Fishing (other stuff)

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The anti-buttock

January 31, 2010 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle | 2 comments

Last May I was out fishing on an upland stream one sunny Saturday afternoon. There were new lambs on the hills, the river was flowing a beautiful light whisky colour, and below the field through which I walked there did lie a number of peaty bogs. I did not notice this fact as I strolled happy as a sparrow towards the whisky-coloured river. I did notice the lambs however, along with the singing birds, the wonderful smell of spring and various other assorted items relating to the bounty of life.

About three quarters of the way across the field I finally noticed the peaty bogs. Unfortunately it was somewhat ex post facto, as I discovered one of them as part of the act of falling into its deepest corner. During the process of becoming embedded thigh deep in the goo I managed to roll backwards, sit down hard on my rear end, and thus reshape the curvature of my (rather expensive) fancy weigh-net. It was a graceful moment.

I like my weigh-net, and before last May I particularly liked its nice rounded shape, which makes landing fish an easy task. After crawling out of the bog, I sat down to survey the damage. I’m not sure what the probability is of landing precisely on the wrong part of a landing net, at precisely the wrong angle, but someone had obviously rolled the dice enough times. That or I’ve got a wide ass.

I now own a landing net which looks like its been in an altercation with John McEnroe. It has a buttock-shaped indentation along one of its sides which acts to somewhat reduce the beauty of that curvature I mentioned back there. Fortunately the weigh-bit of the weigh-net was not damaged during its rough and tumble with my rear end. Let’s just say things could have been a lot worse.

So the question I’m now posing myself, as I sit and contemplate such important matters in the middle of winter is, can what is bent be unbent? That is a deep question. Thankfully not as deep as it could have been, but still quite deep. Half way towards the deep end I’d say, before being rescued from certain disaster.

I’ve thought about clamping it in a vice and using pliers to try and reshape it, but I’m afraid I’ll never get back that smooth, circular curve. I’ve thought about just hitting it with a hammer and hoping. But I’m no salmon angler. Finally I’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing that can reliably reverse a buttock-shaped problem is another buttock. An anti-buttock. The main issue posed by this solution is where to locate an anti-buttock.

Over these past months I’ve been discretely on the lookout for an anti-buttock, but so far I’ve not made a confirmed sighting. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I think it might have something to do with bosoms. No I mean bosons. Easy mistake to make. Where was I?

Ok, so I need an anti-buttock to reshape my dented landing net. Hope that makes sense, it does seems simple enough.

What does an anti-buttock look like then? Given that anti-particles are kind of like a mirror image of particles, I reckon that the closest I’m going to get to an anti-buttock is a buttock reflected in a mirror. So what I need to do now is to somehow conspire to fall on my landing net, purely by accident, landing the right way, on the right part of the net, and all while looking into a mirror. I know this sounds like it could end up as part of a Channel 5 late-night program on bizzare A&E cases (I don’t even like hamsters), I’m sure that with the right execution I could be onto a winner. Well, hopefully not onto a winner, but you know what I mean.

So at the end of the most innuendo-clad Tamanawis post of the decade, I shall head off and position the mirror. Oh what do you know, it’s already positioned.. How did that happen?

Taimen

November 4, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff) | No comments

Following on from a discussion on a recent post, I came across a couple of interesting articles about Taimen posted on the National Geographic website (here and here). It looks like there was a TV program about the Taimen as well, but I don’t have cable (or a TV for that matter..) so I can’t watch it. There is a clip of fishing for Taimen though (click on the ‘Fish Videos’ link at the bottom of that page).

Anyway, it certainly looks like their reputation as a river wolf is well justified.

Trout mechanics

October 19, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishy stories | 2 comments

Discovered via a pal comes this interesting wee video showing how trout move side to side with the swirling water behind objects in a river. Looks like there’s a reference to an academic paper too, so I’ll have a dig and see what I find. In the meantime, check it out..

Brilliant fly tying videos

June 22, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying | 2 comments

I’m sure many folks have already come across this, but for those like me who hadn’t then I’ll draw your attention to Davie McPhail’s YouTube channel. He has a fantastic collection of tying videos on the channel, way more than I’ve seen before and of very high quality. Pretty incredible what you can get for free really, considering what some folks charge for their fishing/tying videos.

Connect me to your leader

March 16, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle, Pals, Thoughts, Whisky | 4 comments

A couple of years back my dad and I nipped up the road to Pitlochry to have a casting lesson with Ally Gowans. As we strolled down to the river I asked him about his general leader setup for dry fly fishing. He said that he preferred the simplest method possible, that of knotting a tapered leader to the end of his fly line. Carefully weighing up a poisoned barb, I asked him about the use of the dreaded braided loop…

knotter

It turned out that he was the newly appointed Commander in Chief of the Braided Loops Anonymous charity. This is a little known organisation that works to rehabilitate anglers unfortunate enough to have been conned by clever marketing into using braided loops on the ends of their fly lines. He was remarkably adamant about the evil of braided loops, and I could see where he was coming from.

People spend gazillions of pounds/dollars/euros on fly lines. Some of those Scientific Anglers jobs cost more than most of my fly rods. These modern fly lines are a marvel of engineering. Carefully chosen plastic composites are sheathed over intricately woven braid, and the whole thing given a precise and painstakingly researched profile. There are gazillions of profiles of course, each suited to a different condition, a certain size of fly, a nymph or a dry, night time or day time. The profiles taper with nuclear accuracy, honed from the wide diameter of the head, down through the transitional taper to the delicate little section right at the tip. It’s enough to cause my head to spin.

So there they are, ranks of beautifully constructed fly lines, many of them costing considerably more than a fine 17 year old single malt. They’re carefully attached to similarly expensive brightly-coloured backing, presumably made from Madonna’s old tights, and wound onto similarly expensive reels peddled by certain bling merchants as important for catching fish. And the pièce de résistance? Glue a 50 pence hunk of plastic on the end.

It’s like a sous-chef taking all day to prepare a delicately flavoured bolognaise sauce, using only the freshest ripe tomatoes, the most aromatic basil and the most mature steak, and then lobbing in half a bottle of ketchup. It’s just not cricket.

So, what’s a better solution?

kilt_man

This picture has nothing to do with this post. But tell me, when was a photo of a guy wearing a kilt sporting a head digitally-substituted with a bunch of flowers not a good thing?

Well the old Wise-Man of Pitlochry uses a simple Borger knot, tying his leader straight onto the end of the fly line. This inevitably causes a slight hump from the wraps of the knot, but it’s a hell of a lot less intrusive than those braided loops.

In an earlier post I waxed lyrical about the method of gluing a leader into the end of the fly line. This is still my preferred method, and the one that unquestionably gives the smoothest transition between fly line and leader, and ultimately the smoothest turnover.

The only downside is the slight hinging effect that happens between the stiff end of the leader butt and the limp fly line. I’ve found that over the course of a few months, particularly when you’re fishing a lot, a bit of a crack can sometimes develop in the fly line at this hinge.

Personally, I can’t be bothered with trying to re-glue a hingey fly line to leader connection when I’m out on the river. Nowadays I therefore tend to adopt the Wise-Man’s approach, and use a knot.

And here we come to the crux of this ramble. Whilst browsing around a year or two ago I came across a groovy nail knot tool that makes it really easy to tie a secure connection between leader and fly line. The Wise-Man disapproved of course, saying that any angler worth his salt should be able to tie knots without a tool. Again, I can see his point, but I like my damn tool. It’s small, cute and does the job very nicely. I’ve tried doing nail knots with no tools, and while it is perfectly possible, this wee tool lets me do it in a fraction of the time. Most importantly however, I feel more inclined to trust the final knots.

