The art may be noble....

I have been lucky enough to spend several days over the last couple of weeks carrying out walkover surveys of the Hampshire Avon and its tributaries. Today, whilst peering off a bridge on the river Ebble I spotted a number of fish - a handful of dace, 2 grayling and a brown trout. As I sharpened my pencil, some of the shavings fell off the sharpener and dropped onto the water surface and I watched closely as the shavings drifted downstream. The dace never moved a muscle, the grayling stayed put, but the brownie rose to the surface and engulfed my pencil sharpenings. With fish that stupid, its no wonder people decided to make trout fishing more challenging by using a weighted line which is clumsy and difficult to cast.

They certainly love maggots.

Hello Fred.
Sorry I missed you but I got your message on the fish in thanks.

Yes Stuart but until you've tried it, you don't know how difficult it can be.

I'm a coarse angler with over 30 years experience who picked up a fly rod for the first time last year.

OK, Trout might be eager feeders but they are also very wary. Move too quickly, stand too high, throw a shadow over them with your line, or have just a little drag on your fly...they're off. Then you have to deliver your fly to them in the first place accurately and quietly, allowing for varying currents. Oh, and then you have to make sure your leader is sunk but doesn't pull your fly under.

Don't knock it until you've tried it!

If you want fishing that's truly easy, fish for Carp, not Trout.

I was catching them on triple corn at the weekend! They are fun though.

"With trout that stupid, it's no wonder people decide to make trout fishing more challenging by using a weighted line which is clumsy and difficult to cast".

Obviously Stuart you have very little experience of trout, or even grayling or dace for that matter.

First of all, casting a fly line with a fine leader and artificial on the end is NOT clumsy at all. And I don't find it difficult. In fact casting a fly line comes as second nature to me, just as walking, riding a bike or driving a car does.

And so it does for thousands of other fly fishers.

Trout, if not scared, are the most inquisitive of fish. It times they can be amongst most easy fish to catch. That's why they rose to the pencil sharpenings. I have also caught trout on fag ends. I have also caught carp on bits of foam, standing in full view of them.

You will probably find that the trout was first at the shavings because they have far better eyesight than both dace or grayling. Trout will be the first fish to take flight by the way if by seeing you, you might seem to be a threat.

I fished a reservoir some years ago that was an all method trout water. Because of this, many anglers decended on the water with maggots and worms. Of course for the first few days they caught lots of trout on these baits.

Then all of a sudden the trout would turn off.

The trout suddenly equated maggots and worms with danger. I have seen trout swimming away in terror when a handful of maggots hit the water.

On one occasion, armed with my fly tackle of course I stopped to chat to a couple ao these anglers. They had had nothing all morning. I saw a couple of head/tail rises and asked them if I could have a chuck.

"Help yourself" said one of the anglers. I cast out and in 10 minutes landed 4 trout.

They were amazed. I wasn't. I could tell from the rise forms that the trout were feeding on midge pupa and that a well directed cast with the right imitation would catch lots of fish. The last thing they wanted was maggots or worms.

The reasons why fly fishing only is allowed on many waters are interesting, and worthy of comment or even debate. There is no doubt that once an angler becomes proficient as a fly fisher, he or she will find it the most enjoyable and interesting way of catching trout.

Not only that, a degree of expertise can be reached by the fly fisher where the method can be the most deadly of all.

But it is not the easiest method for the beginner to learn.

Many fly fishers who have found that fly fishing is the most enjoyable method are only too keen that others should learn to fly fish.

As regards worm or maggot fishing, well certainly I do not pity the worm or maggot caught trout, but I just might pity the angler who uses such methods. He is closing his mind to probably the most enjoyable form of angling ever invented.

When one studies the history of fly fishing one soon discovers that it wasn't invented to make things harder or more "sporting". The early fly fishers were only interested in putting trout, and other fish for that matter on the bank.

you see i look at it slightly different ,its not thet the trout was stupid for being fooled by the wood shaving
its just that fish have two options when it comes to taking possible food

1.wait and see what happens if another fish eats it & hope to get the next one first ?

2.suck it and see !(hey it works for gudgeon)

it obviously saw that the dace and grayling where playing the waiting game and the trout didn't want to let a good opportunity pass him by.

"Obviously Stuart you have very little experience of trout, or even grayling or dace for that matter."

Ron - I wrote my PhD on dace, have also studied grayling, enjoy flyfishing, and caught a brown trout on my 3rd ever cast on a dry fly!

But I got the bite that I was after, or should that be rise ;>))

It was interesting though, was it not, that the trout was the only fish to rise to the pencil sharpenings, especially as he was at the tail of the pool.

Sometimes it is the wiliest old fish in the pool that is among the first up to a well presented bait.

I guess you were after a bite Stuart and you got one from me.

I've thought for years that the wiliest of all our freshwater fish is the chub. I also think they have probably better eyesight than trout.

Yet on occasions I have had chub virtually charge trout out of the way to be first to grab a dry fly.

Beauooootifull Stuart beauooootifull, hahaha.

Oh Shurrup Crowin' Baz!!

:0[

eheh!

Alwaya fancied a bit of fluff chucking as it happens,if the fish are stupid then with me on the other end of a fly rod theyd be in good company lol.

No doubt fly fishing 'kits' can be had at a reasonable price for the newcomer?

i do find it amusing that some of the people that decry "commercial" waters fish for (freshly,over) stocked trout!


one of the waters near me produces a lot of double figure fish - we've barbequed these and you wouldnt believe the amount of fat that runs out of them.....GRHE "pellets" rule!

which is why i fly fish for bass now!

Pellatus vulgaris. That is a good fly.

I used to do stacks of fly fishing for Bass Dave. Large Mouth and Small Mouth of course. Unfortunately there are none where I live these days.

I wish I could remember how to tye a rabbit nymph which I was shown some years back by a chap called Dave Palmer. It was his own creation and hadn't reached the shops at the time, I'm not sure if it has now or not.
I can remember it involved cutting a clump of rabbit fur and then painstakingly scraping the blue underfur out of it with your nails.
It was a scruffy but neat looking thing, but anybody who saw it in my fly box, wanted to know how to tye it.
The advice on how to fish it was to drop it on the floor and squash it into the mud with your foot before casting into the lake. And I had a good few trout on it.
It was also virtually indistructable.

Hahaha well done Stuart, I saw it coming, there was no way Ron could avoid it.

;-)

Sorry Ron, do you reckon they would take spear shavings?

I've caught them on fag ends before today Steve.

Dead easy Baz.

Catch one bunny - wild one of course and comb out a little of the bluish grey underfur on it's belly.

It's funny how the bunny makes little whimpering sounds when you do this. I think they are laughing.

You can then use this to dub a body onto a hook in the normal way.

After you have done that, fetch the bunny a good wack with a trout priest behind its ears.

Then you can skin it, keep the skin for many other patterns and have rabbit pie.

I think it has just come back to me on how to tye the rabbit nymph.

We didn't use the blue underfur, that was discarded. What you had was a clump of rabbit hair in your hand, and you had to pull or tease the finer hair out of it and discard that also.
The only thing you used was the actual hairs. It was a long job. It had a tail of rabbit hair, and also a body of the same with a silver rib, to finnish it off it had a tied back hackle. It was also weighted. It was a lot bulkier than a Walkers mayfly nymph which I used to love tyeing. An aunt of mine gave me a good sized ball of angora wool for this particular nymph.