Sat 7th August: ASGA

Another of Steve James' opportunities arose in that we joined Louis Noble's Advanced School of Game Angling (ASGA) for a day on the Dee at Maelor. Steve secured four rods with Louis in what turned out to be a most informative trip.
The session covered quite a broad spectrum of methods from Czech Nymphing through Duo and dry fly to Spey casting with wets.

From L-R: John, Yours Truely, Keith, Simon and Louis

Our initial kick sampling proved  a little disappointing in its yield. A small selection of stonefly nymphs with one or two 3 tailed upwings nymphs, cassed caddis and caddis pupa were analysed. It never ceases to amaze me how bright some pupating caddis are; 'eat me' in neon green. Naturally [pun intended] the kick sampling evolved into imitations and setup for Czech Nymphing with Louis demonstrating his tactical wading approach.

L-R: Steve, YT and Louis pre kick sample

A move to setups and how to fish the duo was followed by lunch. During which Simon demonstrated his Tenkara setup for nymphing. John, as open minded as ever and always one to attract fish, willingly took the rod from Simon and into the river he went. After half a dozen or so casts, he is a magnet, an 8oz Grayling obliged (another coup for Tenkara Promotions Ltd.). It was quite funny watching him wrestle the fish with 12' of T and 16' of leader/tippet. If you are experiencing T for the first time without instruction this can be quite tricky.

CZN demo

Post lunch and Louis' spider fishing session. His own goto spider setup consists of four spider patters on an 11.5' cast. The make up of the leader has become quite critical to enable good tangle free turnover and is effectively a weight forward leader where the first third tapers up in diameter before tapering down the point. The secret recipe is in my pocket;). The cast is fished across and down which, although some of us may question, Louis assures catches a very large volume of good fish. If the rod is held high and tracked with the current a series of dead drifts across the river can be acheived. When one drift has drifted out do not be afraid to raise the rod up again, even if the team pulls from the water and then drift down again. Keep this until on the dangle below. The leader setup alone does not prevent tangles, but a double spey cast is absolutely necessary especially with the Dee's prevailing downwinder. So when on the dangle the spey cast (which just changes direction to across again) keeps the cast straight and tangle free.
The setup is best coupled with a double taper line matching the weight of a minimum 10' rod. A 3 or 4 weight. This is incredibly simple and pleasurable one handed fishing.

YT completing the cast. Error here is in not driving the tip down low enough to prevent downstream bows and extra line mending

Another subtlty that becomes apparent is to hold the rod butt low and tip high when getting towards dangling out, this does give that extra few feet of drag free drift.

A good example of holding rod butt low. You can also see the shallow streamy water that best suits this method

From the diagram above, it can be seen how with several drag free drifts then a mend upstream the amount of water that can be covered. After dangling out, take a step downstream

This method of wet fly fishing covers a lot of water and is so simple. The most complex part is leader make up, but this should be done at home and wound onto a cast carrier.
Top tip from Louis regarding tangle free droppers was to essentially paternoster the droppers. Create the dropper length by creating a 3/4" to 1" loop at the end of the dropper and then passing the dropper loop over and above leader knot and back through itself. The result is a sliding dropper that stops on a knot in the leader make up. The loop in the dropper holds the dropper away from the leader. I know a two turn water knot is favoured by many, but although these may not tangle around the leader they do twist around the leader. Give this some consideration.

