Midlands Fly Fishing — The Blog
Fishing Report April 2012
April’s poor weather came as a shock after March. However this failed to dampen our spirits or that of our clients and fishing has been good, in fact very good!
Most of the April’s action centered on fishing the lakes, many people trying fly fishing for the first time with great success. Others took the opportunity for an early season refresher or to further their existing skills.
We enjoyed great midge hatches, providing superb action to buzzers and suggestive nymph patterns like diawl bachs, ptns, hares ear and crunchers. As the month progressed olive hatches increased and hawthorns have started to figure strongly, bringing fun action at the surface with dry flies. Expect this to continue through early May.
Meantime while you’re not hitting the water, enjoy the images of just a few people who have, successfully with MFF during April!
Another successful team building day at Loynton!
Starting fly fishing the right way!
Nice Fish Charlie!
Find out how you can fly fish with success right here!
Tags: fishing report
Posted in Fishing Reports
March Fishing Report 2012
March kicked off our Spring 2012 fishing in style! Plenty of clients learning, while catching some great trout on the lakes at Loynton Fisheries. The river season again started well on Derbyshire’s river Wye, with good catches to nymph tactics and quality early season dry fly fishing in the very settled conditions.
Mick with an awesome 17lb rainbow. Only his second fish on fly!
Tags: fishing reports
Posted in Fishing Reports
Spring Fly Fishing
With mild temperatures for March, lengthening days and the start of the river season, it’s time to spring into action and get out fly fishing!
Brian with a cracking 6lb rainbow, the best of 4 from his first fly fishing lesson!
We have everything to look forward to at this stage in the year. Large midge (buzzer) and olive hatches on the lakes, stoneflies and a plethora of upwinged flies on the river, plus the annual hawthorn and mayfly bonanzas.
Whether you plan to start fly fishing, try a new aspect of the sport, such as river fly fishing or commit to improving your current skill set, now is a great time to put plans into action.
Looking Forward to seeing on the water!
Steve Y
Tags: fishing report, spring fly fishing
Posted in Fishing Reports
Big Trout Fishing
If you dream about catching big brown trout or trophy rainbows, stop dreaming and make it a reality! Luck may see you land occasional big fish, doing it consistently takes skill. It is no coincidence that 90% of big fish are caught by 10% of anglers! Here you will learn skills and techniques to help you consistently catch truly trophy trout like this.
Steve Y (right) and a very happy client with a big, trophy rainbow trout of 15lbs.
The first rule in pursuing big trout is your own mindset. You won’t catch as many fish and some days you will go blank simply because targeting big fish means ignoring the smaller trout. Secondly, decide what your target size is. Size is relative to waters and species you are fishing, however in my opinion a big trout is a fish in excess of 10lbs. Having decided this, you then need to regularly fish waters which produce fish of this size. It sounds obvious I know, however one of the greatest barriers to anglers not catching big trout is simply fishing regular waters hoping for a small miracle. Turn the odds in your favour and select venues carefully.
Where to Find Big Trout
While obvious differences exist between river and lake, trout the world over have 3 key requirements, which are oxygen, food and cover. Locating areas in any body of water providing all 3 key requirements is a priority as these will be hot spots. Identifying “hot spots” or “prime lies” brings you another step along the path to catching truly trophy trout. Big trout are dominant creatures, securing the best territory they can and will guard it against all invaders. So it goes without saying, by identifying a number of “hot spots” on your water, you will cast your fly into water more probable to hold trophy size trout.
- Examples of oxygen rich water are broken water, inlets, deep, shaded water, springs.
- Areas of rich feeding are marginal areas, drop offs in depth, weed & silt beds, current seams.
- Cover is provided by marginal vegetation, close proximity of deep water, broken water.
Techniques for Trophy Trout
Regardless of whether a trout is stocked or wild, is in a lake or river, fish which have little experience of anglers (for example where angling pressure is low) can be easy. Conversely, pressured fish are street wise and far more challenging to catch and this needs to be remembered.
Before deciding on techniques, we need to think of our approach to waters. Firstly is the water one where we can sight fish? If the answer is yes, then patiently stalking trophy trout in prime lies will provide the most consistently successful approach of catching big trout. Where stalking fish is not possible, a careful search strategy needs to be formulated, so you work a fly through a lie to maximum effect.
Having decided our approach, the areas of technique, time of year and day, conditions, trout and prey activity all need to be thought through carefully. Their are no rules here and brown trout react differently to rainbow trout, each species behaves in differing ways from water to water. You simply have to put the time in here, experimenting, observing and learning. Having said that we can propose a rough guide.
