The Price of Late Spawning!

Since the season started, its been obvious to most of us, that the Touvre trout have not all spawned. On most rivers it would not be a problem, but on this river the price the trout pay for this late loving is death.

We suspect that the majority of the bigger brown trout get taken in this period before they have had a chance to reproduce. On the river right now you have the spin fishermen, and the toc fisherman in huge numbers, all taking fish for the table.

One man I spoke to today took three large female fish yesterday, all in spawn. Another today had a nice fish of 40cm again shedding eggs. On opening day the Heron saw four fish all over 50cm killed, two with eggs inside. All said they would return "in spawn" fish if other anglers did the same. It's this sheep like attitude, we have to overcome if the river is to have any chance.

The Heron and I have just spent two days on the river, walking and watching. The dead fish tally is dreadful and makes us both feel sick, the river is painfully low, and dirty, and things don't look good for the fly fishing in May, but the number of big browns being caught tells us the river is a survivor, and still holding on, but for just how long!!

The Good the Bad and The Ugly!!

On this week around many of the river's in France, the stocking of Rainbow Trout will be taking place. My local club helped with the stocking this season, and I tagged along to take a few pictures, for the blog.

I have mixed feelings about this, but being a foreigner in this wonderful country, I am doing my best to understand why you would WANT to do it, when you could be stocking with native fish? Or stocking coarse fish (roach, bream carp etc) that would be re-cycled by catch and release.

I'm told it's to give the fisherman "fish to catch" at the start of the season, but many of my French friends feel its more to do with justifying the cost of the fishing licence!

It is very cheap to fish in France, just 70 euro a year. Compare that to other civilised countries like the U.K , where you pay to fish most rivers, or lakes, as well as having to pay for a rod licence. Depending on what kind of fishing you want to do, Game or Coarse, you can spend anything between 6 euro to 1000 euro per day.

I would suggest anyone fishing just twice a week for Trout (as I do) would spend 500 euro a year! That's 7 times more expensive than France!!

I know from friends all over Europe, as well as International Anglers I speak to, they all pay considerably more. Countries like Slovenia and Croatia have caught on to the fact, Game anglers will pay to fish pristine river's, full of quality fish, and these countries are now more expensive to fish than they ever use to be.

So at 70 euro a year is it really the cost of a licence that's prompts this stocking.!?

Well yes, I think it has something to do with it, but not everything. Generally the river's in France, are poorly stocked, and many of the fish (carp, perch, pike) end up on the table for food. The French are also very heavily into spinning, and use barbed treble hooks. The average coarse fisher also fishes with barbed hooks, and has little understanding of safe unhooking and handling methods.

Now don't get me wrong, many of the match fishermen, and the carp anglers fish to a very high standard, and are very good at fish handling, but they are the exception, not the norm.

For one thing it seems everyone older than 50 years, has a fishing rod. This may be a holdover from when times were tough and food short, and you could go to the local river, and catch your dinner. They may only fish a few times a year, but if they pay 70 euro, they want something for there money! and they want to eat it too!!

One good thing that does comes out of it is, it takes some pressure off the natural brown trout (of which I am fond) The stocked rainbow will swim around in the area near to were it was stocked, until it gets caught. By mid May when wading is allowed on my river, all the rainbows will be taken, and the early season anglers gone! and the occasional angler will have taken enough tame trout to justify his outlay.

If things are to get better, then 'fishermen of all kinds' have to have fish to catch. The first step is to clean up the rivers (see previous posts on this blog) and the environment around them. Then stock the river with fish that are native, and with species the various rivers can support!! The cost of the fishing licence will have to increase, but that's the price of having quality fishing on your doorstep!

Trout Growth Rates.

Last season our club did a study of the river Touvre trout growth rates, by collecting and reading trout scales. It was not a huge study, but enough to give us some answers to questions we have been asking for some time. Here are the results!

1 year + 25cm.

2 year + 36cm

3 year + 44cm

4 year + 54cm best fish being 59cm (caught by The Heron) at 4 years+

It also showed that the trout do not reproduce until they are 2 years old e.g 36cm. At odds with this is a kill size limit of 30cm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I know, I said the Federation rules were crazy.

