The loss of a big fish!

Today we have rain. It started at 6am when Polly, my semi-wild cat, asked to be let out. It started to rain moments later, so now she is sleeping on our ride-on lawnmower, and looks set to stay there as long as the rain continues.

I hope that's for the next month, because that's how much rain we now need, to bring the water level back up to normal for the time of year!

Clearly Polly wants it to stop, as our meadow is currently full of wild mice right now, and that's real fun for a semi feral cat!?

It does look promising however; as the sky is dark, thunder is in the air, and the air temperature has dropped some 10 degrees overnight.

The last time I fished the river Touvre, I lost a big fish. It may sound strange but it's taken me some time to come to terms with it. The reason is I have spent so much time in search of a monster trout over the past few years, it feels very personal when you lose one. Clearly its not the fishes fault, its almost always operator error, but it's still painful!

I know one part of the river that has four large fish in a relatively small area. The fish are not often seen, due to heavy weed, but late evening they do leap especially if big caddis are on the water.

I guess the best fish is over 65cm, maybe 5lb, the others between 58cm and 60cm, again huge fish for a wild, understocked river, in France.

I have been fortunate over the past few seasons, to have my fair share of bigger than average fish. But I have "paid my dues" with the amount of time on the river. However a really big fish (60cm+) as always eluded me.

This time, it was the simple brute strength of the fish bolting through weed that did for me, and the hook pulled out.

I had seen a big fish roll during the evening, and had 'marked it down'. Fishing with a successful caddis emerger pattern, the fish took first cast, and pulled the rod tip down into the water. I had just not been prepared for such power.

I suppose if fishing didn't mean as much to me, such a loss would not matter. But fishing is the fabric of my life, it's one of the few things in this world that makes sense. Fishing is as important to me as breathing in and out, it's that simple.

I expect racking havoc with the mice in the meadow, is for Polly, what fishing is for me. She wants the rain to stop, I need it to continue, so does this whole part of France!

The Rape of a river.

Its true to say my local river Charente is in real trouble. The local farmers still continue to water crops, when as you can see by the pictures the river is dry as a bone!

Barbel, chub, carp, and other coarse fish are in real danger of having nothing to swim in. The future of this river is now in the hands of people, who don't care about the future, just this years crop, its rape pure and simple!

A change of plan!

For the past 12 weeks or so, we have had no rain. The Charente region has been bone dry, and the river Touvre is very, very low. This and the lack of weed I mentioned a few weeks ago, is putting a huge pressure on the fish. For this reason I'm stopping Trout fishing early, or until we get some appreciable amount of rain?

I know at this time many people will still be fishing, as the bigger fish are easier to find. But for me its all about the place, and how I catch my fish. And chasing pressured fish with nowhere to go, is not me cup of tea, so!!

I have started fishing for Carp, with my 9# fly rod. I have found a few fish, and am trying to get them on the top taking bread, or cat biscuits. But boy for wild, uncaught fish are they spooky!?

However I'm not giving up the chance to fish for other coarse fish, whilst I'm out fishing. I recently managed a small Tench (rare on nymph) and a decent Bream, both on nymph. The Tench was coming in nicely when a huge Pike took it by the head, and crunched the poor creature. I released it, but didn't think it would survive very long!?

The Carp? Well only time will tell?

Hatches!

It's been a strange old year so far! Normally I'm able to predict with some certainty when, and what, will be hatching on my local river Touvre, but this year it's been all about the weather?

In my opinion the main foods available to trout on the river Touvre are scud and caddis. With every handful of weed, you discover hundreds of scud, and caddis hatch each and every day throughout the trout fishing season, mayflies are a secondary, but less important source of food.

Normally by mid May (the time wading starts, and proper fly fishing commences) the trout have seen many PMDs and other small to medium mayflies. However the hatches of mayflies on the river, are rarely large enough to bring the bigger trout to the surface. With such large quantities of scud and caddis available, its just not calorie efficient to switch their feeding habits to mayflies, from caddis and scud!?

However in past years, the mayfly hatches have been fairly predictable, and during the daytime you could expect a rise of short duration, provided you knew just 'when and were'. But this year because its been to cool, or due to heavy rain (hail at times) it's been almost impossible to pin anything down?

For example last week a good friend told me when, and were, he caught a few fish on dries, during a small hatch of mayflies. The following day I took up position in the place, at the appointed time, but no hatch came off, well a few, very few. But not enough to get fish to the surface. And that's just what its been like since the start, up and down.

In the past it's been all about the late mornings or early afternoons, but now it seems to be late evening, into dark. Then you can have multiple hatches going on, caddis, mayflies, midge and spinner and your changing flies like a whirling dervish. It's difficult, very difficult!

