Good Catches "At Times"

A brief Glance before Freedom

The trout fishing has continued in good form, but only when the air temperatures have been kind to us. Let me explain! Throughout April (apart from a few intermittent days) the cold easterly winds we have experienced have persistently chilled the surface of the water, causing the temperatures to take a dive, which in turn contributes to the insect life switching off, making it difficult to target those fish that have been quite happily, and visually, picking off those Large Dark Olives that have been in attendance, almost looking as if they are trying to hide in amongst some prolific hatches of Grannom Sedge (caddis flies). However, as soon as the clouds part, the wind drops, and you can feel the heat in the air from the sun, the trout have become instantly active again, picking off these Large Dark Olives voraciously, with almost clinical precision, offering up some great sport once again, on both spiders and dries.

 

David with one of many

Apart from the continued cold snaps and awkward east winds we have been quite lucky with water height (most of the time) on the Eden, as the heavy showers skirted around us for long periods, and although on a couple of occasions the river did become swollen, it was nothing that kept us away from the trout fishing for too long as David and Steve encountered when they were out with me on the mid river. David having a red letter day one Saturday with around 15 fish, and whilst enjoying some good sport the following day on the lower river, he lost a fantastic trout which took off like an express train. This was not the only good spell though as many of us have enjoyed some very good double figure days throughout April. "Lets hope this continues into May"!

Although the Eden is no longer a prolific Spring Salmon river, I have to say that this years Spring run has been one of the best I have seen on the river for many years, with good reports coming in from several anglers of good catches, some recording multiple catches to their own rod. Considering that there are only a small amount of anglers now fishing for Salmon in the Spring, in comparison to pre 1999, when new byelaws were introduced preventing the removal of rod caught Salmon until the 16th June, this is therefore very good news.

A fish on the Dry for Stephen

The weather report for the weekend is for another cold snap, (but not rain) so I am off out again tomorrow with my good friend Tony, to see what the river gods have in store for us before conditions change once again. With more people coming for tuition and fishing over the next few days we will certainly not be letting the weather get in our way, and I will be sure to let you know how we got on in my next post. Goodbye for now!

The Last Six Weeks

Borderlines School Session



Sorry I have not kept you all posted over the last few weeks, but I can assure you that it's not because there's been nothing going on, quite the opposite in fact, I simply haven't had the time to sit down and write about it, So I will attempt to do so now whilst I do have a little free time.

Amongst other things, lot's of people have been coming to get their casting and fishing techniques up to speed ready for the new season (now upon us). In addition to this I have been working with schools for Borderlines introducing youngsters to the final stage of their journey from the classroom into entomology sessions and onward into the joys of angling.

AAPGAI Open Day (Demo)

Lots of work with AAPGAI of late too, first of all an instructor training weekend on the river Eden, aimed at potential new instructors, and then following this, one of our assessment events and open day's which was held at cockermouth on the river Derwent, where members of the public could come along for a small fee and enjoy the many demonstrations, buffet lunch, and one to one tuition that followed.



River Tay Baggot

From there I was off up to the mighty river Tay, a little bit of salmon fishing ensued, although only the capture of kelts and a baggot I'm afraid, but very enjoyable. For those of you just starting out in Salmon fishing, a Kelt is a spent Salmon after laying her eggs or dispensing his milt (to fertilize the females eggs) trying to make it's way back to the sea (only a small percentage succeed) and a baggot is a fish (sometimes caught in the spring) that for whatever reason (stress maybe) has not spawned, or may even spawn very late. As you can see in the picture it looks very much like a back end hen fish in her spawning livery, but notice the flabby belly. Anyway, the main reason for my visit to Scotland was to assist in the assessments of potential new instructors for SANA (Scottish Anglers National Association) which also turned out to be an excellent event and very enjoyable when working with like minded people. So as you can see it's been a bit hectic.



Joe with his first River Eden Trout

Plenty going on back on the Eden though, and a few weeks ago we saw an influx of Spring Salmon entering the system with several fish being caught in the twenties, with the biggest to date weighing in at 27lb, but due to the low water conditions we have experienced since then, the Salmon catches have now slowed down again, but there are definitely fish about and when we get a rise in water again there will no doubt be a few more caught.

However, the low water conditions has not spoiled the trout fishing, as this can often contribute to some good catches at this time of year, especially if the temperatures are reasonable, and this has been the case (at times) I say at times, because we have also had some very cold snaps in between which did make the trout fishing difficult on occasions. That said, although we

Charles Playing a nice Trout

are having to work a little harder on some outings, we are now starting to see an upturn in catches, and we have recently been moving away from the weighted nymphs so that we can now target fish on the surface with north country spiders and a selection of dry flies, which I am sure you will all agree can be much more fun and very visual at times, but don't leave your nymphs at home just yet as we may be in for a drop in temperature once more over the next few days.

Charles with another trout

We are now moving into prime time for our trout fishing on the Eden and the last few days have been producing the right signs too. We are now beginning to make contact with a few more fish as the insect life begins to improve with olive hatches and sedges gaining in numbers and it has been great to see some steady hatches of March Browns returning to the river over the last few weeks too. It is also worth trying those stonefly patterns you are reluctant to remove from their pride of place in your fly box, as we have had some very good large stonefly specimens hatching of late, and the trout will often be tempted by a representation of the egg laying adult on the surface. "Give it a try", I'm off fishing!

