boys toys!

At the start of the week I booked Friday of work with thoughts of spending a day on a favourite river further afield, wishful thinking I guess as the forcasted temperature for today was only 4,  no chance of a decent hatch on that river so it would have to be something a bit closer to hand.  I hadn't really made up my mind where exactly and to be honest I was a feeling a bit grumpy about the ever so slow spring mucking up my plans! My mood soon changed though with a knock on the door, the postman had a cardboard cylindrical tube,  my new toy had arrived!

  A few weeks back I contacted Chas burns in York as I fancied one of his wee 6ft  2/3  weight fly rods which he builds on Harrison blanks, Ive been so excited about this rod and today was the day, chestnut brown blank, pistachio reel seat with some of the whippings tipped in copper, I also picked up a nice orvis battenkill reel on sale  to complement the rod so was keen to try it all out.

I soon made up my mind where to go and found myself on the burn with bigger than average trout to give it a good test.

 arriving at the back of one I didn't need to wait long for the first riser to show, a few casts later with the new rod and its first trout was brought to hand, a fish on the olive biot klink

a rod is born!

a good hatch of dark olives today and a few risers to go for, some of them were a bit fussy,  the klink, curved cdc, and col's shuck cdc all took fish.

pound and a quarter

shuck cdc

the  burns rod feels like a fast wee rod, it was a joy to use today especially with the upstream wind, good in tight situations and had a plenty of power to bully big trout out of any snags, it made me smile, not an easy task!

1lb 10oz on the brown wire nymph

another on the nymph from the same pool

I ventured up to the tributary of the burn  that col lost a big fish in on a few days ago, i saw only one riser which I hooked, looked like  a nice golden yella fella too but the fly sprung back at me, definitely not the big fish col lost, but still a nice one.Walking back downstream on the main  burn  i  spotted a couple of stragglers on the fin which kept me occupied, I brought one of them to hand to end a good afternoon.

a good first outing for my new rod and temperatures are on the up for the weekend!

Trout fishing Sudoku

Sometimes trout will take the first generic imitation you present to them, but on some occasions you may come across a grand master trout that's seen it all before and been around the block a few times, every pattern etched into his grey matter . Today I came across a grand Jedi master trout.

I thought it was going to be a walk over, a shucked olive will do the trick i thought to myself, but this fish detected my presence when I tried to wade into a drag free position and stopped feeding, so I continued  upstream only to find no risers. Back downstream again there he was rising again, I decided to stick to the bank although I know he was lying in a difficult spot difficult that is to achieve a drag free presentation, meanwhile another fish was also rising 20ft further up the pool. First to try was the shucked CDC, then the curved CDC, then the dhe, then a ginked up spider , i went smaller then  bigger, I just couldn't get him to take,i spent probably a whole hour casting at this fish, and I was considering throwing in the towel and going for the other fish just upstream,but  then I decided to try a CDC and elk i must admit this is not a fly i would consider in a upwing hatch however i beleive it's inventor uses it exactly for that . First cast he hammered it, the grand master was beat but I'm sure he will remember the footprint of the CDC and elk , etched into his memory and give other   anglers a real conundrum.

Yoda

Superstition?

I must admit that as far as fishing and luck go, I am full of superstition, I have preferred hats , jackets. Etc, some which I can not be without whilst on the riverbank.The old lucky hat had to go to the bin before the start of the season as it was so worn , but I think I've broken in another?

So it was with a new hat, I headed of to do a spot of fishing with down the local trout stream.
I immediately realised I had forgotten my weigh net, something I'm rarely comfortable with but often a good omen.

I was set up by 1:30pm nothing was happening barely a fly hatching, and hardly surprising with the cold easterly and a faint sign of harr blowing off the sea. The river though was looking gorgeous , nice and low with reasonable clarity, just how I like it.

With in 15 minutes though the odd olive was coming off so I headed downstream to see if I could find a feeding fish, a fish rose , must have been 1:50pm , I got in position and left it to feed to see if it would start to feed a bit more intensely, by 2 pm the hatch was at it's peak, (and it was a really good hatch )the fish though seemed to feed in spells , taking 2 emerging flies and then having a rest, he was also a bit of a wanderer working a area but not rising twice in the same spot  , and after casting a Klink followed by a curved CDC , He was starting to get to me a bit. A fly change to a shucked CDC emerged did the business, it took 20 minutes to crack the code, but it was worth it with a stunning fat burnished trout being my reward blessed with ample pectoral fins ,I think the shucked cdc is  going to see a good bit action over this spring.

 shucked klink recipe
hook : sprite 14
shuck: small pinch of singed poly yarn
abdomen:;olive turkey  biot
wing: cdc
thorax: olives hares ear



Up in the next pool another fish was going steady, again in the lee of a fallen  tree, ignoring the Duns and taking emergers.

again he was a wanderer , but with the study done on the first trout , It wasn't long before I struck into him, then there was fireworks as he jumped and pelted off below me downstream , eventually though he tired and i brought him to hand .

