Innholdsfortegnelse for Autumn 2017 i Trout & Salmon

“If you catch a brown trout of 4 lb at Rutland it won’t attract a comment, while fish up to and over 6 lb are being caught most weeks” EIGHT DAYS’ FISHING without so much as a pull. That was my salmon season until a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t mind, but I fished good beats this spring: on the Tay (twice), Tweed (a beat I fish every year) and Eden (okay, it was early March). I had begun to doubt myself - as you do. There was little sign of fish and with everything but the kitchen sink having been thrown into the seemingly empty rivers I had started to despair. Conditions were not great on the Tay, it was high and blowing a gale the first time, but…

Wispy Nymph Hook Size 14-16 Partridge L5A Dry-fly Supreme Thread Primrose 14/0 sheer Rib Damsel-green Semperfli 0.1 mm wire Tail Hare’s mask guard hairs Body and thorax Hare’s mask or grey squirrel dubbing Thorax cover Pearl Semperfli Glint Nymph (several strands) If there’s a secret to tying this fly, it is to dress it sparingly. Any guard hairs along the body can be trimmed or plucked out to maintain the skinny profile. Six or seven strands of Glint Nymph are married when forming the thorax cover. Shrimp Hook Size 12-14 Partridge K4AY Grub/buzzer Thread Pale orange 8/0 nano Weight Lead wire Rib 3 lb monofilament Shellback Pale grey Thinskin Body and legs Wapsi Life Cycle dubbing No. 42 ginger For a more pronounced “hump”, lead wire is best built up…

More than 60 fishing tackle-makers, shops and travel companies, plus Trout & Salmon , will be attending the new European Sport Fishing Show in Bristol on October 28-29. Organiser Toby Merigan, owner of Funky Fly-tying, said: “I think it’s time we had a great, smarter show in the UK. Other events are not family friendly, offer poor food and are held at cold venues. The European show will take place at the modern UWE Exhibition Centre, close to lots of good hotels. It has a restaurant, café and coffee shop. There’s free parking and it’s close to Bristol airport and the railway station. London, Birmingham, Swansea and Exeter are all within two hours’ drive.” Exhibitors include: Loop, Guideline, Fulling Mill, Guide Fly Fishing (Sage, Vision, C&F, Redington, Fishpond), MacKenzie, Partridge,…

A Dee gillie is pictured, below, using a throwline during rescue training at Potarch Bridge. Two evening safety courses were organised by the Dee Fishery Board for the Dee Ghillies Association and Dee Salmon Fishery Improvement Association. The training follows an incident earlier this year when prompt action taken by Kevin Fleming, gillie at Altries and Middle Drum, saved an angler’s life. River director, Mark Bilsby, said: “We hope the guys will never have to put their new skills into practice but they now have a good understanding of how to achieve a rescue without jeopardising their own safety.”…

The Angling Trust’s Voluntary Bailiff Service (VBS) has recruited 150 more anglers following induction days held in six regions over the past three months. Some 474 anglers have now joined the service, which operates in England. The bailiffs act as the “eyes and ears” on rivers and lakes, reporting incidents, deterring offenders and providing crucial information to the Environment Agency and police. The VBS is funded from rod licence money and began as a pilot project in the South East in 2012 following a formal partnership between the Environment Agency and the Angling Trust. It was rolled out across the country 12 months ago and now has 115 volunteers in the South East, 58 in the South West, 51 in the North West, 80 in the North East, 90 in…

It is with immense sadness that we write to inform all those in the salmon-fishing fraternity who knew Frank Holt that he passed away peacefully after a brief illness on July 25, 2017. Frank was a keen countryman who settled in the Scottish Borders in 1983 with his family and lived at Woodslee House, Canonbie, overlooking the banks of the Border Esk and the Netherby estate. As a schoolboy Frank emigrated to what was then Rhodesia where his love for the outdoors flourished, as did his fondness for traditional values. He was to become lead chorister of Salisbury Cathedral (now Harare). When the family returned to England in the 1950s, Frank finished school to join his father George’s construction business in support of the family. Thereafter, he returned to night…