Of things that go bump in the river

February 10, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying | No comments

Winter fly tying can lead to strange and wonderful(?) things. This creation, tentatively named the Mickles Tickle, resulted from a nuclear reaction between a zoo cougar, a woolley bugger and some chicken madras. It was then liberally sprinkled with shavings of Andre Brun’s trout streamer. I’ve no doubt it will prove to be hot stuff next season.

Winter fly tying, part 1

December 27, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying | 2 comments

Whenever I finally get around to tying up some flies, I like to do it mass-production style. In the case of DHEs, this means tying up loads of hooks with wings and trailing thread for ribbing. I find that this way it’s easier to get the wings consistently good, by which I mean positioned correctly, and standing erect. It also lets me apply a little dob of varnish on the thread wraps around the wing. It takes a few minutes for the varnish to harden properly, but makes an already bullet-proof fly into something bordering on nuclear-armageddon-proof. When working on half a dozen or so at a time, by the time the last hook has been winged, the first one is ready for its body and thorax.

dhes

As a tying note with these flies, I find it essential to wack a whole load of thread wraps on the eye side of the wing, as a way to prop it up properly. I like to have the profile of the fly perfected before adding a body or thorax. These days I also tend to make a few turns of thread around the base of the wing, a bit like when posting a wing for a parachute fly. Again, it’s just a wee thing I’ve found to help with consistency in tying, and ultimately in presentation.

dhes2

My final step before putting on the body or thorax is to check that the wing is reasonably centred. I find it’s quite common for the wing to be slightly biased towards the blind side (as seen from my tying position), so a wee bit of pruning is sometimes required to even things out. I find this to be important in terms of the final presentation on the water. An uneven wing often results in the fly sitting on its side on the water, rather than with the hook point and body under water.

Other flies I’m tying are terrestrial bugs, made from foam sheets and rubber legs. These are fun to tie, and pretty easy as well. The crucial thing I’ve discovered is to always add a wee bit of poly-yarn as a wing, to help with sighting. Without such a visual target, it’s very difficult to spot the fly on the water, as it sits very low. Indeed, one might say a level of ultra-stealth camo has been achieved, which fools both angler and fish. I tend to use white yarn, but I’ve seen other folks using yellow or pink. The wing is usually cut short and thus hidden when seen from underwater, so I don’t suppose it makes any difference to the fish.

Willian Joseph chest pack review finally published..

July 22, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle | No comments

I finally got around to finishing off my review of the Gear Bag Chest. It’s over in the gear reviews section. Here’s a direct link if you cannae be bothered going there first (though I should point out that there are some other wonderfully insightful reviews there too, which are obviously worth the read). Enjoy!

The Old stiffy comes good

July 21, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle, Fishing trips, fishing (local haunts) | 2 comments

Time on the river has been extremely limited this season. I’m currently going through the process of writing up a big project for my job (ok, it’s a thesis..) which appears to be more and more like torture every day. The few times I have been out seem to have taken on a new significance, like rare glimpses of sunlight at the end of a big dark cave.

Last weekend I headed over to a favourite river for some serious lone time. Lone time, with added trout. As part of my ongoing musings into the optimum rod to use on rivers, I strung up the shotgun for a bit of a fling. Old stiffy, as she is now also know, turned out to be a whole lot better than I imagined. (For new readers, Old stiffy is a Sage XP, 9′, 5 weight.)

Streamers and dries lie at the opposite ends of the fly fishing spectrum. I already love dries, and fish them wherever possible. But I’ve recently felt an unnerving attraction towards streamers, with their unashamed brashness and ‘use me or screw me’ attitude. This may or may not have something to do with the incredible number of large trout that a certain fishing acquaintance of mine has caught whilst using them over the past couple of seasons. The problem, or perhaps `challenge’ is a better word, lies in combining the two approaches in an outfit that allows both vices to be enjoyed equally.

For the first couple of hours I used an intermediate line with a fast sinking polyleader looped onto the end. Together with a weighted streamer this combination can get reasonably deep quite quickly, so is perfect for searching out deeper runs and seams. This last sentence is yet another wonderful example of the bullshit I spout on occasion (`only on occasion‘ the audience screams!), for I am a total newbie to streamer fishing, and have only ever caught a handful of fish like this. What I should have said was that it feels like a perfect setup for searching out the blah blah blah..

Well I searched and I searched for quite a few hours, and didn’t see, hear, feel or smell any trout. Disgruntled that all my good feelings about streamer fishing weren’t producing, I sat down and mused. There was plenty of evidence of the recent floods our rivers have experienced. The high water line looked like a frightening prospect in comparison to the clear water flowing past my feet. It was funny to see the silt deposited on leaves that normally only shower in the rain. The clear water drew my attention again, and I longed for dry fly simplicity.

Off with the intermediate-sink-tip-polyleader-good-feeling nonsense, and on with a floating fiver. This one hadn’t been used in more than a season, and still had the glued-in leader butt I once eulogised over to anyone who would listen. It really is a nice setup, so smooth and with excellent turnover. As usual I overestimated the required leader length, ending up with something that could be used to measure swimming pools. Something like 20′, which is really a little obscene.

With my lewd leader I thus marched off up to the next run. During the lengthy process of switching over my setup I had noticed a single, solitary rise in a small bit of creased water where a tiny burn flowed into the main river. With no more sign of life forthcoming I began short casts from the back of the run, slowly working up towards the burn. Third or fourth cast in and there was a wonderful, savage take to my fly. It was the kind of take that reminded me of the cutthroat trout in the west of Canada a few seasons back. Eager and willing. The fish now connected to Old stiffy quickly demonstrated that stiffness is a relative term, which is both reassuring and disturbing at the same time. It was the first fish I’ve hooked on the rod that actually made me feel like there was going to be a fight involved. There was.

The trout jumped out the water maniacally, showing the same eagerness to reach for the sky as she’d shown for my floating fly. I had that glorious, stomach churning feeling as I realised that this was probably my fish of the season, and I’d better not cock up. She quickly decided that the fast riffley run downstream looked like a good spot for a picnic, and bolted off. I had foolishly thought that a bit of sneakiness with side pressure and a ready net might forego any complications, and was left with one hand on the rod, one clutching my net and the other… flailing for the fly line. That’s three hands, which is what it felt like.

I performed that kind of half-shuffle, half-long jump motion required to pursue a fish downstream through thigh-high water, whilst waving my rod about quite a lot and repeatedly muttering “don’t come off, please don’t come off…”. In the quieter water beyond the riffle I started to apply some strong pressure, which caused the fish to jump again. There seems to be no better time for a fish to throw a hook than during a jump, so I eased off a little. By now I’d seen the trout quite clearly through the water (did I mention it was clear?) and she was a beauty. A more controlled application of side pressure brought her to the surface, and with a couple of desperate reaches with the net she was in.

As it happened I had chosen this day to take along my new net, one of those nice Maclean weigh-nets from New Zealand. The idea of a weigh-net is actually quite funny for most of the fishing I do, what with micro-parr and the odd half-pounder signifying a good day at the moment. But I had got a good deal on it, so plumped up the cash in an act not far from self-mockery. The beauty with a weigh net, over the more conventional Salter scales that you manually hook onto the net at the opportune moment, is that the reading you get doesn’t have to be adjusted for the weight of the net. It’s already calibrated. So what you see, for one God-foresaken time, is what you get. In this case that was exactly 2.5lb of golden, gorgeous trout.

A few moments for a photo session and I eased her (I’m pretty sure it was a female; she was certainly very pretty and slightly feminine in a Lara Croft kind of way) into the flow. A couple of moments and she pushed forward and quickly disappeared into the background of the rocky riverbed. Unquestionably my fish of the season, and unquestionably the nicest feeling I can remember for quite a long time.

