Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Trout & Salmon

FISH OF THE MONTH GRAYLING ON A HIGH Despite huge floods, east Ayrshire’s River Nith has been producing some excellent grayling, including this beauty of 31b 2oz. It was caught by John Lind from the Dalswinton lower beat while he was Euro-nymphing with a pattern called the Scruffy, invented and given to him by David Mclndoe. GUEST TAKES THE HONOURS Steph Monaghan caught the first fish of the season from the Cairnton and Middle Blackhall fishery on Aberdeenshire’s River Dee. Steph, who was a guest of Somers Fishing Tackle in Aberdeen — hosts for the first few days of the season — landed the beautifully fresh 8lb spring salmon in the Lower Ferroch pool on a black-and-yellow Monkey tube. OFF TO A FLYER The Munster Blackwater was in perfect order…

YOU'D BE HARD PUSHED TO find an urban fishery as scenic, or indeed as intriguing, as Linlithgow Loch. It is accessed from the very centre of the West Lothian town and the busy M9 motorway hugs its northern shore, though you'd never guess it once afloat. The loch covers 101 acres, surrounded by natural woodland and parkland, and is dominated by Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of a particularly well known Mary in 1542. In September of the following year, aged just nine months, she was crowned Queen of Scots in nearby Stirling Castle. It's hard to imagine any of this when you drive along Linlithgow's main drag and turn right into a car park hemmed in by the concrete surrounds of a bustling town. But this takes you to the water's…

YOU CAN'T HAVE FAILED TO NOTICE there are more people on our riverbanks than a few decades ago. Ever since the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act in England and Wales the same year, pressure has been increasing for further public access rights. High-profile anti-fieldsports organisations with their big marketing budgets seem to be winning over the public with their agendas and fuelling expectations of unfettered access to the countryside. Sadly, this is changing the attitudes of some visitors towards the angling community notably when those who disagree with us wander into our spaces. While the "right to roam" permits access to non-motorised users, it's not uncommon to meet unauthorised vehicles on beat tracks. One encounter I had last year was with a…

Eoin Fairgrieve’s new Country Sports Centre is based at The Clubhouse at the Schloss Roxburghe hotel (postcode TD5 8JZ), near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. The Centre includes a shop selling Salar tweed and wool clothing, Loop rods and reels, Lovat Mill lifestyle products and Albaa clothing. Activities available include fly-fishing on a stocked trout lochan and the rivers Tweed and Teviot, clay target shooting, archery and deer stalking. Last year, Eoin and his fellow casting instructor Malcolm Douglas qualified as an APSI corporate clay shooting instructor and GB Archery instructor. Eoin said, “I’ve really enjoyed the process as both activities pull on skills I’ve learned as a fly-casting instructor. There’s a fair amount in common with each discipline when you think about smooth graceful motions and positive muscle memory.”…

EARLY IN MY FLY-FISHING career I read a lot of American books where the anglers made a trip, sometimes a long trip, to a river to fish a specific hatch. Sometimes they encountered the hatch, and a good time was had by all, but frequently the sought-after hatch failed to occur. In Britain, the hatch fly-fishers most commonly target is the mayfly Ephemera danica, and given that mayfly fishing is often booked in advance, you might be lucky, or you might not. The other two major hatches we hope to encounter are the grannom, Brachycentrus subnubilus, and the March brown, Rhithrogena germanica. While the mayfly is present over a large part of the UK and is expanding its range, the grannom and the March brown are more restricted in their…

{ROD TEST} LOOKING FOR A NEW FLY ROD IS always a mixture of excitement and trepidation. We all like to try something new, whether it’s a make or model we’ve never owned before or the latest model to replace an old favourite from a trusted brand. My advice is to treat yourself if you can afford it. Advances in materials and manufacturing techniques have improved the performance of modern rods and they’ve become easier to cast than ever before, but this brings with it considerations before you make your choice. Stronger and lighter materials mean a modern 13ft—13½ft double-hander is largely capable of doing what the standard 15-footer would have done only a few years ago. Lightness also means less fatigue during a day’s fishing. I tested 12 new models,…

Hardy Aydon Models vary from £449.99 – £909.99 Designed to be a perfect blend of balance, recovery, and power, the user-friendly Aydon series employs Hardy’s Sintrix multi-modulus carbon technology. The lightweight blanks have a medium-fast action that makes them very “fishable” and ceramic lined stripping rings, chrome single-foot intermediates, a captive reel band, lightweight reel seat and wood or aluminium spacers. This new range covers single and double-handed models in a wide range of sizes. Singlehanded from 7ft 3wt to 10ft 8wt; double-handed from 11ft 9in 7/8wt to 14ft 9in 10/11wt; three 11ft Switch models, 5/6wt to 7/8wt, and six-piece Smuggler models in both trout and salmon sizes. Single-handed £449.99-£579.99 Double-handed and switch £609.99-£879.99 Six-piece Smuggler £479.99-£909.99 hardyfishing.co.uk Snowbee Prestige G-XS Graphene double-handers £599 – £799 Following the success of…