This study tells us, that many fish are killed before they have a chance to reproduce. The club intends to do a larger study this season, and hopes the results will change some of the insane catch and kill rules, that are in place on this wonderful river?

Where has all the weed gone?

I visited the local chalk stream at the weekend, I wanted to see what the river was like prior to the season opening in a few days time, I had the biggest surprise of my life.

The normal weed that grows all year round has disappeared, and the gravel and silt beds can been seen clearly on the river bottom,

its a real mystery, and has left several of us scratching our heads.

In summer the weed is never cut as it should be on chalk streams. Everyone knows it should be cut, local land owners have an obligation to do it, but its not enforced? The local Fishing Federation that has the responsibility to cut weed is totally impotent, being tied up in red tape all the time!

During the summer without any cutting the river gets bank to bank with weed. Its impossible to fish a dry fly after mid-June in many places, so up close nymph fishing is the only method you can realistically use! This can be good, as you can get really close to your target fish, but its not ideal for the purist's?

So what has happened to the river, is there an answer? Well I think I may know!

Over the past few seasons, I have noticed how the river colours up quicker after rain than it use to do. In the past even very large amounts of winter rain would not effect it, and the river would remain clear, and the flow constant. But in the last few years, this has not been the case, as the river remains coloured after even small amount of rain. As a consequence the weed dies off through lack of sunlight, its that simple!?

So here we have a once great chalk stream river under going a fundamental change, and I don't believe its for the better? Now the fish are totally exposed to the spin fishermen during the early months. The young trout will find it more difficult to hide from predators until the weed returns, and there will be less fish in a river that only has, a small stock of fish to start with.

I will let you know how I see the season, as it progresses!

Mayflies the Big Boys!

Ephemera danica. E. vulgata. E. lineata. I'm lucky enough to have all three of the large Mayfly species, living in and around this region of France.

Whilst in England, E. danica is the most common species, in this area E. vulgata seems to be more common, or at least the one I see the most. E. lineata is not over common but found often enough if you are looking for it, and know what to look for?

I don't profess to know a great deal about Entomology, but enough to get by, and more importantly what to look for when trout are feeding.

For a long time during my early fishing years, I would tie on a dry fly at any sign of rising fish, now however I can read the rise forms better. Trout seem to spend a long time taking emerging insects on my local river, and it takes a very big hatch of Mayflies to make them lose all there caution, and take the fully emerged duns!

I expect this is down to were the most food is found, and how much effort they have to excert to eat it. It may also have something to do with sunlight too, in this region we get many bright, hot days during the summer, perfect weather for big fish stalking, but not good for hatches or for trout taking insects off the surface.

However when your in that cold chalk stream water, on a red hot day, with fish bulging on the surface, its all good, oh yes, all good!!

Casting, does practice make perfect?

Ever since I discovered Fly Fishing some 30 years ago, I have been in love with the art of Fly Casting. Practice for me is all about learning something new, or perfecting a difficult cast. At one time I mainly fished still waters, where the need for distance was paramount. However in the last 15 years, rivers have been more important to me, and I discovered all that distance practice was of little use to a river Fly Fisher!

During my river fishing season, its rare for me to have more than 2-3 rod lengths of fly line out of the rod tip at any one time. With a 12' leader that still 30' of line and nylon, and as most of my fishing is to sighted trout, I often have considerably less than this.

Drag is the river fly fishers greatest enemy, so many of the casts I practice are designed to put slack into the fly line and leader, or position the fly line in such a way that it does not scare the trout by landing near it.

The winter (on non windy days) is an ideal time to practice these special casts. For many of us the winter means, no trout fishing, and time on our hands. I find it takes several days of practice to learn a new cast, but a little and often is sometimes better than prolonged sessions.

Unlike fly tying, fly casting is difficult (but not impossible) to learn from a book, you really do need "hands on" experience, and a good coach can save hours of frustration. If your looking to river fly fish this season, then start that practice right now. It really will pay off on the river, I promise!

One book I can recommend is; Jason Borger's 'Nature Of Fly Casting'.

Maybe the best web site on the subject of casting is; Sexyloops.com. Run by one of the best fly casters, and trout bums I know, Paul Arden.

Spiders