Day With Colin

I took Colin out for a day, he fishes chalk streams rather than free stone rivers, so to start with he found the bottom a little harder than the fine gravel chalk stream river beds, the main thing Colin wanted to learn was nymphing techniques.

So we started the day talking about the different styles of nymphing and all the various forms of bite detection, I must admit I could talk fishing all day long but it was time to put all the theory into practise, a quick demo and Colin was away and away to a good start he had a fish on within minutes which was also good as it was also on his brand new 10′ 3#, so my nymphing approach worked and rod christened, one strange thing as the trout season has finished they seemed to be very hungry and kept taking the grayling bugs.

The trout if in the middle of summer would have been fantastic but it was grayling we wanted, then the ladies started to play Colin was really pleased as the grayling he caught were a better stamp of fish to the rivers he usually fishes, by the end of the day I think Colin had caught around 10-12 fish ( Colin used his camera to take the pictures that’s why I’m holding the fish for him )

From Colin.

Thank you, a brilliant day and learnt so much about nymphing that I should be able to put into practice when I get back on the River.

Quick Walk In The Sunshine

Quick walk in the sunshine with the rod, to start with the fish really seemed thin on the ground, mind that might have been something to do with the cormorants that were about, I think I fished two runs before I started to find a few fish and the best bit the new nymph caught the lions share of the fish.

Bloody Technology !!

Well out for a play and about time really ( seem to be a full time downhill mountain mechanic rather than fishing guide the joys of being a parent) I had knocked up a couple of new patterns last night so I thought I would give them a swim and boy did they work well, better than my crazy mobile phone especially when I wonted to take a pic of the better fish it went all to cock and wouldn’t do a thing.

Mind had a good morning catching around 20+ grayling a single fantastically marked brown trout all in around three hours, but the best bit was being out in the fresh air enjoying a spot of fishing.

Before The Wind & Rain

Well the wind and rain are on the way so I went and fished a few stretches of the river that I usually don’t go to, the run in the picture is very shallow and I have fished it many times with little success but I never say never, as I worked my way down the run it was dead, I have had small fish here but nothing very big, but then not a monster but a bigger than usual which was very pleasing, then another and another, for a change I caught around six nice fish just goes to show you should never ignore any water.

One of my Favourite Pieces Of Kit

This is one of my favourite bits of kit, I know a lot of people who carry two rods with them, I tried it for a while and couldn’t stand it, that’s just me. I prefer the rig box, I have on my rig winders a set up for Czech nymphing, French nymphing, dry fly and any thing else I fancy, I’m quite lazy when it comes to my own fishing sometimes instead of changing from one set up to another, I would move to another piece of water that my set up suited, with the rig box I can change from one set up to another in 2 minutes, another great thing on those super cold grayling days you can sort your leaders in the warm at home and have them ready in the box, a lot easier to swap one knot with freezing fingers, than a complete leader.