Simple and Heavy; well relatively

You can get so pre occupied with what worked last time out and over analysis on your favorite river, but how often does simplicity pay off in the end.
A stretch of the Alyn I usually avoid due to the magnetic attraction of coarse anglers is adjacent to Cook's Bridge. There is, empathatically, some nice deep glides here to attract them. Assuming I had first 'dibs' this morning [there were no cars] I dropped into the river upstream of the bridge, actually in amongst many dropped grains of sweetcorn that the previous occupant must have discarded. Gosh! are there tench here?
Anyway, the T was with me today and the trusted duo rig attached to enable 2 dimensional prospecting. Careful negotiation of the next 30yrds upstream bought responses from only a couple of parr and two refused aproaches to the dry from stamp Grayling. MMmmm maybe the fish around here are conditioned to the Jolly Green Giant's produce. Upon hearing a car door slam a 15cm Grayling gorged itself on the dry. So much so that I couldn't retrieve the hook and had to cut the line. I had to support this fish for a good five minutes before it held itself upright. I left the small fella to recover and rounding a slight bend I came face to face with a big black labrador and its owner[car door owner also] settling down to a little swimfeeder session. A quick exchange of courtesies and a careful paddle past their chosen swim led me to the next convenient pool upstream where the droppered dry was removed and re-positioned on the point. The #14 olive emerger resulted in a few small Grayling, but things just didn't feel right. I quickly tried a few small midge patterns in case size, or lack of, mattered but results were still pretty scant. The real fishy looking areas looked quite deep and were generally protected by a low canopy so I initially removed the 10' level leader and reloaced with one of Simon's custom 7' tip indicator furle with the intention to flick a #12 shrimp pattern in to the holes. Whilst changing setup a few fish were rising in a far bank run upstream, so I quickly adapted the setup by doubling the 7' furle with a stepped nylon leader, 5lb, 3lb, 2lb of simliar lengths. A size #20 midge was half blooded onto the end. This cast beautifully, the leader make up flicking effortlesly and the light 7' furle and section of 5lb mono was easliy lifted off the water to leave a small 3' pile of tippet and the fly to act naturally in the flow. Rewards were initially instant with several Grayling and a couple of small trout obliging. However, sport once again slowed with sporadic interest.
I reached another deepish spot and now decided to put the shrimpish pattern on. The pattern is tied classic Czech Nymph style with all body hair brushed out over the entire length. First cast and a trout darted out from its Willow tree refuge and took on the drop. Second cast, the same. Third cast, the shrimp finally cut through the water and on tracking through, the yellow indicator section of the furle paused. A quick lift and the thump thump of a decent Grayling; 30cm. A few paces upstream and another of 15cms.
For the next hour or so I stuck to the single shrimp, losing one or two on submerged traps, and concentrated hard on water over 18" deep. I really felt in the groove here, flicking and tracking the shrimp, carefully negotiating the narrow river as the main flow changed from left bank to right, the tip indicator appearring to detect everything, a succession of Grayling obliging...
Simple and I suppose winter like in setup, but although we love to bring them up to a well presented dry you do get days when you can flog the proverbal. The upwing population is not prolific on the Alyn and much of the summer daytime surface activity appear to be from terrestrials, but there is an abundance of small shrimp. So lets give it to them on occassion.
Btw, in the short stretch of river covered I've never ducked under so many Kingfishers before. I'm assuming most are this seasons young and are usually un disturbed. Once you cover the first 50yrds upstream, access to the coarse fishers becomes a little trickier so I doubt much of the river here has been fished this year.

Grayling Grayling everywhere...

Three sessions over two weekends at Ithells proved very productive. The Grayling are spread right along this stretch presently and fish can be caught in all areas. Dries are accounting for most fish, and they appear to take absolutely anything provided presentation is good. I suspect that most fish have been very opportunistic, as I have have seen many terrestrials on the water taken freely. This even included bees falling from the balsam.
The most enjoyable sections have been where pods of 6 or more Grayling have been seen spotted over the shallow gravel runs, typically directly under the bridge and on the short run between the two big bends. Here there is a reluctance to take the dry, but small ptn's and grhe's have given good sport. It's fasinating to watch the reaction of the fish as the nymph's pass through the pods. Unless you induce some movement at the crucial point, the fish reamin on station so a dead drifted nymph has to pass within an inch or two to be taken. Whereas an unweighted nymph lifted just before it reaches a fish causes the fish to turn and chase. The dead drifted takes are very, very subtle. A funny moment was in bumping a good Grayling, then watching the fish zoom upstream flanking and rubbing its sore lips in the gravel.
Interestingly, all Grayling seem to be of either 15cm or 30cm, very little of any other size. I'd like to know the thoughts of the Grayling experts about whether this is typically of fish of certain ages. IE 3yr olds are generally this and 4 yr old are generally that. If you have an answer, then please comment.

