Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Trout & Salmon

THERE ARE THINGS YOU expect to discuss when you re boat fishing: what the trout are taking — and why they’re not; the meanings of light, weather-front and cloud; the effects of flood, drought, spawning. With more tolerant boat partners you might discuss politics, religion and the ethics of the Blob. With longstanding friends you might exchange symptoms, ask after families, even broach mortality itself. In May 2022, fishing Coniston Hall lake in Yorkshire with my old friends Steve Rhodes and Rod Calbrade, we ranged over all the above. Still, one thing I never expected to talk about while in the boat was Greek architecture and specifically, the difference between Doric and Ionic columns. We were drifting within sight of the stonework which used to form the entrance to Coniston…

What’s wrong with us? I agree with the views Ron Chapman expressed in his letter (July) about the need for anglers to become more involved in the fight for clean rivers. But I fear his plea will fall on many deaf ears because the angling community is almost defined by its apathy. Despite the sterling work done by the Angling Trust, the Wild Trout Trust and people like Feargal Sharkey as one of the million UK anglers I am embarrassed to see how our numbers don’t translate into a louder voice. Anglers’ concerns have been overshadowed by the laudably vociferous campaigns of other water-users, including paddle-boarders, canoeists, surfers and (especially) wild swimmers. It is ironic that each of these groups has been a target of complaint and abuse by some…

Formal records of fishing on the Guash begin in the late-Victorian and Edwardian period with the Stamford Welland Angling Club leasing the rights. The river's flow was sufficient to drive three watermills, and old game books talk of idyllic conditions and good numbers of trout weighing over a pound. The First World War brought a depletion in fish numbers, blamed partially on predation by ducks kept to supplement rationing. However, enthusiasm for fishing remained and in September 1921, The Guash Fly Fishing Club was founded with the assistance of the manager of Burghley Estate, Major Vivian Bailey, and the Marquess of Exeter. Major Bailey later wrote Come Fishing and Shooting. Published in 1961, it recounts his sporting life and includes numerous mentions of the Guash, including catching a pike on…

SOME GILLIES MEET YOU AT 9AM, walk the beat, point their rod in the direction of a few salmon lies and then say cheerio, turning up at 5pm to trouser a tenner. The best do much more. They’re octopuses, platespinners, possessing a huge variety of skills and valuable personal qualities. How does your favourite gillie measure up? A MODERN GILLIE WILL…. 1 Make a good first impression. It’s hugely important. Guests have high expectations and may have been looking forward to their fishing for months. But they may have doubts about their ability and need reassurance and clarity about their day. If a gillie smiles and offers warm words and a hot brew, it helps enormously. As does an upbeat, but frank assessment of the river. No point being unrealistic:…

OLIVE UPRIGHT JINGLER Hook Size 14 Kamasan B170 Thread Primrose Tail Cream cock hackle fibres Rib Primrose thread Body Primrose thread Overbody Narrow strip of yellow foam Hackle 1 Cream cock Hackle 2 Pale partridge From mid-May into June we get prolific hatches of olive uprights on the Tweed. Trout and sea-trout love them. This fly is simply an olive upright in the Jingler-style, a pattern used extensively on the Tweed and surrounding rivers. The beauty of Jinglers is that they have presence. They can be notably good in fast riffles where they grab the fish’s attention and sit high enough for me to see them. Yet in early June on the Tweed I had a trout of about 7lb from a glide — proof I use the fly in…

{QUICK FIX} IT’S A WRAP It’s wise to keep the end of your fly-line beyond the tip ring when walking between fishing. It will stop the line-leader join snagging in the tip ring and help you quickly extend line when you want to cast. However, this is rarely possible when using a long leader and the keeper ring. Instead, many anglers wind the leader around the circumference of the reel and hook the point fly in a rod ring higher up the blank. A better way is to wrap the leader around the reel foot. This prevents the leader slipping off the side of the reel or getting trapped between the spool and the reel cage.…

