Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i Trout & Salmon

TWENTY YEARS AGO, IT WAS THE QUEEN’S Golden Jubilee. Around the same time a group of local lads started poaching on the River Teifi in Wales. They continued their illegal activity until just two years ago, when Natural Resources Wales (NRW) enforcement officers found a gill net set on a pool near Cenarth. The officers sat in wait and when the offender returned at 5am, he escaped by jumping into the river. He was arrested later that day. With previous convictions for illegal fishing, the culprit was known to enforcement officers, and it transpired he was head of a wider gang. He had a freezer full of fish at home. A subsequent criminal investigation discovered pictures and ledgers of over 1,000 salmon and sea-trout. For foiling such a staggering operation,…

TICKETS Boat — day, £47; two anglers, £94. There are 32 motor boats. Nets and drogues not supplied. Bank — day, £28.50; concession, £26.50; junior, four fish, £13. A full-day ticket, boat or bank, includes an eight-fish limit. CONTACT Woodford Lodge, Chew Stoke, Bristol, BS40 8XH. Tel: 01275 332 339. Web: bristolwaterfisheries.com SEASON March 1-November 30 FACILITIES Woodford Lodge contains a small tackle-shop and The Woodford restaurant, where you can have breakfast, lunch, or an early supper. The Lodge is open from 8am to 4.15pm seven days a week. FISH RECORDS Fly-caught brown trout, 17lb; fly-caught rainbow trout, 14lb 6oz. The biggest-ever brown trout is 22lb 4oz, taken on a deadbait fished for pike.…

The Irish mayfly is a fickle beast. As its name suggests, it hatches in May but whether at the beginning, the middle, or the end, only the fishing gods can foretell. I usually aim to get to the Corrib at the beginning of May and stay for about three weeks, so I have a bit of latitude — but there have been years when April has been unseasonably warm and the hatches are beginning to peter out by the first week of May. In other years, after a cold spring, the damn things don’t make an appearance until the second half of the month. I think if I were forced to choose just one week, I would pick the seven days from about the 10th of May and keep my…

WHERE CATCH-AND-RELEASE relates to wild fish, migratory or otherwise, in rivers or lakes, all that matters is whether it’s a sustainable option to take anything away — and it’s hard to defeat the argument that a wild fish is too valuable to be caught just once. However, catch-and-release on smaller, stocked stillwaters is a thornier subject that attracts very strong views, especially regarding “numbers” — how many fish should be kept or released. There is also clamour from anglers who wish to catch ever-larger specimens. My dilemma is that I don’t want to kill any more trout, and I’m past the stage of needing to constantly catch any fish, so it’s fine by me if I can safely release a stocked trout, if I believe it will satisfactorily survive. But…

1. BRETTON 602 REEL My late father, George, was a fantastic angler. He taught me to fish, cast and be quiet in pursuit of trout and salmon. He worked in the Belfast shipyard but at weekends we would escape to the countryside to fish. We normally travelled by bus to the rivers, including the Sixmile, the Maine, Ballinderry and Lagan. This was in the 1970s and early ’80s. I have never parted with his two favourite reels. In those bygone days, most fly-anglers in my part of the world carried a spinning reel to put on their fly-rod because fishing for the pot was normal. This reel was only used if we were catching lunch, or the river was out of order for the fly. We’d not carry bait but…

FIFTY YEARS AGO, I CAST MY FIRST fly. While I’ve made many angling acquaintances on the ebb and flow of fishing’s timeless tide, and some have had great understanding, none I’ve met are more modest, personable, and prepared to share knowledge than Louis Noble. The retired tutor of more than 1,000 fishers was once chairman of assessors for the Game Angling Instructors’ Association (GAIA) and joint editor of Flydresser, the Fly Dresser’s Guild journal. The Welsh Dee is much in his heart, along with the boulder-strewn Ceiriog, a helter-skelter 18-mile tributary with inviting, small, shallow pools and intriguing deep pots. Immediately to the south lies the more sedate Tanat, where willow branches dance above trout to the tune of the summer breeze. Ceiriog and Tanat are Louis’ favourite streams, and…

Sometimes, it’s impossible to resist using flash to form a “tinsel” body, but you must protect it. Fold two or three strands in half over the thread, trap it in at the tail end and wind towards the eye, then counter-rib: wind your wire in the opposite direction to that which you wound the rib. For a quick, easy and secure tying, whether forming a Sparkler-style wing or adding a few strands of flash over marabou or feathers, simply fold half as many strands as you need over the thread, trapping in at the fold, then build the head over the tying-in point. Always store your flash in the pack provided. It keeps the strands tangle-free and prevents curling, making tying easier and preventing unnecessary waste.…

