Fly Fisher Back at Bewl Water and some thoughts on tying knots

So to celebrate BT finally getting my Broadband back up and working I decided I needed to check on the trout fishing at Bewl Water personally. I shelled out on an eight fish ticket and an evening boat (£40, say $60).  Spoke to Rob Nixon on the jetty who said try the area near the dam.  It was 3.30pm before I started fishing but it was over cast with a nice breeze producing a ripple and I could see fish moving on the top.  I had a floating line with a long leader and a team of three flies.  Small booby on the point, hopper on the middle dropper and a daddy (crane fly) on the top dropper.  I had put the small white booby on because in the August Issue of the Bewl Angle, the Editor, Ray French had mentioned in one of his brillant articles that competition anglers were finding them very effective.  Well my third cast proved that to be true as the booby disapeared in a splash and I knew I was into a good fish.  It rapidly stripped loose line back onto the reel and then went seaching the depths.  Eventually I got it to the top and was glad I had my long handled landing net with me.

As you can see it was a lovely 3lb blue trout, in tip top condition.  Sadly he had destroyed my one and only small booby, but I solved that problem by taking my scissors to a larger booby, snipping away at the boobs!

 

It was half an hour later before I hooked my second fish, a 2lb rainbow also on the booby.  Then the sun came out and the wind veered and things went quieter.  There was still the odd fish showing, sometimes right next to the boat, when my flies were 30 yards away!  Eventually, and rather belatedly, I decided to fish sub surface and put a cats whisker on the point but I did not get any further action and time ran out.  I also got rather cold. I am a fool, I know it is always worth wearing plenty of layers when you out on the water.  So now as I write this I am developing a sore throat!  Still it was great to be out on the water and feeling a couple of good fish pulling a bend into the rod.  I shall be back for more as the autumnal sport hots up.

 

Footnote:  As I get older I find my fingers seem thicker and my eyesight dimmer.  This makes tying knots more challenging especially with the fine tippets I use on the streams.  This summer, I saw Rowland, one of my former fly fishing pupils, quickly tie a knot using a pair of small long nose pliers.  This reminded me that I had inherited from my American stepfather an old original Orvis Cinch Tie (a rather clever knot tier). See picture.

 

I checked the Orvis catalogue and they show a different version called a "Winder" which comes with a DVD presumably to show you how to use it.  It is priced at £22.50. Remember time spent messing about with knots means less time that your flies are doing what they are meant to be doing i.e. attracting and connecting with fish!

 

Fly Fishing Bewl and the Benefits of Fly Fishing Forums

Robert Sorenson visitor from Utah on the water at Bewl

Following my challenging last session at Bewl and because I had a visitor from the USA coming to fish with me I thought I would access the expertese in the club via the club web site Forum. So here are the posts:-

My question: Challenging Boat Fishing caused by bright sun?
I took a pal out on Monday 27th May (Bank Holiday), it was bright and sunny and the fishing was really hard. We fished for 10 hours! For a full account and a map showing where we fished have a look at my post at http://breakingrods.blogspot.co.uk
I would be very interested in receiving any tips on how to cope with bright sun and clear water please? I am taking another pal (from the USA) tomorrow and I would like him to have a fishey experience. Regards Alan C

Donkey replied
Bright sun clear water? Use finer, longer leader, smaller flies. Drift don't anchor and fish slower than normal on any flies (blobs or buzzers) Even in the sun fish in the top 4ft. The clear water means fish can see anything above them and will come up for your fly. Trout don't look downwards, so the chances are they never saw half of of your fishing. The fish may well be deeper but fishing at depth is bad advice. Eeeeeooor!

Roadrunner 1000 replied
The problem you had on BH Monday was bright sun AND a strong wind. Never good at Bewl. Coupled with the fact that the wind had blown from a different direction for the previous few days didn't help either.

Donkey responded
Roadrunner is right about wind and sun at Bewl generally, but not this year. So prolific are the buzzers at the moment, the fish are stuffed with them off the wind feeding quietly on the high flooded grass. Sunday's rod average was 5.5, mostly on buzzers. Monday we brought 11 fish to the boat on the drift and a couple of other club members did better. Method in our boat was slow sink tip with two size 14 green Buzzers and a Small FAB Blob on the point, fished slowly. This was also the method used by the Scots team to take Gold medal in the Home International at Bewl two weeks ago. Advice, fish at the top known spots that are off the wind if it is strong and follow what I said in my previous commentr. Bewl is different this year, it is a new experience !! Eeeeoooor!

I replied
Donkey and Roadrunner, You are both stars, thank you very much. I will follow advice and try harder! Alan C

Pigsypete joined in
Can I ask what's a FAB Blob ? I also hear a washing line is a top method but I have no idea how this is fished, I looked it up on tinternet it showed the set up but not how it is fished.