You have to walk downstream to reach this point. Take breather for 5 whilst it settles...but worth it

Sunday 25th and I trapped my biggest brown from this part of the lower Alyn on the T. I flicked a duo setup into the head of the pool, where the dry landed in the main flow and the nymph landed into the back eddy (see below). As soon as the nymph hit the water, the brown darted out from the bank took and leaped in one movement, obviously feeling the resistance of the tight line post cast. Several leaps later and a drag through the fast water, and I reckon 11/2 lbs of Brownie were netted. I fumbled for my camera from my top pocket but lifting the fish from the net it kicked and I dropped it [the fish]. Gone...The smooth tender flesh of a Brown is a lot more slippery than a Grayling:(

Back eddy under the far bank

It is possible the brown was taking damsel nymphs from the grass, as there were a lot freshly emerged around this pool.

Working the water around the farm and you should have a target of at least 20 fish at a ratio of 10:1 Grayling...

Saturday 10th July - Going French at Shocklach

Quick drive to the Dee at Shocklach on Saturday morning, found a shorter route via the A41 and Tilston, and a quick session trying out some Hends French Nymphing leaders. The Dee here is nice and open, so no potential overhead line traps and there are many deep runs that I thought may be accessable using these leaders.
I opted for a 4m leader onto which I tied on a 6" length of pink Floro carbon, cut from one of my Tenkara leaders, as an indicator with a couple of weighted CZN's below. Casting this setup needed a bit of aggression initially. A slight downstream wind, coupled with the fact that the two CZN's were providing the initial weight mean't several casts were required to enable the cast to reach my chosen line. Once in the rhythm however, the cast could be easily transferred upsteam from the dangle by striking bankwards, then 'switch' casting upstream. I was by no means classic 'french nymphing', but trying to utilise a setup where I could get that bit further across without compromising too much. It seemed a good idea for reaching some deeper water, but the fish had other ideas. All I could muster were a handful of salmon parr and two 15cm Grayling.
Forever one to take positives from a session, it felt quite a good variation on a technique. None of the fish were fluked, all detected via the indicator stopping etc. (Assuming all takes registered ;)) Room for further trials me thinks.
Also saw two Salmon moving in separate areas which seemed to co-incide with the tides covering the weir in Chester.

Redressing the balance...

Popped along to Llay Road Bridge for a couple of late evening hours. The 'in hand' ratio was finally redressed at Pete 6 Alyn 1.

I left the T in the car and took the 4 weight initially armed with a #20 black duster. Little was moving and I never had a show until a small brown surrendered itself to a small CDC and Elk from the pool immediately below the huge log straddling the river. Moving on to the two bridges the same pattern accounted for two more fish, one of 6" and one of 8", that moved from under the far bank brambles and one bumped fish.

The session was finished in a narrow pool slightly further upstream. As I approached this pool there were regular rises from several fish. These were the most regualr rises I'd seen and maybe appearred to co-incide with the spinner activity around an adjacent Willow and what looked to be some small emerging olives. Still using the CDC and E, two 6" browns quickly obliged at the tail of the pool, the last fish gorging the fly. I changed fly here for a #16 pale olive dun type pattern, there were definitely some small olivey thingies emerging, and also to be able to see it in the dimming light and to give some extra buoyancy as continual little roll casts here were saturating the smaller flies. Second cast at the head of the pool and a lively 6 incher gave its approval. I then snagged up on a small Willow branch, thus losing fly and tippet and whilst tying a new one on a fish could be seen sipping in the slightly slacker water across. There is a nice selection of small Rusty Spinner patterns presently adorning the box (post Derbyshire) so what the heck. With the spinner pattern on I rolled up and acroos the pool head into the slack water, no idea where the fly was landing. After maybe four or five rolls I struck at a slightly larger sip, and contact. I was expecting some sort of explosion, but I was graced with another, although beautiful, 8" trout.

This was a lovely evening session. My casting felt good, I managed to raise a couple of fish whilst searching and finally applying some basic logic on immitation selection based on observations of rise forms and insect life. It was nice to concentrate on the dry, as my last few Alyn sessions have been factored around just getting a result rather that enjoying. All six fish were 6-8", no Parr, no Grayling and all in fine condition (don't know whether this stretch has been stacked this year). Suitably satisfied...

The curse continues...