After all that I had to phone someone, so it was my dad and brother who got the first telling. They were sitting down to a lovely curry at the time, which eased the reception of the fact that I was having amazing fishing and they weren’t. There’s an amazing rush of excitement after a trout like that which is hard to explain to folks who don’t fish. It’s a kind of head spinning rush of joy which seems to far outweigh the material fact of the capture. Even if the trout was quite big, even if it was beautiful, why does it feel so incredibly, soul-burstingly satisfying?

I fished on up the run with nothing to show for it. Nothing except for the whopping great grin on my face from that trout, of course. I slowly started to sink back into something like a regular fishing mode, and began to appreciate the reason that Old stiffy is so highly regarded in the trout world. She really does turn over leaders like the All Blacks against England. Loops unroll quickly, smoothly and with pin-prick accuracy. Even a fairly moderate breeze doesn’t seem to be a great problem. There’s still no question that when fishing dries I feel more at home with my slightly noodly 3 weight, but in all honesty it wasn’t too bad. And it certainly makes fishing the streamers a little less comical. Perhaps I just need to accept that fishing dries and streamers requires quite a lot of compromise on both parts. I think that a stiffish 5 weight like this is probably as close to the useful middle ground as can be had.

After an hour or so of fishless fishing, I crawled out the river and walked up past some moderately interested cows to a long flat. There were fewer trees, but oddly enough a couple of fish rose almost immediately. There had been no sign of any hatch all day, so I wasn’t sure what had brought them up. The rises were gentle though, so I put up a little CDC thing. Eventually I got a solid take, which turned out to be a very feisty grayling (are grayling ever not feisty?). A clean 1lb and a quarter, according to my what-you-see-is-what-you-get-net. He (I think it was a he, the dorsal was pretty long and he looked pissed off) was slipped back with a bit of a splash on my camera, and I decided it was time to trundle back to the car. I don’t know how many more days I’m doing to get on the river this season, but I hope this one will give me a little smile when the going is rough. It will certainly be a long time before I forget the enthusiasm of that take from the beautiful brownie; a bit of cutthroat hope in a big dark cave.

Of vests and man-bags

June 26, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 4 comments

One of the first things I bought when I started fly fishing was a fishing vest. After several hours of careful deliberation over three separate visits to a local tackle shop I settled on a Ron Thomson jobbie at fifteen quid. That last line reveals more about my personality than I’m sometimes willing to admit. It also gives me a wry smile now, a few years down the line. I remember thinking something like “hmm… all the fly fishing heros I’ve seen seem to wear one of these vests, so I’d better get one. With lots of pockets. And a D-ring on the back for my net. Oooh yeah, I’ll need a net too, for all the nettable fish I’m going to be catching down the local trout sewer…Ho hum..”

My Ron Tommie was a lovely dull green colour, and seemed to be made from the kind of cotton left over after some factory in deepest China had finished making Y-fronts for Asda. Flimsy would be polite. The zips looked to be the same as those you find on really cheap purses for sale at Saturday markets all over the country. Great as a last minute mother’s day present, not so great for the brutal treatment of a manic young fisherthing, crawling through thick urban undergrowth to get to hidden bits of river. The first one went after a few weeks, but despite my unkind comments most of the others actually held out for a couple of years.

Upon arriving home with my Tommie-vest I proceeded to enthusiastically fill up as many of the pockets as possible. Plans were made for all eventualities, including famine, nuclear holocaust, rampaging mongeese and long fly-sucking tree branches. The only problem was that once I’d distributed all my flyboxes, floatant, tippet, permits and suchlike, there were still a couple of pockets which didn’t threaten to split open at any moment. Obviously I wasn’t carrying enough flies, so a further trip to the tackle shop was required. A couple of new fly boxes and a few dozen loch-style flies later and things were looking and feeling decidedly heavy (except for my wallet..). Heaviness of tackle is next to manliness of course, so I was all set.

A feature of the Ron-Tom I was particularly proud of was the patch of fluff stuck to one of the pocket flaps close to the left breast. Over the following two or three years this became the very hub of my fishing world, as more and more of my flies seemed to migrate from the neatly arranged boxes and into the party on the patch. Rather than carefully scan rows of carefully organised flies in plush fly boxes, I began to develop a slightly crooked neck from sticking my chin into my chest to examine proceedings on the patch. I really do have good intentions when it comes to fishing organisation, but things just seem to get out of hand.

The vest had a proud life, witnessing all of my fishing exploits up to the end of the 2006 season. She saw me catch a huge river trout, a huge river grayling, fall in (multiple times), blank (multiple times), fall in (some more) and hugged my shivering torso as I watched lovely summer sunsets (after falling in). I’ve thought about it a lot, and I can’t think of anything that would have been gained by spending an extra 50 or 100 quid on a flash-vest. Ok, perhaps a Simms, Orvis or suchlike would have lasted a decade instead of half that, but seriously, fly fishing doesn’t have to be expensive and blingy (some people may disagree).

The green wonder now lies at the bottom of my wardrobe, carefully folded and sucking up the lovely flavour of the surrounding pinewood. One day I will dig her back out again and go fishing. I’m hoping the relationship will still be workable, for I’ve since been unfaithful and moved on to modern rubbish. Perhaps the glory of the woody smell will have done the trick, like a nice bottle of perfume.

Indeed, a day came when it was time to move on. My gear carrying device has since been altered to a chest pack. Note I say altered, and not upgraded. I do now find a chest pack to be a superior all-round system, but I refuse to say that anything is an upgrade of my humble vest. Indeed, while the old vest did lend me a certain ‘elderly’ quality, I occasionally have to refer to the chest pack as a ‘man-bag’, in order to reassure myself of its suitability for a testosterone-packed individual such as me. This has not been helped by occasional unthoughtful comments from people who shall remain nameless.

I suppose any piece of fishing gear can become precious. Fishing for hours on end wearing the vest it becomes part of your fishing mindset, something that is just there. It was a strangely uncomfortable experience making the switch to a new pack, and I didn’t feel comfortable at all for a month or so. Of course all of this talk is pretty much total unadulterated bullshit, because in the end you go fishing for reasons other than pathetic sentimental memories of a fifteen quid piece of Y-front, but that’s what blogging is here for. The only exception to this cutting sentiment is the Hat, but that’s a whole other post.

Believe it or not this post started out as a review of the aforementioned chest pack. That post is now in the pipelines, so watch out over the next few days. It’s one of the older William Joseph chest packs, and it’s a beauty. The review will be in the reviews section soon(ish)…

The Diary of Future Past

April 15, 2008 in Entemology(ish), Fishing (other stuff), Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 6 comments

One of the great things about writing a fishing blog is that it gives you a near-permanent record of the season’s fishing exploits. I often scroll through my old blog posts recalling trips and thoughts. It’s a funny process really, a bit narcissistic, but it’s also very enlightening. It’s possible to ‘chart’ the evolution of one’s fishing life, with all the highs and lows, the glory and the disaster.

The only problem is that it’s actually quite a bit of effort to keep a blog updated (eh…), and so inevitably one doesn’t record all a season’s trips. The real nitty-gritty detail of a trip is also lost on a blog: stuff like the atmospheric pressure, the temperature and the colour of my socks. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit lately: there are bound to be some hidden jewels of fishy information in those lost and under-reported trips.

I think the solution is the Diary of Future Past. A concise, all-encompassing record of every fishing trip I make. We’re talking hardware here folks, the real stuff, not just 1’s and 0’s and digital trickery. It’s the kind of record the real folks of old used to keep, the kind you can carry around and flick over whilst on the bus. I’ve been meaning to do so myself for the past couple of seasons, but it’s only now that I’ve discovered the secret to making good such ambitious intentions. Preparation, preparation, preparation.

In my old folly I thought a simple notebook would suffice. A few ruled lines, a ballpoint pen and a little determination. But the time folks, oh the time. I am really just as lazy as the next man, and it just takes too much time to start a fishing report with a totally blank sheet of paper. I need a little prodding, and the Diary of Future Past prods nicely.

