Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i Trout & Salmon

WHEN I WOKE UP, I COULD HEAR trickling water through the open window, occasionally drowned out by heartwarming birdsong. You know you’re in a good place when oystercatchers are piping. My last-minute journey north had been a triumph. It’s a while since I’ve been so spontaneous, but I needed a change of scene. I’d booked a room in a pub next to a trout stream I’ve always wanted to fish. It was a good feeling, and despite the slog up the A1, I’d made it in time to sit in the garden of the Cover Bridge Inn in the Yorkshire Dales with a pint, a steak and the feeling of calm I longed for. As I watched trout sip in the River Cover, a man approached. “Are you the fisherman?”…

Fetlar has a complicated geology. It is famed for its ophiolite complex, formed when oceanic crustal rocks (beneath the ocean floor) were thrust upwards and over continental rocks during a tectonic plate collision and mountain building. Shetland ophiolite was formed when North America crashed into Eurasia. The same result is seen through the Zagros mountains of Iran and down the spine of the Himalayas. The “geowall” sculpture (pictured) beside the Loch of Funzie celebrates this remarkable geology. Along with the oceanic igneous crust (made from magma), ocean sediments are scraped up creating a carbonate-rich mix. This provides a habitat for more than 200 species of wild flowers and the rich fly life that thrives on the island. Also on Fetlar is the Funzie Girt, an ancient wall running north to…

You’ve fished for days, waiting for a salmon or leviathan trout to take your fly, and now it’s gone. Your hook was blunt. Here’s how to avoid that sickening feeling. First, drag the point across a fingernail. If it digs in, it’s sharp. If it doesn’t, it’s blunt. Use a hook hone or sharpening stone. Stroke the hookpoint lightly across the hone at a 15-degree angle, near parallel to the shank. Stroke it from point to bend. Stroke it the other way and you may form a tiny burr of metal near the point. Complete three to five strokes on three sides to evenly sharpen the point. Fine-tune with light strokes from all angles.…

If any of these six tinsels went out of production, my world would end! All other colours are simply a luxury. Clockwise from top-left: gold holographic, gold oval, red holographic, dual Mylar (silver/gold), opal Mirage, silver oval. Most modern tinsels can be easily stretched, which helps ensure a tight, secure finish to your tinsel bodies, thorax covers and so on. Pull the tinsel to the point of breaking when tying off. Be aware, though, that stretching too far will distort the colours. Stretching an end section forms a quick tying-in point without reaching for scissors. When using a wire rib over tinsel (or any other underlying body material), tie the rib the full length of the shank. This gives a flat, level base rather than a series of unsightly steps.…

CAP technology places carbon-fibre layers at varying angles to each other, rather than in parallel lines as you would see in a standard non-woven carbon blank. This avoids twist and adds strength and directional stability. It also reduces the amount of material needed to fill gaps between the fibres, so less resin is used, reducing the blank’s weight. The 9ft, 5wt weighs just 71g. In keeping with Guideline’s promise to be more environmentally aware, the blanks are unground, minimising harmful dust formed during production. Single-leg rings have a semi-matt, non-toxic finish. Low-toxic glues and varnishes are used in construction.…

FISHING Cymdeithas Pysgota Tregaron Angling Association has 17 miles of fishing on the Teifi, including late-run salmon fishing; seven miles of wilderness fishing on the River Camddwr in the Cambrian Mountains; Llyn Berwyn, a restored, lightly stocked mountain lake in forestry; and the Teifi Pools, including Llyn Teifi (fished by George Barron in Trout and Salmon February 2022). The club website includes maps. Tel (secretary Cheryl Bulman): 07974 675 485. Email: cheryl.bulman@sky.com Web: tregaronangling.com TICKETS Day, all waters, £13; week, all waters, £75; season, one water, £75; season, all waters, £140. Fishing is free for under 12s and discounted for 12 to 18-year-olds and over 65s. Available from fishingpassport.co.uk Or the shop in Pontrhydfendigaid; Y Talbot Hotel in Tregaron; and Lampeter Shooting Sports. Or the secretary, Tregaron AA. ACCOMMODATION Y…

What matters I came across this quote many years ago while writing a report for a college assignment and I feel it’s more relevant today than ever as fish farms, water companies and climate change, to name a few, ruin our rivers. It’s an old Native American prophecy: “Only when the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only then will we realise that money cannot be eaten.” Stephen Pinder, Achill Pollution spotted I recently joined Llandeilo Angling Club and have fished the River Towy on three occasions since April. On the first two days, I had success with brown trout up to 3lb. But in late April, I arrived at the river to find…

