Almost 6 Weeks Dry!

Malcolm sampling the trout fishing.

Although the title of this months Blog gives the impression that we haven't touched a drop of the good stuff for a while, it refers to something far more serious, that is, as far as salmon anglers are concerned. In this case it means we haven't seen any significant rain since late July / early August, and given that this is usually our prime time for catching salmon on the river, this does not bode well for those in pursuit of the silver tourist. 

Given the present low flows, (below summer level) we are now all praying for rain, and hopefully an influx of salmon into the system too, known as the back end run, which certainly hasn't arrived yet. Yes there are salmon in the system, but no where near the numbers we are accustomed to, however we still have 4 weeks of the salmon season remaining on the Eden, so all is not lost, as we did watch a small number of fish moving into one of the lower beats just before dusk last evening.

Felix into an Eden trout.

That said, many of you have been taking advantage of this slow dry period, in the form of tuition, making sure that you are up to speed with your casting techniques, ironing out some of those niggling little faults prior to any action that may be on it's way. We've certainly had a few good sessions addressing some of these problems. Even Jeff and Malcolm who came up for both salmon and trout fishing (a wise decision) indulged in a bit of casting practise, and considering Malcolm had never cast the salmon rod in a fishing situation before he really got to grips with it, and in the interim caught a couple of trout too, one of which you can see in the picture above right, and Felix from Austria, above left playing another Eden trout.

Lots of Herling in the System.

The trout season has been a very different kettle of fish, "so to speak", with a few difficult days, as always, but in general, some excellent fishing to be had throughout the season, even in these recent bright and warm conditions, given the right place at the right time, not to mention the right techniques. The Grayling fishing has also seen an increase in success, with a large amount of young fish still making an appearance on the lower river, providing some good sport alongside some good sized fish too. The last 3 weeks have also seen a lot of small sea trout (herling, as they are colloquially named) entering the river, reminding us of the good old days when many of the Borders rivers saw large runs of these young fish. 

Another Grayling coming to the net.

With two weeks remaining of the trout season on the Eden, and plenty more sport I'm sure before the 30th September, we will soon be turning "all" our efforts to whats left of the salmon season, taking us into the middle of October, so lets hope we get some rain soon to encourage a bit of that overdue action we all crave before the end of the season. There are plenty of outings still planned so lets see what the rest of the season has in store!

Water at Last!

Christian & John Previously

July continued very dry and warm curtailing any sport we may have had with the salmon, although there were, (and certainly still are) fish about. I was out on the lower Eden on the 27th of July, just as we had experienced a couple of inches of fresh water in the system, and whilst giving a casting lesson, we saw a small run of very fresh fish cutting through the water in front of us, it was great to see because prior to this we were not seeing much at all. Since then we have been seeing more and more fish entering the system and whilst out on Wednesday the 6th August with Christian and John (two regular visitors to Border Game Angling, and I like to think, good friends) we almost experienced some very good results, I say almost, because although John did manage to hook 3 salmon in succession, he unfortunately lost them all, the biggest being around 12lb as we watched it roll over in the water in front of us just before parting company with John, that's fishing I'm afraid, it doesn't always go according to plan, but at least we know they are there. Conditions were very good that day as the water was dropping steadily following a two foot rise the day before, but by six in the evening the the best of the day was over as the additional rainfall from up the valley the previous day had taken it's toll and begun to lift the river once more, and as a result the action slowed down again.

John having just released a Sea Trout

Prior to this I was out with John Dunn, another good friend and regular visitor, and I must add, a very nice fly dresser too, and I have caught many a fish on his creations. We made our trip to the river at the end of July, before the fresh water (we have now) had arrived, our aim was a session on the sea trout to give John a nocturnal experience with the fly rod, and with some success I might add too, as John proceeded to hook and land 5 fish, all of which were returned to the water, he was having a very good session until the wind turned to the east around 1 am and brought the takes to an abrupt end, it was as if someone had threw a switch and the action suddenly stopped. However you certainly couldn't say it wasn't a great first experience in the dark. Well Done John!

