Last of the summer wind

Hello,

I was reluctant to pile too much into one post, so have been spreading out some of the fishing I had whilst away over the summer with the family. However if I carry on at this rate I feel that I will never get back up to date with the blog. The problem with typing this stuff up a few weeks later is some of the memories and details get a bit sketchy. Nevertheless Im going to try to summarise the rest of the holiday in this one post: here goes.

After the red hot weather and slow pike fishing it was back to the fly rod and down to the river. I am still too heavy handed with the fly casting but I suppose its hard to switch back to the delicate casting of a 3# after hoying 10oz jerkbaits round for 8 hrs the day before. Needless to say I started off having a bit of a mare.   Fly in long grass behind me = fly gone and set up again. Fly in tree on far bank = 3 flies gone and set up again. Rogue boulder = face plant in river and bent thumb. Creep up to slow glide with fish rising, heavy splashy cast = mass exodus of fish. I have had days were things go wrong but this was getting beyond a joke. I did finally manage to hook something that felt decent in some fast flowing water (to be fair most things feel decent in fast water on a 3 weight) I saw a nice flash then the hooks pulled whizzed past my ear resulting in a gargantuan tangle - set up again.

After continuing to get a good kicking from the fish and the river I was begining to think enough's enough. I persevered along the river and caught a glimpse of a little Egret. Now I know its nothing to do with fishing but its the first one I had ever seen so decided to try and get a snap. David Bailey I am not but it is something that I will remember. I managed to get reasonably close before it flew off.

That brightened things up a bit anyway. I carried on to fluff a few chances on the dry fly but there were not that many fish moving, the river was still spectacularly low and clear. despite it being a bit of a shocker fishing wise I decided that if i packed up I definitely would not catch so carried on regardless.

As I started to fish another piece of fast water I got a solid take....please please please dont come off. The fish felt like a goodun and headed upstream. The light rod was bending under the strain and I reluctantly had to give line as I was concerned the 3lb tippet might part. After a great little battle I manged to subdue the fish....it was a cracking looking Grayling.

It was a proper handful as you can see, and really thickset across its shoulders. The only problem when fishing alone is trying to get a decent picture, unfortunately this one doesnt really show off what a pristine fish this was. After the fish was held in the flow for a few moments it swam away strongly to fight another day.
Despite the earlier catastrophes this one showed that when things are going a "bit tango uniform" if you stick at things even a bad day can turn around.

Having got the fly fishing out of my system for the time being I was curious to see if the river held any pike. I checked the rules and lure fishing was allowed, so the next day I headed off with a light jerkbait rod and some smallish lures. I tried a few of the pikey looking deep areas but nothing was about. The river is predominantly low and clear so I was trying out any spots where I couldnt quite make out the bottom. There aren't that many on the stretch so this was only to be a quick session before going out with the family. As I got to one of the bends where there is deep water on the inside, I lobbed a close under arm cast and let it swing in under the trees. As the lure started to sink it got whacked by a nice golden coloured torpedo with teeth. With the reel locked up the fight was more frantic and splashy than spectacular and the pike was soon in the net.

It wasn't a monster but quite chunky and a lovely buttery yellow/gold colour. I was quite pleased to have caught one in such a short time. I tried a few more holes without any further joy so got back to the family to score some much needed brownie points.


A few days with no fishing followed (shock horror) before I decided to go up to a little rainbow trout lake in the hills. Its only a small fishery, but its a lovely place to be for a few hours in the evening.

Some of the places I get out to with the fishing really are breath taking and fish or no fish its a pleasure to be out and enjoy such places.

As you can see the conditions were flat calm but there were a few bows topping. Out with some weird looking dry fly that I tied and before long I started to get a bit of interest. A nice head and shoulders take was met with a lift of the rod and the first fish of the session was on. These fish are not that big when you compare them to Pike, but on the fly rod they give a terrific account of themselves and make for some nice rod bending action.

Check out the rod in this picture....

And the culprit.

Soon after another trout of a similar size made the same mistake as its pal by slurping in one of my dries. I had a couple more nice rainbows of a similar size before calling it quits for the session.


Despite trying to catch up Iv still got a bit more to report from the summer, so I have failed miserably to get back up to date, but I feel that the post is getting a bit long, and if I am getting bored writing it....well you probably haven't even got this far.
Bye for now more holiday catch ups to follow shortly.
cheers Mark

Summer Pike

Hello Again,

I am still trying to catch up with the fishing from over the summer on the blog, so here comes another update from August.

 With trying to get to grips with the fly fishing, the pike have been playing second fiddle of late. I have been spending a fair bit of time fly fishing on the streams and rivers of Wales, but decided that a nice day on the boat was in order.

A late start saw me launch around lunchtime, the weather had been very hot for the last few days so I had an idea that the fishing may not be quite so hot.....but when I get the feeling to fish a certain way that's what I do. Lures were to be the method of choice....again.