A full social diary this weekend forced me into visiting Worm's Wood for a couple of early hours on Saturday. It's about 4 weeks since my last visit here, and although low then, the river is even lower now. The canopy has thickened and in places this is a sinister dark looking place. I scratched my head, looked up river decided on an initial approach of a small (#18) beaded ptn and a droppered spider on the T.
The first few pools adjacent to the horsefield and into the wood yielded nothing. It was only upon flicking the wets upstream where the river narrows through the bedrock that I saw a brief twitch of the leader and a fish was on. A couple of small thumps initially, then as I lifted, the fish just zoomed upstream rapidly, pulling the T down low, then slack...again!!!!!!!! It was over in an instant and I've no idea what it was.
Inspection of the hook (it was still there) revealed nothing, no straightening, no covering of the point. Cursed again.
A few more drifts yielded nothing, so I thrashed my way through the balsam and emerged above the bend upstream. There is a small damming  around the bend caused by a long 6" log bridging the river. The river has backed up nicely here and  necks into the resulting pool. This area has encountered for a few good fish this season. Any way I worked the pool upstream, and upon reaching the neck, the leader stopped and a good fish was on, a good brown. I let it drop downstream, and brought the fish up. I was just contemplating whether to keep this one and call it a day and whilst reaching for my net the fish made a last lunge downstream where the leader caught around a semi submerged log. I quickly grabbed the leader, worked my hand down to where it was snagged, then hand hauled the fish from beneath. It kicked quickly then shed the hook...NOOOOOO! This was a good Alyn Brown, not sewage works standard, but a good Alyn Brown of maybe 35cms which took the small Partridge spider.


The pool and offending timber


Disconsolantly I worked upstream, no more shows till I reached the large dam and worked the riffley run coming from it with a grey Klink. Two small browns were caught in successive casts, but this couple of hours felt like a blank.
I'm trying to boost my self confidence by telling myself that at least I'm connecting with good fish in hard conditions, but I need one in the net. When you lose a few fish, sometimes you can be a bit over tentative when playing the next one and I was possible guilty of this today. Hoping to squeeze in an evening session mid week.

Peacock Hotel

England 1 Germany 4
Pete 1 Derbyshire Wye 5

The hottest day of the year took us to the Peacock Hotel waters of the Derbyshire Wye. Once again courtesy of Steve James' excellent organisation and Phil White's guiding.

'The Nesh' Daley with long sleeves and collar up on the hottest day of the year. To be fair, protection from the ravenous Horseflies...

Rendevous at the Hadden Farm carpark at around 11.00am, Phil quickly gave a reality check by informing us that fishing would be hard, and not to be disappointed if we didn't connect with anything before evening. Whilst taking a leisurely group bank walk, it quickly became apparrent how unspoilt this fishery was. The banks were un-manicured (nettles waist deep in most areas), and evidence of previous angling sorties were minimal. Many small Rainbows were rising, so perhaps there may be some midday sport.

Early Afternoon Surprises

 

Setting up. Several nettle stings later, the shirt sleeves were down

Anyway, Steve Daley and myself settled on a small island just above the Hadden Estate's private beat. Steve quickly set up and tempted some small Grayling from the pool opposite him. My downstream end of the island was a riffly Ranunculus run, which I just hoped may hold a brown or two. Alas, if it did I didn't tempt anything. I left the island and moved upstream, keeping low behind the chest deep nettles (which isn't exactly hard). Stopping next to a small Alder I had a nice view of a couple of small pools up to a large bend. A couple of small Rainbows were holding mid river infront of me, and a metronomic rise from something bigger beneath another small near bank Alder may just keep me occupied. I tied on a #20 CDC and Elk, and flicked mid river towards the small Bows. Second cast and one moved, but I missed it. After a couple of more casts the fish had dropped downstream. I now moved up to try and get a stealthy position with which to reach the rising fish. Shuffling through the nettles and poking the rod out over the river I watched the fish rise. It was a good rainbow, although it did appear to be taking ascending nymphs or emergers. After studying for a couple of minutes I tried rolling a couple of casts under the Alder, but initial efforts were too short thus putting the fish down. Phil appearred behind me, so I explained how I had just put a fish down and was waiting to see if it re-appearred. When it finally did, I covered, but no interest. Covered again, but on this cast the fly had lost its buoyancy and sank to just below the surface. This triggered the fish and it took the 'wet'. A pound and half of Rainbow leaped once, leaped a second time, Phil fumbled for his camera, then !*%*. It was gone. Justice I suppose after it grabbed the rule breaking 'wet'

Pete 0 Wye 1

Most of the party had connected with a few small fish each in the early afternoon heat with varying attractions from small F Flies to relatively large caddis immitations. Our host was delighted with our returns. Beyond expectation given the conditions and recent days experience.

