Abersoch

Here's some pics from the boys weekend in Abersoch. The tranquil fishing trip soon degenerated into... ...booze fuelled watersports

My arms & back are now completely goosed.

Looking forward to some fly fishing.

Geek chic

Spent the last week on the Cote D'Azur & after an unsuccessful couple of evenings seeking out suitable trout rivers under the thinly veiled guise of looking for restaurants with the missus, I was resigned to just spending a bit of time knocking out some flies in anticipation of a return to some on-form water back home - for which I was called a geek!

Reward 4weighting

Finally, a couple of warmer days on the bounce has given me the chance to try out my new little brook rod with some of the dries I've been knocking out over winter.
These fish bend a 4 weight double

P.A with a lunker

Beautiful orange spots

1st of the season

While walking the hound in the morning I noticed a few Gnats buzzing around in the park so knew I'd have to get out that evening to try out some new emerger patterns I'd been tying before the predicted cold front blows in & plunges us back into wintery conditions just in time for the weekend.
There wasn't a great deal of surface action going on, but I saw the odd shy dimple under the far bank vegetation & this was enough to rig up & nice fine tapered leader connected to an Elk hair emerger I'd tied onto a klinkhamer hook, the fly worked perfectly with its Spartan like mane sitting high in the water with the tempting buggy body benieth.

flykin

Went out to exorcise the demons of another unsuccessful trip out nyphing for Grayling by chucking out some big lures for dem dare toothy urban critters. Tried the big Perchy streamer again & immediately had a take that once again just let go & another fish taunting me by eye balling it all the way in to just below my feet!A change of fly was in order - this new fly, being a lot smaller & lot lighter, was a comparitive dream to cast but, that was by the by, the main reason in the switch was to use a less fussy lure where there'd be more chance of the Pike taking the hook than it's teeth setting into the fur n feather...
& it paid off, knicked it sweetly in the scissors!

The Sequel

Returned to the river the next day with my Pike fly set up - a 10 ft 8 weight airflow rod, 8 wt airflow 40+ shooting head line loaded onto a spare cartridge from a cheap greys reel, all bought off the internet for about £60, the rod even has a life time warranty which may prove useful chucking these huge Pike flies around.Started punching this big Perchy looking fly out into the tail of the pool, which feels a bit like casting a bath sponge on string when you're more used to chucking out small dries. A few casts later as I was watching the lures action as it neared the bank a decent Pike shot out of the murk and hit the fly, the rod bent double & I was into a fight but, just as I had it beat & was reaching for the net the fish just seemed to open its mouth & let go of the lure. The same thing happened on two more occasions, I think this may be due to the fish grabbing the streamer material and the hook not setting properly - before my next trip I need to look at modifying these flies.

Working lunch

Stole an hour at the river the other day in the bright afternoon sun and spent it searching out the weir pool with a little Rainbow Trout Rappala. The action was superb taking three pike in around half an hours fishing, with each getting progressively larger. I saw the last two fish hit the lure just a few feet from the bank - great fun! This has spurred me on to get out again in the next few days & tackle them with my heavy fly set up...

High Peak

Tried out a new stretch of water at the weekend up in the High Peak, I knew it would be tricky with over night temperatures down in the minuses, the water running gin clear due to the absence of rain for over a week now & the daytime conditions of bright low sunshine casting shadows wherever you waded... I was right, we both blanked, although we did have a top day out exploring a new water in the sunshine.
We spent the day searching the likely looking riffles & pools with heavy nymphs to no avail, I tried to convince myself that our lack of success was due to another angler who had been wading the same stretch prior to us. It was encouraging to see a small hatch of olives mid afternoon but, they failed to bring any of the Grayling to the surface & reveal their whereabouts to us.

Lancs v Esox

The lack of Trout action over the closed season has sent me out in search of Pike.

Be warned though - when you say to your wife/friends/family that your popping out for a spot of Piking, it does have a different dodgy connotation: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=piking

and more worryingly there are sites dedicated to sourcing good Piking locations!

Taimen on a Shoestring

Mongolia, a country three times the size of France - the only map Stamfords had was half the size of an O.S!

The builders must have been pissed when they put this bridge up.