Large trout will often show a preference for either a large, highly mobile fly such as lures and big dries or a small fly for example nymphs & shrimp. As a very broad generalisation, spring and autumn are prime times for large mobile lures, summer fishing is most productive with small nymphs during daytime and big dries around dusk, while winter time is a mix between large lures and small nymphs. Flies need to be worked on appropriate fly lines and retrieves, again only by putting in time and effort will you find what works best for specific waters. The best advice here is to fish your fly at the level of a big trout and keep it in the fish’s face as long as possible!
Tags: big trout, fly fishing, trophy trout
Posted in Fly Fishing Articles
Winter Fly Fishing
Two misconceptions about fly fishing are that winter time is closed season or winter fishing is for the few brave/stupid enough to venture out!
Winter Fly Fishing
This simply is not true. Firstly, a large number of trout lakes in Great Britain now remain open all year or at least operate an extended season for rainbow trout which broadly speaking do not breed in UK waters. In addition to this more and more anglers are waking up to fly fishing for alternative species and pike are a great winter target species on many of our larger waters.
On rivers grayling provide exciting dry fly and nymph fishing right through to spring when they spawn, while chub can be caught in most rivers and like grayling are in their very best condition during winter time.
With the advent of modern outdoor clothing and recent mild winter weather, their is no need to be cold while enjoying outdoor life. In fact, their is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear! To make winter fly fishing even more attractive, the fish are often in better condition and fight far harder in the cold, oxygen rich water than at more traditional seasons of the fly fishers year. Add to this that some of the largest rainbow trout, chub, pike and grayling are caught at this time and you can see (as shown in the picture below) their is no reason to put those rods away!
Winter Trout Fishing
Winter Trout Fly Fishing
Given that rainbow trout thrive in cold, oxygen rich water environments, their is no better time to fish fish for them than winter. You won’t find lethargic fighting fish at this time of year, even 2lb fish will fight far more than their weight, so expect some real action! Many spring fed lakes will be crystal clear, often providing opportunities to sight fish. This is an extremely exciting way to fly fish, especially when you consider big trout to 20lbs plus will be active in some waters, providing the ultimate challenge instalking trout.
Grayling & Chub Fishing
Grayling apreciate cold, pure, water of our cleanest river reaches more than trout and are the ultimate indicator of a pristine environment. Despite being free rising especially the smaller fish, as they become older, wiser and larger, surface feeding deminishes and fish consume the majority of food from the river bed as suggested by it’s underslung mouth. Without doubt, casting weighted nymphs and bugs is the most productive way to target grayling and though most fish are likely to be less than 1lb, they fight very well on a light 4 weight outfit. A grayling of 2lbs is a big fish and anything around this size or above can be regarded as a very special catch. Check out our winter grayling fishing here!
For the angler looking for a target river species of consistently larger average size, the chub is in our opinion a fabulous sporting fish. While encounters during the summer months are sometimes sluggish in terms of the fight as the fish recover from spawning, a winter chub in top condition is another matter. Chub attain weights of 7lbs plus in UK waters, with many streams and rivers holding many 2-3lb fish. A good tip for big chub (fish of 4lbs plus) is to fish lies where you would expect a big brown trout to hold as they have very similar habits. Chub will tolerate less pure water than trout or grayling and thus are far more widely spread within river systems, readily accepting weighted nymphs and lures of the tadpole, wooly bugger and zonker styles.
Winter Pike
Pike have a fearsome reputation which is undeserved. They are a perfect predator and have an awesome set of toothy hardware adorning their mouth which belies their fragility. Pike more than any other fish require very careful handling not as you might expect incase they bite you, rather to ensure you do not harm them. Pike are the ultimate big fish species for the winter fly fisher, with attainable weights of 50lb plus. However a big fish is considered 20lbs upward and is the target weight of many fly rodders now targeting them. Pike are widely available in both still and running water providing a real challenge and requiring heavier outfits than those used for the species discussed previously. An 8, 9 or even 10 weight outfit is required depending upon venue both to enable safe casting with big flies of up to 8 inches in length and to enable the angler to quickly land and return the pike without exhausting fish excessively. Please note when fly fishing for pike, your fly repressenting a bait fish species or an out and out attractor style MUST ALWAYS be attached to a wire tippet of at least 12 inches long. This is because pike will bite cleanly through monofilament nylons and flourocarbon.
For further details on our winter pike fishing, visit our pike on fly area.
Posted in Fly Fishing Articles
Reservoir Fly Fishing – How to Start
About Reservoirs
In the UK we are now blessed with many huge expanses of water created for the main purpose of water supply, which have in recent decades proven to be a fabulous trout fishing resource open to everyone. In many cases other species of fish are available to anglers, however we will concern ourselves with brown and rainbow trout in this piece. Reservoirs are not the best venues for beginners, the sheer size of many is daunting to some seasoned anglers and the need to often cast further and locate trout mean smaller waters are more likely to bring success until you have a good grasp of the basics.
