Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Trout & Salmon

BOB COLLINS IS the bloke who last October broke the brown trout record at Pitsford Water. His 15lb 8oz fish took a Dunkeld, a fly that will cause reservoir newcomers to scratch their heads, but will give the old school a welcome feeling of déjà vu. Catching record Pitsford brownies runs in the Collins family. Bob’s brother John held the record in 1976 with a 6lb 11oz fish, caught on a size 12 grey nymph. Bob avoids the limelight whenever possible, but after a little reassurance and a few sleepless nights spent worrying he’d blank, he agreed to join me for a morning’s fishing. “Let’s meet at the gate at 6.15am, no later…” he said. Yes, Bob’s an early starter - up with the coots and back at the lodge…

“It rolled in front of me, revealing a depth of flank I’d never witnessed on any fish before” “IF YOU WANT a monster head North, if you want numbers head to the Chalk”. Up until 2015 this was my mantra. Catchments in my native Northwest, such as the Calder, Tame and Ribble, have always been home to leviathans, but the chances to fish them (for one living down South) are rare. To find a monster you need dedicated watching and exploring time. A few years ago, Paul Procter wrote about getting the best out of your fishing by focusing on your home water exclusively. With this message ringing in my ears I set to the task of extracting a big fish from the Itchen catchment. For the last 17 seasons…

THE SUMMER BEFORE last, the boy and I enjoyed fantastic fishing in the mountains of the Peloponnese where, among stunning scenery, we caught wild brown trout to about 7lb on big foam Hopper patterns. As the contemporary saying goes, “What’s not to like?” When last summer the boy asked if I fancied another crack I didn’t have to scratch my head for too long. Greece can be a tad on the warm side in July and the mercury was hovering around the 35 deg C mark as we headed into the hills. Surely it was madness to contemplate trout fishing in such oven-like conditions – but similar negative thoughts had assailed me the previous year and they had proved unjustified. Richard had been in touch with our guide, Mihalis, who…

Tom wins Malloch Trophy The 2017 winner of the Malloch Trophy is Tom Bonniwell, who caught a 47in salmon in the River Awe, Argyll on September 2. The cock fish weighed an estimated 40lb-plus. It took a 1cm micro-cone Snaelda tube-fly on a size 16 treble hook. The Malloch Trophy is awarded to the captor of one of the biggest salmon caught by an angler on a fly and safely returned during the year in Scottish waters. Tom, a guide for Fishinguide Scotland, said, “I had been fishing to remove escaped rainbow trout from the lower reaches of the Awe. Late in the afternoon I wanted to show my visiting friend from Zambia, Brett Saunders, a salmon, so we moved to the Huntington syndicate beat at the head of the…

Q I’VE READ that a successful salmon fisher will be in control of the swing of the line and fly, at all times. I think it was John Ashley-Cooper who wrote that achieving this control was one of the most important things in salmon fishing. However, most books describing line control refer to up- and down-stream “mends” with a floating double-taper line. This doesn’t work with shooting heads and thin running lines. Gareth Thomas, via email A: AS YOU say, the Major insisted that it was vital to control the fly. However, he was not a fan of mending the line in the style of Arthur Wood. Quite the opposite, in fact. Let’s imagine that you are casting at 45 degrees to the current. You make your forward cast,…

IT’S BEEN A good while since I slipped you a Crippler, as it were. Nearly three years, in fact (Claret Crippler, T&S February 2015). The good news is that they’re still working well, taking browns and rainbows with equal success up and down the country. I’ve continued to add to the Crippler range and, as with the original series (Crippler Classics, T&S April 2011) based the more recent designs on classic stillwater wet-flies. The basic idea behind the Crippler was to elicit as much movement as possible from the fly without the inclusion of plumes of marabou or long strips of fur, by sticking to the simple format of seal fur or tinsel body, palmered with hackle. Golden pheasant body feather (springy) and hen hackle (soft and mobile) were chosen…

WYCHWOOD’S high-performance waterproof and breathable clothing will keep you warm and dry on the water. Designed by experienced anglers and using water-resistant YKK zips, these are practical fishing garments that punch above their weight. WYCHWOOD WADING JACKET NOW £69.99 WAS £199.99 Designed with a high cut for deep wading and a clever cuff construction to keep out water. Three-layer fabric and sealed seams. Features include: adjustable hood, internal security pocket, a high collar, large chest pockets and an adjustable hem. Sizes: M (LD13523), L (LD13524), XL (LD13525 and XXL (LD13526). WYCHWOOD BOAT JACKET NOW £59.99 WAS £179.99 With a longer cut for the stillwater boat or bank angler and the same features as the wading jacket. Two-layer fabric and sealed seams. Features: adjustable neoprene cuffs, large chest pockets, an adjustable…