The 4Cast, Presentation and Experience have been mainstays of Guideline’s weight forward, single-handed lines for some time. Now they have been given the “Plus” treatment with tweaks to improve the tapers, thinner line diameters and slightly thicker handling and running lines. These changes make the lines more adaptable when casting, with better balance to allow you to carry more line outside the rod tip during false casting. Better balance also improves turnover and the line’s ability to perform waterborne casts like the spey and roll. guidelineflyfish.com…

EST.1955 TROUT SALMON RECOMMENDES 2023 A range with reason Scandinavian brand Loop has a proven range of five different styles of salmon tube body designed and used by Loop ambassadors and expert tyers Ross Macdonald and Stuart Foxall. The Bullet Connected tube has a short, tapered Scandi-style body, with an additional groove at the rear used to add a coloured tag, and an extended level rear to accommodate soft hook-tubing. It’s available in gold and silver in 10mm and 13mm lengths. Flies must be dressed on an 1.8mm liner in front of the tube, which allows a small, neat head when tying bulkier multi-winged flies and the use of cones. The Bottle Connected Conical tube is almost identical but has a front rim, which allows you to tie directly on…

Where river nymphing is concerned, it’s become commonplace to jettison the traditional fly-line completely and rely instead on the short-range control afforded by the “mono rig”. To the uninitiated this can seem a minefield, with anglers now using all manner of homemade leader constructions to achieve essentially the same thing — an unfettered drift and sensitive take detection. But where to start? A friend recently put me on to this material — it’s a running line for skagit casting but proves ideal for tight-line nymphing being slick, memory-free and easy to handle. Coupled with my Hardy Ultralite LL 0-2wt rod, it’s proved a revelation.…

An area of outstanding beauty, the Park is an outdoor delight, with walking, cycling and mountain biking, riding and watersports. Cultural events include the word-famous Hay-on-Wye Festival of Literature and Arts. There are several walking events, Hay and Brecon host food festivals, Brecon has a jazz festival, and the Green Man is the largest music festival in Wales (pictured). The scenery is breathtaking and the night skies are spectacular because the Park is an International Dark Sky Reserve. The National Showcaves Centre has underground waterfalls and caves with thousands of stalactites, while nearby, 200 life-size model dinosaurs happily co-exist with shire horses! Stone circles from as early as the Neolithic period, standing stones and cairns from the Bronze Age, Iron Age hilltop forts and a profusion of medieval castles dot…

Cock hackle: Used for wet-flies fished high in the water or dry-fly body hackles, ie Bumbles, general Stillwater wets and Snatchers or Bivisibles and Griffith’s Gnats. Genetic hackle is best, giving consistent barb length and several flies from one hackle, but quality Indian or Chinese capes are adequate. Hen hackle: Used for Loch Ordie, general Stillwater wet-flies, lures, salmon and pike flies, and body hackles on nymphs. Genetic hen is best, but again, non-genetic is fine provided the length suits the application. Pseudo hackle: used for general Stillwater wet-flies, lures, nymphs, Snatchers, Diawl Bachs and pike flies. In its untrimmed state: estimate the “hackle” length and how much you require, then trim the middle of the “ladder” with scissors, then cut a few mm of “hackle” from one end. Use…

Mackenzie FX2 Graphene Double-handed Rods FROM £1039 Mackenzie FX2 Graphene double-handed rods are our 2nd generation rods made from our Nobel prize-winning Graphene material. Graphene is the lightest, strongest material known to man. The new FX2 rods are manufactured using our brand-new aerospace carbon technology, along with our FX2 Graphene technology, which gives you the lightest, strongest, and most durable rods on the market today. This has resulted in a range of powerful rods with a faster tip recovery, increasing line speed/distance, and, importantly, retaining a fairly deep progressive action with sensitivity. The FX2 is a very user-friendly range of rods designed to make casting/ fishing easier for the modern fly fisher. Our double-handed rods come in both 4 and 6 piece. The 6-piece rods are excellent for destination trips…

Designed and developed in New Zealand, Primal fly-rods are new to the UK, available through Flyfish Europe. The most popular range is the entry level Bold rods, consisting of seven models from a 7ft 9in 3wt up to a 10ft 6wt and offering great performance and value for money. They have high-modulus 55MSI blanks, low-mass single-foot rings and are supported by Primal’s Quick Fix warranty service. The full Primal rod line-up has nine different ranges, including specialist saltwater, nymph and double-handed models, with prices starting from an affordable £79.90. flyfisheurope.com…