England & Wales BORDER ESK BORDER Esk got a welcome spate on April 6 and by the time this report is read anglers should be catching sea-trout and some salmon throughout most of the main river. Given mild weather and reasonably warm evenings night flyfishing should get underway. Catching the river falling and clearing often proves productive for those who spin and bait fish. Fly anglers prefer the river to be clear and settled although sport can be very good when a peat stain is evident. Right place right time is often the recipe for good sport. Anglers who can get to the river at the drop of a hat often score. The Esk has some wonderful pools and streams and offers a superb environment in which to fish. Hopefully,…

POACHING GANG SENTENCED One of the worst cases of salmon and sea-trout poaching in recent years has led to the successful prosecution of eight men in Mid-Wales. On May 14, 2020, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) bailiffs apprehended 35-year-old Emlyn Rees pulling a gill net from the River Teifi near Cenarth. During a search of his property, bailiffs seized nets, sacks, ropes and freezers stocked with fish. Their investigation unearthed pictures of 938 salmonids, and 1,291 salmonids entered in a sales book. NRW estimates the illegal fishing undertaken by Rees and his co-defendants from 2013 to 2020 led to the loss of 686,534 salmon eggs and 2,285,164 sea-trout eggs. NRW’s Gavin Bown said: “I would like to thank our dedicated team of enforcement officers, whose dogged investigation exposed an astounding scale…

THERE’S A LITTLE EUPHORIA IN the air around this time in the Hebrides. The second winter is losing steam and all of a sudden there is the day of summer. This strange, local phenomenon, not even exclusive to the summer months, often arrives around the end of May with an abrupt and inexplicable rise in temperature and general mood. You can’t help feeling that living on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic is a good idea, despite the long dark winter that has provided you with plenty of evidence to the contrary. Cold desolate beaches start to look like Caribbean postcards and are filled with pasty white bodies daring to show a little ankle, and the local co-op is inundated with grown men demanding charcoal and BBQ supplies…

Your article on Toft Newton Reservoir, Lincolnshire (March) finally galvanised me into paying this venue a long overdue visit. I met the fishery manager Andrew Hutson (and his terriers) who gave me sound advice on my terrible casting and encouraged me to try a few things, which resulted in a red-letter day. When I got home, my daughter remarked I’d caught my average yearly quota of trout. What a great bloke, and what a brilliant spot, plus free entertainment provided by the RAF Red Arrows acrobatic team. I can’t wait to return. Keep up the excellent magazine. Clive Ford, West Yorkshire…

BORN IN SOUTH AFRICA AND now living in the Australian island state of Tasmania, Christopher Bassano has travelled widely as a keen fly-fisher and as an accomplished professional sportsman. A top-class batsman during the early 2000s, he played several seasons in the UK for Derbyshire County Cricket Club, perhaps his most notable achievement being an impressive 186 not out on his County Championship debut. While providing Christopher with a successful cricketing career, Derbyshire also afforded him the opportunity to pursue his other passion. He spent as much time as he could fishing waters such as Carsington, and the rivers Wye and Derwent, often with fellow cricketer Bernie Maher who, though retired by then, had been wicketkeeper and batsman for the same team. Bernie now owns Press Manor Fishing Lakes, near…

HALF-AND-HALF CUL Hook Size 10-14 Fulling Mill Super Grub Wing Five CDC feathers Thread Black UTC 70 denier Rib Black Flexi Floss Rear body Medium Red Holo Front body Black UTC 70 denier Body finish Two coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Thorax Black seal’s fur Until a few years ago, I was not a fan of shuttlecock-style dry-flies. I found them a pain to keep afloat and they could ruin a leader within seconds with line twist. Then, on a long weekend at Llyn Brenig, I was treated to a three-day flat calm. To cut a long story short, more than 90 per cent of my fish came to shuttlecock-style flies and this pattern stood out during the sporadic midge hatches. The trick to keeping it afloat, as…

On June 3, 2020, I was incredibly lucky to be the first paying rod to fish a beat on the middle Spey since it had been closed due to Covid restrictions. Conditions were fine, but nothing would have made you think today’s the day. My excitement was because, somehow, I had the beat to myself, and it hadn’t been fished for weeks. I set out with an eight-weight floating line, fine leader, and size 10 hairwing fly. In the company of one of Strathspey’s great gillies I fished the pools lightly and kept moving around — we were determined to do it right. It was wonderful to see the fish coming to the surface to intercept the small fly, often with a slow head-and-tail rise. I ended the day with…

