Gammarus

I'm so far behind the times. Many new things appeared in the fly tying scene while I was in hiatus, UV resin being one of them. It's fair to say the use of UV cured resin has been revolutionary, almost gone are the days of multiple coats of varnish and mixing up small amounts of sticky short lived
epoxy resin. Ask ten people which is the best resin available and you'll probably get as many answers. Having read some good reviews about bug off, I bought a bottle of lite and standard, along with a UV laser pen to cure it with.

The first fly I have tried the resin on is a gammarus shrimp pattern. When I tied this fly in the past, it would take two or three coats of Sally Hansen Mega Shine nail varnish, and the associated drying times between coats made it time consuming. The fly itself is straight-forward once you know the sequence and using UV resin speeds the whole process up considerably.

An older style shrimp, the lead foundation is not so exaggerated tied this way

Another change is the lead foundation. Before I would use thin strips of adhesive lead sheet, tying on top of the hook shank reducing the length as you built it up to give a hump shape and then laterally flatten with pliers to keep the profile thin. Taking inspiration from the Slovenian gammies - again a recent discovery - I have used a crescent shaped piece of lead sheeting. This produces a more exaggerated hump with steeper tapers at the ends, I really like the profile and of course the flies are substantially heavier too.

You will find it easier to make a number of lead crescents in one go before you begin to tie the flies. I bought a quantity of lead sheet which has a thickness of around 1mm. Using stout scissors, roughly cut the shape and flatten it slightly with a hammer. You are looking to reduce the thickness of the lead to approximately the same as the hook shank, this will also make the lead easier to work with. I use a Stanley blade and smaller scissors to reshape the crescent, you will also find it helpful to use something curved such as scissor handles to bend the lead so the curve at the bottom of the crescent matches the shape of the hook. Mark a set of groves along the whole of the top side of the lead so the thread wraps can grip and hold it in place. Once you have made a number of lead pieces you can begin to tie the fly.

I have used a 55D GSP thread to tie this fly with. Lay a foundation of thread wraps along the hook shank where the lead will sit. You will find it easier to tie the lead crescent by starting in the middle of the hook. Tie down the lead keeping tension on and wrapping over all of the lead piece leave he thread at the end of the shank and secure with a two turn whip finish. Turn the hook upside down and add superglue along the hook shank, then allow to dry.

I have used a Whiting hen hackle for the legs. A white hackle allows you to colour the legs the same as the shrimp or leave it natural. Tie in the hackle and a length of nymph skin - cut the nymph skin at an angle and secure with the long edge uppermost. You can colour the nymph skin on both sides prior to tying in or once the fly is finished. You will get a stronger colour if you do this before it is wrapped. A coat of tippex over the thread wraps and lead provide an undercoat so only the colour of the nymph skin is visible.

Pull the nymph skin to almost full tension and wrap making a segmented body, you can ease off the tension around the middle of the fly to make the segments more pronounced. The fly will be neater if the nymph skin is pulled as far as it will go as you get to the hook eye. Using another bobbin loaded with any thread, tie in and catch the nymph skin at the eye with several wraps of thread. With the nymph skin pulled tightly, there will be no bulky tying off point. Whip finish and cut off both tag ends of the thread and again with full tension cut off the remaining nymph skin.

The view from above showing it's slim profile.

Take hold of the original bobbin of thread and twist to tighten up the thread. Follow the edge of the nymph skin securing the hackle along the bottom of the fly. You will find it easier to follow the edge by turning the fly as you wrap. Tie off the hackle and whip finish, the fly is almost complete.

Colour the fly, even if you have already coloured the nymph skin, as this will colour the thread ribbing; the thread turns a darker shade further enhancing the segmented effect.

Once the permanent marker has dried coat the fly with UV resin. I have used the lite version, applying the resin to the fly whilst it is turned upside down. This will stop the resin from flowing into the hackle and help enhanced the shrimp shape.

As for bug off UV resin, I wholeheartedly recommend this resin, I have used both and they both dry fully, with no tackiness, in a matter of seconds using the laser pen torch.

A mixed bag on the last official trout session

I was determined to catch one last whopper before the trout season ended; a late start for work gave me a morning to try my best. On the last couple of trips I haven't seen my nemesis or the other two fish I've previously caught, I have however seen a new large trout of around four pounds.

