Fly tying progression

I have been thinking about the progression through fly tying for myself recently. For fly fishing I've read a couple of different ones, like:

1. Catch a fish
2. Catch more fish
3. Catch a fish on a home tied fly
4. Catch bigger fish
5. Catch fish all over the world etc etc

I've also read about why people get into fly tying, to save money etc so here is my thoughts on the progression through fly tying:

1. I want to start fly tying to save money, tied nicer flies than some store bought creations and its a challenge to catch fish on home tied flies.

2. Hmmm.....some stuff is expensive. I'll try cheaper options. Ah, some stuff can be bought cheaper, others (e.g. good quality hackle) I need to shell out for. I may not save money doing this...

3. I definitely won't save money doing this...

4. So far, my flies do not look as good as quality store bought flies....

5. To solve this I need to buy more stuff.

6. I need more stuff.

7. I WANT MORE STUFF.

8. Where can I find fly tying stuff in everyday life (I call this the "magpie effect").

9. I WANT EVEN MORE STUFF. SERIOUSLY.....MORE STUFF.

10. Ok, I've reached a standard where I can catch fish on my flies....now I want to tie realistic flies!

11. Oh man, I need a ridiculous amount of new stuff now....How naive I was 10 bullet points ago saying I could save money....

12. Ok, I've got a fly box full of (semi) realistic flies. I'm at the river. Which one to choose? Ok, I'll use the same 4-8 fly pattern I use all the time. Why did I start this?!?

13. I can't stop. I now have no issue spending 45mins to an hour tying one heptagenid or baetis nymph (copying Oliver Edwards et al) whereas before hand I didn't have the patience to sit still for more than 10 minutes...

This is about the stage I have reached right now. I think it is becoming a full blown addiction, fulfilling my fix of fly fishing during the weekdays, ready for actuall fishing over the weekends. Luckily I have a supportive girlfriend and family who like like to feed the addiction at any birthday or xmas!

First day, new stretch

So last Sunday was my first day on the NAC stretch of the River Nidd. I was pretty keen to get out on the river, as most of us were after the terrible condition over the past year. To be honest, the day could've gone better....

1. I got 20 minutes down the road before I realised I'd left my membership card, parking ticket, fly vest and all my fly boxes, tippets and leaders at home.

2. I accidently chose the wrong road name on the sat nav and drove to the middle of nowhere meaning a 40 minute drive now took 1hr 30 (not including the turn around to get my gear).

3. I realised when I finally got the the river I'd left my full coffee pot at home and I was gagging for a cup.

4. I blanked. I'm not that bothered about this, as I rose three fish under poor conditions, but I was a little annoyed at how rusty I'd got as I rose three and missed them all!

Conditions weren't great, around 8 degrees air temperature, maybe 4 in the water (legs went numb at one point while targeting a sporadic riser). Had tied a few CdC olive patterns in anticipation for a hatch, which obliged at around 1.30pm. Nothing major, just a trickle of small olives. Speaking of identifying upwings, read Oliver Edwards article in FFFT this month, very interesting.

Rose the fish using a klinkhamer, no interest using the upwings. In total I think I saw around 10 dimples in the space of 2 hours, which isn't bad considering. Absolutely no interest in any of the nymphs I tried, had some baetis imitations on, a tungsten PTN flashback, striped quill nymph (from barbless flies - very good!).

Saying this, it was still a great day getting back out. It's a cliche heard a lot but I still love being on the river in beautiful surrounding, catching fish is the bonus. It's also a great stretch of river, tricky casting with alot of over hanging branches and trees common to the Nidd which meant I was casting over the wrong shoulder or left handed most of the day. Good practise though!

All in all, things could've gone smoother, but I am heading back this Sunday (15-18 degrees apparently!) so I'm hoping I'll be casting better...and I'll remember everything this time, fingers crossed.

Picture above is where some smaller fish were rising. Standing at 45 degrees to them I had to cast over the wrong shoulder to avoid getting hooked up into the tree behind, and side cast to keep in under the branches seen above. A bit tricky to say the least!

Tight lines to all out this weekend.

Last day before the new season

Last Sunday I had nothing to do, and with my girlfriend doing a craft fair/workshop I thought I'd get out on the river for one last time before the new season. As a member of Bradford city AA the majority of rivers are closed from the 14th - 31st of March, and the River Swale and Cod beck is one of these.