Fly fishing reservoirs is practiced from both bank and boat, with techniques varying widely, requiring the serious angler to have more variety in their equipment than when fishing smaller lakes or rivers. Perhaps the greatest challenges facing anglers starting to fish reservoirs are the size of waters, magnified effect of weather on waters and fish and locating trout. All of these factors have implications on equipment, hence the need for greater flexibility. Lets take a look at a good starting selection on which to build.
Equipment for Reservoir Fishing
- Rods – Generally 7-8 weight with a 6 weight for lighter dry fly work.
- Large arbor fly reels plus spare spools designed to take appropriate lines.
- Weight forward fly lines 7-8 weight intermediate, medium sink and fast sink, plus a 6-7 weight floating line.
- Leaders for fishing subsurface should be 6-8lb fluorocarbon of 12-20 feet. When fishing dry fly use a tapered leader and add tippet as required total lengths 10-15 feet.
- A large tackle bag is useful for carrying everything whether fishing boat or bank.
- Nets should be of the long fixed handly variety with a large net which is also deep, you never know what you may hook on reservoirs
- All the usual accessories such as floatant, sinkant, forceps, snips, leader material, priest, bass bag and fly boxes
- A drouge to slow the drift when boat fishing. Anchors are generally supplied with the boats at reservoir venues though you may prefer to obtain your own for serious boat fishing
- Flies – the selection noted for beginners (see articles page) is a great starting point with the addition of hoppers and shipmans buzzers in black, claret and orange or red for dry fly work. You can then build on your selection from here
This will give you a great starting point which you will develop as you gain experience, learning what suits you and the reservoirs you fish. The outfits listed above will allow you to handle all conditions from strong wind using the heavier rod/line combination to calm hot or frosty days when a light outfit offer a delicacy of presentation that brings rewards when all else fails.
Having looked at equipment and safe in the knowledge that having this means that with good technique and knowledge you can handle any safe weather conditions, lets look at our last key point, fish location.
Locating Trout in Large Stillwaters
Reservoir Fly Fishing
OK you arrive at the reservoir, look at the water and think “where do I start?”. Like fishing anywhere watercraft is an essential skill that will guide you to the fish or at least significantly improve the odds of locating them. If you have learnt watercraft skills on small stillwaters, they translate very well to reservoirs. By this I mean the same features attract trout regardless of lake size and these are a good place to start. If it helps, visually break down the reservoir into smaller pieces of water, concentrating on each individually, learning the features as you go. This will help build your knowledge of a water and with time you will develop you own water map, so note donw your findings on each visit. Also note down weather conditions, how and where you fished and what flies you used. Over time you will build a fabulous reference and knowledge for each venue you fish regularly, which will also bring increasing confidence and success!
Summary
Remember the key points of watercraft, weather and equipment selection for tactics on any given day. Don’t fall into the trap of fishing the same thing all the time, base your approach on facts you see on the day, you will learn more and become a better angler. Many reservoirs have clubs formed by like minded anglers who regularly fish there. Joining a club on your local reservoir and learning from others is a great way to learn and meet new friends. Additionally you may wish to learn new skills from a full-time professional instructor at one of the many well known Midlands reservoirs, for further details see our Fly Fishing Lessons or contact us.
Posted in Starting Fly Fishing
Start Fly Fishing Rivers – Equipment
Having gained experience and skill fly fishing stillwaters, many anglers dream of taking up the challenge of rivers. The first step in this transition is to start with the right equipment. This article is aimed at fly fishing for trout in small to medium size streams and rivers.
Firstly, gain some idea of water you will regularly fish. If you want to dip your toe into the river scene, a session or two with a six weight stillwater outfit will be fine (even a seven weight can be used at times though you will have no sport fighting the fish).
Having decided you want to pursue river fishing, it is worth now investing in a lighter outfit. This does not mean gear that costs the earth, as with anything you pay your money and take your choice. There are some very good outfits now available.
Suggested River Kit
- Fly Rod – Rated AFTM 4-5 weight
- Reel – Basic fly reel designed to hold 4-5 weight line plus 50+ meters of backing
- Fly Line – Weight forward 4-5 floating fly line
- Backing – Spool of polypropylene backing line, connecting fly line to reel
- Leader – See leader details below
- Fly Box/flies – A small selection of flies to get started
- Priest – For dispatching stock fish to take home, let the wild fish go!
- Forceps/snips – Combination for trimming line and unhooking fish.
- Landing Net – Means of landing your catch quickly and safely
- Floatant/Sinkant – Treatments to make line/flies float or sink as desired
- Waders – Breathable chest waders are best, you are then covered for all eventualities
Leaders
Have some tapered leaders for dry fly and delicate nymphing. These can be either knotless, purchased as a single length or your can construct your own. Do make use of low diameter copolymer materials for dry fly and fluorocarbon for subsurface fishing, they make a huge difference. When fishing weighted nymphs, use a single length of un-tapered fluorocarbon. This will sink much faster than a tapered leader, getting your nymph(s) to depth quicker.