That was my lot, only another fish I spotted which surfaced twice, despite covering it I could not tempt it. Looks like what few fish are feeding at the moment are generally of a good stamp though the fore casted change in the weather this weekend should help bring more fish on the feed. Now i have to question myself is it  my new hat ,or is it leaving  the net that  brought  me good fortune?

Back down the Ditch

I was intending on fishing a different river today, but by the time I'd walked the dog , I was a bit pushed for time, and a bit concerned I could miss the hatch, so I kept it local and ended up fishing the burn I fished with Brian last weekend. the sun was out with a light westerly today and as I sat stringing up the rod the woodpecker drummed a chorus , and before long olives started to float down the ditch. No risers in sight though  , I had to go looking for the first fish, which came blind to the trusty biot Klinkhammer.                      

                                         

                                                                               

It wasn't long though before I  found a riser or two and although I caught a few , it would also be fair to say I put down a few and missed a few as well, they seemed so much more edgier in the bright conditions.

of the fish I caught, only one fell to the nymph all the rest to a dry.

Heading further upstream I came to the end of the main river, and continued up a tributary we recced on the Sunday. Not much happening but I got to one big pool and a riser was going steady, I waded up slowly into casting position and cast my fly to him when all hell broke loose as he thrashed on the surface then unfortunately  went round a rock and shredded the tippet. looked like  really good fish, especially for a wee burn.

The beasts lair

,Moving on up there was a riser on in a strange place in the extreme tail of a pool or in the head of the other hard to decide , after a few duff casts I finally got the presentation right and hooked this yellow stunner, just under the pound.

It had been a great way to spend a few hours and I will be back to try the upper burn again , a few demons to put to bed there. Need a fresh venue for my next trip, dying to give the big rod a wiggle.

Slowly but Surely

Slowly but surely i think we are getting there i counted 5  risers today,i pricked 2 and landed 3 of them , nothing spectacular but whats worth mentioning was the hatch that was very good , and if it keeps up i can see great sport to be had ahead over the next few weeks. A few tricky customers today , shunned my klink but a curved cdc and a shucked cdc proved to be there downfall.
A few pictures.

Seek and you will Find

Still quite cold , top temperatures have been 6 degrees C as the cold easterly continues to blow.  I found myself sitting by my local stream at 2pm today. I don't think i missed anything as the flies started to go downstream, i sat by my  favourite pool for five minutes or so , usually at this time of year you find the tail of the pool has rising fish but despite a decent hatch not a fin stirred. I decided to head upstream realising that minute by minute time was passing by and as the hatches can be short lived went to look for a riser. I passed about 6 long slow pools which you might normally bank on but still not a sausage. Was it the sunshine putting them off, had the cold nights made them lethargic?

For some reason i decided to head back down to where i started   . I looked downstream and there in the tail of the pool a fish was rising intercepting    every Dun that floated in its patch. i got almost level with it and after a couple of short falling casts , he nailed my brown biot klink. He fought like a demon. what a toothy critter!

That was my lot for the day, i never thought i'd be in for such a grueller ,the fish just didn't seem  in the mood to feed today.

easter weekend trouting

We decided on a local burn for Saturday afternoon,not a normal burn mind you, but one which seems to produce better than average trout. we arrived at 1.30 pm to find a few dark olives hatching already and more importantly the odd riser to go for. In the first pool i put a fish down, col pricked a fish in the next pool up and then i struck  far to late for the third , start of season rustiness! Col got it spot on with the next fish though and landed this lovely trout.

another trout for me on the klink before the hatch died,  from then on we fished blind  NZ  style, where we lost and landed a few more

  including a fine trout of 1lb 10 oz for Col on his new nymph

last of the day

on sunday we were back for more, arriving a wee bit earlier than yesterday we sat and waited for the hatch to get under way, soon the odd olive was coming down and we spotted the first riser of the day which took the klink

we had a great time for an hour or so targeting risers before the hatch petered out

  

col landed another on the nymph before we walked to have a look at another wee burn in the area, there wasn't much doing on this burn except two risers in the same pool which i put down, still it was worth investigating, maybe another time.