A Shipman’s and many other poly-yarn-based flies start with a length of yarn tied tightly to the shank. Trim the tail and “wing” ends to suit the pattern. If only the rear or front end is required, still tie the yarn the full length of the shank to keep an even tying base. A Klink always starts with its wing post. Lay a length of yarn across the tying-in point, then figure of eight it straight across the shank. Fold to double the post, add thread wraps around the bottom of the post to bring it together as one, then trim to length and comb it through with Velcro. See YouTube for tutorials. Poly-yarn dubbing mixes add sparkle, translucency and buoyancy and are quick and easy to make, Brush through…

PULLING SEDGES ON STILLWATERS seems to have fallen out of favour in recent years yet still fills the baskets of those that persevere. Last year, I met highly experienced angler Damien Walsh at the Hanak grayling festival on the Dee. We hit it off over a few pints and shared theories about fishing. Damien was generous with his knowledge and his flies. He is a serious competition angler, a member of World, European and Home International teams, even captaining the European team, but still enjoys the craic that meeting like-minded anglers brings, which I’m sure is a great way of learning and perfecting new techniques. The thing about Damien is that he loves his lough boat fishing and makes the most of the great hatches of fly that attract big…

1934-2022 GORDON Mackie was born in London but the family were moved to Plymouth Hoe in Devon at the start of WW2, subsequently moving to Plympton, then Plymstock. Although Gordon claims he was no great achiever at school, it’s clear from his writings on fly-fishing, rivers and the natural world that he had a talent with the English language. His lovely book, Fly Leaves and Waterside Sketches (with a foreward by Bernard Venables), is peppered with evocative and poignant turns of phrase, and is clearly written from the soul. He also wrote How to Start Trout Fishing (1980) and contributed to The Shell Book of Angling and The Haig Guide to Trout Fishing in Britain. Gordon was a skilled fisher and an observant and instinctive naturalist which led him to…

Many heartfelt words have been written about crystal-clear chalkstreams and the majesty of Scottish salmon rivers. Probably too many. The tropes are often tired. So, when fresh and funny writing comes along, it has the effect of plunging your face into iced water. Fish Camp Fail by T&S contributor Ben Jailler is shocking at times, adults only, but original. Ben writes about trout-fishing on urban Bristol reservoirs and hiking to remote Welsh Ilyns and Highland lochs in the company of outsiders and Covidiots during the pandemic’s darkest phases. He sleeps in his car, drinks root beer and has nightmares about Dave Lee Travis. The many cultural references may be obscure If you’re over, say 60, or not interested in video games and pop culture, but you can always look them…

You would think that David’s daytime job as Cargill head gillie would be enough to keep him busy, but he still finds time to express his creative talents in other ways. Cargill’s huts are decorated with David’s stunning mounts of his hunting trophies. Big local roe buck grace the fireplace in the new hut, testament to David’s talents as a stalker as well as an amateur taxidermist. A Gold Medal roe head and a white tail deer from one of his trips to Kansas hang in the upper hut. Achieving results like these takes real skill and patience with each mount taking four to 16 hours to complete. David also makes lures and Toby spoons in his fully equipped workshop at the side of his house. The lures, inspired by…

I HAVE A TALE TO TELL THAT MAY remind you of the past — yet the events are still fresh in my memory. It’s no secret that salmon are having a hard time. Record low catches in Scotland made the headlines earlier this year and several salmon charities lamented the beginning of the end. It made grim reading, and the feeling in the angling community is that we are in a race against time to save the species. There has been a feeling of doom. Well, I have seen a ray of light in this dark time, an example of how resilient these little silver fish can be — given half a chance and a good place to live. In June, the Grimersta Estate recorded 197 salmon, one of its best…