Like so many good ideas, this one started with a group of like-minded people gathering around a table with a pint or two. Mid-Northants Trout Fishers’ Association was formed in January 1952 at the Angel Hotel in Northampton. The club took its name from the then Mid-Northants Water Board that managed the local reservoirs. Colonel SW Miller was elected chairman of a temporary committee, which included Tom Ivens as secretary, Cyril Inwood, Mr E Nutt, Mr CC Robinson, Mr RP Swannell and Mr W Izzard (who had earlier proposed to form the club). Its main goal was to promote the interests of anglers at local trout fisheries, the Ravensthorpe and Hollowell reservoirs. These waters had seen a decline in the quality of the fishing with catch returns very low following…

IT’S HARD TO BEAT A BIG MUG OF hot steaming tea, especially when thawing out after a hard morning chasing springers. There are many ways to take your tea — black, white, strong, weak — and much of this boils down to personal preference; often, it’s how you are feeling on the day; sometimes, our tastes change over time. The same is true of salmon flies. I am a strong believer in personal preference and specifically the confidence I have in a pattern. But over the last ten years, my fly preferences have changed, or more specifically, my taste in colour combinations. Fishing mostly in Ireland, where our rivers are often peat-stained, orange is traditionally the dominant colour. I still have confidence in patterns like the Bann Special Shrimp, an…

BLACK MAGIC Hook Sizes 14-20 black nickel Czech Nymph Thread Uni 8/0 black Wing post Pink Tiemco Aero Dry Wing Thorax Peacock Glister Hackle Grizzle The Aero Dry Wing adds a little buoyancy to this fly and the Czech nymph hook ensures it sits in the water perfectly, the right way up. The grizzle hackle is minimal but enough. The pink post is easy to see from above, but I don’t believe the fish can really see it from below. I keep it fairly short to stop the fly spinning when cast. Black Magic is great on its own or as an indicator with a nymph beneath it. In larger sizes, I even fish it with two nymphs below and, if necessary, just suspend it as an indicator above the…

TROUT SEASON: March 15-October 6. Sea-trout season: February 25-October 31. PERMITS: £30, which allows anglers to fish all the lochs all season. Juniors (under 16) go free. Available from outlets in Lerwick or directly from Shetland AA. Web: shetlandtrout.co.uk The Trout Fishing in Shetland brochure can be bought from the website for £2.50. The use of boats is an additional £30 per season. TACKLE: standard loch-style rods 9ft-11ft, 5wt-7wt. Full floating lines will cover most eventualities, although poly tips and an intermediate line may prove helpful in tougher conditions. All standard loch-style flies will work, particularly bushy top droppers, Snatchers, midge imitations and lures. Don’t be without Sedgehogs, muddled Kates, Hoppers, Pottinger’s Palmer and Gorgeous George. Cormorants, Peter Ross, Stenness Stinger, Invictas, Pennells, beaded Hare’s Lugs and mini-lures will all…

WHICH ROD FOR A NOVICE? When I'm teaching a novice to cast a fly, I use a rod with a softer, "through" action — a through action meaning flexing easily from the cork handle to the tip, rather than just at the tip. A through action gives a newcomer a greater chance of feeling the sweet spot — that moment when the weight of the line cast behind loads the rod, signalling the moment the forward stroke should begin. When teaching on an Orvis or Tweedstart beginners' day, I always smiled at the "Ooooh" made by a novice when they first felt that moment. Even first-timers know when they have got it just right. Starting with a fly-line one weight heavier than the rod rating can help exaggerate the line's…

SHORT-LINING IS AN ANCIENT METHOD of presenting wet-flies that today is mainly practised for wild fish in specific areas of Scotland and Ireland. It came about due to the limitations of rods and lines in the past, and their inability to cast long distances. But in those times of prolific fish populations and water-borne fly life it was remarkably successful, and still can be, given the right conditions. It is a technique best suited to wild fish — salmon, sea-trout and brown trout — in stillwaters. It is not very popular for rainbow trout fishing. The basic concept best suits floating or intermediate lines and the technique involves throwing a relatively short line, introducing a few medium to slow pulls, and then raising the rod from horizontal to near-vertical to…