Milder Weather

Riverbank Snowdrops

As we now approach the end of February, the Snowdrops are showing solidarity  along the riverbank , which is always nice to see, not only for their beauty, but because this also creates a little anticipation toward the Spring, which we all know as anglers  will bring with it some eagerly awaited brown trout fishing, which I must say, has been exceptional over the last few seasons, with April & May seeing some phenomenal sport whilst producing some good quality fish along the way. "Bring it on".

Fly caught Grayling

February has also been reasonably mild this year, when compared to previous years, especially last year with its exceptionally cold weather, although the wind chill factor (when present) definitely brings the temperature down reminding us all it is still winter. This was particularly noticeable last Saturday during a double handed tuition session on the lower Eden. It is always a good idea to be well wrapped up (and layer your clothing) when spending a day on the river, especially at this time of year.



Another Successful Youth Day.

Whilst awaiting the brown trout season to kick in, we are still picking up a few Grayling on the fly, (see picture above) but as I mentioned in my last post, they continue to prove difficult, and unless you are familiar with the general hot spots on your particular beats and the methods required to entice those bottom hugging Grayling, (which is exactly what they are doing at the moment) then I am convinced that it would, at times, be almost impossible to catch them.

Nevertheless, as you can see from the picture, (above right) there is no stopping the youngsters, as they continue their success with Grayling on the swim feeders, which we had the pleasure to witness once again last week, whilst running a school fishing session as part of the Borderlines educational programme. "Brilliant".

Where did January go?

Forgive the woolly hat it was cold

All of a sudden we are into February 2012, "Where does the time go"? Fortunately There has not been much missed in the latter part of January with fluctuating water conditions again which are not conducive to good results, especially for Grayling on the fly. That said, they are definitely there, and in good numbers too. I know this because we experimented with swim feeders on Saturday 28th January at Warwick Hall during a Borderlines session and encountered a dozen or so good sized fish that had been hugging the bottom and playing hard to get, which often happens with Grayling when the water is constantly unsettled. "So not all bad news".

Borderlines Day

I have been out again this month with Russell Williamson who was looking to catch his first ever Grayling on the fly, and although the Grayling continue to prove difficult to catch, he did have a couple of chances early in the day and lost a very good fish that dug deep in the water as the day drew to a close "very unlucky", but he will have his day.

Russell on the River

There are now reports of the first few Spring Salmon being landed on the river Eden, which as I mentioned last month was just a matter of time as the Salmon season gets underway, and they most certainly won't be the last fish caught.

So with the season in it's infancy, all the signs are positive and I am very optimistic with regard to what the Eden has to offer us again this year. "It may be unpredictable, but it never let's us down".

New Season

With the arrival of Sunday 15th January the Salmon season on the river Eden was once again upon us, and I did venture out on opening day, albeit just to blow the cobwebs away. Although the water conditions were good (at last) the East wind certainly didn't help our cause and subsequently we did not see any fish or Kelts in attendance (early days yet). I haven't heard of any reports (as yet) of fish being caught in the first few days of the season, but it's just a matter of time before one of the usual die hards makes an exciting encounter.

The East wind continued into Monday, but the sun did get out and temperatures weren't bad at all for January (especially in the sheltered areas) as I spent the day with a friend higher up the river fishing for Grayling, which I might add are still playing hard to get.

So unfortunately there's not much to report in these early stages I'm afraid, but speaking from experience it won't be long before things begin to happen on the Eden. "Watch This Space".

Washout in December

Unfortunately, the river Eden has been persistently high throughout the month of December making Grayling on the fly almost impossible and with more heavy rain forecast for the rest of this week there is no sign of improvement in the short term. We have certainly had more than our fair share of wind and water in 2011.

So not much to report I'm afraid, but as soon as the rain stops and the water drops I will be out with people once again, targeting those elusive Grayling. It may also help if the temperature drops a little too, which it may still do, as the temperature over the Christmas period has been uncommonly high for the time of year. This usually encourages Grayling to move into the deeper, slower moving areas of the river, away from the chilled surface area, thus giving you much more of an advantage when sight fishing, as any slight movement of your fly line will give you an indication of a tentative take as these subtle takes can often go unnoticed in faster water. That said, if temperatures do remain as mild as they have been recently then spider fishing in the faster flowing water will still be very effective, and worth taking advantage of.

Well here we are again at the end of another year and I hope you all had a great Christmas, with (I am sure) a few additions to your fishing armoury arriving on Christmas day. I look forward to seeing many familiar faces again in 2012 along with a few new ones, and may I wish you all "Tight Lines" for the New Year.

Wet & Windy

The Grayling fishing was slowly building up into the third week of November, and although we haven't encountered exceptional amounts of fish, we have caught some good quality fish, mainly around the 2lb mark, but also one or two bigger than that, as we did previously.

In between a couple of casting sessions with people, I had a keen Grayling angler out on the river with me for three days tuition and fishing, whilst experiencing some unbelievably warm weather for the time of year. We had a few nice fish though, until that is, the weather took a turn for the worst again. "Thought it was too good to be true". Never mind we did get some good fishing in before the river rose again.

Yes, Unfortunately, from late in the day on Tuesday 22nd, the river began to rise and it has been consistently high ever since, never settling, scuppering the chances of any decent Grayling fishing on the fly, and to add to that, the strong winds we have been plagued with over the past few days are certainly not helping matters in any way whatsoever, making conditions ever more difficult. Oh well, we will just have to hold back a little longer. "Let's see what December brings".