CONFESSIONS OF A FLY FISHERMAN!

Well I started this blog really as a diary to keep track of my fishing adventures, but recently domestic challenges seem to have eclipsed the fishing. However, that has not stopped folk from all around the world from viewing the posts so I feel I ought to confess why I have gone a bit quiet and why I have not been fishing.  The first distraction was my former company asking me to come out of retirement and help them design a training presentation for Facilities Managers.  I enjoyed doing this as it brought me into contact with former colleagues but it did take up twice as much time as I thought it would.  Then at the same time my youngest daughter, her husband and their two children, who had been living with us for nearly two years, moved out so as to be near dad's new job.  My wife and I spent two days at their new address making and hanging curtains etc.  So back at home we finally had the chance of making good all the wear and tear that two little fellers and five adults can produce.  To make it more challenging, my youngest son announced that he had his new girl friend arriving from Finland in a few days time and could we get the house sorted?  To give him credit he did help but his, and my wife's expectations were high and involved us redecorating the hall with new stair carpet, giving a face lift to the front garden and jet washing the drive (and the rest)!  Then we had to order a new double bed as we had now got our guest bedroom back.  The bed arrived on the same day that the Finnish girlfriend arrived and I was frantically assembling it only to find that two rather large components were missing so Finnish girlfriend ended up with the new (rather expensive) mattress on the floor!  The bed issue is likely to be the subject of a further post!

On the positive front let me tell you about two bits of technology I really enjoy.  First of all let me explain that when it comes to dealing with the latest technological gizmos I am a bit of a troglodyte (cave dweller)! However, I am a fan of satellite navigation systems and would not be without my Tom Tom especially when abroad. 

 

 

I really like my Tom Tom and was pleased that my son who works for Voicebox in the USA project managed the development of voice recognition for the Tom Tom systems in the USA and Europe.  The other bit of technology I enjoy is the BBC's iPlayer which enables you to catch up, at anytime, with BBC TV programmes you have missed over the last seven days.

 

 

It is absolutely brilliant and enabled me to watch the amazing fifty year anniversary tribute to the Dr Who TV series as part of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.  To see the look of wonder on the faces of the children as the alien figures moved about the audience was a treat.  If you have missed it on iPlayer you can view parts of it on You Tube.

 

 

Yes, the Daleks have finally taken over London!  So that's all for now but hopefully next week I will be on the chalk streams with my brother teasing a few brownies!

Laughter, the best medicine and then "Truth Will Prevail"

This weekend my wife and I visited somewhere famous or infamous, namely Blackpool a seaside holiday (vacation) resort famous for its tower and the "golden mile" of seaside amusement attractions.  We were in the area for another reason, to be revealed later, but we thought we would treat ourselves to a stay in a nice hotel and check out why over the years Blackpool has been a favourite holiday destination for so many.

 The Tower was being repainted so we skipped that

 The Hilton was quite nice.

 Classic British seaside pier with the tide out. There are three piers at Blackpool.

 Busy seafront with roller coasters

 Pirate joints and amusement arcades line the sea front!

 Donkey rides on the beach for the kids.

 Then we found the brilliant huge paved area (located on the sea front just in front of the Tower) celebrating all the comedians who had ever performed at Blackpool by displaying beautifully their jokes.

You could spend hours reading and laughing and you could not help laughing out loud. So here is a sample of the thousands there.  Reading them might help my many readers from around the world have a better understanding of British humour, or it might not!

 

 I like the top one best of the next picture.

So whilst we had a good time in Blackpool we didn't fall in love with it, but we did love the very clever joke pavement and certainly other towns and city's could learn from that.

We stayed in Blackpool so we were able to attend a pageant put on by our church entitled "Truth Will Prevail" at Corby, near Preston.  It featured a huge volunteer cast and was absolutely outstanding.  My pictures and description could not do it justice but I think the following You Tube clip does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsBw0-rGNyw
Enjoy!

Saltwater fly fishing report for Solent, Southern UK

I have taken the liberty of reproducing Justin Anwyl's August report here because it has some very useful info.  I have beach fished with Justin but I think now he mainly drift fishes (loch style) with his clients. During the season they manage to catch thousands of sea bass!
When it comes to fishing he is a "top gun!"