On the Fishing Island at Lowther

Since then, following the recent rainfall, there was a few days when the river was out of order, but luckily it didn't disrupt things too much, because as the river rose over the weekend of the 9th & 10th of August I was once again doing my bit at the Lowther show as part of the AAPGAI demonstration team, although it did put the river out of order the following day, Monday the 11th. However, every cloud has a silver lining, as they say, and on a brighter note, the fresh water has also been instrumental in encouraging a few salmon to take our offerings over the last couple of weeks, (up to 22lb) in the periods when the river has been falling and clearing again.

A happy competition winner at the Show

Yet another great show, just over the border in SW Scotland, on the weekend of the 16th & 17th August, where I was once again part of the demonstration team for AAPGAI and also part of the Borderlines team at the show. We held a series of casting clinics down on the lake as well as an accuracy competition and a family casting competition. A good time was had by all, as you can see from the face of one of the young competition winners in the picture on the left. Another good social event, well worth visiting in 2015. 

Returning a Brown caught on the Spider

A few casting lessons on the river with people again this week, including today, and we also had another good salmon water again yesterday as the river was dropping and clearing nicely following another bought of rain, but as the fishing was slow we noticed a few trout topping, so we got the trout rods out and had a good hours sport on the upstream spider, we did try the dry fly too as there were a few small dark olives about, but the trout seemed to be focused on something in the surface film and were ignoring everything else, including the black silverhorn sedges that were dancing on the water.

A Black Silverhorn (on my car window)

Some regular visitors coming up again next week to indulge in a bit of salmon fishing, and with this extra water and September fast approaching we should hopefully experience some good results. "Here's Hoping"!

Plenty of Heat but we Won't be Beat

You can still winkle a few out

Still no significant signs of rain, despite the odd promise by the forecasters in early July (nothing new there) and the cooler air we experienced in late June also came to nothing as we are now constantly being bombarded with this very hot, energy sapping, weather.

However, we have been far from idle on the Eden over this difficult period, and during these less than ideal conditions we have found a few methods that still work, managing to winkle out a few fish with people here and there, especially if you are prepared to book your sessions later in the day and into the evening (which some of you have been doing) when sport is still quite good, regardless of what people might think, with some good brown trout and grayling fishing into dusk, and sea trout into the early hours (not to mention a few large browns on our sea trout flies).

CAA Members Open Day

In addition to taking people out on the river, I once again had the good fortune to be one of the testers for the Trout & Salmon magazine, testing a variety of 14 foot salmon rods, the result of which will be available in the August edition of the magazine. As well as this, along with my good friend Jim Fearn from Guide Fly Fishing, (also an AAPGAI Instructor) it was my pleasure to help deliver another casting and have a go day for Carlisle Angling Association members, which was once again well received and fun to do.

REDFA Youth Angling Day

Another Borderlines day ensued, this time it was arranged by REDFA (River Eden & District Fisheries Association) where we introduced 27 young anglers to a variety of activities, including Safety on the river, Entomology, Water craft, Fly casting and Fly fishing. The day took place on the Appleby beat of the river Eden, courtesy of Appleby angling association, with assistance on the day from Kirkby Stephen and Penrith angling associations. The day was a great success with several testimonials received by Mike Ashwin of REDFA following the event. Another very rewarding day!

Irish International Fly Fair

I also visited N. Ireland again with several friends and fellow AAPGAI instructors (Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors) for the Irish International Fly Fair, to take part in the demonstrations and casting tuition in the village of Killyleagh, this is a fund raising event for the Dibney River Conservation Trust (a great cause) and at the same time it allowed me to catch up with many good friends over there too. Upon my return, the low warm water conditions certainly didn't stop people coming out for casting tuition, and the usual sessions ensued, with several people wanting to get their casting up to speed prior to the rain arriving to provide better conditions for fishing (which it will at some point).

This one came to the Dry Fly

However, we are certainly not letting these difficult conditions keep us off the river, and whilst we are awaiting rain we will persevere with a variety of techniques, and no doubt continue to catch fish on some of them, whether it be weighted nymphs or upstream spiders in oxygenated water, or even dry fly late into the evening, or large hair wings through the night, there will always be a successful method to keep us going until the weather changes and breathes additional life into the river system.