A new fish, but I've only seen this fish twice

On my last session I fished in the afternoon. As I was heading towards the car at the end of the day, I stumbled across a small group of barbel. I knew there were barbel in this stretch; I regularly used to see one small individual shoaled with a group of bream and roach. That was some three years ago, and I hadn't seen it since coming back to fly fishing last year. This time not only were there more barbel - more than half a dozen - there were some substantial fish in the shoal; I'd estimate a couple of six pound plus fish. The last half an hour of that afternoon yelded two small barbel, one around a pound and a half, the other slightly larger; tremendous fun on an eight foot four weight.

As my car was parked near the barbel hot-spot, I went to have a quick look before I headed anywhere else. I found most of the shoal where I expected, but certainly not as many as before. A stiff downstream breeze ruffled the water surface, hindering my ability to spot the fish. It wasn't long before a small barbel intercepted the fly as it slowly fell through the water. A spirited fight ended with me landing my third barbel on the fly.

My third fly caught barbel, just like mini exocet missiles

I tried to catch another - two hand-sized rudd were all I could entice - this species of fish perhaps reflecting that this part of the river is not fast paced as you'd expect for barbel to take residence.

I dropped into a weirpool without much hope due to the water clarity; the only way you can enter and approach this pool, leaves you liable to be seen when the water is this low and clear. One dace was the small but pleasant reward for this spot.

A small section of river upstream revealed rising fish. I watched for ten minutes as numerous grayling quartered and intercepted small items trapped in the surface film. Leaves scattered across the surface led me to tie on a size 24 green paraphid. Two grayling agreed with my choice.

Further up towards the lethiathon stretch and my nemesis'  lair, I was left wanting as nothing was in residence. Three weeks now I have not seen the nemesis, I fear my chance may have gone, but I hope it is still around.

I visited another weir that holds much more depth and seemingly has a stronger flow than the weir further down, despite the water volume being the same. A french leader and small fluorescent orange indicator, teamed with a duo of JP pupas proved a good choice as I landed three trout and the same number of grayling. Satisfied at finally catching some trout - I was beginning to think it was going to be a coarse fish only day - I headed back downstream.

On route I came across a group of primary school children. They seemed fascinated that someone would fish in their local river, one teacher commented that there must be fish in the river as someone is fishing for them. I kindly posed for a picture they could put up on there board back at school.

I walked ahead of them trying to pick off fish as I headed back to my car. As I stopped to fish, the children would catch me up, tell their teachers there's the fisherman again, say hello to me and walk past heading downstream. After a couple of times of overtaking each other I found myself ahead of them and with a fish in the net. I waited until they arrived at where I was and showed them a lovely chub of around two pounds. The kids loved it, they were completely entranced seeing a fish first hand come from their river. Another pose, providing proof of the existence of fish in the river to be displayed in the board.

The last place I looked at was the pool below the white bridge. A couple of trout could be seen cruising around the pool, rising occasionally. I already had tied on from earlier a JP pupa, and despite a couple of interested follows nothing took the fly confidently. I changed over to something lighter, and a killer bug succeeded in seducing a decent trout. This was in front of another audience of school kids, a different group this time but they were no less impressed. They watched me play, then land the trout, which was just shy of a couple of pounds, then asked to take a picture too.

That was my day done, no logs, but I was thrilled that I had shown the children some fish that live in the river flowing through their town. I hope I have inspired some of them to pursue their own monsters in the future.

My nemesis

I have a nemesis.

This fish has alluded me for nearly two seasons. In the picture above, the fish is lying in around 18" of water, and where this trout is holding station is directly below a busy footbridge. Due to its prominent position, a great deal of pressure is placed on the fish, any one wrong move and you'll have blown it and you only get one chance.

In the past few weeks I have hooked then lost and on another occasion pulled the fly right out of its mouth. I won't be too disappointed if I don't land this fish this season. I continue to relish the challenge faced in trying to land this trout; it certainly won't be my biggest, but it will be by far the hardest fish I hope to eventually catch. Fingers crossed it will be before the end of this month.

Dyeing with picric

A cheeky inquiry with Gareth at Cliff-Harvey Angling - about paying for some materials to be dyed in picric - led him to kindly offer to send me some.

As soon as it arrived, I set about transferring the liquid into a larger container. As there were still some undissolved crystals in the bottom, I knew I could increase the volume of liquid, allowing me to dye larger items.

L-R Picric dyed melanistic, dyed yellow, natural and natural dyed picric

I only had a couple of materials I really wanted to dye, these being deer hair and heron herl. Once I got started I couldn't help but put more stuff in the solution. In the end I dyed half a dun grizzle cape, a normal and melanistic pheasant tail feather and a bleached elk hair patch along with the intended deer hair and heron herl.