Lunch break co-incided with the England game. Our host called home, and told Mary to expect four guests. Our thanks to Phil and Mary for their hospitality in allowing us to watch the debacle that followed.

Preparing for the Spinner fall

Waiting for the sun to set...

We were back on the river at 6.00pm. Ian and Eddie had stayed on and wisely forfeited the football. They had had a few fish.

I thought a left bank venture upstream of the bridge would be fun and immediately settled opposite a small pool where I had seen a good fish rising from the bridge. Ian may have tried this earlier, as the nettles were recently trampled. Never the less, a few flicks of the CDC and Elk accress and a small rainbow grabbed just before I anticipated drag would set in. Stripped line in quickly so I could lift it over the foliage just as Phil was walking from the car. He looked over and feeling smug at the point of lift, self release...

Pete 0 Wye 2

No worries, the good fish was still rising in the slightly slacker water on the far bank. I cast to it, but limited to directly accross by the jungle like foliage the faster mid stream current set drag in instantly. Another 3' of was added to the leader in the hope of enough collapse to enable a few feet of drag free. Presentation looked good, but no interest. I tied on a #20 Bangor Duster (like grey duster but with Mole hair body). Again no interest. OK, maybe emergers. So, on went one of Phil's barely legal patterns, his CDC loopwing Almost Dun in a #20. Phil now appearred on the bridge and watched. Pressure on, good cast needed, rolled out to initially aerialise, then one overhead flick, PERFECT. The bow took immediately, I tightened, the fish shot downstream then....off. Unbelievable! Self inflicted baffoonery in that my knot must have been c***. The tell tale curly end of tippet. Is this me or some sort of Phil voodoo? He has been present for all misfortune so far!

Pete 0 Wye 3 (self imploding)

I wandered forlornly upstream. The undergrowth getting thicker on this bank. I just cast the loopwing (a well connected one) speculatively at rises. The low facing sun was making rise distinction tricky.

I reached the outside of a small bend, where a back cast could just be achieved and flicked across, where a small Brown took the Bangor Duster (this was back on now). Once again, on attempting to lift the fish over the high bankside foliage, it dropped off...

Pete 0 Wye 4 (Can I claim this one over the line to reduce the deficit?)

I wandered back downstream, stopped at the pool above above the bridge again to see if my hook impregnated fish was there. It was, so I attempted to cover. The cast dropped short, so I fished it out anyway. On setting myself for a roll, a dumb small Brown launched itself at the fly. This was on and swung to hand

Pete 1 Wye 4 (Consolation)

As the sun was dropping I moved to the bend below the bridge. The water was running into the pool on the bend after the faster water under the bridge.Text book BWO spinner interception. I dropped to a point where I could watch this pool for activity whilst fishing a point where fish were rising under some low hanging branches. These rising fish drove me mad. I spent the next 40mins or so throwing allsorts at them with different leader combinations. Phil even gave me a couple of ties to try.

I spent too long pre-occupied here as whilst still keeping one eye on the pool above, John snook into it. Then in what appearred to be his second cast he hit into a good brownie. Come on, when a man is down...

John moved to the bottom of the faster water coming through the bridge, so after spotting a good fish rising at the bottom of the pool. I moved up.

"John. D'you mind if I sneak in and cover this one here?"

Rusty spinner tied on and after two covers it bit. "Hey John! At last".

Held the rod low as the fish moved midstream from under the Alder downstream of me then...slack line. I was punch drunk now, numb.

Pete 1 Wye 5

Made England's result look like they put up a fight.

Phil laughed, "The fish will be in prime condition if we all used those rubber hooks of yours"

You know what though? This was a cracking day. Against the tricky conditions we all connected to a few fish. This fishery is a real challenge with the true dry fly rule and no wading. The bankside vegetation and fishy lies are no different to my native Alyn, however on the Alyn careful wading gets you in position. The food rich clear waters of the Wye force presentation and general immitation to be exact. The amount of refusals where fish move up to snigger at your offerings substatiate this.

Special thanks to Steve James for another fabulously organised trip and to Phil White for his subtle guidance. A great thanks also to Mary White for her hospitality to a bunch of grubby anglers in fishing combats to accomodate their football optimism.