To be honest the fishing was very slow, I had a couple of half hearted follows but no proper takes. Even these follows started to fade away to almost non existent action. I usually watch just behind the lure when fishing like this, keeping an eye out for any signs of pike, follows, swirls or flashes sometimes give them away if you look just beyond the lure.

After a few fruitless hours my concentration had started to drift a little, instead of being "on guard" for a hit or even any signs of pike I found myself instead watching the buzzards circle in the distance, paying more attention than usual to the jets flying overhead, basically just going through the motions with the lure.....not that it really mattered. it was a beautiful day in a equally beautiful place. Sometimes when the action is slow I can get a tad frustrated but today it didnt seem to matter.

In one of the moments of just enjoying being there, I was bringing the lure out from the margins over the shelf and back towards the boat. I was using a home made lure that only fishes about 1ft deep, and not really paying that much attention to the fishing. As the lure neared the boat (situated in about 25ft) it  got absolutely WALLOPED just when I was at my most relaxed, this sent an electric shock through my body that gave me a right wake up. There was a big swirl on the surface and before I even had chance to strike the tip of the rod was dragged savagely towards the surface of the lake with what felt like a decent pike.
A short fight followed before I netted the pike. It was a cracking fish, really healthy looking and in pristine condition..I didnt weight the pike as it wasnt quite as big as I first thought when it woke me from my semi conscious state, but it would have made mid double figures I guess.

A quick self take or two followed, then the pike was gently lowered into the water before she made an instant recovery and sped off back to the depths, giving me a good soaking on her way.

I know that I should have a life jacket on and normally do so, but it was a baking hot day, the lake was flat calm and I was only a matter of yards away from shallow water and the bank side.

The fishing continued to be hard work after that. I manged one more Pike that may have made about 6 or 7 pounds on the same lure but I just unhooked the fish over the side of the boat, and didn't get a picture.
So a total of two fish for quite a few hours fishing was not the best of results, but it was nice to get another good double on the home made lure. Despite the lack of numbers of pike, it really was a lovely day just to be out alone drifting around in the boat....the fish were just a bonus.

Grayling on the dry fly

After the last update, where I was taught a lesson in lure fishing by an 8 year old, I thought some R&R alone was in order, so I took myself off to try a little more fly fishing on a small stream about a mile away from where we were staying.

It really is a lovely spot and I very rarely see anyone else there, up to now I have only caught very small fish in here, but it is a nice spot to spend a couple of hours and gives me chance to practice (much needed) a bit more with the fly rod.
I was using my 3wt 10 ft rod, I find this more difficult to cast with than my other rods but really enjoy playing these smaller fish on this light rod, as even the smallest fish put a bit of a bend in it.

In the first pool I managed a couple of small Grayling.

Even though they were on the small side, in the fast water, on the light outfit they still managed to put up a spirited if short display. The second fish soon followed, so with the blog in mind I decided to get a picture or two whilst the going was good.

Having no one to show me what Im doing with the fly fishing, every trip is pretty much a learning experience at the minute. I just try different things until I start catching. The method I was using here, was just sort of letting the fly hold station in the fast water and then inch it back up the pool before letting it swing around in the flow. After a few seconds another short pull upstream and let the fly settle in the current again. Eventually I would feel a sharp pluck and pulled into the fish, I probably missed as many as I caught but at least I was getting some action. It's maybe not the text book way to do it but I was catching.

Even these little Grayling are very strong and wiry when you hold them to unhook. They seem to writhe and wriggle at the worst possible moment which makes getting a snap for the blog hard work whilst on your own.

 Anyway the pool continued to produce lots of Grayling around the same sort of size. Most of them probably somewhere between 4 to 8 oz to the same method. Little gold bead nymphs were working quite well in the turbulent water.

After maybe a dozen or so similar sized fish the action slowed a little, so I decided to head off downstream. I found some calmer water and switched over to the dry fly managing a few more similar sized Grayling. The trout were conspicuous by there absence!

Even though I had the blog at the back of my mind I didnt see the point in getting the camera out for every little Grayling  that came to hand, if I was to catch something bigger or a trout I would get a snap......but I didnt so I didnt.

The only thing that I was keen to try was an underwater shot as my wife had bought me a new camera with waterproof housing for my birthday. Not quite Jacques Cousteau, but at least the camera survived its dunking...

North Wales Pike Fishing

Hello Again,

If I was to report in strictly chronological order, I should now be talking about the three days we had at the coast but to be honest it was again more of a social event ( that got a bit messy at times) and the fishing was again taken less than seriously. What was in fact a great trip away with mates was not very memorable on the fishing front, it was hard work each day with fishy action hard to come by. Tales of late night drinking sessions are not really appropriate for the blog and alas no pictures were taken of the fish we caught. So instead of a full report I will just list the species that were caught over the three days. Pollock, Wrasse, Mackerel, Cod and Bass were taken on lures and a few doggies caught one evening whilst bait fishing from the beach.