"August is here as is the sun. This season has been a complete tail of 2 halves as in May when we last wrote a note, I was in the Solent in a ski jacket trying to keep warm. Water temps were 12 degrees and Bass were still spawning! which is at least 2 months later than normal. Since then, the water temperatures have rocketed to 20 degrees and the sun has come out big time. Over the last couple of months we have experienced some of the best catches in ten seasons and some of the worst - my feeling is with the lack of blanket cloud and very high visibility a lot of fish have moved into deeper ground as it's the first time ever I've seen not only lobster pots from beneath the boat but lobsters in them - I can't imagine what the reflection is like when looking at the hull! - whatever you are tempted to do, i would suggest getting down deep and put on a larger than average pattern aswell as venture out as early as you can before the light is up - many times this season we have been on the boat for 4.30am and had 50-60 Bass by 8.00am, after that, you'll start to dredge the depths as the fish mover lower against the light..

The website has some larger 4/0 deceivers in white, red and cockroach - try drowning them and you will get pulled! http://www.bass-fishing.co.uk/en/all/c-accessories/f/

Red Cockroach Deceiver 4/0

I've just had delivered the new Seawolf 8/10 "S" series of reels which are based off the original design with the addition of a closed face drag, this makes them even more robust and easier to maintain - they will all be going to Connecticut this year for a good work out as well as Christmas Island to hunt down big Bonefish and GT's. http://www.bass-fishing.co.uk/en/seawolfslargearborsaltwaterflyfishingreel-p-9001.html

New Seawolf 8/10 "S" in Gunmetal Grey

Re the fishery, it is obvious to me that there is pressure on the brood stock as we are hooking up to mid gauge Bass and there seems to be a lack of quality in the usual areas in the early part of the season, as well as a lack of the smaller Bass showing in the harbours - I would be interested in your thoughts to see what your experiences have been like to date this year.
One thing which I have noticed, especially when traveling east is the amount of food in the water, tonnes of bait, either sandeel or mullet fry and this has only just started to attract large shoals of mackerel and Bass - this is the latest I have know this to happen, so maybe if we have a very clement summer/autumn our lines may be graced with a pull into November - fingers crossed. .

This is Good!

This is better! (J McGill)

I have since the last newsletter put up a Facebook page, which you can access via the link on the homepage - a good way to ask questions and keep track of daily catches and experiences.... if you have a question, i'd be happy to help.

For now, the season is in full swing and hopefully we can fish into latter part of the season if the summer extends as we expect it to. Pray for heat, cloud and low wind - not too much to ask!

Tip down and hold!"

Justin
Kind Regards

Justin Anwyl
IGFA Captain/Guide UK/USA
Email info@bass-fishing.co.uk
Tel: 07767 820268 or Tel: 01243 785496 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01243 785496 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting

www.bass-fishing.co.uk

Bewl Water Fishing Report 1 August 2013

Having been away from Bewl for over 8 weeks (mainly in the USA) and knowing the weather in the UK has been warm I read last weeks fishing report with interest. I reprint it here as I know fishers from across the globe are interested.

Picture courtesy of "fishactive.com"

"Cooler weather over the last week has improved the fishing at Bewl. The fish are not as deep and have spread out across the water. Anglers have been catching at a depth of about 10ft rather than the 25 ft during the last few weeks.

This week's rod average is an excellent 3.58. Brown trout are beginning to show, especially at the end of Hook Straight. A brown of 6lb 8oz was caught and released.

Best areas for boats are the Main Bowl, the cages and the end of Hook Straight. Bank fishing is still challenging and the deeper water off of Chingley is the best place to try.

 

Successful flies have been Buzzers, mini lures, Cat's Whiskers, Minkies, Minkie Boobies and Sparkler Boobies.

An early reminder that no boats are available on Wednesday 18 September when the Annual Grand Max competition will be taking place.
Water temperature 20 degC, water level 85.5%"

So I might be tempted to give it a go!

They call it fishing, not catching! Welsh Fishing Trip July '13

It is not everyday you get invited to spend a couple of days with pals fishing and when one of them has a caravan not far from the fishing, how can you refuse?  Anyway, I couldn't!

 So there I was with Andy Jones a top sewin (seatrout) man and Rowland Elvidge who years ago I introduced to fly fishing and who now probably has more kit than me. Then there's Ian Govier another sewin expert who,  a few days before this event, had fished his local estuary and caught five sea bass and a sewin in just a couple of hours.  On the right is me looking more streamlined than ever!

Travelling around was slow because the local boys, being sewin fishers, had to stop to look at every river we crossed.

All were well worth a look.