IF YOU LOOK online, you will find tying instructions for many different Hopper patterns, some fairly simple and others fiendishly complex. I have a tendency to pick and mix so have come up with an easy-to-tie pattern that looks the part and has passed all its exams. Even Mihalis, who is notoriously parsimonious with his compliments, pronounced my “beeg Hopper” top of the class. All you will need are 2mm sheets of close-cell foam in whatever colours take your fancy, polypropylene yarn, super-glue and rubber legs. For the Greek rivers, our Hoppers were tied on long-shanked size 8 and 6 hooks but for this country I have scaled them down a bit and often tie them on standard length 8s and 10s as I don’t want to frighten the fish…

It is an opportune time to look at what the New Year holds for fisheries interests, because there are some significant issues coming up, perhaps more so than in any recent year. Following our petition to the Scottish Government and our video on the demise of the sea-trout fishery in Loch Maree, there will be a Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into salmon farming and its impact on wild salmonids. This Inquiry is the best chance we have ever had of influencing tighter regulation of the salmon-farming industry, and the primary objective is to force the Scottish Government to accept legal responsibility for protecting wild fish from salmon-farming disease and parasites – at present, Government only has to concern itself with the welfare of fish in the cages. S&TC is compiling a…

GENETIC VARIATIONS Grayling are believed to have reached Britain before we separated from continental Europe after the last glacial retreat. There is debate about how many rivers then had populations. The Derbyshire Derwent, Wye, Dove and Hampshire Avon certainly, Yorkshire rivers including the Wharfe, Nidd, Ure and Aire, plus possibly the Welsh Dee and Irfon. A Grayling Society study of grayling in the British Isles has found four genetic groups: native Welsh populations and the Annan in Scotland, suggesting grayling may have been introduced to the Annan from a Welsh population; a group containing mostly Northern England populations; a group containing only Southern England populations; and all the remaining populations in the UK. This latter group includes the grayling of the Tweed and the Clyde, the Frome in Dorset and…

EARLY IN THE season, I seem to put my faith in only half-a-dozen tried-and-tested dressings. The proof was there in the opening weeks of 2017 when I glanced at my fly-patch and saw only seven different flies – they included a ruddy gert double-bead bug that had been fished in desperation during a raging flood when any normal soul would have called it quits and gone home. If you’re not convinced, think about the species that might be on the wing during the first few weeks. Top of the list will be large dark olives, followed closely by March browns, where they occur. Small, dark midges can be important, too, especially if the upwings misfire for whatever reason. As far as emerging flies are concerned, that’s about it. However, while…

I REALISED A few weeks ago that it has been ten years since the Parky first hit the headlines. I can hardly believe where the time has gone, but I am pleased it has become an established favourite. As I have often mentioned in this column, many patterns are created without deep thought - rather they are the result of having fun at the vice and trying new things, which in my case was usually to impress my dad. Looking back, it’s tempting to ascribe the Parky’s success to my foresight but in truth I got lucky when I discovered Arctic runner. I think its mobility makes a big difference to the fly. The challenge was to use a soft hair in a Scottish-style long-tailed fly without it wrapping around…

A HIGHLAND HOT-SPOT FOR SERIOUS LOCH-FISHERS Loch Eye, set in rolling farmland near Fearn and Tain between the Cromarty and Dornoch firths in Wester Ross, has a reputation as one of the best wild brown trout fisheries in the Highlands. Extending to 390 acres it is relatively shallow and nutrient rich and best fished between early May and mid-July. On its banks is Locheye House, which dates from the mid-16th century and was considerably extended in the 1900s to provide four reception rooms and seven bedrooms. Grounds of 8.75 acres include two-bedroom Locheye Cottage, a tennis court, boathouse and jetty, as well as fishing rights. £950,000+ Goldsmith & Co (Estates) Ltd, 0131 476 6500 HISTORIC HOME There has been a watermill on the site since 1200, although the current Sparket…

England & Wales BORDER ESK THE 2017 season produced the best sport in late spring and early summer, but the back-end was once again poor, with fish on the move and seldom settled. Coloured fish predominated in most pools, with only the odd clean fish seen. The River Lyne, the lowest Esk tributary, offers some pleasant trout fishing and holds some good fish. The new trout season starts on March 15, and suggested flies include Greenwell Spider, March Brown, Black Spider, Goldhead Gold-ribbed Hare’s Ear, Pheasant-tail nymph, Waterhen Bloa, Partridge and Orange and Snipe and Purple. – BORDER ROD. BRISTOL WATERS WELL, 2017 is one season on Chew to which I am glad to say goodbye. It began with the cold first three months, (even into June I was wearing…

I’VE HAD ONE of those wosnames - that thing where you come across something for the first time in your life - a name or a place - and then it keeps turning up like the hand of fate beckoning. You can’t fight that sort of thing. Best just to give in and see where it leads. All too often, these days, it’s an ailment. Someone dies of something dire I’ve never heard of and then I learn the bloke down the road’s got it and soon, stap me, everyone seems to be going down with it. And then it’s just one more thing I’ve got to worry about. But happily, on this occasion, it was a pub. We’d been fishing on the River East Allen and on the drive…