FRUSTRATING, ISN’T it? This battle of wits between you and a creature with a brain the size of a lentil. Especially when He Doesn’t Do What He’s Supposed To. This may be because Trout don’t read the same books that we do, and don’t know how to Behave Properly. Or maybe it’s you. Maybe you’re overthinking this? Because it’s actually unlikely that he is. Think about it. We imbue Mr Trout with the cunning of a vixen and the memory of a Chess Grandmaster. A Connoisseur who can tell his Hare’s Ear from a Hare’s Elbow. If a fly fails to fool him, we tell ourselves, if we just tweaked the colour a coupla Pantone digits or shortened the goose biots a gnat’s, it’d make all the difference. We agonise…

England & Wales BORDER ESK AS last year, the Border Esk has had little rain since the end of March and is very low indeed. There was lift of around 2ft on April 7 at Burnfoot and this beat has had a few salmon including an 11lb fish caught in the Roost. Allan Pellow caught a 13lb salmon above the Roost on a Toby. On April 14, Clive Pool caught a 13lb salmon on a spinner in the Boxes and the same day Lee Prichard caught a 9lb salmon from the same area, also to a spinner. Another two salmon to 10lb were caught on May 5. Some anglers have had success with sea-trout that slipped in on the tides. A few around 2lb have been caught. One out of…

This month’s winner is Neil Morgan, from Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan who caught this 22lb 6oz rainbow from Tyn-y-Graig fishery. He spotted the trout and decided to go for it, even though he had arrived at the fishery with just a three-weight rod and 6lb leader. He was able to successfully play and land the fish after it took his Cat’s Whisker fly. Each month Guide Flyfishing will award a Stillmaniac fly-line to one lucky Troutmasters angler. Simply upload and caption your catch pictures on Troutmasters Facebook and/or Instagram (include #Troutmasters 2022 and #Stillmaniac) and we will put the top 10 each month to a public Facebook vote.…

IF YOU’VE JUST JOINED US, I AM embarked upon an expedition after pike and, before the Wing Commander starts reaching for his Biro, if you think that is not a proper subject for this magazine, let me say that the brotherhood of the angle is wide and welcoming; and it’s all about the company when all is said and done. And I’d been invited. So there. I had with me a spinning rod of considerable age but no great length, a centre-spool reel and a box of rusty spinners and spoons, at the bottom of which lurked a packet of pickled sprats that had certainly been there since the early 1960s and which have probably achieved weapons-grade toxicity by now. However, when my host and I tackled up, I slipped…

EYES IN THE SKY Rob Price caught this beautiful 7lb 4oz brown trout from Bristol Water’s Blagdon Lake. Rob was fishing at the top end of the lake with his friend and Blagdon expert Gary Haskins when the fish took his Buzzer pattern on a floating line. After a heavy fight, the trout was quickly weighed on digital scales, photographed and returned. The stunning fish was perfect in every detail and Gary, who has fished Blagdon for 40 years, said, “I’ve never seen a fish like it.” To top off a memorable day, one of the resident ospreys was overhead the whole time. TROUT ON TOP This beautiful wild brownie was caught by bailiff and weekly regular Gerry McGirr from Loch Glow in Fife. The trout took a self-tied Muddler…

WITH LUCK, THE SUMMER grilse run on the Isle of Lewis is now in full swing. As I write, in May, I’m hoping we’ll soon have a bit of water and the early evenings and long nights will provide some of the best sport of the season. If the days see some cloud cover and a good strong westerly, the lochs will be alive with angry silver bullets, fresh from the sea, smashing into Muddlers pulled through the wave tops. I say hope, because early June means the start of the big wait. The big wait is the long draw of breath as fishers nervously await the annual arrival of grilse around the coasts of Lewis and Harris. As there’s no notable spring run to speak of, the focus of…

MEMBERSHIP £15 yearly sub (January to December), which is free for a year if you join following an Anglian Water beginners’ course. Junior Membership is also free for those from 8-18 years old. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Web: mntfa.co.uk The club uses MemberMojo for secure online membership services. Payment can be made using PayPal, cheque or cash or to the treasurer directly with cash or a cheque after registering with MemberMojo. BENEFITS AND LOCAL TACKLE-SHOPS Quarterly newsletter and subsidised summer BBQs. On-site tackle-shops at Pitsford, Rutland, Eyebrook and Grafham.…