 

Rather than sewin fishing, it was decided to fish a small stillwater for rainbows at Hayescastle, a favourite spot of Ian's.  However, when we turned up we found that half the children in South Wales were there under instruction and the organiser, a very pleasant lady gently shoed us away! We didn't need much shoing!  So I suggested we head to Llys-y-fran reservoir.  As Andy and Ian had never boat fished a reservoir before they were up for it.  We were beguiled by the beauty of the reservoir and soon discovered the excellent fleet of fishing boats in the boat house.

 



The boats and engines all looked brand new.  The only slight negative was that the engines did not have a reverse gear, but they started first pull and had an auto clutch, so using them was easy.

 Here is Andrew on his first boat fly fishing session but sadly the sun and water temperature (21 C) kept the fish down deep where they were concentrating on oxygen rather than feeding!  The net result (sorry about the pun) we all blanked!  As we were coming away, around 9 pm fish started to show around the boat house and we all had another go at them from the bank (Ian even borrowed a row boat and got amongst them) but the fish did not oblige.

 

 

 The next morning saw us as tourists but when we visited the lovely fishing village of Solva and saw the large mullet cruising the river we could not resist the temptation of casting a fly.  Needless to say the mullet were not fooled!  Then we walked a lovely coastal path.

And we found our way to St David's.  Although a small town, St David's is classed as a city as it has a majestic cathedral.

 

 Finally we made it to Hayescastle Fishery where we had it all to ourselves.  It looked promising as there was a damsel hatch on, swallows and martins were working the water and the odd large fish was disturbing the surface.

Ian, like all of us, was really fishing hard.  I tried buzzers and then had a fish on using a montana which sadly took to the vegetation and came off.  I, like the others, tried everything I could think of.  I cast a minkie out and it must have hit the water right in front of a large fish as the fish snatched at it but I didn't connect.  Eventually the montana fooled a nice 2lb+ rainbow.

 

Having dispatched it I used the forked stick method of carrying it that I had seen the steelhead fishers use in the States, to avoid getting my hands sticky!

 

 Ian showed me another useful tip.  If you break a rod ring (called a rod guide in the USA) you can do a temporary repair using a paper clip and some electrical tape.

So it was with pleasant memories that we left Ian's well-equipped caravan on Sunday morning.

 

 Our destination was the recently-built Milford Haven Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where we attended for spiritual inspiration!

 

 

I came away with a lovely book that Rowland kindly gave me, it was called FISHING Observations of a Reel Man and I will have to make that the subject of a future post!

 

 

 

 

 

Fly fisherman gets caught!

Now we are back from our 6 week "holiday" (vacation) in the USA my fishy friends want to know why I didn't catch more.  Well, my darling wife volunteered to re-model the largest room in our son and daughter-in-law's house in Redmond, WA. Guess who provided the labour?  I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

 Six hundred and fifty square foot playroom before we started

 Complete with wood burning stove (for when the power lines are down)

Having scraped the "popcorn" off of the ceiling and sanded, the ceiling required three coats of paint!

The bookcase was brown and hiding in the basement!  It is wonderful what 3 coats of white paint can do!

Well I might not have caught any big fish but we did feel we had achieved something! Rug and suite courtesy of IKEA, USA.



Trout Fishing: Guaranteed way of improving the success rate!

Those who follow this blog will be aware that in spite of being in the State of Washington, USA with all its amazing fishable waters for 6 weeks, I had not caught a lot of fish of any size.  My excuse is that I spent a lot of time decorating a very large room plus baby sitting and transporting 4 grandchildren around.  Still I was determined to have a successful "bring home the bacon" session with my grandson, Harrison, age seven, before I left.  So to guarantee success I took him to:-

 Here they have a couple of ponds well stocked with hungry rainbow trout.

 A simple pole with a line and hook is provided.

 The bait is fish guts mixed with bread paste.

Harrison was so happy with his catch, he jumped up and down!

 Harrison caught five beauties!  Granddad caught zero!

 As she cleaned the fish, Pam the owner, carefully explained what all the internal bits were.  She kept the hearts as bait when the fish were hard to catch on the normal bait. Here she is using the spoon dodge to clear the kidney strip from under the back bone.

 Pam was very friendly and kind to Harrison.

 This kiosk is the nerve centre of the operation. 

You pay for the fish by their length which is clearly posted.

 

The fish caught were all in tip top condition and we only had to pay for the fish.  The cost of the fish was just over thirty dollars which I thought was very reasonable as it provided a good learning experience for a young man, a nice meal or two and it got a grandfather "off the hook"!