THE GREAT enemy of monofilament lines is friction. Excess friction and high temperatures occur when you attempt to tie an un-lubricated knot. This damages the knot, prevents it from tightening fully and leaves it vulnerable to failure owing to slippage under load. Lubricants can be as simple as water or saliva, always available unless you get dry-mouthed from the adrenaline rush caused by spotting a trophy fish. Some anglers use Gehrke’s Knot Perfect, Gink, line dressing, Vaseline or lip salve. Using these paste lubricants with knots tied in large-diameter materials definitely results in smaller, tighter knots; I use Knot Perfect on the large leader knots and loops that I tie at home. At the waterside, I use saliva because it is quick, easy and effective. Thoroughly lubricate the hook eye…

“Jim ties flies for particular rivers, beats and even pools” THE GLEN MUICK Sheep was created by Jim Coates, who says it is simply a riff on a well-worn theme. Most classic Scottish hairwings are made in the same way although there are creative flourishes here and there - some are dressed with a longer wing, such as the Munro, or with a flat wing and hackle of equal length, such as the Crathie. Given the similarities, why choose a Hairy Mary over a Stoat, or an Executioner over a Silver Stoat? The answer is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and as we peer hopefully into our fly-boxes, it is the little things that count. Like many good anglers, Jim ties flies for particular rivers, beats…

“Fish are opportunistic, usually hungry and usually willing” HOGS ARE FIENDISHLY simple things, as indeed are most of the truly great fish-catchers. Take a look at some of the big guns - Griffith’s Gnat, Hare’s Ear, Loch Ordie, Shipman’s Buzzer, Cormorant, Deer Hair Emerger, and of course, the Hog - the common thread, if you’ll pardon the pun, is the way in which two, three at the most, natural, drab materials combine somewhat paradoxically to create something truly unique in appearance, not to mention devastatingly effective. Yes, I’m swinging that old “less is more” hammer again, for which I make no apology. I’ve never been a fan of the alternative, which is to throw the kitchen sink at a hook, looking for “triggers” as if trying to force the fish…

“The Ageing Progenitor demanded more gin and the nephews regaled me with reports of their recent outing on the Tay” NOW I EXPECT that you are all agog to find out how the casting went. Will he continue his unbroken run of championship performances by fair means or foul? Will the plucky amateur be eclipsed finally by brutal professionalism? Or is there justice in a cruel world? Or are you perhaps wondering what he is on about this time? Well, it is the bi-annual casting competition at our local game fair and I am - against all known form and most of the odds - defending a string of wins that stretches back into the mists of time. As the family gathered for supper the night before the show there…

The catastrophic fall in salmon running the Awe and Lochy in the South-west Highlands this year is the result of the Scottish Government failing to regulate the fish-farming industry, claims Salmon & Trout Conservation (S&TC) Scotland. In 2016, only 807 fish passed through the Awe counter, only slightly above the all-time lowest count. This year it’s forecast the total will struggle to reach 400. On the Lochy, by the end of July only 33 fish had been caught, just 27 per cent of the five-year average for the period. Andrew Graham-Stewart, director of S&TC Scotland, said: “Since the arrival of intensive salmon farming, numbers of mature West Highland sea-trout have crashed. The decline in wild salmon numbers has not thus far been as extreme but it now appears that in…

Early results from a groundbreaking study of the health of river flies in Wales has provided vital evidence that agriculture may be a source of pollution. Salmon & Trout Conservation (S&TC)’s Riverfly Census assesses the health of rivers by monitoring the strength and diversity of freshwater bugs, which have unique tolerances to specific types of pollution. The presence or absence of a species provides an excellent indicator of the underlying ecological condition of rivers and accurately pin-points potential pollution sources. The Census was extended from England to three Welsh rivers last autumn – the Clwyd, Usk and Eastern Cleddau. Richard Garner Williams, S&TC’s National Officer for Wales, said: “The results from the 2016 autumn sampling have formed a baseline for measuring the condition of these rivers in subsequent years. Early…