I'd never fished this section before, but I'd driven past the Swale a few times and been intrigued. I decided to give it a go, the weather and levels were good, overcast and around 8 degrees celcius, so I was inwardly optimistic.

I managed to get to the river around 10am, after a rather precarious drive down a bridle path/road which quickly turned into a mud path. I suited up into the new waders I treated myself to in the January sales (Patagonia Gallegos and river walkers, both half price, absolute bargain) and set off to the river.

First impression were good, the Swale was a bit larger and deeper than I am used to having predominantly fished the Wharfe at Buckden last year, but I started with a home tied tungsten bead pheasant tail with a flash of tinsel along the back. I normally get a feeling about how each section will fish after 5-10 mins, and I wasn't too hopeful that I'd pull anything out in this section. I don't know if it was the time of year or conditions, but it was pushing through very fast and deep in parts, which meant I struggled to get into certain positions, nearly getting my legs taken away once! Anyway, there is always Cod beck I thought.

So, after a coffee break and a quick chat with a fellw Bradford member who was up for some coarse fishing (good chubb and barbel I was told), I headed over to the beck. It looked fantastic, only about 6-8 feet wide but reasonably deep, and very clear, I could see the bottom for almost the whole stretch.

I swapped between an unweighted and weighted pheasant tail depending on the depth, turned a few stones to see some tiny stoneclingers (heptagenids I believe...I'm trying to learn as much as possible about entomolgy!). Unfortunately I didn't see a single fish in the whole stretch. I was as stealthy as possible, although access was tough with steep banks, but I persisted with some prospecting but the day was a blank. Still, its always nice to see a new stretch of river and I'd like to come back over the summer.

Also looking at joining a club on the Nidd this year which will mean some fishing a little closer to home. I always like a picture or two, so here is what I'll be thinking about for the next 30 days.

 

 

 

 

Tight lines for the coming season everyone!

Lack of fishing

There has been a distinct lack of fishing for me recently. Due to weather, birthdays, moving house and the like, I haven't been out since 26/10. This has also resulted in a distinct lack of blogging...mostly due to my laziness but in part due to a lack on internet in the new house.

I have, however, joined Leeds fly tying group, which has been a fantastic weekly fix of fly tying and fly fishing chat. I was previsouly self taught, which wasn't too bad with the plethora of youtube videos and other instructional material available. But what I've learnt from the group so far has been invaluable, and the ability to ask questions is a massive bonus. So, if its feasible, I definitely recommend joining a group if you're thinking about taking up tying.

Anyway, after a few weeks of fly tying inspiration I sat down last night to tie a few to fill some of the (many) spaces left in my fly box from lost flies. Somehow this quickly turned into reorganising my fly boxes which resulted in all flies emptied onto large piece of white paper on the floor. Not the best idea I've ever had, but (fingers crossed) none escaped. It did let me filter out some of my earlier attempts at flies, which now look awful. They went to the recycling box, which begs the question, does anyone else attempt to  "un-tie" flies just to reuse the hooks?! I have a couple of times, but it always seems like way too much effort.

After the reorganisation I only had time to tie a couple of dries and nymphs, nothing special, but fun as always. One thing I definitely need asap is some good quality hackles, another lesson learnt from the fly tying group!

And since I drafted this post three weeks agon I have in fact been out fishing using my new Tenkara USA Iwana. Lovely presentation and a fun addition to my fly fishing kit, but unfortunately no fish.... Oh well. To cheer myself up I bought some new Patagonia Rio Gallegos waders in preparation for the (fingers crossed) good spring/summer weather!

September

So, I've been meaning to write about an excursion with Steve at goflyfishinguk.com for what seems like an age, but due to breaking my laptop charger, holidays and work, I've been sidetracked. The aforementioned also means its been almost a month since my last fishing trip.

I posted about a day with Steve in June, and due to the success I had booked another within a week. The usual evening before phone call came on the Friday with the message that the River Aire was "cock on" and I should be expected "some big fish". Obviously excited I had to immediately calm myself and realistically lower my expectations if only to get some decent sleep.

Having only one experience of the Aire before, on a small stretch near Keighly, I didn't fully know what the river had to offer. It distinguishing feature when compared to my usual days on the Wharfe was the colour, more a 'minerally' clear than peat stain tea brown.

Started the morning off with the klink and dink method which brought success after about 10 minutes, with a beautifully fit brown trout around 3/4 pound. It gave an excellent account for itself and pound for pound an excellent fighter. Things continued this way for most of the morning with a few more around the same size, and one slightly larger taking the klink right on the crease line near the top of a run.

