Monday 21 April 2014

Leaders

I have ordered a collection of mono spools in various strengths to start making my own leaders. I came across this leader calculator from Global Flyfisher (http://globalflyfisher.com/fishbetter/leadercalc/download.php) about a year ago via the excellent NCA blog (http://northcountryangler.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/rolling-my-own.html) and have been toying with the idea ever since. This season I'll be testing some out.

As it is the first time I have gone for some relatively cheap on sale copolymer from Greys, from 02X down to 6X (a bargain ten spools for a tenner, 30m each), so if it turns out terribly I haven't lost much. I'll also need to add some stronger stuff, but its a decent starting point.




Most of the time while nymph fishing I'll use furled leaders from Rodney Dibble (now Luke Bannister produces them ) - the Stuarts Croft range. For dry fly fishing I've been using 9ft Orvis superstrong for years, but they are quite pricey and I seem to get through the pretty quick. So the main aim of tapering my own is for dry fly use.

So far I've made two for a trial run. One 9 feet and one 11 feet, with 3 feet tippet to be added making 12 and 14 feet in total. For these trials I have used old Orvis superstring tapered leader butts which are too short to be used any more, as currently I have no thick stuff. Not sure if it'll make any difference, but I'll be giving it a go.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Trout season 2014

19th of April before my first day of the trout season. I would normally be disappointed but an early holiday to Thailand and Cambodia means I can't really be.

I joined a club on the Swale this year for a new stretch of river. I've fished it on day tickets a few times and its excellent value for money. Arriving at around 10.45 I was very happy to see rising fish and a hatch of LDO's, and I immediately tied on a jingler I had prepared the day before for this exact reason. Cast to a rising fish with the jingler, however it just wasn't sitting right, I couldn't get the correct presentation and ended switching to a smaller imitation that sits lower in the water while resting the fish. Its my own design but nothing groundbreaking at all.





Its a simple stripped herl body with a light dun hackle clipped below the horizontal (coachman hackle in the picture above). Once the fish had risen again, I cast to it and it rose first time. I have heard many a time at this time of year people comment on striking too early, and I have been guilty of it, so I tried to stay calm. However, I was too patience (if possible) and I missed the fish. Third cast it rose again and I struck faster, a small 9-10 inch grayling, so I let myself off for missing it first time.

I saw another fish rising about 20m downstream so I waded out of the river, walked downstream of it and managed to land another, slightly bigger grayling. A couple of fellow anglers a lot further downstream were having similar luck, so I decided to start from the bottom limit of the stretch and work back up.


Switched tactics to czech nymphing and manage to land a much nicer grayling on a ryac, and lose another. The pools upstream didn't lend themselves to czech nymphing, and the hatch had died off, so I switched to a size 12 LT klink with a size 16 mary copperhead beneath. This landed quite a few fish throughout the pools on the way back up the river, the best being a grayling around 15-16 inches and I'd guess around 1 - 1.5 lbs ish. The only disappointment of the day was the lack of trout, and chatting to the other anglers only one person had landed a solitary trout. Ah well, fingers crossed for next time.