You will want to carry both copolymer and fluorocarbon tippet material in breaking strains of 3lbs & 4lbs generally, having 2lbs & 5lbs for occasional use.
To discover how to start the right way with Midlands Flyfishing see our Derbyshire river fishing and Cotswold river fishing. Details of other waters located around the UK can easily be found using a local internet search.
Posted in Starting Fly Fishing
Start Fly Fishing – Fly Selection
One of the most frequently asked questions I hear when coaching novice fly fishers is “what fly do I use? Their are so many”. My reply is what I say to you now, their are indeed hundreds of thousands of fly patterns available, but you can catch all year round with around six.
So what are these magic 6 flies for stillwater? Here’s my list: -
- Damsel nymph size 8-10
- Midge pupa in black, olive, red size 12-16
- Pheasant tail nymph size 8-18
- Hares ear nymph size 12-16
- Tadpole in black, white, orange and olive size 8-10
- Booby in olive, white,black and orange size 10
The above fly selection will cover ninety percent of days for the novice fly fisher, meaning you spend more time fishing a fly than scratching your head while looking blankly at a huge selection of flies.
If you’re still struggling to catch, maybe you should book some fly fishing lessons to make sure you are using them correctly!
Posted in Starting Fly Fishing
Start Fly Fishing – Equipment
When taking up a new hobby, how you start can be the difference between finding enjoyment that lasts a lifetime and an unpleasant experience you don’t wish to repeat. Fly fishing is no different and here you will find how we introduce and advise novice fly fishers through those first steps in the learning process.
Firstly, choose a fishery conveniently located for you. Resist the temptation to start on a river or reservoir. Instead select one of the many good quality small stillwaters. Such venues have plenty of space for casting, plus trout are never too far away, giving you a favorable chance of catching those all important early fish.
Having established where we intend to fish, we can select a small set of fly fishing equipment so you can go fly fishing. Our suggested list for beginners includes the following.
Fly Fishing Starter Kit
- Fly Rod – Rated AFTM 6-7 weight
- Reel – Basic fly reel designed to hold 6-7 weight line plus 75+ meters of backing
- Fly Line – Weight forward 7 floating fly line
- Backing – Spool of polypropylene backing line, connecting fly line to reel
- Leader – Spools of 6lb and 8lb breaking strain fluorocarbon line
- Fly Box/flies – A small selection of flies to get started (see related article in “Articles & Resources”
- Priest – Implement for dispatching trout you intend to eat
- Forceps/snips – Combination for trimming line and unhooking fish
- Landing Net – Means of landing your catch quickly and safely
- Floatant/Sinkant – Treatments to make line/flies float or sink as desired
This basic selection is all you need to get started. As with most things in life, you can pay as little or as much as you wish. Starter kits can be purchased from £50 or you could by top brand equipment costing over £1000, the choice is yours. However you can obtain the above equipment for £110 – £200 and have tackle that works well, is pleasant to use and flexible for the occasional foray to a river or reservoir once you have built up your experience.
To ensure you start fly fishing the right way, book a day’s tuition with an instructor. We can’t vouch for everyone, but our Cast & Catch days cover what you need to start and instructors provide guidance on suitable products. In addition to this, these courses coach novice fly fishers in basic casting and fishing techniques, where to look for trout and what flies to use. This ensures you know how to: -
- Select and set up equipment correctly
- Present flies and fish them effectively
- Land and handle fish correctly
To discover how to start the right way with Midlands Flyfishing go to fly fishing lessons. For details of fisheries we use and recommend in the Midlands see trout fisheries. Details of other waters located around the UK can easily be found using a local internet search.
Tight Lines
Midlands Fly Fishing Team
Posted in Starting Fly Fishing
Fishing Report Early 2012
January provided us with excellent trout and pike fly fishing, plus grayling. Days have been taken up with casting lessons for clients wanting to brush up or prepping for a destination trip.
We’ve also conducted a number of lessons for those of you wanting to refine your fly fishing skills, which is great to see. It feels fantastic to help people make a huge leap in their performance, enjoyment and success, often with only minor, though crucial modifications to their fishing.
Pike fly fishing has been fantastic, with many clients catching numbers of fish, well into double figures. We enjoyed some downtime also, landing numerous toothy critters, awesome fun!
Early February’s cold snap iced most lakes, limiting operations to casing lessons, practice (yes we do practice ourselves) and tying flies. Looking forward, fishing for trout and pike is going off the scale once a thaw sets in. As for grayling fishing, the last four weeks of the season offer a great chance for big fish, let’s hope weather conditions play ball!
SY
Tags: fishing reports, fly fishing
Posted in Fishing Reports