool finally found some rising fish,took off the duo and whilst pondering which fly to use one of the fish had a go at a mayfly. I'd been itching to have a cast with the mega may I copied out of ESF so i thought I'd give it a try, first cast up the fish came without hesitation but either out of shock or because I was used to striking quickly with the nymph I struck too soon and missed it. Still, went on to take four fish out of that pool and one more in the next all on the mega may so a big thank you to Duncan Raynor for sharing his pattern with us, hopefully it will see a lot more use over the next few weeks! Well done that man, got to be one of the first mayfly trout of the season.....
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Post by halfstoned on May 15, 2016 16:48:09 GMT
Difficult today, some fish rising in the first pool so tried them with the mega may I had on from last time but they refused,I'd seen some Hawthorne's on the walk down so tried that,no offers. Changed tippet for some 7x suppleflex and put on an F fly fish still rising but not to my fly!! So sat and watched for a bit until I saw a fish definitely take a black gnat ( swarms of these about so should have known better) switched to a Mike Weaver black gnat and caught three quick fish the last of which was a nice fish of 11" which crashed about the pool and "put an end to proceedings". Thought I'd cracked it but unfortunately they were the only regularly rising fish I could find, a few olives about and the odd mayfly but ended up fishing duo and could only manage 4 fish on the nymph and one missed on the dry.
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Post by halfstoned on May 28, 2016 16:59:56 GMT
Quick trip out today after a bit of a break due to a bad back. Not much rising , lots of fluff from trees getting caught on the dry fly so ended up fishing upstream wet fly and animated nymph. Caught about 7 best fish 10" which took the nymph. Plenty of mayflies about , some olives and black gnats, all pretty much ignored by the fish. The few rising fish I found were sipping down tiny flies in the slow water,caught one on a MW type black gnat. Lovely to be back on the river,hopefully they will get on to the mayflies soon.
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