ROB EDMUNDS Highly successful competition angler, reservoir bank and boat specialist. RONNIE GLASS Former Scottish champion on rivers and stillwaters and curator of the Tweed Salmon Fishing Museum. STEVE CULLEN Guide, instructor and all-round game angler with a wealth of knowledge. ALASTAIR & WILLIAM PEAKE Brothers Al and Will (AKA TwinPeakes) have a casting school and tackle shop in Crathes on the Aberdeenshire Dee. PAUL PROCTER Cumbrian-based AAPGAI instructor. Prefers the imitative approach. PETER GATHERCOLE Photographer, expert tyer and chairman of the Fly Dressers' Guild. PETER COCKWILL Small-water expert with more than 60 years’ fly-fishing experience. BOB WHITE Hugely experienced gillie and salmon-fly tyer based at the Stanley beats of the River Tay.…

SEEING LARGE DARK OLIVES hatching off heralds the start of my dry-fly season. One spring day the river is a barren and uninviting proposition and then, from nowhere, the LDOs start coming off and everything is transformed. The trout are up and on it — and rising trout brings everything to life. Although often associated with spring fishing, this not-so-little fly can be seen hatching off all year, but from March through to May it will appear almost every day. In March, the hatch times are centred around early afternoon from noon until 2pm. They will be sporadic and short-lived. As the water warms, the hatches will start earlier and last longer and by May you’ll often get two or three hatches coming off from around 9.30am until 5pm. The…

“The Good Fish will be shrewdly observing, just like you” SOME ANGLERS consider dry-fly fishing to be for the Purist. By which they mean Snob. By which they mean the kind of person who places Artistry above the Serious Business of Catching Fish. Because as any fule kno, fish are too busy scoffing nymphs on the bottom to be bothered with your gossamer surface presentation, Lord Fauntleroy. However, in early summer, as the sun penetrates and warms the depths from higher angles, things start looking up for the Dry Fly Man. And by “things” we mean “trout”. Yes, for the trout fisherman, it’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! Mayfly Time. Supported by a thinning cast of LDOs, the big, meaty Mayflies are starting to strut their stuff —…

WHETHER YOU’RE fishing on a tiny West Country stream, northern beck or little-known brook, small, wild and often overgrown waters require a different approach to larger rivers. Attacking them with your normal 9ft, five-weight rod will soon see you hung-up in the undergrowth as every trout in the pool darts for cover. This jungle warfare calls for short, lightweight rods, small flies and delicate presentation. Generally, casts are around 30ft and often much less, so the ability to cast a short length of fly-line and still deliver the fly accurately under overhanging trees is a must. In places, an overhead cast will be impossible, so a rod that can roll, side and even single-spey cast is important if you are going to get your fly to a rising trout that…

ENGLAND BLITHFIELD ANGLERS, Abbots Bromley, 01283 840284 DRAYCOTE TROUT FISHERY, Rugby, 01788 812018 HIGHAM LAKE TROUT FISHERY, Ponteland, 07950 428159 LANGLEY DAM FISHERY, Hexham, 01434 688846 MARSTON WYSE TROUT FARM, York, 01904 738383 NARBOROUGH FISHERIES, Narborough, 01760 338005 WASHBURN VALLEY FISHERIES, Harrogate, 01943 880658 WITHERN MILL TROUT FARM, Alford, 01507 450356 SCOTLAND GLENQUICKEN FARM TROUT FISHERY, Newton Stewart, 01671 820593 MILL OF KELLAS TROUT FISHERY, Elgin, 01343 890478…

FISH OF A LIFETIME Danny Rickis’s first trip of the season was one to remember. In bitterly cold conditions, he found a few large dark olives hatching on a stretch of the River Tweed’s Cardrona beat. After seeing a couple of fish rising to them, he covered what he thought was a normal-sized trout with his dry Greenwell’s Glory. But when the fish sipped down his offering, things quickly changed. “When I lifted into the fish, it was like hitting a brick wall,” said Danny. “It shot down the river, taking me well into the backing. I had to scramble up steep banking to catch up with it. My first thoughts were that I’d hooked a salmon but after a heart-stopping 15-minute battle, my son Raymond netted the fish for…