IF YOUR IMAGE of a fisheries biologist includes a white coat, a scalpel and some complicated equations, it’s time to think again. Much of the critical work undertaken by scientists helping our threatened trout and salmon stocks takes place at the wet and boggy end of conservation. While many anglers moan from their armchairs about declining fish numbers, the pictures on these pages reveal the complexity and scale of the practical hands-on projects undertaken by organisations such as the Galloway Fisheries Trust (GFT). GFT is one of more than 40 rivers trusts in the UK and Ireland and that number is growing. They are charities and although their responsibilities vary, one of their prime concerns is the joined-up catchment-based management of rivers (but including lakes and wetlands) from source to…

“Snow drifts towered above the walkways leading to warm cabins, and the river churned brimful and angry” I COULD SCARCELY believe my luck when invited to stand in for a friend who was unable to take up his end-of-May week on Russia’s Kola Peninsula last year. Although I have fished the four Northern Rivers that flow into the Barents Sea, this was a first opportunity to sample the mighty Varzuga, which meets the White Sea some 300 miles due south of Murmansk soon after being joined by the smaller River Kitza. Roxtons’ Varzuga blog at the beginning of May should have whet the appetite for a week of sunny and prolific sport, but the images of icebound rivers and great drifts of snow bore testament to the coldest Kola spring…

“A show called Salmon Swimming Upstream ran for 18 hours and afterwards the head of the station said he thought it was too short” YOU MAY NOT know, and if you do, you may care even less, but June 23 is World Fishing Day. Suspicious? Underwhelmed? Of course you are. The idea of a single day every year dedicated solely to fishing is preposterous. It should be every day. If you think there is a whiff of commercialism and public relations about this day, then you’d be on to something. This dedicated fishing day is something dreamed up by a TV company called Fishing TV. “The idea is to have a whole day live streaming fishing from all over the world,” said George Browne, who handles marketing at Fishing TV.…

MANY, MANY YEARS ago when I began tying multi-hackle patterns - such as Kingsmill-Moore’s Bumbles - I had a recurring problem. Incorporating two or three components at the head of a fly frequently meant I either ran out of room or left too much space, both of which compromised the look of the finished fly. It occurred to me that the location of the components was critical, so I devised a foolproof method that eliminated my tying problems. As an initial procedure, I simply located the components in the precise location behind the hook eye in the reverse order in which they would be incorporated, and then built the fly up to them. Difficult to visualise, but the attached pictures will explain all. The results were very satisfying. Proportion is…

THE MAIN PURPOSE of a shooting line is to help you to cast farther, which it achieves because it has a thin diameter and creates less friction against rod rings on the outbound cast. The main types of line are monofilament nylon (mono) and plastic-coated braid or mono. Shooting lines connect, by loops, to the backing and the head. Fly-fishers have been using mono as a shooting line for decades, ever since the first heads were handmade from cut-back double-tapered fly-lines for salmon and trout fishing. Mono’s extra-thin diameter and super-slick coating makes it highly effective when long casts are needed because the line flies through the rod rings with minimal effort. You can use monos between 25lb-50lb breaking strain for salmon fishing. I prefer something around 45lb with heads…

Q ARE GRAYLING GOOD to eat? I take the occasional trout for the table but, so far, have never felt inclined to bring a grayling home. Nathan Fitzpatrick, via email A: IT’S MANY YEARS since I ate grayling. I remember messy scales, bones, white flesh and an earthy taste - certainly never to be repeated. Yet I know some anglers who prefer them to trout. At a time when there seemed to be far more grayling in my river than trout, I was only too happy to fulfil a friend’s request for a couple of grayling to cook. His wife was a good chef, and having tasted most fish, they were keen to try grayling. A few weeks later I met him in the street and asked if he would…

BORN IN Hillingdon, Ian Hockley was a fisherman pretty much all his life, starting out on the nearby rivers and canals and progressing to winning the Player’s No 10 match prize in the ’60s. His great love was river fishing, and in the clear waters of the chalkstreams, he developed a love of sight-fishing. First it was chub and barbel and later fly-fishing for trout and grayling before venturing farther afield for salmon, sea-trout and eventually overseas for bonefish, permit and tarpon. Ian retired from the haulage business he ran with his brother, Graham, and decided to do something involved with fishing. He was one of the first people to qualify as a STANIC instructor, the old organisation administered by the Salmon & Trout Association, and began to teach people…

“You fish better if you are fit. You can fish longer when you are fit. You can get your waders on…” HERE IN THE heart of winter it is hard to remember, perhaps, the exquisite joy of the dry-fly. The balmy days on loch and bank. Rosé wine and a Munro Killer. “Aye,” as the Great Red Bearded Gillie says, as he sucks his pipe and grinds his teeth, “them were the days!” And those days will come again, if we’re spared. But in the meantime we must, as is traditional at this time of year, plan to make the most of our opportunities and that can only mean one thing: the New Year’s Resolutions. I know we have discussed this sort of thing before; and I recognise that not…