So moving swiftly on to things that I can remember and have a few pictures of.

After the trip away with the boys, I was back on family duty. We had a few weeks away on a family holiday, again in Wales. Now even though this was a family holiday, and the beer intake subsided, there was still chance to pop out for a few fishing sessions when the opportunity arose.

The first of these sessions was a day on the boat lure fishing for pike. My little lad does not often want to come fishing (much more interested in playing football, computer games etc) but as I had been missing for a few days with my friends he was keen to catch up and spend some time with me. A leisurely start saw us on the water by mid day. The idea was to fish with lures and cover as much water as possible.
The lake has not been fishing "easy" this year, with numbers of fish well down on last year. Despite this we started off with surface lures, daiwa DOA and Cisco kid toppers for those interested, last year these two lures caught me a lot of fish and as most lure anglers know, when  things are tough you find yourself reverting back to the banker lures that have done well for you in the past. I also wanted to use lures that had worked well as I was keen for the boy to catch a few, to hopefully spike his interest in fishing a little more.

Well we didnt have to wait long for his first fish it was only a small jack, but it was a start and it certainly put a smile on our faces.

After a couple of fruitless hours, another fish hit his lure ( again the Daiwa DOA). The hits on these surface lures can be awesome, this fish left the water and seemed to do a cartwheel with its nose touching the surface of the lake and its tail arcing over the top. A suitably shocked young man began to play the fish, he used to just wind and hope for the best but now it looked like he was playing the fish properly. The fish was a little bigger but not worth weighing, so after I unhooked the pike he wanted a quick picture before the pike was slipped back to his watery home

After a quick snack break on the bank, it was back on the boat and we carried on casting lures, as of yet I had not had any interest. I was reminded of this on a fairly regular basis. Things had slowed down even further and the little fella was starting to get a bit fed up....I sometimes forget hes only 8 and maybe expect him to stay out a little too long. I asked if he'd had enough but to my surprise he said he wanted to carry on fishing. To be fair he carried on chucking the lures like a good un. Whenever I asked if he wanted to change lures he declined the offer preferring to stick with the DOA. I was sure he could do a little better if he went subsurface....but there was no changing his mind.

As he was bringing the lure across a shallow bay, a much more substantial BAADDOOOSSHHH was heard and his rod looped over. I didnt see the take but the fish had left a pretty good swirl on the surface and was taking line from his fairly tight set clutch. "Its a biggun dad....." he said with a touch of panic in his voice. Again, I think I sometimes take for granted the gear that he is using when compared to his age and size. He was attached to a fairly sizeable pike, whilst stood up on a boat, with a heavy jerkbait rod, and 100lb braid so it probably felt like it was pulling back a bit. At one stage he wanted me to take the rod but I told him to carry on and gave him some much needed encouragement to hang on as he was doing well. As the pike got nearer to the boat/surface it decided it was going to give a final surge and dove down deep. At this point I heard " Icant hold it ....Im going to let go of the rod"  I grabbed the back of his life jacket to give him some confidence that he wouldnt be pulled overboard and told him to hold onto the rod at all costs. The next time the pike surfaced it was begining to see our side of the argument so I quickly netted it. 

Until this point he had never had a double figure pike by himself ( when he was about 5 he somehow managed to hook one about 11-12lb on a 1-5 gram ultralite rod, but after a minute or two it was evident that I would need to play that one in.). This was different however, he had done all of the work himself and when I looked at the fish in the net it was going to be 10lb or there abouts. I unhooked the fish for him in the boat but as we were close to the bank anyway we got out of the boat with the fish in the net for weighing and photographs. When he saw the fish lay on the unhooking mat ready to go in the sling he said "WWWOOOAAHHH I cant believe iv caught That!!" The scales went round to just a little over 10lb and I got a few pics of his new PB 10lb 2 oz. 

It was quite funny as there was a family walking past and I couldnt get them out of the way to take the picture so fascinated were they with what must have looked a bit of a beast to a non angler. So thats who the strangers are in the background.

He still needs a bit of practice holding the fish properly but that will come with experience.

After the fish was returned and swam away strongly, to the dismay of the onlookers ( are you not going to eat it?) a high five and a big hug was called for by a proud dad. We got back on the boat and decided to call it a day and end on a high note. On the way back to the launch He couldn't understand why he was shaking like a leaf even though the weather was fine. After a brief conversation about adrenaline rushes and then about a dozen what / why? questions about adrenaline we arrived back to shore. 

Just before we got off the boat I heard "Dad....."     "yes son!" I replied expecting something along the lines of "that was awesome" or "thanks for taking me out Dad" I was shocked to say the least when with a grin he simply said " three nil".  With a chuckle and shake of the head I had to give him that one...