Sunday, April 19, 2009

Grannom and best to date

The good weather (maybe not so good for us fishermen at a time when we should be getting some of our best daytime sport) is certainly suiting the Grannom (Brachycentrus Subnubilus), they were coming off in their thousands today - I'd of liked to be about when this lot started egg-laying.

Another sunny, cloudless day meant that I decided to delay my visit to the river until teatime for an evening session.
A few Grannom had hit the water but the egg-layers were not out in force - there was the odd one on the flats producing sporadic rises from a few Grayling, but as they are out of season at the moment and no sign of any Brownies showing an interest, I decided to concentrate on the runs and riffles with my favourite method - the upstream nymph.

My first fish of the evening was this beauty, at 20.5 inches and weighing two pounds fifteen ounces it is my best of the season so far.
After a quick measure, weigh and photos it was safely returned.
A few more came to the nymph - mainly Grayling, before a sparse hatch of olives at about 8pm and a few rising trout prompted a change to the spiders. The rise was short and sweet, only lasting about half an hour, but a few more fish were caught, missed and dropped before all went quiet.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Photos from A.A.P.G.A.I. Open Day

Here are some shots from the A.A.P.G.A.I. open day that I mentioned in the piece that I did on the 29th March.

As I mentioned then - for anyone interested in going down the instructor route, I would definitely recommend a visit to an A.A.P.G.A.I. event, it will give you an idea of what is required to attain the necessary standard and the opportunity to mix with, and see some of the countries top fly casters in action.

Everyone is very friendly and extremely helpful - for information about the association and future events check out their website






Sunday, April 5, 2009

Good sport in wild weather

It turned out to be a wild day for our first outing of the year on Ullswater, the weather forecasters were nearly spot on - showers early in the day, 13 - 15 mph (and a bit more as it turned out) south westerly winds, gusting to 25 mph, remaining cloudy but brightening up towards teatime.

Prospects looked good and we couldn't have had a better start, hitting fish on the first drift, my first of the year on my old favourite 'The Ullswater' on the top dropper.
Normally at this time of the year I tend to stay out of the rough water as the fish seem to favour the calmer areas, but not today, the fish were in the waves and that's where we spent most of the day.
It was like being on a bucking bronco at times as we rode the waves in the strong winds, the boat was moving fast and the fishing frantic - casting was difficult with the strong tailing wind and the retrieve had to be fast to maintain contact with the flies.

Some areas were and had to be avoided as it was just too wild, it's not worth taking too many risks - I never use a drogue on the lake, especially in these conditions, if you got it wrapped around one of the many protruding rocks you could be in big trouble, and I always wear a lifejacket.

We motored south after lunch but initially couldn't and wouldn't go beyond Schelly Neb - the 'White Horses' were charging down the lake and it was just too wild but the wind had calmed by the third look so we risked going a bit further south for pastures new and were rewarded with a few more fish.
Most fish came at the surface, pulled up by flies like, The Ullswater, Glister Muddler, Zulu and Ullswater Muddler.

We did have quite lengthy lulls in sport throughout the day, but were more than satisfied with our lot considering the time of year and conditions.