There are lots of commercial fishing diaries out there, but the ones I’ve seen are rather expensive, not very good and full of advertising. So I decided to make one myself, using the glory of JFig, my printer at work and the lovely folks in the graphics and photocopying wizardry department of the University of Edinburgh. The lovely thing about making your own diary is that you can include precisely the empty spaces you want. There are also no adverts, dodgy photographs or deeply inspiring quotes from Robert Redford. It’s a diary without the fat and cholesterol, streamlined to sharply prod me into faithful adherence.

I think I’ve included the most important stuff: empty spaces for the date, details about the weather, the general hatch and trout activity, notes about the flies I used and plenty of space for meanderous wanderings. The Diary is A5 size, so it’s nice and portable, with a stiff cardboard backing and clear plastic covers. Each report has two pages: one with the writing, and a second on the back available to stick in wee photos if desired. Book one has space for 83 diary entries, which should see me through a season or two. I reckon it should be possible to file a report in about ten minutes, which fits nicely into my morning turd regime. No more excuses.

Wonderful fishing quote of the day..

March 25, 2008 in Books, Fishing (other stuff), Misc | 5 comments

I recently started reading `How To Fish‘ by Chris Yates. It’s actually not about ‘how to fish’, and it’s not even about fly fishing, well at least not principally. It’s main subject is coarse fishing, particularly for perch, but the essence of this seems to be utterly identical to fly fishing.

I’m up to chapter 6, and it’s already quite clear that it is a really beauty of a book. Chris has a wonderful style of writing. It is deceptively simple, but also extremely elegant and insightful. The best thing I can say is that he seems to be able to communicate a feeling which gets somewhere close to one’s soul. I’ll try and write a proper review when I’ve finished, so for the moment I’ll leave you with a wonderful paragraph.

“…fishing offers a dimension where, even if you don’t cast very far into it, you can be free of the wired-up world and suddenly in touch with an equally complex, less concise but deeper-rooted reality. The simpler your approach the more intimately you’re involved; uncluttered by a barrow-load of equipment, untroubled by the passage of time, hopefully undisturbed and often unambitious, you rediscover the art of improvisation that you mastered as a child, and as you become more absorbed in the watery surroundings you begin to notice details – the bending of a reed, the forming of a ripple, an abrupt stillness – that gradually join up to create an event that you may be part of. “

A School of Trout Released

March 11, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), General news | 2 comments

It’s nice to see the Clyde River Foundation and others getting school kids to understand something about rivers. The BBC have an article about one such project in Clackmannanshire. Check it out.

Catcher in the Hookeye

January 30, 2008 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying | 3 comments

A while back I was musing about the great fly tying problem of `waste stuff’. Every time I tie a deer hair emerger a great plume of trimmed deer hair finds its way down onto my bedroom floor. This is not exactly a universe-ending disaster. However, with my new-fangled portable fly tying system, I know I’m going to be doing a lot more tying on the road. That means my tying bench will be B&Bs, campsites and my car steering wheel. With all that waste, I could end up causing a kind of world war with the neighbors, and that’s definitely not cricket. What was needed was a catcher. A Catcher in the Hookeye, in fact.

Take one coat hanger, one old teeshirt, a little inventiveness and a friend with a sewing machine. Boil together in a large pan with garam masala, tomatoes and a Saturday afternoon. Add a chunk of metal, sprinkle with a little Disney magic and out pops this wee gem.

The Catcher in the Hookeye is my version of the waste material bin. It fits snuggly onto most vice shafts with that wee chunk of metal I mentioned, which I found lying around my lab at work. I’m not sure what it’s called, but I call it `the wee chunk of metal’. The frame is made of a bent coat hanger. Of course, coat hangers are normally bent when you buy them, so the idea of bending one is almost ironic. Bending the bent. It’s like asking a duck to quack with a Swedish accent. It’s a bent idea that.

The catching bit is the back of one of my oldest teeshirts. My mother tried for about five years to get me to chuck it, but my line was always “Ma, there will be some use for it eventually, I’m just not sure what it is yet.” Well Ma, here it is. The catcher of the Catcher in the Hookeye.

I like the fact that all my waste gets trapped now. I’ve always found that waste fly tying material is a bit like a dream: if you don’t grab it whilst it’s fresh, it’s lost forever. And that, my friends, is a little sad. Now there’s a right and proper place for waste, and it’s in the Catcher. Every now and then I’ll delve into the bowls of this humble servant, and it’s amazing the bits and bobs of old material that can be used for other flies. As I am an ethnic mix of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland, I’m about as tight as they come. So don’t blame me, it’s genetic.

The Catcher falls nicely in line with my increasingly obsessive policy of home-made fly tying paraphernalia. It functions perfectly well, and cost -£2.50 (that’s the money I saved by not wasting time and petrol on taking my old teeshirt and coat hanger to the recycling joint). I tried for about three months to find something similarly decent in the fishing tackle shops, and the cheapest thing I found was almost a tenner. Ridiculous. Get yourselves a flaming coat hanger and a good old fashioned chunk of metal. Take half an hour on a Saturday afternoon (other days are less reliable) and churn one out for yourself. Then get down to the local newsagent and spend your saved cash on 250 penny sweets. Glorious.

The Quest, Part II: Subversion & Solutions

December 18, 2007 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying, Thoughts | 28 comments

Long hours of quiet meditation. Days of ingesting inordinate quantities of super-curry. With-holding toilet use for three days. There are many things we can do to try to change ourselves. I tried to change, I tried to be a Tuesday-night-tier. I tried to set targets and to stick to them. Ten muddler heads a week, how hard can it really be? Sadly, it just doesn’t work.

I’ve since come to accept that my erratic fly tying behaviour is probably a reflection of something rather unchangeable and hard-wired into my brain. I’ve heard it referred to as ‘personality’, and it ain’t half an arse at times. My newfound zen-like self acceptance means that some kind of permanent solution has had to be found for the issue of fly tying gear transportation. The Stand of Majesty just wasn’t going to cut it on the road, not with all those bobbin antennae. What was needed was a way to transport everything I could possibly need for any possible situation. Fluff, feathers, bobbins, the whole shebang. The system needed to be hardwearing, reliable, small and most importantly, easily transportable. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you… the Far-reaching And Ridiculously Tenacious fly tying System (FARTS to you and I).
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Gary Borger videos

November 2, 2007 in Fly Tying | 5 comments

Whilst studiously working to write up some recent work I came across a really nice set of video clips. They are of the famous Gary Borger, and as far as I can tell they date from a few decades ago. A particular classic is the nymphing video series, which starts here. You can find the rest of the clips here. They are well worth a look.

The Quest, Part I: Obsession and It’s Consequences

October 10, 2007 in Fly Tying, Thoughts | 8 comments

I have a strange relationship with fly tying. On the one hand it has helped me to get more out of my fishing. I love seeing a trout sup down a little sherry spinner tied by my own two hands. It’s a special kind of satisfaction that just doesn’t exist with shop bought fluff. I have also found, however, that it sometimes has a tendency to drive me into a kind of unhealthy obsession. The most bizarre thing of all is that the obsession isn’t actually about tying flies.

Organisation. Where would we be without the simple joy found in sorting stuff out, finding a proper place for every last widget? Fly tying is an absolute class A activity for those of us with a ’sorting out’ fetish. The endless packets of dubbing, the myriad feathers and capes, the insane variety of hooks. Oh what joy! I am certain that I have a problem. I’m becoming the kind of fly tier that spends more time, a lot more time, sorting out fly tying paraphernalia than actually tying flies. Perhaps the worst thing of all though, the real bottom clencher, is that I rather suspect that I spend even more time just thinking about sorting out fly tying gear than even sorting the damn stuff out.