Hardy Fortuna Regent £599.99 – £699.99 The Regent is the latest Hardy reel to carry the famous Fortuna name. Designed for use in the most demanding conditions, it is built around a multi-pad, carbon-fibre disc-drag, housed within a sealed, waterproof hub. It can deliver from 10lb to 20lb of drag pressure depending on the model. This impressive stopping power is controlled by the large drag adjustor, which goes from minimum to maximum setting in a single rotation, with indented settings for quick reference. The reel’s narrow spool and extra-large arbor design give exceptional line pick-up and level stacking during the fight, a worthy successor to the name. Available in 8000, 10000, 12000 sizes. hardyfishing.com Guideline Fario LW £339.99 – £379.99 The Elegant Fario LW trout reel has a luscious new…

Fulling Mill, a firm known for its highquality artificial flies, has launched a big range of fly-tying materials. Working on the principle that an insect’s colour comprises many hues, it has developed effective dubbing blends, one of which is the Ultra Nymph Dub. There are 24 colours. All are a blend of natural and synthetic materials, which create a soft, translucent effect, ideal for nymph patterns. Along with shades of olive and brown, there are seven fluorescent colours, from bright orange and sunburst to shrimp pink, the latter closely resembling the orangey hue found in freshwater Gammarus shrimps. Two blacks are called Blurple, which contains tiny purple filaments that produce a wonderful sparkle, and French, which has similar strands in red There are also five Psychedelic blends, which contain up…

MEON SPRINGS Four spring-fed lakes nestled in the Hampshire countryside at the headwaters of the River Meon. Stocked with quality rainbow trout. Excellent facilities including glamping accommodation. Online booking system. Day ticket £40 (two fish, then £12.50 per fish). Tel 01730 823 134 Web meonsprings.com LLANDEGLA A mixed trout and coarse fishery in North Wales. Two trout pools are stocked with rainbow, brown, tiger and gold trout up to 15lb. Onsite cafe, tackle-shop and glamping. Also an ideal base for mountain bikers and walkers. Day ticket £36 (four fish). Tel 01978 755851 Web llandeglafishery.com…

Thames Water is the first water company to publish a map showing when it is discharging sewage into rivers. The chart records locations of "storm overflow activity” when "foul water” bypasses treatment works and flows with rainwater into rivers during periods of heavy rainfall. It reveals in "near realtime” if sewage is discharging now (red circle, left) or when it was last discharged and for how long. Angling Trust has urged UK Environment Secretary Thérése Coffey to "use her powers” to instruct regulator Ofwat to demand water companies stop storm overflows entering rivers before the present 2050 deadline. In 2020 and 2021, storm overflows discharged raw or partially treated sewage into rivers on 760,000 separate occasions, lasting for more than 5.7 million hours. Thames is one of 11 water companies…

YOU CAN GLEAN A LOT FROM a fisherman's hat. Simon Barnes' tweed cap was peppered with chewed flies. Buzzers and a Cruncher hinted at a recent Stillwater foray, but there were numerous Muddlers, winged Green Peters and a Goat's Toe, too — enough to conclude that he had a passion for wild lochs. Yet there, too, among the boat-fisher's armoury hung a lone Olive Paradun. It looked apologetic in such company, but I'd already figured out that Simon was a keen river fisher — for it was he who'd suggested we cast a line together on the River Annan, a pilgrimage he made each spring from his Perthshire home. I'm not one to turn such things down, especially when my first river trout of the season was calling. Simon had…

HATS AND 'TACHES I was fascinated by the 1892 black-and-white picture of members of the Yorkshire Anglers’ Association (T&S, March). What a wonderful snapshot in time. All the heavy woollen tweeds, at least seven styles of hat, thigh waders (what were they made of?), pocket watches and stiff-looking rods: it is hard to tell if they are cane or greenheart. They look a stout well-fed bunch, bristling with moustaches. I wonder if they were working men or gentlemen of leisure? I’ve heard it said that the wild river trout were smaller then and looking at the small size of their net, I think that’s probably true. It is hard to get members of a modern club together, the busy lives we all lead, but like old school photographs, I think…

AS YOU SET OUT FOR YOUR FIRST foray of the season to the southern chalkstreams here are a few facts about these unique rivers that you might want to use to idle away the hours (but hopefully minutes) between, or waiting for, a fish to rise. 1. Our ancestors made them. If you were around 2,000 years ago your average chalkstream valley would have been a giant wetland, largely impenetrable to all but the native beavers and otters. However, the soil left behind from the Ice Age is highly fertile and early man soon twigged this, draining the marshes for crops, grazing and, eventually, homes. So, what we now regard as the rivers themselves came into being having been dug by the early settlers as drainage channels. 2. Small but…