WE ALL HAVE A PART TO PLAY in making our sport “greener”, whether it’s the choices we make when buying new tackle, adopting a “make do and mend” mentality, or recycling. There is much going on behind the scenes and some tackle companies have taken to heart the move to make tackle less “glitzy” and more sustainable. They are making non-varnished blanks, reducing the use of chemicals in manufacture and switching to biodegradable packaging. One firm is planning to use reclaimed sea-skimmed plastics while others are stepping away from the use of PVC. One UK fly-line maker, Airflo, makes great use of polyurethane, which is fully recyclable. But could we go further? Should we question where the cloth, metal, carbon and plastics used to make tackle is sourced? Would you…

1. FISHING GLASSES My old fishing glasses have long been retired to save them from themselves. They’d been run over and were also inclined to wander. Their thin wire frame made them feather-light: I hardly knew I was wearing them. It often turned out I wasn’t: I’d managed to slip them off unnoticed when unslinging a camera or bag from round my neck. The last time was high in the Welsh mountains. I didn’t notice ’til I was back at the car. I struggled back up the trackless mountain, but it was getting dark and quite hopeless. I described the fishing that day, with the loss of my specs, in T&S October 2009 (You can get a copy of this and other articles mentioned here at jon@jonbeer. net). Two years…

ALLY’S CASCADE AND EPONYMOUS Shrimp are probably the most widely used fly patterns in the salmon-fishing world. The long-tailed design is the blueprint or chassis for many flies; designs that wouldn’t otherwise exist. Just think how far those patterns have travelled from a quiet corner of Perthshire, how many fish and fishers have succumbed to their charms. And what if fishers that have scored with those flies stopped to buy Ally a celebratory pint or dram by way of a thank you? Surely Mr Gowans is the most influential fisher of our time. JIM Where did it all begin? ALLY My father used to take me fishing with him, long before I was able to fish. He would make a game of it: I’d have to tell him where the…

Quick-change specialist In 2008, Hardy made its first, high-performance cassette reel. Fourteen years later, it has developed its lightest yet. Based on the Ultradisc UDLA, which was launched last year, the Ultradisc Cassette has a light, bar-stock aluminium frame with built-in line guards to control thin running lines and stop them slipping between the rear and front frame. The Rulon disc drag provides smooth and ample resistance. It is not the most powerful at 4lb but has plenty of fine adjustment to protect light tippets, and is controlled by a large, knurled drag knob. On the front, is a knurled, captive nut that releases the front frame carrying the large-arbor polycarbonate cassettes. These light durable spools are locked to the aluminium frame using Hardy’s tried-and-trusted “cassette locking system”, used on…

BOOK REVIEW Up front, I must confess that Peter Cockwill, author of Fly Fishing Trout in the Small Stillwaters, is a writer of this parish. So, I hope I will not be thought of as biased when I say this book, the seventh by Peter, is a truly excellent stillwater manual. Let me be clear, this is a not a book for the novice. It requires a certain level of knowledge so will work best for those who feel their skills have plateaued, advancing expertise mostly by trial and error. However, if you want to be a more progressive fly-fisher, then this is the book. For instance, Peter tells you what trout eat beyond the obvious; it is that sort of knowledge that turns a blank day into a limit.…

Junior ■ BRANSFORD GAME FISHERIES, Bransford, 01905 830548 1 Charlie Pound. Tewkesbury, 3lb rainbow, Yellow Dancer. ■ MARSTON WYSE TROUT FARM, York, 01904 738383 1 Hannah Dev, Barnsley, 4lb 8oz blue, Pink Squirmy. ■ MEON SPRINGS FLY FISHERY, Petersfield, 01730 823134 1 Hannah Winser, Perry, Rainbow 3lb 6oz rainbow, on fly. ■ NEW MILLS TROUT FISHING PARK, Brampton, 016977 41115 1 Kate McMean, Cumbria, Rainbow 9lb 5oz rainbow, Black Snake. 2 Jack Donkin, Newcastle, 6lb 8oz rainbow, Black Midge. ■ THRUNTON LONG CRAG TROUT FISHERY, Alnwick, 01665 574400 1 Joe Camsell, Blyth, 3lb 7oz rainbow, Buzzer. 2 Jack Fish, Newcastle upon Tyne, 3lb rainbow, Shammy. WALES ■ BIGWELL FLY FISHERY, Monmouth, 01600 772904 1 Wilbur Leoviriyakit, Bristol, 3lb 2oz rainbow, Yellow Buzzer. Youth ENGLAND ■ NEW MILLS TROUT FISHING PARK,…