Why do you fish?

From the number of young lost, I dont think Moorhens are very good parents.

Too many Swans on your river?

Brown trout on cress.

Versatility! and how to learn it.

I like to think I'm a fairly decent fly fisher, with good presentation skills, keen observation, and fair tying skills. However I do know I'm not inventive, and have to copy others ideas to hone my skills. To be a really great fly fisher, I believe you HAVE to have this something extra.

Take for example the American fly fisher John S. Barr, from reading his wonderful new book, Barr Flies http://barrflies.com/ you clearly see the high sense of inventiveness this extra special angler has. For those who don't know about John Barr, he has listed over 20 original flies in the Umpqua Feather Merchant's catalog, and is the originator of the most famous Copper John. If you don't have this book, I can most highly recommend it, both for the idea's within the book, and the excellent fly tying.

I don't for one minute think being a copier is a bad thing! we cannot all be John Barr. But I think you do owe it to yourself to be versatile! Many of the anglers I fish with, and anglers I see on the river, only have limited methods of fishing. Their main method of attack is dry fly fishing, that's fine if you have rising fish, but not much good if you don't. Few know how to present nymphs on the river bed, or when wet flies may be appropriate. But to learn a new skill is not that difficult, if your willing to put yourself out a little.

For example last winter at our Fly Fishing club's tying evening, one of our new members came with his new fishing reel, and new fly line looking for advice on how to attach his tippet! Unfortunately he didn't have any backing for the reel, and had ruined the first 30cm of fly line by putting the line on his reel back to front! We sorted him out, and the damage was not too bad, but this basic "setting up your tackle" could have been found in most basic fly fishing books, or at his local tackle shop. You only have to look or ask, and that's the key.

Today we have so much information available, both in books, DVDshttp://essential-skills.tv/, on the Internet, and through fishing clubs. To be versatile you have to want to learn, and you have to be willing to ask for help, then you must practice it on the river.

As trout take around 80% of there food from the river bed, nymphing skills are essential, but if you cannot present the fly accurately to the fish, your chances fall dramatically.

A decent casting coach can teach you simple presentation skills in an afternoon if you have the basics down.

If your a complete novice, paying for a lesson is money well spent, and will save bad habits creeping into your casting. I'm amazed how many long term fly fishers I see, who don't have any line control skills. Many cannot mend line effectively or collect line with their spare hand. If your a river angler, being able to control your line once its on the water is an essential skill, you have to know. Being able to present you fly with accuracy is just a minor part of presentation, it only ends when the trout takes your fly!

Fly fishing is a continuous journey, with no final destination. We should never think we know it all, or that one technique will get you through a day on the river. To be versatile you have to copy, read, research, and practice, and never be afraid to ask for help, its never been more available.

First week, falling in, future fears!

The first week has come and gone on my local chalk stream. To be honest it's been a big disappointment. Despite taking a few nice brown trout to 50cm, compared to last season numbers of fish are well down.

On Monday and for the entire week, the river was a dirty brown from recent rain, so fish spotting was out. This left me with a choice, fish with a streamer or don't fish at all. No contest.

Out came the 6# Sage tcr and my favourite lightly weighted size 6 minkie (a relic from my Rutland days) Casting into the bank, and allowing the lure to 'swing around' in the current produced several takes but no hook ups. I had a feeling the fish had gotten use to this tactic, used so often since March, buy the Rappala and spinning brigade.

A change to casting mid river caught me the biggest fish of the week, a cracking 50cm female brown trout. During the following days fish of 46cm and 38cm followed. During all this time, not one fish was seen to rise, despite a good hatch of PMDs, medium caddis, and tiny black caddis each day?

I stayed late two evenings, well past 9pm but nothing came up, and my 3 fish were taken during daylight hours?

One evening as I was crossing back over the river, I tripped over a large stone, and took a ducking (with the water being brown, I just didn't see it.) The place I fell had a fair current, and I floundered for a few moments, before I could regain my footing. Everything got wet, apart from my cap! even the flies in my waterproof C&F boxes!!?

Two French friends watched with some amusement, and discussed who would get the tcr if I didn't make it!

The river is very low for this time of year. I don't really understand why? We have had a fair amount of rain in recent weeks, and that is one of the reasons the river is coloured. But the river has been getting more dirty each season, with suspended silt and other detritus clouding up the water.

Five years ago you could spot fish from 20' away, now you have to be on top of them to see them. And in just a few weeks time, local farmers will take water from the river for crops of sweet corn, I fear the future of our fishing, I really do.