At 78 miles long, the Usk is one of the longest rivers in Wales. Rising on the slopes of the Black Mountain in the west of the National Park, it flows north to Usk Reservoir and then east to Brecon. From there it flows through Abergavenny, Usk and Newport before joining the Severn estuary at Uskmouth. Typically for a river with its source high in the mountains, it runs clear with a slight tinge, but levels can change rapidly. It’s advisable to check the weather forecast and the River Levels website at riverlevels.uk/usk-brecon-community-brecon before fishing. The name Usk derives from the Common Brittonic (an ancestral Celtic language) word meaning “abounding in fish”. The Welsh name for the river, Wysg, is cognate with the Welsh word for fish, pysg. The Usk…

FISH THE CONDITIONS It’s difficult to pick just one line density for spring salmon fishing. The rule of thumb is to fish the conditions, not the time of year. Spring fishing isn’t uniform: you may face many water heights and temperatures. The configurations of pools will vary, as will your approach, from deep and slow, to high and fast, with all points inbetween. In the early, colder part of the season on the Aberdeenshire Dee, a common set-up is an intermediate or slow-sinking shooting head — possibly a multi-density line such as a float-hover-intermediate paired with a fast-sinking polyleader. Faster-sinking heads are also used. On bigger, powerful rivers, sinking lines — 4/5 and 6/7 — help to slow the fly and fish it at the right depth. They’re great all-round…

CORMORANTS CAN BE FISHED SLOW or fast, deep or shallow, and are taken by trout as fry or insects throughout the year on stillwaters. This Special Cormorant has been tied by Lindsay Simpson, a hugely experienced river and stillwater angler, who once captained the Military Veterans Fishing Team that won the Hanak European Grayling Competition on the Welsh River Dee. He has a great YouTube channel (youtube.com @ lindsayiflyfish), full of good humour, brilliant tips and flies to tie. Most of Lindsay’s Cormorants are plain, with no rib or cheeks, but early in the season he finds the trout sometimes fall for a flash of colour, when his Special will “score” all day. The rib, made from Perdigon body material, adds subtle flash. He uses a seven-weight rod because early…

A powerful, yet easy-casting line for delivering big flies and heavy sink tips in adverse conditions. Now with an integrated running line for less rigging and a smoother power transfer with no hingeing. Rio’s SlickCast coating, low-stretch Connect Core and front and back welded loops creates the slickest, most durable line available with enhanced bite detection and control. Available in 375gr to 525gr. guideflyfishing.co.uk Airflo Superflo Ridge 2.0 Streamer Max £99.99 The Streamer Max’s short, bulky head is made up of a density compensated sinking section, from 7ips to 10ips (depending on the model), combined with an intermediate density transition zone, which eliminates line hinge. The line is designed for turning over heavy streamers and getting them down fast to where the big trout feed. Available in WF5, 160gr to…

Orvis PRO waterproof luggage £189 – £365 The PRO Waterproof range from Orvis includes 20-litre and 30-litre Backpacks, a 28-litre Boat Bag, a 14-litre Sling Pack and a 10-litre Hip Pack. They are all constructed from 840-denier, abrasion and puncture-resistant ballistic nylon and coated with .1mm TPU (Thermoplastic polyurethane) on both sides of the fabric making them completely waterproof. The bags and packs are feature packed with either a roll-top or waterproof zip closure, adjustable padded, breathable carry straps, Hypalon attachment points, additional storage pockets and mesh water bottle holders. All the bags in the range also have an exterior tippet docking station for quick access to a range of tippet material. orvis.co.uk BUYER'S GUIDE The main points to consider when buying a fishing pack. ■ Size: Can it easily…

CLUES ACROSS 4. The cormorant is this type of bird (6) 6. Long-established Somerset reservoir (7) 10. Swedish manufacturer of fishing reels (3) 11. Boat-steering device (6) 13. Marine swimming reptile (6) 14. Number denoting nil (4) 15. Bright colour of Tosh salmon fly (6) 18. Black-headed seabird (4) 19. Pixie (3) 20. Undulation of reservoir water surface (6) 22. Enemy (3) 23. Not at home (3) 25 Essential angling item (3) 27. Long-legged wading bird (5) 28. Small freshwater duck that yields a black/white flank feather ideal for fly-tying (4) 32. Cumbrian lake offering wild brown trout (9) 33. Salmon river that flows into the Moray Firth (5) CLUES DOWN 1. Email greeting (2) 2. Salmon spate river in northeast Scotland (8) 3. Green traffic light instruction (2) 5. ***** Dog red/yellow salmon fly (5) 6. Spherical plastic bite indicator (6, 5) 7. Creative skill (3) 8. Devonshire moorland river (4) 9.…