From March: traditionally, buzzer-fishing on Chew started in mid- to late-April, the most effective method being to fish a team of slim, sinking buzzer patterns on a floating line and long leader. However, in recent years, due to mild spring conditions, the fish are feeding on buzzer from the start of the season in March. Hollowbrook and the area at the back of Denny Island can be highly productive and Herons Green can be fantastic at times. Patterns that are particularly effective include the Quill Buzzer, Diawl Bach and Muskins (pictured), all tied on a size 10 and 12. From late-April into May, the shallow water in Stratford Bay and Herriots can produce tremendous dry-fly fishing, especially if it’s warm with a little breeze when big rainbows and browns will…

O VER THE PAST TWO YEARS, one of the highlights of my life has been snuffed out. For more than 25 years, with near religious fervour, I undertook an annual pilgrimage to fish the mayfly on the great loughs of western Ireland. Then, in early 2020, Covid reared its ugly, spiky head and, when May arrived, instead of drifting among the islands off Lough Corrib’s Carrick Shore, casting to rising trout as mayflies fluttered around my ears, my time was mainly spent slumped in front of a computer trying for the twenty-third time to secure a Tesco home-delivery slot. My love affair with Ireland’s limestone loughs began in the early 1980s when I was working as a fisheries biologist on the shores of Lake Malawi in East Africa. My wife…

Run the tying thread down the shank to the bend. Take a pinch of possum tail hair. Remove all the base fluff, then catch in the hair with a couple of thread turns to form the tail. Secure the waste ends of the hair along the shank using close turns of thread. Trim off the excess hair, then catch in a length of brown Spanflex and secure it along the shank. Keeping the Spanflex under tension, secure it to the base of the tail. Take a pinch of the fluff removed when preparing the tail and dub it on to the thread, then wind it up the shank. Continue winding on the dubbed possum fur until it has covered two-thirds of the shank. With the body in place, stretch the…

When finishing a fly, it is easy to clog the hook eye with varnish. An overloaded brush or a misplaced dab are all it takes. All is not lost. Take a fine cock hackle or marabou feather and strip any fibres off the base of the stem, then run the hackle/feather through the clogged eye of the hook a couple of times — before the varnish thickens. The excess varnish will transfer from the eye to the hackle/feather, which can be discarded, or used again depending on how heavy-handed you’ve been.…

FINDING QUALITY accommodation with fishing is this summer’s grail. Demand is high. Whether you seek the fine service of a hotel or a luxury self-catering cottage, over the next few pages we are sure you will discover somewhere that will provide you with comfort and enjoyable sport. STUNNING ISLAND ESCAPE Want to get away from it all? You will at Grogarry Lodge A hidden treasure in the Outer Hebrides, Grogarry Lodge is set in the spectacular landscape of South Uist. The 19th-century sporting lodge is an exclusive, fully serviced, 10-bedroom Hebridean retreat, sleeping 10-19 people. The estate takes care of everything, allowing you to make the most of your time and fish to your heart’s content. The estate team will ensure you are well looked after and a hearty meal…

HOW TO ENTER Visit a Troutmasters water and catch a fish. Fill in the form (Senior, Youth or Junior) available at each fishery, and post it to T&S. Captors of the three biggest fish from each fishery each month will win a Troutmasters badge. NEW for 2022: All 2022 badge winners will be entered onto a Fishery League Table for the chance to win a place in the Troutmasters Grand Final(s). We will also award a Gold badge to anglers who win Troutmasters badges from five different venues. Find out more at: www.troutandsalmon.com/troutmasters SENIOR BADGE WINNERS England ■ ALBURY ESTATE FISHERIES, Guildford, 07976 810737 1 Peter Stevens, Reigate, 7lb 10oz rainbow, Cat’s Whisker. 1 Anthony Marsh, Windsor, 7lb 10oz rainbow, Cocktail Booby. 2 Alan Chong, Cranleigh, 6lb rainbow, Ally McCoist.…

SOME WHILE AGO I WAS TROUTING ON A backwater in Norfolk, as you do, trying my level best to sneak up on wild browns with a dry-fly on a long leader. You know how it goes: you mooch along the grass some way off the bank to avoid any chance of your shadow falling across the water and alarming the fish, until you spy a likely looking spot, then on bended knee you peep through the reeds with your magic Polaroids and scan the rippling water and waving weed until you locate a hefty specimen just waiting for a spot of lunch to float by. Once you have spotted the quarry, all that is required is to take the driest of dry-flies — about the same size as the angels…