Midlands Fly Fishing — The Blog
Get Fit for Fishing!
If January sees you join thousands of people starting new fitness regimes, well done! Fly fishing is one of the most technically demanding pastimes going, requiring high levels of concentration for periods of time, for you to perform at your best. Given the fact that improved fitness massively improves your ability to concentrate, among many other pluses, working out is going to help you on the water.
For a long time, I have been a big believer in fitness for fishing. While many people may see the sport as rather passive, I don’t. Fly fishing and fishing as a whole is what you make of it. Whether I’m riverside or patrolling a lake, I often walk miles, it’s part of my day.
Even standing for longer periods of time requires stamina. During a full day waterside, it’s noticeable how people’s performance can start to slide late in the day due to fatigue. A balance of improved aerobic fitness, flexibility and strength is going to improve your stamina, help you reach hard access locations that often receive less fishing pressure, help your casting control, in addition to your improved mental toughness. Bottom line, you fish better and have more fun.
Oh another side effect of getting fit to fish, is you feeling and looking much better too. If you need more convincing, checkout Matt’s great blog post here!
I’m off to the gym:-)
SY
Tags: fishing, fitness, fly fishing
Posted in Fly Fishing Tips
Essential Fly Fishing Accessories
Quality hat & shades are essential fly fishing accessories!
A good hat and quality polaroid shades are going to make your fly fishing more comfortable, enjoyable and effective. Why? Both provide protection from stray flies, shield your eyes from light and help you locate feeding fish!
Having said that, getting the right combination takes more thought than grabbing the first glasses and baseball cap that comes to hand.
First, lets consider glasses. Without a doubt glass lenses rule. Their are some very good plastic lenses on the market, however they don’t compare with top spec glass lenses, buy the very best you can afford.
For freshwater fishing, amber/brown lenses are the best colour for providing you with top visibility in a range of light/water conditions. Make sure the glasses you choose are wrap around style, fitting snug to your face. This helps prevent unfiltered light entering your eye, enhancing your vision.
Looking at hats, my personal preference is for a long billed cap. The main point here is light being prevented from entering the eye over the top of your polaroid shades.
Hat colour is important too. Say you are quietly stalking along a bank. The one part of you moving most is your head as you scout for fish. A brightly coloured hat won’t spook fish itself, however movement of your head will be noticed easier and more light will be reflected on sunny days. This certainly will spook nearby fish!
Inside the hat, a dark under brim is important!
If muted colours are important on the outside of your hat, a dark under brim is essential. Light colours reflect more light, dark colours absorb more light. So having that dark under brim minimizes light reflected back into your eyes from the hat’s brim. This makes a huge difference to your underwater vision, resulting in you spotting more fish and catching more fish.
Happy Days
SY
Posted in Fly Fishing Tips
2011 Celebrated, 2012 Welcomed
2011 proved another fantastic year for Midlands Fly Fishing and our clients. Here we celebrate a year in pictures, while looking forward to more in 2012!
Here’s to an awesome 2012!
SY
Posted in Fishing Reports
Fishing Report November 2011
With an average temperature over 10C warmer than this time in 2010, it’s been great to see so many of you enjoying the great fly fishing over at Loynton Trout Fisheries! We’ve been busy with lessons and sport overall has been excellent. Trout have been swapping between sipping buzzers and smashing roach shoals, perfect for learning to fly fish or the finer points of lure and nymph fishing.
We’ve also been introducing people to the delights of fly fishing for pike. Everyone has been amazed how achievable this actually is once you see you don’t have to be a casting god to enjoy pike on fly!
Their have been plenty of these to play with this month!
Tight lines, screaming reels!
MFF Team
Posted in Fishing Reports
Another Monster Rainbow!
Pete Turner is one very happy client after Steve guided him to this fantastic, monster rainbow trout during a corporate fishing day at Loynton Trout Fisheries. Steve spotted the fish patrolling along the deep margins and advised Pete to switch to an orange loynton guinea after the fish rejected several more subtle patterns. Three casts later it was fish on!
A close range fight ensued, in the clear water and Pete did well to remain cool as the full tailed specimen refused to give up as we watched see every twist and turn it made. After several minutes, the huge rainbow slid over the landing net rim and Pete had his prize, a stunning fish and a new personal best by a long way!
Posted in Fishing Reports
Autumn Fishing Report
Grayling fishing has started well, with dry fly and nymph both accounting for fish. In the low water conditions, using small flies has been key to success. Size 16 – 20 nymph and dries being top performers. While low water can be seen as challenging fishing conditions, the fish being ever more alert to danger, it brings the benefit of being able to see grayling take your fly easier. Fabulous fun and very exciting!
Fly fishing lessons continue on the lakes, which are in awesome form. Trout are feeding heavily on small roach and perch in addition to large hatches of buzzers and the last of this year’s caddis. Having a small range of flies covering these food forms in a range of sizes is key to making the most of this bonanza.
Pike fly fishing action just keeps getting better and our average size has been 9lbs in recent weeks with plenty bigger than that. If you plan to try pike on the fly, now is the time! If stories of having to cast monster flies to the horizon are putting you off, know this, you don’t need to. You will have more sport with a smaller fly and find casting so much easier to start with. We carry a range of equipment from 8-10wt covering the newcomer to pike fly fishing and anglers wanting to target big pike . When you need a break, we beach the boat, make tea or break out a lure outfit if you prefer a method change.
By the way, we have a new boat, for your added comfort afloat on a pike trip, we now have Predator!
Meet Predator!
With all this action, don’t even think of putting those fly rods away for winter!
Keep fishing.
MFF Team
Posted in Fishing Reports
Pike Bunny
This well used yellow bunny leech may look nothing special, however work it through the water and it comes alive! Easy to cast, they are our go to fly at the moment, producing lots of fine pike.
Tom releasing a perfect 9lb pike, taken on a bunny leech!
Posted in Pike Fly Fishing
Predator Fly Fishing is Hot
With temperatures cooling, our predator fly fishing for trout, pike & perch is heating up!
Ian Evetts with his 3.5lb fly caught perch!
Numbers of pike to double figures and huge perch are being landed currently. A number of clients are also experiencing the frustration of loosing pike due to poor hook set. Please remember you have to strike hard to ensure a firm hook hold in the seriously hard, toothy jaws of a pike. We recommend using a strip strike. Tom and I find we have no problem hooking and landing pike this way.
Check out our predator fly fishing trips here!
Posted in Pike Fly Fishing
September 2011 Fishing Report
Shorter days, lower average temperatures, saw trout action improve as the month progressed on the lakes, while river fishing on the Wye at least continues to be good. In both cases the bigger fish are showing!
Trevor with a 7lb Rainbow on a midge pupa!
Lakes continue to produce well to midge and sedge pupa, dry caddis and daddies fished dry and sunk. We are also seeing visually spectacular fry feeding at times, that is only going to increase during the last quarter of 2011!
Our river trout season is just about to wrap up, the only river we have guided in recent weeks is the Derbyshire Wye, as water levels else where are dire! Surface action with terrestrials, olives and caddis has been very productive and when this has been quiet, very small nymphs have caught well, with fish to 3lbs.
Fly fishing for pike is on the up, with numbers of smaller fish, plus some nice perch providing everyone with good fun on a fly rod. October/November are typically excellent months for pike as they feed up prior to winter. We have a number of trips already booked, drop us a line to discuss your trip.
MFF Team
Posted in Fishing Reports