Warm Weather & Daytime Lulls

Returning a late evening trout

Over the past month, since my last post, the weather has become gradually warmer (hot at times) and very humid, making the daytime fishing (as we got further into June) much more difficult, as well as switching off much of the insect life too. This effected the optimum catching times, pushing us further and further towards late evening when fishing conditions became a little more bearable, not only for us, but also for the fish, and often the last hour before dark gave us the best results, but also giving us a good excuse to stay on into dark for a spot of Sea Trout fishing, which although sporadic, has had it's moments, with some good fish being caught around the 3lb mark. Not to mention the odd smaller fish around a pound and a half on the dry fly (late evening) despite the distinct lack of insect life. 

A good result Prospecting with the Dry 

With nothing significant to see on the water surface, in the way of flies and with spiders still under performing, (compared to previous years) prospecting with the dry fly became the name of the game, and it did pay off from time to time too, although through the day when the heat was on, the gold heads often out performed them in the faster more oxygenated areas of the river.

Great to see these young fish back

We have also been encountering some good numbers of Grayling on the river recently, especially on the lower beats, and the good news is that the majority of these fish are young fish, around the half pound mark, with some 3/4lb fish thrown in too, and enough in the 1/4lb class to let us know that stocks are seemingly thriving. These new additions certainly gave us some good sport on the dry fly whilst searching for a trout or two, and this potentially bodes well for for those of us who enjoy some good winter Grayling fishing, giving us something to look forward to.

Returning a larger Grayling

Over the last couple of years Grayling did seem to be on the decline, which was quite disconcerting given a river that regularly produced good catches of these beautiful looking fish, and prior to that they were all big fish, in the 1 & 1/2lb to 2 & 1/2lb class. With a distinct lack of these new prodigy over the past few years, this turn around goes some way to proving that this has simply been part of their natural cycle, as Grayling grow much faster than trout and have a much shorter life expectancy. There now seems to be a far better balance with regard to size, and we are certainly still catching some of those bigger fish too as you can see from the picture above. Things are looking good!

A nice fresh Eden Salmon

Before the water began to recede, due to the recent dry conditions and lack of rainfall, there were several very fresh salmon willing to take the fly, especially on some of the higher beats, where it was apparent that these hard running fish had powered through the lower sections of the river, often undetected. Many experienced anglers, and river keepers, will confirm that this indicator can be identified by the obvious scarring on the lower bodies of these magnificent creatures, telling us that they had no intention of allowing low water sections and rocky rapids to halt their upstream journey. This being the case, with the river carrying an additional foot of fresh water at the end of May, and these fresh run fish showing an interest in our offerings, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to fish as a guest on one of these upper beats, and yes you've guessed it, managed to land one of these magnificent fish that the Eden has to offer. "A quick picture", and back to the water to continue it's upstream migration.

Richard with a good Eden Brownie

Border Game Angling also donated a full days fly fishing and tuition to the Eden Rivers Trust Auction at the end of May, and I recently spent a very pleasant day with the successful bidder Jonathan Airey and his party on the Lower Lazonby beat of the river. The group consisted of Jonathan, Ellis, Richard and James, a four rod lot and great guys to spend the day with. The day also included a riverside BBQ donated by the Tufton Arms at Appleby and cooked by their very own Chef, Michael, and I must say a great spread it was too. Although the fishing was difficult, as warm humid conditions prevailed yet again, they did manage to catch, which is always a bonus,.and as you can see from the picture, Richard landed a particularly nice brown trout.

David with a small trout

A regular visitor of mine David, also faced less than ideal conditions for a couple of days as June continued to warm up, but he still managed a few small fish on the gold heads when the dries proved difficult throughout the day. The same scenario was the order of the day for Phil Craig and Lewis too, with similar conditions, although Phil did tempt a few fish to the dry fly through sheer determination, but unfortunately lost the best chance he had on the day as a good fish parted company with his Klinkhammer.

John with one of many on a sunny day

Following on from this, whilst covering a variety of techniques on the lower river with John Dunn, often fishing in bright sunshine, against all the odds, John had an exceptional day, as he proceeded to land several trout and grayling in these less than ideal conditions, although the majority of takes did come in the broken water, which was understandable. A good result though and one I know for a fact he has repeated since.

