Trout on the Fly Part Four.

 Today was the fifth time I've been out Trout fishing and it is getting more and more enjoyable every time I go and the weather was perfect for some fly chucking so here is how the day's fishing went.

 A nice Brown Trout of ( 1.8 ), a good hard scrap off another muscular spotty.

 This is probably one of the most strangely shaped fish I've ever seen, what are your weirdest catches?

It was one very chunky Brownie of about 12ozs, it was certainly a weird looking fish but fighting fit.

This stunning Brown Trout of 3lb 7oz, a proper fish and a 2nd big fish in two trips.

A fantastic and pristine fish.

A storm was quickly brewing though, time to push on.

 But the session then took on an unexpected twist as the Trout made way for an array of silver fish.

 A batch of 11 Dace and another 3 Trout plus a surprise Rudd of 11oz.

  The Dace averaged about 5ozs and the largest was weighed at 7ozs, never had Dace on the fly and not a Rudd either, so it was a very good days fishing. The Rudd below, arguably the prettiest species in our rivers.

The colours are so perfect, I wish I caught more.

 If you have caught fish with strange appearances or deformities then I would be interested to see what you guys come up with. Until next time.....Tight Lines.

Trout on the Fly Part Three.

 The last few weeks since the 1st of April I have managed to get out once a week in search of Trout and with these trips I have had a couple of things in mind, one of which is to further improve my casting and secondly to try and catch a Brownie that will challenge my PB of 6lb 6oz, which although seems a tall order I believe is very slightly possible, but unless you try you never know, after Saturday and the last minute arrival of a Crucian at Marsh Farm I was in a bouyant mood and felt that if I had got my presentation and selection right I may do better than I have during my previous visits this month.

 The last few days have bought quiet a bit of rain and when I reached the river it was still showing signs of colour and extra water but you can always fish the shallower runs that are usually gin clear whatever the conditions, recently though I have seen a hand-full of large Trout between 3-5lb, so finding one of those was my aim but they were much further down the beat, the plan was to fish down to them, maybe catch a couple along the way and the session very nearly started well but the crafty spotty hit the fly on the drop and simply caught me by surprise, by the time I struck the fish was gone, it happens to the best of us.



 Along the way down river there are some very lovely looking pieces, very healthy and got a decent stamp of Trout to back it up, unfortunately most of which weren't feeding or just wanted to ignore my offering but after around an hour I came across my first fish that showed a willingness to take and on the second retrieve a small bow wave appeared behind the fly as it was being pursued, a split second later the rod slammed over, I made no mistake with this one and this was the first of the day at around a pound or so.

A slim hen Trout between 1.0 & 1.4.

 As the day went on the sun disappeared behind thick clouds that started to leak water and the wind crept up, but that was the least of my worries when a mass amount of cut grass was dumped into the river upstream by some idiot, it made the fishing very difficult as the presentation was all wrong, because of this I had to then start working the fly down the water column to avoid the grass in the upper layers, but I had a couple of aces up my sleeve in regards to positions of a couple of large Trout I had spotted last week and after a long hard look through a 50 yard stretch I spotted my target, now the hard work had began. But to cut a long story short I had after 30-40 minutes managed to find out what fly to use, how deep to fish it and where to present it when the most vicious of takes occured, purely brutal is the only thing that springs to mind, on very light rod and 4lb leader this fish was to certainly put me through my paces and test me.

 After a heart stopping 5 minute battle, countless bursts up and downstream a big cock fish headed into a slightly small net considering the size of what I had just banked, just what I wanted and just for ten minutes I forgot how awful I felt from this illness that's hanging around, arguably one of the most perfect of Brown Trout I will ever see, teeth that would tear through any leader lighter than I was using plus eventually would have done mine too, so this is my season's best Trout, all 4lbs 6ozs of it.

Perfection.

 

4.6 of absolute power of almost biblical proportions.

 After that fish was revived and released back to it's aqua world I headed back up the beat to maybe find another fish to cast at but found it difficult to bother any more Trout, I'll leave them for another time, that one was enough and not forgetting the smaller one earlier in the day, another cracking couple of hours fishing.

A Bar of Gold.

 The title is almost a dead give away as to what species that I targeted on Saturday and after Brian's amazing bag last Saturday he couldn't say no to another trip down to Marsh Farm Fishery, so we were both up bright and early, by half 8 we were all set, both of our tactics were to float fish and mine wasn't dotted and fished the float on the lift and it worked very well but most of which weren't my target species.

 After some fairly cold nights recently and a very keen easterly wind the fish of all species weren't feeding very hard and it didn't really start to improve until around midday, it improved then massively, with a quick succession of Bream, Gudgeon, Roach, Rudd and a couple of Tench, this was then much the same throughout the day but I still couldn't find a Crucian, I was getting the bites off of the Cru's and did lose two both of which were roughly 12oz with the hook popping out as they hit the surface, neither of them were big but I certainly would have loved to land them.