The majestic Chuluut Gol snaking through the steppe

Bending one in

Lenok Lewis!

Taimen a half - Author looking pissed on local moonshine with a nice Taimen.

Urban Squirrel Coursing

Dave's been busy catching new materials for the tying table this winter...What a lovely pelt!

Octoberfest

With the clock ticking down on the season it's great to be still getting out there & catching on the dry. The weekends nice mild conditions have been good for the fishing, enabling us to cast to rising fish, some nice fish have also been tempted by plopping big Daddies into fishy looking lies.

Lunkmenistan

It feels sweet after a summers upstream dry-flying to be rewarded with such a fish...
...and even better to see her swim off again
The strange thing about this monster was that I took it out of a foot deep riffle and upon it sensing that the fly it had ate put up some resistance it swam upstream and towards a hole in the bank and attempted to just sit there and hide... & only when it knew it was 'hooked' did it take off.

Check out the vein in Toms forehead!!!! this beaut only shows itself when he's well excited!

And another!!!! What a buttery coloured beauty!

Sunday Evening

The trout were being pretty finicky last night,
but I managed a few on a little flying ant.

As dusk approached I tied on a Elk Hair Caddis & got this beaut out of a riffle barely deep enough to cover it's back.

Stickle Tarn - Stickleback sized Trout

Followed Wainwright's Central Fells guide book to walk from Grasmere up Silver How & then along the ridge dividing Langdale & Easedale to Stickle Tarn where I encountered the resident Stickleback sized brownies, from there I tracked back to decend between Blea Rigg & Great Castle How to fish Easdale Tarn. Easedale Tarn wasn't as Bleak as Stickle, partly because the sun had come out, but it does also have more features. I started by fishing the alluvial fan at the south eastern side where there's a nice drop off a few yards out. Standing well back & casting over the rocks so that just the leader hit the water I was rewarded with a nice fish first cast. From Easedale the walk back is about 40mins down Sourmilk Gill & Easdale Beck back into grasmere.

Santiago de Compostheap

With P.A on his way to Kuwait & Tom on his annual Pilgrimage to Satiago de Compostheap to flagellate himself with a 4 weight, I had the river to myself last night.Had a great session before dinner using a little Elk Hair Caddis to tempt the rising trout, I also had the bonus of seeing a pair of Kingfishers & some huge Dragonflies.

Biggest yet...

P.A tricked this lunker with a home tied caddis...

it took an age to subdue on 2lb frog hair, easily the biggest yet this season. Just look at the tail on it! It rose to the fly like a submerged log before waking up and taking him all over the river - the fish was definitely in charge.

Bread Fly

As the rivers are all flooded...

... went carping on the bread fly

Sunday

I'm going to start building an arc soon if it doesn't stop raining! As we arrived at Hayeswater carpark the mother of all downpours hit us, so with umbrellas aloft we set off up the fells walking up Hayeswater Gill, by the time we arrived there was a break in the weather revealing the stunning ampitheatre of hayeswater with its mirrored surface reflecting the crags superbly.
The break in the weather lasted the rest of the day & we managed to fish till gone 9pm before setting off back down.

Angle Tarn with St Sunday Crags shrouded in clouds.

Caddis were the order of the day

On the return leg we decided to take a short cut strait down the slope between Prison Crag & Calfgate Gill to meet the path at the filter station, quite a hairy decent (the closeness of the contours gives a clue). Saw some deer on the way down, but Tom scared them by sliding past them at a rate of knots in his cagool & waterproof pants!

He's got a chub on!

Got to the river early the other evening & as it was still bright and warm there wasn't much happening on the surface, so I decided to put a huge weighted streamer through some of the deeper glides until the flies started hatching. Casting this thing on a #5 line was tricky enough without having to negotiate the overhanging trees on the far bank, but I managed to plop it down amonst them and had a solid take after searching the pool for a few minutes. This fish felt different to the trout I was expecting and certainly didn't feel like the huge fish P.A. could see from his position on the bank above me, only when I managed to get its head up and saw the gaping mouth did I realise that I had a chub on! A first for the river & a first for the fly, I didn't realise they were this far upstream.