However, we could now do with some fresh water (rain) just to inject a little life back into the river, especially for those salmon anglers out there, and certainly for those higher beats on the river, where water levels are now very low in places. That said, the fact that the air has cooled down a bit at the moment and conditions are a little more comfortable, (for us and for the fish) we are still getting some good catches of trout and grayling in places on the lower river, but a little rain wouldn't go a miss. I will keep you all informed!

Good Trout Fishing Continues

Peter, tentatively playing a trout

The trout fishing continues to improve on the river Eden, despite the re-appearance of a few easterly winds from time to time, but with temperatures now warmer, (most of the time) and insect life more abundant, the trout are most certainly in a better mood, so to speak. Peter (on the left) had a few frustrating offers to his dry before eventually hooking into this one, but he did manage to get a couple before they switched off in this particular area. Nice one Peter!

Briefly in the net (Goldhead Nymph)

As a result of a couple of spells of fresh water entering the system there has also been one or two more salmon caught over the last two weeks, (on the beats we have been fishing) but not by us I hasten to add, as those I have recently had out on the river have been focusing on the excellent trout fishing that the Eden has to offer, with some great results too, improving all the time.

Jeff with an Eden Brown

Over the past two weeks, since my last Blog, the trout activity at the surface continues to affirm the dry fly as the dominant approach, producing by far the best results ahead of alternative methods such as spiders and nymphs etc, however we have had one or two very good quality fish on gold headed nymphs too, (see above) just not as many as usual as our dry fly offerings continue to produce better results with regard to numbers. That said, don't abandon the goldheads though as they are still tempting some nice fish to have a go from time to time.

Rob playing a very nice fish.

It has also been apparent though, that the trout have not always been taking the dry as positively as we know they can, (especially at this time of year) resulting in many missed opportunities, as Jeff, one of my regular visitors, found out first hand, although he did manage to make contact with a few in the interim as you can see in the picture above. Once again the Klinkhammer has been our top dry fly, although a small CDC pattern has proved useful at times, especially when black gnats are in attendance and believe me they are certainly in abundance at the moment. Other patterns are available!

Stuarts first Brownie off the Eden

We had several satisfying days on the middle river as the guys rose a few fish to the dry, several of which were missed yet again, but through perseverance and a few fly changes they did manage to land a few fish, always rewarding when a plan comes together. The lower river produced some good catches too with one exceptional fish of around 3 1/2 - 4lb unfortunately parting company with the fly, but not before producing an epic battle as it threw itself into the air several times, giving us an eyeful of its substantial proportions. Maybe next time!

I was involved in several youth days again over the last week or so as part of the Borderlines team, with a couple of events being held at Drumlanrig castle on the stocked rainbow trout fishery there. Youngsters were introduced to all aspects of fly fishing, culminating in a fishing session with great success as they caught lots of fish on a catch and release basis (see picture below) and lost a few too. A good time was had by all.

Youngsters working as a team.

Off out again tomorrow with my good friend Tony with both the trout and the salmon rods as we had another small rise in water last night and reports of salmon being caught higher up the river have come to my attention, however, it's always a good idea to put the trout rods in the car too, as there is nothing worse than fishing for salmon all day long, with no success, and then suddenly a hatch of insects occur and  a phenomenal trout rise ensues and you suddenly realise that you have left your trout rod at home.

Westerlies Improve the Trout Fishing As Expected

Caught on the Klink

Although it has taken some time, the Easterly element to the wind has eventually relinquished it's dominant hold and given way to the various Westerlies we are now experiencing, which without doubt has made a big difference to the available insect life, in turn, encouraging more activity from the trout. This has been very apparent during recent trips out with people on the river. Even the casting sessions are noticeably more comfortable in these slightly warmer conditions and we are now beginning to believe that we might get a summer after all, although that's still a bit off yet!

Doug in Action

Prior to this, especially on an evening, just when it looked as though it was going to be quite good, with a few fish topping on the surface, that thin Easterly wind would sneak in from time to time, chilling the surface, and putting the fish down again, much to the dismay of Doug Douglass who was out with me on the river during one of these periods. However, Doug did get one or two small fish which kept him occupied, and with conditions now improving and the trout fishing beginning to take shape, it won't be long before he is getting into some of those better fish that are now starting to accept our offerings with a bit more confidence.