“We encourage everyone to donate to help create a long-term funding guarantee for the buy-outs” THE SADLY PREMATURE passing of Orri Vigfússon has left an unfillable void - everyone agrees that he is irreplaceable - and therefore it is important to reassure readers, supporters, volunteers and above all donors by explaining what is happening to the North Atlantic Salmon Fund and the all-important net buy-outs that were negotiated by Orri and his team. NASF is very much still alive and working to solidify Orri’s legacy for the long term by putting in place the plans that he had started to form before his death. There is much work going on between the various constituent parts of NASF, which I can summarise as follows: There is no direct replacement for Orri…

Q READING FISHING books written between the wars, typical tackle for warmer water conditions seemed to be quite different. Is it us or the salmon who have changed? Anthony Grey, via e-mail A. ONE OF the advantages of having started fishing at such an early age, was that it allowed me to learn from a generation whose fishing memories went far back in time. And many were adamant that they’d seen the salmon’s behaviour alter quite drastically. The late Reg Righyni told me that the biggest change occurred in the late 1960s. Was the start of the devastating Greenland fishery - and the outbreak of Ulcerative Dermal Necrosis (UDN) in our rivers - simply a coincidence? Perhaps, or perhaps not, but some of the changes have been ongoing, so we…

Throughout June, July and August, several hundred pink salmon have been caught along the east coast of Britain and west coast of Ireland. Anglers and netsmen have reported fish on the Ness, Dee, Spey, Helmsdale, Tweed, North Esk, Tyne, Coquet, Moy and Hampshire Avon. Rumours of their origin (including fish farms or migration from the Pacific) have been rife but the scientific community are confident the fish have strayed from rivers in northern Norway or Russia. Millions of pinks (also known as humpback salmon) were stocked in the White Sea region of northern Russia from the 1950s until 2003 to develop a net fishery. The fish have a fixed two-year life cycle, spawning in odd or even years and never mixing. In the mid-1980s, a new broodstock from eastern Russia…

The opportunity to meet, eat and fish with the voice of cricket, Henry Blofeld, is one of the major lots up for grabs at Salmon & Trout Conservation’s Live Auction to be held at Fishmonger’s Hall on October 12. Supporting the London event is a separate Online Auction that begins on September 18 at www.salmon-trout.org It will run for six weeks. More than 100 items are for sale, including fishing days with Tom Fort, Paul Procter, Charles Jardine and T&S editor Andrew Flitcroft. The winning bid with Henry “Blowers” Blofeld (apparently he loves an audience) includes fishing for ten on the exceptional East Lodge beat of the River Itchen in Hampshire and includes a barbecue lunch cooked by a professional chef, to be taken during the 2018 season. The guide…

“She sees a sun-drenched beach, fringed with coconut palms, I see running water, dull cloud and endless possibilities” A TOUGH OLD spring followed by a tough old summer. It’s like that some years. There’s still some salmon fishing ahead as I’m writing with one eye on the weather forecasts, hoping that a recent deluge will sustain a run before our next trip north. I’m two weeks away from a visit to the Upper Oykel and I fear the spate will have long subsided by the time I get there. At least there should be fish in the pools and, if I fail, there’ll be fishable water on the Dee later on with luck. Then there’s a back-end day going begging on the Tyne if I want it. If I’m sounding…

The water companies in this country treat us and our environment with profound contempt, abusing our rivers to such an extent that many are running dry. The situation can only get worse if something is not done now. The problem is not caused by a lack of rain, it is because water companies extract almost all their water from rivers. It is easier and cheaper for them to do so and gives them much more profit, which is not reinvested in the water supply. Some companies have sold off their water reserves, so there is no more storage capacity now than there was in the past despite the vast increase in population and housing. There is plenty of rain falling on our land that would fill many reservoirs and refill…