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Hair of the fish

July 6, 2007 in Fly Tying, Thoughts, Wierd stuff | 3 comments

There’s something strangely voyeuristic about losing your hair. It’s like watching a car crash in extremely slow motion. You know what’s coming, and it’s not pleasant, but it is somewhat fascinating. For a time you quietly pretend it’s not happening, as if looking away will solve the problem. But gradually, as the cars get closer and the sink gets increasingly clogged, it’s harder and harder to ignore.

Going au naturel when young is perhaps the cruelest way. The teenage years are only just gone, and finally you’re getting a little more comfortable with the carcass God gave you. Every now and then you notice what it’s like to be an ‘adult’. Feelings of responsibility, guilt and an increasing desire to go fishing 24/7. You realise time does move on, some things do change and you do grow slowly older.

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Back from the dead

April 8, 2007 in Fishing tackle, fishing (local haunts) | 2 comments

The new season started three weeks ago on some of my rivers. In the spirit of current times though, a sudden batch of cold weather seems to have pushed everything back a good bit. Last weekend I was out with some pals on a favourite bit of water. It was bright and breezy, but the general weather situation was cold air dribbling down from the north east. Apparently this isn’t very good for encouraging spring rises because the olives nick off too quickly from the surface. I don’t know if this is true, but the trout certainly seemed to think so. Despite some march browns, dark olives and loads of stoneflies there was narry a rise all day.

Yesterday and another river. This stretch was new for me, but clearly has potential as a big fish water in spring. The weather was bright once again, but this time the air also had a tinge of warmth. The water temperature seemed ideal and the level was very low. No rises again. Perhaps I missed the rise as I only got there after 1pm, but the other anglers I spoke to also seemed to have found things difficult. I searched the water with a wee olive emerger, and managed two modest trout and a nice lunker grayling. Incredible really: a shockingly bad winter grayling season and then I catch a cracker on a dry on the first day of the trout season.

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Loop the loop

March 6, 2007 in Fishing tackle | 3 comments

A wee while back I was musing about the ultimate fly line and leader system. Having been well served by a permanent tapered leader glued into the fly line I was thinking about ways to incorporate fast sinking poly-leaders for fishing streamers. Since then I’ve been around the block and have come to the conclusion that the nice tapered leader is simply the best way for fishing normal wet and dry flies, and there just isn’t a good way to attach leaders with a loop-to-loop.

This season I’m going to fish sinking poly-leaders looped onto an intermediate fly line. This will live on a spare spool dedicated for the job. I think it solves the problems in the simplest way possible, which is of course a good thing. It also leaves my floater un-bastarised and happy to present dry flies without ka-tunking onto the water.

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The Stand of Majesty

February 13, 2007 in Fly Tying, Thoughts | 20 comments

A few weeks ago the Lanyard of Power caused quite a stir here in fishy blogdom. Some folks unkindly questioned my sanity. Others, those in the know, saw the power and marveled. The Lanyard will prove to be the ultimate accessory for light weight fly fishing. I also have a sneaking suspicion that it will work rather nicely in conjunction with a small rucksac for the hill lochs.

The Lanyard did many things for me. Perhaps the most important was the sense of satisfaction that with just a wee bit of effort I had made something on my own. Twenty five smackers were saved, but the smile I experienced as things came together was the real reward. So, I’ve been inspired. Call it DIY fly fishing, call it madness, but I think I’ve found a little bit of the craftsman in my pathetic, modern skill-less life. This is going to be good.

I have something of a split personality. At times I’m incredibly scatter brained, listlessly ambling through the day with little regard for organisation or precision. Every once in a while it all changes and I become psychotically obsessive. Having recently moved flat (again) I’m currently in an obsessive phase. An ongoing source of annoyance to this obsessive side of my brain has been the organisation (or disorganisation) of fly tying kit. Somehow I’ve amassed an incredible amount of the stuff and I’m perennially trying to organise it all. For the last few months now most of it has been living in a number of plastic boxes. The only problem here is that when I eventually try to get some fly tying done the whole place becomes a bomb site, and I immediately revert back to the scatter-brained personality. This state remains for several weeks until I finally get pissed off and tidy everything up again. Lather, rinse and repeat.

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Heading to 100

February 1, 2007 in Fly casting | 2 comments

Just spent some time on the roof having a cast. Things didn’t start well. Tried to go for all out distance straight away and it was a disaster. Putting the thinking cap back on and a few minutes spent false casting 10 metres of line and the loops sharpened up nicely. Went for distance again, not pretty.

My pal was filming so I could get some footage to analyse and see what was wrong, but the line wasn’t showing up very well. The footage of myself did however show that, as usual, tracking is a big problem. This is particularly bad on the back cast where the loop never ever seems to come over the top of the rod. I think I tend to fling the rod around in a right-to-left arc through the stroke. Needs practice. But, by the end I was nicely opening out the stroke and getting a reasonably late butt rotation which put out a few nice loops.
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Reel to Reel

January 22, 2007 in Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 4 comments

Back in December gear lust got the better of me. Having recently got a rather nice fly rod on the ‘cheap’, a conversation with a certain pal of mine put me in mind to get a really good reel to go with it. I was looking for something that would take both a four and a five weight line, so I could use it with my wee rods. After one of those hazyily remembered trips down to a fishing tackle shop I found myself the owner of a rather lovely Vosseler DC3. It made an amazing sound when you turned the spool, and oozed quality German workmanship. Only problem was the weight. I reckon for a six weight rod, it would have be fine. Great, even. But for my five weight wand, and certainly for the four weights, it just wasn’t right.

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The Lanyard of Power

January 15, 2007 in Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 10 comments

It’s amazing how creative the angler’s mind can get during the close season. It’s been over three months since I wet a line, and I’m beginning to feel it. Recent posts have probably hinted at my burgeoning desperation, as thoughts have turned to unnecessarily expensive fishing tackle and pathological levels of fly tying. Stuck into the fray has been Christmas, shocking weather and a move of flat. This is precisely the sort of crap that makes me need fly fishing.

Until the weather clears and the grayling come out to play, or the next three months go by and the new season comes around (it’s about 50/50 as to which will happen first) it’s the ‘thoughts’ thing. Recently, the most obsessive of these has been that of the ultimate gear-carrying system.

Up until the middle of last season I was a waistcoat man. I don’t mean any old waistcoat either, I’m talking seriously cheap, nasty and unfashionable. My brother and I wore almost identical apparel, the only difference being that my pockets contained three times as much rubbish. Given that the reverse is true of our outward mutterings I’d say that overall we were pretty even
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The Bomb, Volume II

January 11, 2007 in Fishing (other stuff), Fly Tying | 2 comments

This week it has mostly been…raining. It’s also been rediculously windy. Right now I can hear the wind howling outside, the clouds wizzing by on the great motorway in the sky. I’m hoping the rain stops now for a week or two, long enough for the rivers to drop. I’ve been balsing on about fishing for grayling since October but the oppertunities to do so have been shockingly limited.

My flies are ready though. I’ve got enough bomb flies to destroy West Linton. Some of them even have huge tungsten beads in them. It’s going to be savage.

The Czech style nymphs are beginning to look pretty good, if I dare say so. Here’s a simple olive version, together with the sedge pupa it’s supposed to resemble. Not too bad. I think I’m ready to say that if grayling are not caught, it’s because I’m shite, rather than the flies.

Simple But Good – the Saga of the Sage

January 9, 2007 in Fishing tackle | 12 comments

Back in October I made one of those purchases. You may know the kind. Your mouse hovers over the ‘Confirm Bid’ button for a small eternity before magically clicking, with apparently no proper authorisation from your brain. There follows a few moments of suspended animation whilst the required payment is authorised, and moments later you are brought back to something like proper consciousness. Bugger. How the hell did that happen?