Moving on, Steve informed me that the next section, a slow arcing deep pool, held some big fish but didn't always produce. Worth a try though. Difficult casting into a head on wind that had many a field to build speed across, but after some duff attempts I eventually got the line straightened out. It was almost the perfect pool for casting towards the top and letting the rod follow the line round with the flies in the foam line the whole way. On the 3rd attempt a big old mouth broke the surface for the klink and I managed to hook into it. I knew instantly this was by far the biggest trout I'd ever hooked, heart rate went through the roof as I struggled for 10 minutes to keep control with an increasingly aching arm. Steve warned the trout would jump, and it obliged. I got the first view of the big paddle tail and was seriously worried, as always, that something would happen to stop me landing it. Eventually, with a huge sigh and adrenaline still pumping, Steve got it into the net. We weighed it at 3 1/2 pounds, a good 2lbs heavier than mmy biggest to date, so very chuffed. Unfortunately, just as we were taking a picture I lost control and it slithered back into the pool....oh well, I know it happened, I just hope I don't forget.

The rest of the day was spent on the klink and dink with a few hours on the spiders, all in all an excellent day, with another 2lb fish coming to the klink, below.

 Since then I've had only one day out, which was a short four hour stint at Buckden, and I only managed to save a blank with the last cast of the day, using a CDC loop emerger (as seen here http://www.riverflybox.co.uk/page6cdcloopemerger.html) except with nymph skin body (I have not got turkey biot...). This has saved me a few times and is one my my favourite patterns when trout are rising to just below the surface. So thanks to you Dave at riverflybox!

Went to Mexico for two weeks too, except not to a good area for fishing, which pleased my girlfriend. Planning on getting in more grayling fishing this year, fingers crossed the winter will be better weather than the summer. Dare I say the rivers needed that rain though!

Weather and Olympics

Obviously, like most other people, fly fishing has taken a back seat recently, what with the weather and Olympics. I've been pretty much glued to the TV for the last two weeks, with the exception of one evening. The Olympics has been amazing, and I'm feeling a gaping hole in my TV sports life now, but hopefully that will be filled with some good evenings of fly fishing in the next few weeks.

The one exception came last Tuesday evening, when, after busy weekends for the last month, I decided to try out the River Aire. To semi-quote Phil Collins, I could not feel it In the Aire tonight....the other night. Anyways, bad puns aside it was high and coloured, a usually shallow fast riffle was a chocolate maelstrom. Sat on the riverside for an hour before deciding that dinner and yet more Olympics would be a better option.

So, now that its all over (I even got to see GB win a gold and bronze in the canoe sprint finals on Saturday, epic) I decided to spend an hour at the vice this evening. Below are my first attempts at sedge patterns. Top two are Coyhaique Caddis patterns from this months FF and FT, and the bottom is a deer spun sedge I copied from my fly box (bought a couple of years ago when I didn't know what a sedge was...but it looked nice!).

Fishing and tweeting

Started using twitter a lot more these days,  not for shameless self promotion, more to try and get engaged in the UK and worldwide fly fishing and general angling community. After a year and a half in the north I thought it may be useful to try and connect with more like minded fly fishers, and twitter seems like a decent place considering the about of people/tweeters I've found!

So, if you want to hear about my fly fishing experiences in less than 150 characters, follow me here and I'll follow you back.

Anyway, back to the real reason for this post. Had my best day all season so far last weekend with nine fish in the net including this beaut below

A little too big for my 11" net and I reckon it was around 12-14", this picture doesn't do it justice. Yeh, yeh, yeh I hear you say but honestly it doesn't! Its kinda wrapped around my hand, didn't want to mess around too long trying to take pictures so its a one shot attempt with my phone. Fell to a nymph pattern I tied using V-rib tubing in olive tied around the hook shank, with hares ear and a black tungsten head. Took me by surprise at he was right close to a gap in the bank, thought I was hooked into the bank until he started thrashing! Just middle left of this photo below is where he was sitting, about 3 metres in front of the large bubbles.

Had some interesting action on the dry fly, got one on a CDC emerger. There was no surface action so I guess they were taking either very small terrestrials or nymphs close to the surface. Also managed one on a sherry spinner without a spinner in sight!

Doesn't look like I'll be out for a couple of weeks though, got a day at the cricket then olympic tickets so optimistically I'm thinking the 12th August.

Tight lines to all, and look me up on twitter if you're bored!