1. FISHING DIARY With the purchase of my first car, a Mini, in 1976, I hoped to fulfil my dreams of fishing all over the UK. To record my adventures, I began a diary on paper with columns and headings: date, location, bait, method, number, comments. The first entry was a blank on a frozen Rochdale canal on 31/12/1976. My introduction to computer-programming at work in 1982 was a life-changer, and in 1985, I computerised my diary using Fortran, later importing the data into Excel. I'm still using it to record my trips. It contains, as I write, 1,600 entries. Tomorrow it will be 1,601. 2. FLY-BOX AND FLY-ROD One school lunchtime in Oldham, I came across this fly-box in Woolworths, I couldn't believe how cheap it was, so I…

FOR JOHN AND KATIE DEMUTH, the pleasure of fishing comes in many forms and while fly-fishing for trout is their main pursuit, they’re just as happy spending holidays with their four young children on the Maine coast in America’s north-east, catching anything from bluefish to small shark. That’s not to say they don’t take fly-fishing seriously for both are highly skilled fly-tyers who can tackle almost any style, from tiny wisp-like dry-flies to big, heavy, saltwater patterns. The couple are based in the south-eastern state of Tennessee, at Kingsport, a small city on the confluence of the North and South forks of the Holston River. In the mid-19th century, it was an important trading port, hence the name, where goods were ferried downstream to Knoxville on the Tennessee river. In…

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. DRIFT A NYMPH TO SUMMER SALMON There are times in the season when salmon will lie “doggo” on the bottom of pools, or low water conditions make it impossible to swing a fly. In which case a weighted nymph drifted at the correct depth can be an effective method. But it must be done carefully. There are rivers where upstream casting is not allowed, so speak with your gillie first. It should be attempted only when conventional methods have been tried. It should only ever be done by dead-drifting — never by pulling the flies back. If you can sight-fish to a…

DAPPING IS ONE OF THE MOST enjoyable and exciting ways to fly fish. Using a long rod and floss “blowline”, the fly is not cast, but is drifted out across the water on the breeze by the spinnaker “sail” of the floss. The fly is then danced across the surface, like a piece of thistledown. In this way, it resembles an insect being blown across the surface and attracts the fish to come and have a go. However, manyfolk are put off by the difference between the large number of fish it attracts, compared to the relative few that it puts in the net. I attempt to address this aspect of it. No guarantees — I miss loads too! The tackle Some people are put off dapping by the heft…

TROUT MASTERS plus this month’s badge winners from Europe’s largest fly-flashing competition See page 122 FISHING REPORTS ENGLAND AND WALES OPENING PAGE: PETER GATHERCOLE England & Wales BORDER ESK LACK of water has again been the cry on the Border Esk. Nevertheless, sea-trout have been slipping in through the slim rapids and pools. Burnfoot on the lower river has produced 23 salmon to date (I write June 29) with 14 so far in June. Areas such as Wilkies, Roost, Boxes, and the Mound all produced salmon and sea-trout. The river got a couple of feet of extra water on Monday June 27, coupled with a big tide and fish were about. Tommy Drennan landed one above the Boxes and Peter Simms had two in Wilkies. A number of fish were…

CLUES ACROSS 5. Islands off the coast of Florida, USA (4) 7. Bovine animal (2) 8. Claws of bird of prey (6) 10. Northumberland river (3) 12. Adult male red deer (4) 13. Metallic fly-tying material (6,4) 15. We have at least five of these (6) 17. Salmon river in northern Scotland (5) 19. Email greeting (2) 20. Newton Stewart’s salmon river (4) 22. Black salmon fly (5, 4) 24. Water fleas (7) 26. Magazine edition (5) 28. Tidal recede (3) 30. Salmon river of north-west England (6) 31. Surface agitation caused by reservoir aerator (4) 33. Welsh sea-trout (5) 34. Negative reply (2) 36. Shaving equipment (5) CLUES DOWN 1. Coch-y-bondhu is one of these (6) 2. Comprises (8) 3. Film about creature from another planet (1.1.) 4. This…