A Male Iron Blue Spinner

As temperatures slowly begin to rise, following the recent large hatches of Grannom, we have also been seeing some good hatches of Iron Blues, a few Olive Uprights, a steady flow of Large Brook Duns (although not in great numbers) and (in places) some substantial falls of Black Gnats and Hawthorn Flies, two terrestrials well worth finding a good imitation for. All great temptations to bring up some good trout, and we have certainly been using this to our advantage.

A well hammered Klink

We have had a few fish on spiders too, but they haven't been fishing anything like as good as they can fish at this time of year, although I am confident that they will come into their own at some point. 

During the lulls in the the easterlies (before it warmed up a little) the best results were on dries, and this continues to be the case, and once again the old faithfuls are coming out of the fly box, including the Klinkhammer and the Adams. Goldheads have taken a few fish as you would expect, but again, in the areas we have been targeting, not nearly as many as the dries have produced.

Piaras with a fight on his hands

I had Piaras and Chris over from Northern Ireland for a couple of days, to experience some Eden trout fishing, and they certainly managed to tempt several fish to their flies. It was Chris's first visit, although Piaras has been a regular visitor over the years, but only for the Salmon fishing, and would you believe it, whilst having a cast with the double handed salmon fly rod, on very low water, he managed to hook a nice salmon, against the odds, but unfortunately it parted company with his fly after a significant fight.

Chris about to land a fish

Whilst the trout were beginning to show some real interest, plans were afoot to take a couple of regular Border Game Angling visitors out onto the river again this weekend, but unfortunately (for the trout angler) the river has since swollen in the aftermath of the recent rain we have had, so we will have to put this on hold for now. However, whilst the water was on the rise we did spot a couple of salmon making their way through the beat we were fishing, and when the water begins to drop and clear, I am in no doubt that there will be a few salmon caught on several beats along the river, so let's get the Salmon rods out!

One anglers loss is another anglers gain!

Temperatures Improve over the Easter Bank Holiday

A rod well bent on a Klinkhammer

Several more spring salmon have been caught and returned to the Eden since my last post, which bodes well for the river, but as water levels have now dropped considerably, so too have spring salmon catches, as you would expect. However, the trout fishing is now beginning to improve and the signs look good for the Eden trout angler.

Improving temperatures over the Easter bank holiday period have certainly helped our cause, and with the odd Large Dark Olive still in attendance we managed to tempt a few more trout to our ever faithful dries, the Klinkhammer and the Adams, but only for short spells from around mid day to 1:30pm. 

A net full of Grannom

The wind still has an easterly element to it though, and if you happened to be out of the sun (especially Easter Friday) it was quite cool, but when the sun decided to make an appearance, the higher temperatures certainly contributed toward some very substantial Grannom hatches along the river, and as these temperatures improved further, (making for a much more pleasant fishing experience I might add) by Easter Monday, they were in their millions.

coming to the net on a Nymph

Unfortunately (in my experience) the trout can be very difficult to tempt at this stage of the Grannom's life cycle, and because there is so much aerial activity it is very tempting to put something on the surface to attract the fish, but during this time the trout are often feeding below the surface on the pupal stage of the Grannom hatch, and the only thing that may give you any consistency with catches is a nymph presentation (often weighted). However, the fish may have already gorged themselves on this pupal stage prior to this snow storm of sedges occurring, and therefore the opportunity may have already gone, but nevertheless, you can still pick up the odd fish on this method during this period.

On the CDC Caddis

That said, there is nothing wrong with trying a few things that may be contrary to popular belief, remember, these are wild creatures, and they don't read the same books as we do, therefore I am (and always will be) an advocate of self discovery. Finding things out for yourself (in my opinion) will always give you a better insight into what is actually going on over a given day, when temperatures, pressure changes, weather conditions and river height can all be factors of how the fish will react. Whilst adopting this approach, on one particular run, we did manage to raise a few fish to a small CDC sedge, but only for a short spell of around 15 minutes before they switched off again, but well worht ringing the changes as it got us a couple of additional fish.

With a few sessions now in the pipeline and more activity from the trout as temperatures improve, I am now looking forward to some more positive results over the next few weeks, especially now that we are managing to tempt a few more fish to our flies, which I have to say is very satisfying.