“…the tell-tale curly nylon that proves your knot failed and it’s your fault” WHAT IS THE most important item of tackle? Rod, reel, fly-line, leader or fly? Well, all of these are useless if you can’t tie a good knot. The smallest component in your set-up is its weakest link. Guides spend a lot of time making sure their knots are the best they can be. They know that there is nothing worse than the client losing a great fish and seeing the tell-tale curly nylon that proves your knot failed andit’s your fault. Good knot skills make your set-up as strong as possible, a big confidence boost when you hook the fish of a lifetime. They enable you to change your fly and add tippet when needed, not just…

MY ALL-TIME favourite speycast is the snake roll. This modern cast is an effective distance and presentation cast as well as visually attractive when performed well. Sitting comfortably alongside the single spey in the momentary-contact category of speycasts, the snake roll works well in calm conditions, but excels in a downstream wind direction. In its simplest form, the snake roll is a spiral rotation cast that lifts the fly-line from the downstream position and redirects the tail of the fly-line, leader and fly towards the intended direction of the forward cast. Let’s say you’re on the right-hand bank looking down river, the right hand would be uppermost on the rod handle and your body position should be facing the direction of the intended forward delivery. When performing the snake roll,…

Q I STARTED fly-fishing three years ago and now want to tie my own flies. But I’m puzzled by the sizing of hooks. For example, a size 12 made by one brand looks bigger than a size 12 made by another. Ron Palmer, Lancaster A I UNDERSTAND your confusion. My best example of this is when a fellow club member told me he was tying his Snipe and Purple Spiders on size 20s. As I tied mine on size 14s I could not understand why he felt the need to go so small. One April day we met on the river and I noticed the Snipe and Purple tied on his top dropper. “Is that your size 20?” I asked. His answer was, “Yes” - but his fly looked bigger…

“Many modern 15-footers will cast shooting-heads as well as spey-lines” ALTHOUGH SHORTER rods (combined with shooting-heads) have become the first choice for many salmon-fishers, the classic 15-footer remains a popular option on bigger rivers. It offers several advantages. When deep wading its extra length makes forming the D-loop easier. In high winds, a 15 ft rod combined with a long-bellied line offers stability and control in the air. Then there is the simple enjoyment of casting a traditional (65 ft-plus) spey-line, which a 15 ft rod will help you to lift and deliver more easily than, say, a 13 ft tool. Many modern salmon-fishers are looking for an adaptable rod, which enables them to fish anything from a floating spey-line in summer to a skagit shooting-head with heavy tips in…

FISHING AND SHOOTING ON 3,790 ACRES The Bolfracks Estate, in a spectacular setting in Upper Strathtay in the heart of highland Perthshire, offers fishing on the Tay, a variety of shooting, the historic nine-bedroom Bolfracks House with its famous gardens, farming, a second five-bedroom main house and ten other houses and cottages. Aberfeldy is two miles and Pitlochry is 15. There is an organic livestock farm; significant forestry producing income from timber sales; extensive native woodland; income from renewable energy; planning consent for camping and caravan development and 14 log chalets; and about 3,790 acres in all. The Bolfracks shoot, run in conjunction with others, offers up to 15 days of driven pheasant and partridge a season as well as the chance of grouse; woodcock, flighting for wild duck, and…

Conwy’s middle reaches produce best sport England & Wales BORDER ESK SEA-TROUT stocks seem to be lower than last year but salmon are slightly up. The Laidlaw family have certainly done well on the Willow Pool. David Laidlaw caught salmon of 14 lb and 8 lb 8 oz and a 1 lb 8 oz sea-trout. Patrick Laidlaw landed salmon of 16 lb, 15 lb, 15 lb and two sea-trout of 2 lb 8 oz. Alex Laidlaw had a 2 lb sea-trout. Geoff Harvey caught sea-trout of 2 lb 8 oz and 1 lb 8 oz. Jim Hunter landed a salmon of 15 lb 8 oz and a sea-trout of 2 lb 8 oz. R. Nicholson had a 12 lb salmon and a cracker of 22 lb on a Black Flying…