I TOLD YOU THE FAMILY HAD GIVEN ME A fishing lesson for my birthday. And now the weather has warmed I decided it was time to give the old technique a bit of a brush-up before heading north in pursuit of the king of fish. Mike Smith is strictlyflyfishing.com. He teaches, he arranges, he organises, he accompanies, he guides. He is a one-stop shop for all those interested in pursuing the art of the angle; be they blank-canvas novice or hardened Stillwater warrior, and whether their interests be at home or abroad. He is GAIA (Game Angling Instructors’ Association) and APGAI (Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors). He is qualified and certified in spades and he lives not far away. We agreed to meet at the Norfolk & Suffolk Flyfishers water,…

THE SUNNY SUMMER WEATHER HAS brought with it an increase of blubbery individuals lounging about our beaches, estuaries and lower river beats. I don’t just mean holidaymakers making the most of our shores. There are 1,300 grey seals and 600 common seals in the Moray Firth alone. The Spey Fishery Board (SFB) recently received the disappointing news that its 2022 Seal Licence application had, along with the Tay Dee and many others, been rejected by Marine Scotland. After months of deliberation, Marine Scotland Science assessed the rivers as Category 1, meaning they consider “the exploitation of Atlantic Salmon as sustainable, regardless of the source of exploitation”. Apparently, the SFB failed to sufficiently prove how a seal entering the river would be clearly identified as a specialist predator. They were also…

I CAN REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE to go for a day’s fishing without the aid of gadgetry and gizmos. It was exciting, a trip into the unknown, full of anticipation. Today, access to fishing information through the web and social media has made things much easier, but is this really an advantage, or has its use meant we’ve lost emotional and sensory contact with our sport? Fly-fishing for me has always been fun, full of charm and mystery. I don’t want it to be programmed for instant success. I like to work at outwitting a trout using watercraft, employing my eyes and ears to work out wind direction, assess water depth, and find clues about what’s hatching. But it takes time, and time is precious for all of us.…

I’M NOT A HUGE FAN OF OVERCOMPLICATING things at the vice, which is one reason I like polyyarn — it allows you to simplify flies while often giving you more buoyant, durable, and effective results than the traditional, natural option. Some may argue that natural solutions are more aesthetically pleasing, but to my eye, there’s nothing more beautiful in fly-tying than the elegant simplicity and devastating efficacy of flies like the Shipman’s Buzzer and Klinkhamer Special. These days, poly-yarn is available in more colours than I’d know what to do with, and handy though they are, white, which mimics wings and shimmers and seduces, will invariably be your first choice. Off-whites, creams, and greys run it a close second, but as you will see, it can also pay to keep…

EVER COME HOME from the river and thought, “I didn’t even see a trout. I bet there aren’t even any there”? Well, I’m prepared to wager that if you’ve paid for fishing, and other anglers fish that water, then barring an overnight ecological disaster, There Are Trout in that River — and have been for millennia. And if there’s one, there are thousands. So, I’m sorry to break it to you, Chum, but it’s not them, it’s you. The most important thing you can do to improve catch rates has nothing to do with fly choice, or tippet size, or casting, or even drag. It’s What You Do Before You Even Make Your First Cast. How you approach a river is the first major factor in whether you’re going to…

HUGE FINE FOR CHEESEMAKER Plants wither, bugs perish unseen, fish turn belly up, but then the river washes it all away and the death is forgotten. That’s what usually happens as polluters get away with their crimes, but Dairy Crest Limited, maker of Cathedral City cheese, caused so much damage over a long period to the River Inny in Cornwall that it was caught and has been fined £1.5 million at Truro Crown Court. It has already paid £272,000 costs. The firm pleaded guilty to 21 of 27 charges brought by the Environment Agency. Its Davidstow plant discharges 1.2 million litres of effluent daily into the Inny, a habitat for salmon and wild brown trout, but its water treatment plant failed when production altered to include the powder used in…