Roadrunner 1000 responded
FAB = Foam Arsed Blob.
I've never used one myself as I've heard that the foam can bump the fish off. I'm a big fan of a standard orange blob as an attractor fly on the top dropper though.
I'll fish a washing line using an intermediate line, mixing up my retrieve and size of booby eyes. I can't recall when the washing line 'technique' become well known but back in the early (?) 1990's when Airflo brought out their first 'Clear Glass' intermediate range I used a similar set up. Early season I would fish a booby/fast sinker/short leader and if I felt that the fish had moved up in the water I used the Fast Clear Glass with a six foot leader, booby on point and a Black Pennell on a dropper. The technique usually produced a few fish.
I remember when the booby first became 'known' and reading of anglers using a fast sinking line, long leader, booby on the point, buzzers on droppers and using long slow pulls to make the buzzers rise and fall through the water.
There is rarely anything 'new' in flyfishing, it's usually an 'evolution' of a technique/method.

End of posts

Meanwhile I had looked up FAB flies on the net and found a YouTube demo and tied four.  See
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNuu8VratPc

 

My American fishing buddy (a friend of a friend) Robert Sorenson, and I duely fished FABs with buzzers on Friday 31st May at Bewl and we both caught on them.  Robert caught his first blue on one.  The fish ignored our buzzers, maybe they were too big.  We found the fishing hard again after a calm start the wind got up and favoured drifts got a bit bumpy.  I did manage to hook one fish in the bumpy stuff.  A particularly favoured corner got one chap at least a dozen fish.  We saw him catch 2 beautiful browns.

If anyone knows him please direct him to this post as I said I would send him the picture and then failed to get his details.

Around 6pm when the wind had dropped we saw some fish moving in a tiny bay in front of Hook House.  Robert targetted a fish and the video shows the action (have your sound on).

Robert mainly fishes from a float tube in the States so he was interested in our drift technique in the boat using the drogue (underwater parachute) to control the drift.  He is thinking about the possibility of developing a float tube drogue!  I am off to the Seattle area on the 6th June for 6 weeks of fishing, float tubing, babysitting and working down my daughter in laws project list!  I will try to keep you posted!  One of the first things I will do out there is visit the Washington Fly Fishing Forum!

The difference in colour beween a rainbow (top) and a blue.

Simple Fly Fishing Magic in South Wales

My youngest daughter’s father-in-law, Mark, invited us to stay in the house he was refurbishing in South Wales.  How could I refuse?   I started planning a bit of serious fishing by contacting my friend Andrew, an ace sewin (sea trout) fisher.  Andrew thought we could get out one night during my stay. Serious sewin fly fishers only fish during the hours of darkness, the darker the better.  That is quite challenging!  Imagine casting a fly in complete darkness whilst standing on the bank or wading.  You jump out of your waders when a large sea trout jumps in the dark.  It sounds as if a cow has fallen off a bridge!

Sadly my pal Andrew was not able to get away so we did not have a sewin session, however, I visited some amazing places (see previous post) and was able to take a trip down a fishing memory lane that turned out to be very pleasant when I visited:-

 

This fishery is quite hard to find as it is on the north side of the B4287 between Neath and Pontrhydyfen.  However, it is well worth visiting as it is picturesque, with a wonderful view of Swansea Bay in the distance.  It generally has very clear water and is well stocked with hard fighting rainbow and blue trout.  When I ran my former company's fly fishing club I used to hold very successful events here.

 

The fishery manager is Dave Price and the cost of fishing is very reasonable. 

I was pleased to see that since my last visit, a couple of years ago, the windy, undulating track up to the fishery had been tarmacked and could now be regarded as a road. 

Also the privy (loo, or bathroom as my friends in the States call it) had been rebuilt (I bet the old one blew away, hopefully whilst vacant!).

 

When I arrived around 2pm it was overcast with a light breeze and I could see fish rising and one or two being caught.  I bought a 2 fish ticket from Dave in the caravan (used as a rest area and office) as I didn’t plan to be there long.

 

I thought I would definitely force myself only to use dry flies and catch off the top.  It didn’t work out like that.  By the time I had set up the sun was out and my dry sedge was ignored as the fish went down.  Occasionally, as a small cloud drifted across the sun a fish would rise and I would try to cover it but all to no avail.  I moved around a bit as most of the other anglers had “bagged up” and left but still no action.  Reluctantly I decided to fish sub surface and switched to a small grhe (gold ribbed hairs ear) fly.  I did a long cast to a fresh location and started a very slow figure of eight retrieve.  I then experienced that state of mind when you become completely at one with the environment.  You are so in tune that you know something is going to happen and when the line went tight, and I hooked up, I knew, that I knew it would happen!   Am I a fish mind reader?  I wish I was.  The fish was a strong one hooked at a distance so I had plenty of time to enjoy the tussle as I watched the bar of silver flashing back and forth.  Several jumps later and all 3lb of it was safely in the net.

When I had to leave I came away with my 2 fish, Dave generously giving me a large blue that another angler had left behind (I hope he does not want it back)!  The fishery rules are simple and clear.  Dave wants everyone to have good sport.

 



 

 

So my trip to Wales may not have been a fishing bonanza but an afternoon spent at Abernant was magic!