A skimmer or a Silver Bream?

 More than 10 hours of fishing was coming to a close as we had to get ourselves packed up and over to the train station to head back to London, Brian had 3 Cru's to 2.4 which was a beautiful specimen and after the day I had just one would have been perfect but unfortunately it was time to finish, so as you do when fishing you reel in your line and prepare to leave but after more than 10 hours of fishing with no Crucian's you don't expect with no bite the rod to hoop over, but that is exactly what happened, I simply wasn't prepared for it and then after a brief encounter a bar of gold rose to the surface, with which I reached for the landing net and in she slipped, I have never been so elated to catch a fish, it was a tough day and I did every thing that I know, float sizes, shotting patterns, baits and depth.

 So this is what I came for in all it's glory.

1 lbs 12 ozs of pure gold, never wanted to catch one so much.

My prize gleaming in the evening sun.

 During the session I had 15 Tench to 3lb 8oz, 4 Bream to a 1lb, 1 Rudd, 2 Gudgeon, 5 Roach, a couple of Hybrids with the surprise last grasp Crucian so all in all a good day, I'll just remember next time I go fishing to wear trousers as I shivered pretty much all day and made things rather uncomfortable, until next time, Tight Lines.

Trout on the Fly Part Two.

 A quick post for a short session this morning in search of some more Trout on the fly, the weather today was perfect for fishing and sunbathing it has to be said but that wasn't on the agenda although I'm partial to a bit of lazing about in the sun home or abroad, the Trout were my target for the morning and within 2 casts out I was into a nice Brownie on the retrieve, I was testing out some new tippet ( 3lb ) breaking strain and it did quiet good but the test of time will no doubt be the ultimate one, the Trout was of an average stamp at 1lb 8oz and fought very well as they always do.

Just one of the weirs that the Trout have to traverse.

1.8

On it's way back to the watery home.

 After a couple of failed attempts to set a hook in two more rises I managed another Trout of around 8ozs roughly an hour later but the fish weren't really showing themselves as they do normally but after Stu joined me on the riverbank we did see around half-a-dozen more Trout most of which were 3lb or larger and two of which were well over 4lb maybe even 5lbs, I will be back for them and one of the larger fish had three follows of a Orange Flash Damsel but everytime I thought it was going to nail it, it shied away, damn, damn, damn, another time maybe. Tight Lines until next time.

Number two on it's way in.

Pristine specimen of a Brown Trout.

Sunbathing weather.

But also good fishing weather too.

Some fantastic fly fishing river.

Your host on the prowl for a spotty.

 Next session up is a trip to Godalming Angling's Marsh Farm Fishery in search of some Spring Crucian Carp with a target of 3lbs 2oz.

Trout on the Fly Part One.

 Trout fishing on the fly, a very interesting way of fishing and something I want to expand on and maybe head out to a reservoir or lake in search of some larger specimens, on the outskirts of London there are a few places which fit that description and will be certainly visited but on Saturday I only had a few hours available, so I tackled up and headed down to the river in search of Brownie.

Typical pool's, perfect Trout habitat.

 I caught one last week but could have had more but the Trout only followed, I thought through the reasons as to why, whether it was fly selection, retrieve speed, depth of where the fly was fished or and most importantly whether the Trout actually feeding, yesterday though I seemed to have got it all right, with a Brownie caught on my second cast, albeit around 6oz but perfectly marked.

Pristine condition little Brownie.

 Within 20 minutes I had a second on and it was certainly bigger, a proper scrap on such light gear, I love it when the rod bends double and this was no exception, a good 2lber and on the scales at 2.4 it was a good guess, after that Trout another followed shortly after and I was on a roll but it was another juvenile Trout maybe only a year old which is very encouraging and seem to take the flies with much more gusto than the larger ones that just seem to follow the flies in curiosity.

Biggest of the day at 2.4, another good fight on the fly gear.

 The day didn't finish with 3 either as I had another two Trout further down the beat biggest of which was 1.11 the smallest around half a pound, I did find a couple of large Trout amongst the growing amount of Ranunculus but couple be tempted enough to nail the fly but they certainly knew it was there, on a couple of occasions coming up the water column to investigate but not pursuing any further unfortunately, but I'm sure another day they may slip up or my selection will be right for them, or maybe just weren't feeding at that time, I will give it another go soon if they are still there.

The winner of prettiest Trout award.

Last Trout of the day.

 Another good days fishing though, hope to have a few of those this month and then the hatch of the Mayfly will surely see some more captures and maybe some bigger ones.

 Tight lines until then guys......