When my eyes de-glazed last October I found myself the owner of a Sage XP fly rod, a 9′ for a weight 5. There are worse things to be lumped with, granted. The odd thing in my case was that I’d never cast a Sage XP, or owned a rod as fast. But something told me this was the rod. I’d been working on my casting quite a lot, and having cast a few other rods I was pretty sure I needed to go faster. There was bugger all wrong with my old rods, in fact one of them was a lovely rod to fish with, but something just wasn’t quite right. Possibly this was my head.
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Death bombs and the end times

December 31, 2006 in Fly Tying, Thoughts | 12 comments

It seems the weather here in the UK is throwing a tantrum at the thought of leaving another year behind. Driving wind, pouring rain, all things that are terrific for getting the grayling going. I’ve been staying with family for the past week or so, and have finally got into tying up some flies. Actually, that’s possibly stetching it a little, because these fellas are serious bomb bugs. When grayling bugging I quite often use a very heavy ‘nymph’ on the middle dropper which acts like an anchor, taking the whole cast down quickly. These things don’t resemble any kind of traditional fly fishing creation. They’re big and nasty, and are likely to cause mild concussion if your casting’s a bit off.

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The Perfect System

December 28, 2006 in Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 1 comment

A running saga in my fising for the last year or two has been the quest for the perfect fly line – leader system. It’s been an epic journey, but perhaps the end of the road is near.

For 90% or more of my fishing I use a floating line with a tapered mono leader. In the dark old days I was conned into using those evil braided loops to connect the leader to the fly line with a loop-to-loop knot. It wasn’t pretty but it sufficed for a year or two. Then I became aware of other ways of setting up this connection, and I’ve been experimenting for a while now.

The very neatest method I’ve found is the Dave Whitlock superglue connection. This definitely provides the smoothest connection I’ve seen. The fly line – leader join usually slides seamlessly through the rod rings. Having using this for most of last season, there are only two points I’m not convinced about. The first is that the fly line tends to crack where the leader is inserted. This may be because the extra stiffness imparted to the fly line at the join leads to a hinging effect, so that repeated casting degrades the connection. Talking to a pal about this the other day it seems he hasn’t had a problem. I’m pretty sure this must therefore be down to my sickly tight razor-loops. The fly line cracking has the knock-on effect of encouraging the tip to sink slightly, which can be annoying.
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The Drug

December 12, 2006 in Fishing tackle, Thoughts | 10 comments

The thing that’s so bad about gear lust is that even though you know it’s bad, you just can’t help yourself. My pal Alistair recently sowed the seed of reel-lust in my little fisherbrain. Up to then I’d been perfectly content with my Shakespeare Condex fly reels, which at 20 quid a pop are considerably cheaper than most fly lines. In a conversation that centred largly on nice, expensive fishing tackle, it became clear that he has a one-up on me in the reel department, fishing as he does with a glorious, shiny Vossler DC-series job. I think we both appreciated the mild irony of my combination of a Sage XP with a 20 quid Shakespeare reel. To be honest it’s the kind of irony I get a bit of a kick out of, but since the conversation I’ve been gradually degenerating into pitiful gear lust. Combine this with a new found lust for an expensive fly line and it’s all going down hill.

Things got even worse this weekend when I was in one of the big fishing tackle shops in Glasgow. I hadn’t been to any fishing shops for a good while, so I slowly worked my way through the fly tying department picking up bits and bobs that I obviously didn’t need. Then at the end of one of the isles was the clear-out row of Sage XP’s. And right on the end was an absolute beauty, a 7′6″ for a 4 weight. Holding it in the hand it felt ALIVE. She (she was clearly a she) was definitely wispering things to me. Things about how crisp she would be casting a little beetle under the overhanging willow tree on my favouite stretch of my favourite urban river. About how smoothly she would put out a nice dull-green-coloured (important) double taper line into the rudest breeze. This conversation went on and on as I felt myself being overtaken by the rigours of full blown gear lust. Perspective! I shouted, have some flaming Perspective! Even if she was a she and even if you could talk to her there’s no way she would stoop to being cast on an Urban River. She was an XP, and XP’s are for the rich boys aren’t they? Rich boys don’t fish on dirty urban rivers. She would not be satisfied, not with shopping trollies and burnt out cars. She would cheat and find a man who fished on a real river.

I’m telling you, there’s a big part of me that hates this kind of pathetic lust for gear. The lust for reels is possibly the worst of all: you never need a great reel, not in my kind of fishing and not like you need a great rod. Yet you really admire a nice one, you spin the spool and listen closely. I think a beautiful reel is more beautiful than a beautiful rod. Just look at this, and this. Reel-lust is gear lust of the purest kind.

You always manage to convince yourself that if only you can plump up the cash for this ‘one reel’, or ‘one rod’ or ‘one Ferrari’, that life will feel complete and that you will reach the next Zen plain of true contentment. But just like an addictive drug the old gear lust comes a-wondering back into your conciousness. It’s not something you’re born with, you aquire it. Exactly like you aquire a taste for cocaine. Just look at my reel-lust. One minute I was fine with a placky job which squeaked and occasionally jammed. Then the allure of a shiny German metal-man invades my life. It’s bad and it’s wrong but it’s not easy to stop.

Must. Control. Myself…

Tamanawis does butts

December 9, 2006 in Blog announcements, Fly Tying, The Phenomenon, Thoughts | 6 comments

Ok folks, you’ve got to check this out. Nearly wet myself just now as I checked some of the referring links to my blog this week. Turns out, one of my posts is *NUMBER 1* in google when you search for ‘butt rotation fly casting‘. Yes, you heard me right: *NUMBER 1*. (Do I need to say that again?). Late butt rotation is of course one of the corner stones of good loops, so there’s no way to belittle the significance of this search phrase. In fact it may be the most important thing in not just flycasting but peace and love in the entire known universe. At the time I thought I was just making a typical post about my crappy casting. Little did I know what a phenomenon would ensue.

The best bit though, is that the bastion of fly casting knowledge, the place where the best of the best hang out, yes of course I mean Sexyloops, can only manage second place. This is possibly the most exciting thing that’s happened in blogland for old Tamanawis, at least since the crucial 1000 visits landmark was past. Personally, I don’t remember feeling this excited since 6.45am this morning when I sunk my teeth into a cracking slice of toast covered in chocolate spread. Tasty folks, tasty!

Almost as good is that searching for ‘Hare’s Mask Fly Tying‘ gets a link to another post of mine about making your own dubbing mixes from a hare’s mask. Holy shit folks, this is deep.

In recognition of my own recognition of google’s recognition of this blog, I’ve now created a Special Category called The Phenomenon which, from this moment on (oh Shania), will archive all the bigups we receive here at Tamanawis. It might be a short list, but it’s still a flaming list.

77ft and counting

November 29, 2006 in Fly casting | 4 comments

The flycasting finally showed a little improvement at the weekend. I set up my 30 metre tape in the local park, and started flailing away with a 4 weight. A weird thing happened: a tight back cast loop. I had previously only heard of such a thing as a rumour from hushed conversations between experto casters, so to see one in the flesh was pretty mind-boggling. And for it to originate from the tip of one of my own rods, WHILST I WAS CASTING IT, was almost too much to take.

The wierder thing was that it didn’t happen for any apparent reason other than that half way through my practice session I turned around 180 degrees from the direction I had been casting in so that the sun was on my face. Suddenly razor tight ones emanated unstoppably. I think there is a sun god, and he likes flycasting.

I managed 77ft on my best chuck. Watching back the video was more encouraging than this slightly meagre figure would imply. I have definitely changed my casting stroke this autumn, the most obvious manifestation of this being there is actually now something approaching a proper stop on the back cast. I think it’s probably got something to do with endlessly watching videos of the ubercaster, and spending a little time with the man himself. My hauling is almost, dare I say it, getting quite tasty. It’s really the tracking issue I’ve got to work on. I reckon with better tracking and a smoother stroke things could get considerably better. If my 5 weight ever gets sorted then who knows…

Change the rules

November 24, 2006 in Fishing tackle, Fly casting | 3 comments

Well I think I’ve finally discovered the secret to improving your distance casting. Use a short fly line.