Whiting dun grizzle dyed in picric

A close-up

The results were mixed, the heron didn't turn the expected olive shade, however the deer hair went better, it turned out to be absolutely right on the money in colour for the wing in the mohican mayfly.

The heron herl didn't really take on much colour, despite leaving it in the solution for several days 

Picric dyed roe deer

Picric dyed deer, natural roe and bleached elk dyed in picric

After the initial lot of materials I moved onto half a squirrel skin, some peacock eyes and a piece of woodchuck with good results.

Thanks to Gareth for sending me the picric solution to experiment with.

A few pictures from Exmoor

I managed only three short sessions whilst away on Exmoor; two on the Barle, one on the Exe.  My first trip was a very short, one hour, spent flicking a balloon caddis between boulders in pocket water. It was such a contrast to the sedate, smooth surfaced rivers I usually fish. The action was instant and constant, actually hooking and landing fish proved problematic. Three trout and a salmon parr came to hand, many more missed, but I had a great time and remained in the good books as I kept to the agreement of one hours fishing.

The next trip was just as short, but for different reasons. It rained everyday at some point, some days it rained most of it. So arriving at a rising river it didn't take long to become un-fishable, although I missed a couple of nibbles on a woolly bugger.

Having such a great misses, she allowed me a chance to fish for a bit longer when we went to Tiverton. I fished the Exe years ago - I knew exactly where I wanted to fish - a long pool with the main current running along the near bank; trees and bushes prevent much fishing from the bank. In the past I had plenty of trout and grayling and this time proved no different.

I intended to fish the pool using long leader techniques, I rarely get the chance on my home waters, they're simple not suited to it. Arriving at the bottom of the pool the fish dictated otherwise. Plenty of rising fish all over the tail of pool, slightly altered my intentions. Most of the rises were small affairs, nothing visible hatching and a gusty wind pointed towards something small and terrestrial being taken. A very small black Klinkhåmer tied onto a 0.10mm tippet proved successful enough and landed me several small trout including a particularly silvery one - a sea trout perhaps?

I worked past the rising fish heading up the pool and changed over to a french leader. A strong flow and reasonable depth saw me chose a size 12 JP pupa with a three millimetre tungsten bead on the point, a hydropsyche larvae in the middle and a baetis nymph on the top dropper.

A size-able trout started things off and I caught a succession ranging from 6-10 inches. I only started to catch grayling as got near the head of pool, again a mixed range of sizes. I caught on all three flies, with the JP pupa taking the majority. Fishing this one pool left me more than happy and it proved to be the last session of the week.

My view for the week

I'm staying a cottage for week at Hawkridge on Exmoor. Three hundred yards below the cottage is the River Barle, Tarr steps is a short walk away.

The Barle runs along the edge of the trees

Looking forward to fishing - I have access to seven miles of river - but I'm constantly reminded that it's NOT a fishing holiday.

A second fish of a lifetime; in one season

A mere three weeks after catching an extraordinary wild brown trout, I have succeeded in catching another, bigger one. Unlike last time I hadn't left my scales in the car, this one has a figure to it's weight rather than an estimate.

Unbelievably I caught this fish in exactly the same place as the last one, but just to shake things up it was fooled by a different fly. A size 14 JP pupa with a cream body and standard copper bead, proved the winning combination for this fish.

On this occasion I found there to be a lot more lesser fish present, this provided even more of a challenge than usual; although a little extra patience, along with a slightly tinged river from overnight rain helped.

I am beginning to think it may be time to invest in a newer, larger net, my Leeda scoop net proving invaluable normally, but significantly under-sized for these trophy fish.

With a little anguish, this fish shouldn't have been alone, in fact it wasn't, I caught three trout, but I did hook and lose another very large trout. I have been pursuing this particular trout for sometime, I first saw it last year, it hasn't moved and despite my best efforts it hadn't been caught either. Needless to say you can imagine how inconsolable I was, having succeeded in deceiving the fish, only to lose it during the fight and this was before I caught the other fish. It did however take the shine of the second capture a little and I cannot help but think how I could have landed two exceptional fish in one day. Maybe next time.

Unfortunately I had no audience this time and had to collar some chap to take some pictures for me. A finger across the lens affected all the pictures he took for me, I can't grumble, at least there are some pictures.

And the weight of the trout?
5lb 6oz, 24" in length.