A little bit smug

Today I had to pass some time while our truck was having a service and timing belt replaced so we had a drive to Burton upon Trent to my favourite tackle shop. The shop is called Mullarkeys and I can not speak highly enough of the service that I always get from the staff there, specially Roy and Dan, they are both very knowledgeable and nothing is too much trouble for them. I picked up a few sundries for my ever growing fly tying kit, then spent a couple of hours general shopping.

The weather was dry, bright and warm and as soon as I was able, I put on my waders, picked up my rod and waistcoat for a couple more hours fishing the Blithe. For about an hour nothing was happening despite every attempt to raise some interest. I began to think that maybe it was too bright, too warm, or any other excuse that I could think of. Then, about 2:30 pm a six inch grayling very gently took an olive shrimp pattern that I had just put on. For the next forty minutes it was back to square one, nothing, not even a sighting of any fish. I began changing flies and fishing each one for about ten minutes or so, I knew that fish were here, they always are. While fishing a caddis style nymph a small perch gently tugged at it, let go and took it again. Several flies and half hour later a second perch took a swamped daddy long legs pattern.

Hard work, I thought for three small fish, but what was very rewarding was the fact that all fish were caught on patterns that I had tied myself, I had tried commercially tied flies, but not one came up with the goods, I wonder why, the commercial flies certainly looked good and they have caught fish in the past. Who knows? But I couldn't help feeling a just little bit smug.

Low water on the Blithe

The summer months have been a little busy for me, when it comes to blogging that is, but I have had opportunity to go fishing here and there. Whilst in Wales during August and September, I caught my share of brown trout but the majority were quite small. I have to say that the fishing was not easy, the water levels were low and the fish elusive. Unfortunately, now that I have a little more spare time, the trout season is drawing to a close. It was with this in mind that I began to read up a little more on Grayling, I caught a few small ones last winter and I knew that they can provide good sport. I looked at recommended fly patterns and fishing techniques and decided to tie some flies specially for them myself. Of course, I had just about none of the recommended fur or feather to duplicate the patterns so I just tied some with the materials that I had. I suppose that I tied about thirty in total, some nymphs, some dry's and some not so good. This was one of my attempts at a "klinkhammer" style fly. It may not be a very good likeness but it fooled a nice twelve inch grayling on it's first cast onto the water. That was on Monday, one of two fish, the other being a chub which took a "red tag". Both fish were taken in low water at the tail of a deep pool on the Blithe in Staffordshire. The sky was heavily overcast with little or no wind and a temperature of around 14 degrees Celsius. Both takes were very aggressive and shocked me somewhat. I only really fish small rivers and streams and I am often surprised with the size of the fish that they can hold. I am told that Grayling make good eating but I returned this fish as quickly as I could. On Tuesday I went out again, same river, same weather, same time of day 1pm. to 3pm. Of course I tied on the same fly, nothing, not a sign of a fish. I cast upstream and downstream but could raise no interest. After about half an hour I changed my fly for something that would fish a bit deeper, a gold head caddis. I think that I put the bead on the wrong way round but my second 12 inch grayling of the week didn't seem too bothered. It was snatched up from the bottom in some light streamer type weed, cautiously I played the fish until it tired enough to bring over my net. Unfortunately, when tying this fly I forgot to flatten the barb on the hook and it took me longer than I would have liked to remove it from the fish. I have read that grayling can die easily if not returned to the water quickly so I held it facing upstream until it recovered and swam away. I flattened the barb immediately before fishing the fly again. No more fish for the rest of the session despite the fact that I tracked up and down the river searching every likely looking spot.

Again today I went fishing, I tried a number of flies and tactics, but nothing, the nearest that I got to a fish was the sighting of a good sized chub but I think that he saw me from the very clear water and moved away into deeper faster water. Then, the rain came and unlike fish, I am not too fond of cold water running down my back so it was back to the truck to dry out and write up my pleasures.