A few weeks ago I reversed my 5 weight DT line on the reel so the horrible greasy, sticky half of the line I’d been using would be at the backing end of things. I also cut off some of the nasty end taper, leaving me with a line probably only 25 yards long.

Today, for the first time, I cast a full fly line. My ego has been given a serious shot of speed. Nothing will stop me now from becomming the greatest caster in the universe. At least with my rules.

I was using my new rod, which I’m beginning to seriously enjoy casting with. It feels fantastically responsive and will make the line do whatever kind of dance I like (and some I don’t). It’s one of the now discontinued Sage XP’s, in a 9′ 5 weight. I spent all my money on it. But I think it might be worth it. One day I might even be able to afford a good reel for it. But you can’t have it all.

In the meantime, I may actually put a proper fly line on it and see if I can cast all of that. We shall see..

Bugs

November 11, 2006 in Fly Tying | 2 comments

The weather has been angry the last couple of days. Hopefully things will calm down a little tomorrow and I’ll head to the hills once more.

In the meantime, I’ve been sorting through some of my winter bugs. I don’t know when my first trip out for grayling will be, but I’m going to be ready for it. I reckon a couple nights tying up some ammonite nymphs and scruffy tungsten bead hare’s ears and we’ll be cooking.

Most of my winter bugs are of Czech and Polish origins. The Czech nymphs I tie are just like the typical ones described ad infinitum in all the fishing mags. The Polish ones are pretty nice though, and you don’t see as many of these around. They are the ones in the second group down (left side) in the first photo. You need to learn a bit of cross-weaving to tie them, but with a little practice you have a way to tie nymphs that sink faster than you would belive possible.. Last winter I caught a 3lb grayling on a small one of these, so they do work

Extra points for anyone spotting the slightly less-traditional contributions to my selection.

Put this in your pipe and smoke it..

October 24, 2006 in Fly Tying | 5 comments

I’m pretty bad when it comes to procrastination. For the last couple of closed seasons I’ve always had great plans of tying up hundreds of flies to last all season: nymphs, streamers, loads of dries. I always end up getting distracted by things like winter hillwalking and grayling fishing. This means my season’s fly supply has to be replenished on the fly (pun intended), which generally leads to panic tying and missed fishing time.

This evening I finally got myself in gear and started preparing industrial quanities of hare’s mask dubbing. All that was needed was a pair of scissors and a home made dubbing rake, made from part of an old hacksaw blade. I find I use hare’s mask, in one form or another, in most of the flies I end up tying. In past, darker days I’ve been a user of packet bought dubbings. These days I’ve grown to be in awe of the range of fantastic, buggy dubbing to be found by harvesting a mask yourself.

So I’ve now got one of those small sewing boxes full of different mixes of dubbing, all neatly compartmentalised and ready for some turbo-flytying. Tomorrow I will do the same for a couple of dyed hare’s ears I’ve got. It won’t be long before there’ll be enough dubbing combinations to take over the frigging planet.

If you’ve never tried this approach to getting your dubbing, it’s well worth a go. Half the fun is comming up with your own dubbing combinations to suit the kind of fly you’re going to tie. It’s also a lot cheaper and makes you feel like you’re a *real man*, which I find rather nice.

Casting shenannigans

October 11, 2006 in Fly casting | 12 comments

The trout season is well and truly over for this year. The last week or so has seen autumn arrive properly here on the east coast, with much cooler evenings and a smattering of rain. This has provided unacustomed time to spend on other things. Such as fly casting.

I’ve been meaning to sort my casting out for a while now. By sort out, I mean improve my loops, get better and more consistent presentation casts and generally cast with about 1/10th of the effort I do now. So, I’ve got myself a long tape measure, a digital camera and a tripod. Before anyone makes the comment, yes I realise that sounds interesting to say the least.

For anyone looking to improve their casting “on one’s own” so to speak, I have some advice. Be prepared to spend time, a good amount of it, and get ready for a shock. Sleepless nights with phrases like “casting arc”, “late butt rotation” and “straight line path” wizzing around your head should be expected.

I knew some things were bad about my casting. Turns out I’m right.

It’s total pants.

Only when you film yourself doing the deed do you start to realise that you may have to try and un-learn everything you currently do if you want to really improve. So that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m starting about as basic as I can. A guy called Paul is helping me (in a round about sort of way), with some great instructions. There are also one or two kind chaps providing some pointers which is great, and really useful.

So far, things aren’t going well. I’ve realised that I am actually incapable of making a half decent back cast. It’s quite literally a mental/physical impossibility at the moment. This is SERIOUSLY PISSING ME OFF. It’s the foundation for (nearly) all you do in fly casting and I’m absolutely shite at it. Some people say this sort of stuff doesn’t matter. But to me it does. If I do something I want to do it well, and what I’m doing right now cannot be described as ‘well’ in any shape or form, no matter how many Trade Winds are involved.

This winter, come what may, I will become a good fly caster. I am determined and prepared.
If anyone is still reading this, you will be able to keep up with my progress as I link to occasional video clips in the coming weeks and months. The first ones are not pretty, though fortunately my incredible sense of fashion helps to offset the mile wide back cast loops.

Give me strength.

Anyone for a bath?

July 25, 2006 in Fly Tying, Pals, fishing (local haunts) | 2 comments

Things have been hot recently. Weather wise I should add. It seems there’s been continuous sunshine for weeks and all my regular rivers are looking thin and summer silky.

I managed to fish three days in a row this weekend, down on my favourite bit of water. We spread things out so no water was fished more than once. Turned out to be a fascinating run of fishing. I think it highlighted some important things to me, which I may have ‘known’ already but are best learnt with real experience.

First night it was hot, with a little breeze to start with. We headed to a bit of river we haven’t fished before, but were dissapointed to find it was poor fly water. Actually it was more reminiscent of a narrow loch, the surface rippled in the wind. Not the nice streamy pocket water we usually fish. The water temperature was just about right for simmering bulgar wheat, so we walked and walked in search of riffly water. I felt smug that my decision to wet-wade was not going to be regretted.

Eventually came to a cracking pool, with dozens of channels between streamer weed and rocks. I waited whilst the brother fished the nice bits. As he was flicking the fly line out of the rod tip, the fly (a standard DHS, superbly tied once again) landed a couple of rod lengths ahead in some slow flowing water. A nice fish slashed at it and a Class A Bullet Strike followed, sending him packing to his bolt hole.

I ambled upstream finding more dead water and some enthusiastic parr feading on floating fag ends and anything else on the surface. It wasn’t until the sun was well gone, maybe 10.15, when I noticed some nice fish moving in a pool just downstream. I crept up and watched. There were mini-submarines in that pool. Big swirling wakes were all I saw of the fish as they supped down sedges and BWO spinners. One fish was well over 2lb judging by the water displacement, the other at least 2lb. Casting to them was just about impossible due to wading issues and sh!te casting ability on my part. So I accepted as much and enjoyed the knowledge that I’d found some whoppers.

These photos are of a BWO male spinner. As far as I know they don’t feature much in an evening rise, as it’s the females that lay eggs and die on the water. I think sherry spinners are much more vividly orange as well.

Next day and some serious fly tying took up a good bit of the day. I think I’ve cracked those DHE s. Seem to turn out well every time now. I tied a few with a bit of fluff to suggest a shuck. Not sure if that makes sod-all difference but I felt slightly intelligent doing so.

The weather was a little more cloudy this evening, and very humid. We were fishing at the bottom end of our more usual beat, again an area we haven’t fished much. A couple fish rose lazily, and I felt chuffed to catch a nice one of around 10oz to the DHE above. The brother had a few throughout the evening, to the DHS.

Something we both noticed was that drag was even more of an issue than normal, and it’s normally difficult to control. We reckoned the low water was making things worse, as the surface of the pools and flats we fished was always very ’swirly’ if you catch my drift. Of course all rivers are swirly, but this was noticibly difficult. I thought about things for a very long time and came up with an amazing formula:

warm water + crap casting + bad drag = difficult

Next night I opted for a longer leader than usual, probably around 15′, with oodles of limp tippet (if you know what I mean). This definitely helped the drag issues (of course), but my hyper-crap casting made controlling where the fly went interesting. This was worst when casting only a couple of feet of fly line, fishing pocket water at close range.

Interestingly I caught a grayling, which seem quite rare where I fish. I see Ali had a similar experience the other night. Total fluke on my part, I was just beginning to drag the size 12 DHS across the water to cast again. Late on the fish really started to show, taking some of the BWO spinners that had returned. Definitely some caenis feeding going on as well. And some sedge feeding fish, so all in all quite good given the tepid water.

So fishing three days in a row at this time of year taught me a lot. The importance of timing of course. At no stage was it really worth fishing before 9pm. Peak of any rising was 10-11pm. Spinner feeding fish are a damned arse to cast to when you’re fishing a long leader and can’t see a thing. Caenis feeding fish take the piss. Give me a sedge feeder any day, please. At least until my casting gets better (it will I hope).

And each night it was quite different. First night some rises, very late on. Second night not much, despite apparently better conditions. Third night the best by a mile, as there were more flies on the water. Just shows how much you miss out on by fishing only once a week. Solution: fish every day.

A Nod to a Beautiful Fish

May 1, 2006 in Fly Tying, fishing (Northern rivers) | No comments

Well it’s a couple of days since my last trip out. I was fishing another Scottish river I’ve not been on before. Things looked promising with last weeks good weather building up to a glorious spring day on Saturday. I had my permit by 8 o’clock and was riverside before half past. At this time of year it’s actually not really worth fishing until nearer lunchtime, but I love being on a river almost anytime, especially on such a bright sunny day. I opted to start fising some upstream spiders through a couple of nice riffles, and noticed a little stab on the leader after about two casts. Turned out to be one of the smallest parr I’ve ever caught at about 3-4 inches. It’s always good to see a river with plenty of small fish like this as it bodes well for the future. I fished on for a while, before eventually moving to another run. Here I turned around and fished the spiders across and down just slightly slower than dead drift, and it wasn’t long before a pretty little half pounder came to hand.
It was soon midday, and at last some flies began to hatch. Great big march browns they were too, always a good bet to bring the better fish to the surface at this time of year. It wasn’t long before fish started moving to the hatching flies and I could fish a dry fly with confidence. On the leader was the deer hair emerger I mentioned before. It’s really a cracking fly, well worth trying.

Of course when actually fishing the barb will be crushed as I fish catch and release on the rivers around here. Here’s one of the pretty wee trout that were avidly munching on the marchs’.

Things were pretty sporadic after that as a few more waves of duns came off, occasionally sparking a little frenzy.
Later on I was back fishing spiders down through riffles and pools. In one particularly good looking pool I felt a slight ‘draw’ in the line as a fish turned on the point fly, and I was immediatley fighting a much better fish. He went absolutely crackers and lept about 2 feet out the water before heading for the sea. I followed him downstream and after a (too long a) while brought him to the net. A beautiful fish of 1 3/4 lb, and a lovely way to finish things up.

Fishing spiders has a long history, perhaps as old as fly fishing in this country. I find it is still a really good technique, although it can be very frustrating if not done correctly. I am by no means an expert, but I have just about got hold of the idea, and it’s starting to be pretty useful. I fish the spiders upstream dead drift, across and down and just about any way I think will be useful. The most important thing is to lead the flies through the current in a controlled manner, either dead drifting them, or letting them drop downstream just slightly slower than the current. I have a feeling this last point is particularly useful, because the water speed under the surface is generally progressively slower with increasing depth. So what looks like dead drift on the surface is perhaps not so 6 or 10 inches down. Thus by controlling the drift of the flies just a tiny bit slower than the current, I think you might get both a really good presentation, and immediate contact with any taking fish. Certainly worth a bit of perseverence.
Finally, here’s a shot I took after the last fish was released. Spot the trutta!

Lovely day

April 25, 2006 in Entemology(ish), fishing (local haunts) | No comments

So on Sunday I headed down for the day to a river. It was an absolutely splendid day. If you asked me when I thought the first day of spring was, I would have said Sunday. For the first time a bit of genuine warmth, provided by the glorious sunshine. I was on stream by around 11am, and noticed a good trickle of march browns comming off, together with some large dark olives. I spent some time fishing a hare’s ear nymph below a bushy sedge, and it wasn’t too long before a feisty wee trutta came up and took the sedge, which in actual fact looked like nothing that was on the water (to my eyes anyway). Funny how that happens. I think “ok, I’ll fish a nymph today, because there’s not much moving yet”, and of course the nymph is ignored.. Ho hum.
Eventually a couple of fish did start to take the odd dun off the water with quite splashy rises, and I immediately tied on one of these jobbies and landed a beatiful little fish of around 3/4lb.

I then fished the run for a good while (I know there are plenty fish in there..) but nothing was interested.. or maybe I’d cocked it up and spooked it all. Still, same result either way.
There’s some lovely water where I was.. but nothing really rose after lunchtime.

Certainly this was because nothing much hatched after then, which I was very surprised about. Seemed ideal conditions (always beware of ideal conditions) but the hatch held back.. So of course I did what I usually do, which is sit around and enjoy the sound of the stream and take photos of the bugs I can find.

This guy’s called a large dark olive (I reckon) and is a really important spring fly on the rivers I fish. Actually, I think it’s a female (small eyes), but that’s just getting into dangerously poncy territory.. I’m sure you’ll agree, it’s a bonny little critter. Something about the upwing flies I just really like. Perhaps it’s got to do with the fact that their appearence may bring on a rise, but I also reckon they’re just damn pretty. (Please come back, I’m really not as odd as I probably sound..)
Finally, I uploaded a short clip to Photobuck, really just to see if it works. Nothing very exciting I’m afraid, but I like it. A few seconds of footage of the flow of the river..

Tricky

April 22, 2006 in Entemology(ish), fishing (local haunts) | 2 comments

Well I headed down to one of my favourite stetches of stream today. Weather seemed ok to start with: overcast, reasonably warm, south to south west breeze.
Turned out to be a rather slow day. And by rather slow I mean of course a blank. I fished for about 7 hours, using nymphs, spiders (both fished upstream and downstream), dry fly and large meat pies. I saw precisely zero fish, and had zero takes. Still it was smashing to be out of course
The one thing that did seriously beging to rile me was that by the time I got a bit further up the river it was blowing at about force 8. The stream I was on runs from west to east, so this makes casting upstream (as I like to do) pretty interesting, especially when you are seriously crap at it.
Given the lack of fish, I then decided to practive double hauling (in the gale), but quickly realised that I’m not very good at juggling for a reason. The old hand eye coordination wasn’t quite there today..
Finally I resorted to taking some photos of the myriad of fly life on the river, which of course the truttas weren’t very interested it..

Singaporean leaders

April 21, 2006 in Fishing tackle | 2 comments

So I’ve been trying up a few of these Singaporean leaders that were posted on a forum I occasionally frequent. They seem pretty nifty actually. You can make a grand tapered leader from scratch with only one spool of cast material. I’ve got a couple I’m going to try out tomorrow that I made with 8lb line. I’ve then attatched a short piece of single diameter 8lb line to the end, which I will then attatch my tippet to. I’ll let you know how they pan out..

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