Thank you Mr Denson.

Today I finally got round to taking my dad to a localish still-water; this trip has been long over due, in fact it was originally talked about last season.

We fished at Earith trout lakes. The water in this 12 acre gravel pit is clear with extensive weed-beds lining the bottom. Arriving at one O'clock there was a pleasant westerly breeze forming a nice ripple. I could see fish rising and jumping all over the lake. I had plans to creep around the edges trying to stalk fish. I figured a lot of the flies in my fly-box - although river patterns - should do well enough for stalking. I had tied up a few buzzers as it would be foolish to fish a still-water without them. I saw many pond/lake olives, sedges and chironomids hatching, the odd trout were close enough for me to see them chasing and taking hatching flies.

Not sure whether this is a lake or pond olive

I walked around half of the lake, mainly to see if there were any lunkers patrolling in the margins. I couldn't spot anything close in, the only visible fish were those that were rising and jumping. Most of the fish were seemingly just out of casting range, occasionally the odd fish would come closer. Proving too tempting, I decided to head to an area where most of the activity was occurring.

My first blue trout

Fly selection wasn't so easy; of course I have many river patterns, but most of them were relatively specific to what they imitated. I don't feel the fish were being particularly selective, I just needed something that looked like food. Last night I tied up three deer hair emergers. Rob Denson showcased this fly in the previous months Trout & Salmon magazine. I have never really fancied this fly, I know a lot of people rave about it, but it's just not caught my attention.

The DHE that caught all my fish today

If you've read this blog much you'll know that I only fish rivers, small intimate and crystal clear. So as you can imagine I'm not equipped to fish for still-water rainbows. A new rod I bought secondhand a couple of weeks ago, was really the only thing I could see as being usable; a 10ft 4# Orvis Western3. I used this rod last week on a rainy morning fishing a sort of leader to hand. I found the rod very usable, with enough tip-action to deftly flick light nymphs. Of all my river rods it also casts a decent length of line, not a whole fly line, but certainly far enough.

The largest fish of the day

So how did I do? Reasonable well in my eyes. I caught four trout; a blue - my first ever - and three rainbows. All four fish fell to a static DHE. I found various groups of fish within range allowing me to cast out and leave the fly there. I probably missed a dozen more takes, some were half-hearted miss takes and a few were my fault; often I was still thinking I'm fishing on a river and lifting too quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed the fight the fish gave me, the largest one of the day - a sleek, fit and fully tailed rainbow just under three pounds - took the fly and ran, no need to set the hook; it didn't quite take me to the backing, but the powerful surges gave me a smile. The rod handled the fish perfectly, I was only using a 0.16mm 4.9lb tippet and at no point did I feel that I didn't have control.

The occasionally heavy down pour, one accompanied by lightening and thunder saw me retreat under the old mans umbrella, but otherwise a pleasant afternoon, especially catching all my fish off the surface.

It rained hard at times

A little more on Wyatt's Deer hair emerger.
I tied these ones on Daiichi 1167 Klinkhamer hooks and used Nature's Spirit Comparadun hair. I tied these as Rob Denson described in his T&S article, even without Rob's article I would have tied down the deer hair butts and covered them, it looks neater. You can find the Daiichi hooks here and the comparadun hair here, my only criticism of the comparadun hair is the light tips, there is a dyed medium dun available which may be more what I'd prefer.

Hawthorn fly

I've tied this hawthorn pattern for a few years; in fact it caught my first wild rainbow from the Wye some years back. Although it isn't a fly that I use very often it would be foolish not to have a couple lurking in the corner of my fly-box.

I feel the furled micro-dub chenille body represents the abdomen of the natural rather well, including the tiny hairs that cover it. A light smearing of floatant should stop it from becoming water-logged and keep it sitting in the surface film. I use foam to make the pronounced thorax and head. The wing, is tied a little differently; instead of being tied where the thorax and abdomen meet, it is pulled back through the foam, a couple of turns of hackle are wound around it, parachute style before it is pulled through. I use a coarse fishing baiting needle - with a latch on the end - to be pull the wing through. On this one, the wing exits the fly a little too high up the thorax for my liking, but I'm sure it'll make no difference. Knotted dyed pheasant tail makes the trailing back legs. 

And this is one from a few years ago tied on my old Thompson vice showing a much better wing placement. This is my benchmark.

A heavier pheasant tail nymph.

Normal pheasant tail feather

If you tie a PTN as Sawyer intended, you will find the amount of weight you can build in to the fly is limited. Only a certain amount of turns of copper wire can be used before the fly becomes bulky and out of proportion. OK, so I could add a tungsten bead but then that's a different fly.

Pheasant tail nymph

How do you make a Sawyer's PTN heavier without changing the fundamentals of the fly? Use a heavier wire of course.

Huh? I hear you ask.

Tungsten wire

Tungsten wire, available in 0.089mm diameter, this is the same thickness as the thinnest available copper wires.

Melanistic pheasant tail feather

I've tied up some PTN using a melanistic pheasant tail feather. This creates a darker browner fly rather than the usual russet-brown of a normal feather. Tungsten wire is a dark grey colour so blends in discretely. Tied up as I would using copper wire, the tungsten wire PTN is significantly heavier than the standard dressing. I don't have a set of micro scales, but there is a noticeable difference in the hand

Melanistic pheasant tail with tungsten wire

Melanistic pheasant tail with brown wire

I would fish this version in much faster and/or deeper areas of river, perhaps it would make a good stalking bug if you're a stillwater type. I guess given the colour of the wire you could use it on any coloured PTN as it should be discreet enough. The only downside....the cost, it's not cheap, but then you don't need a lot of it.

At the bottom of the garden.

I'm very fortunate so far this season; I'm managing to get out at least once a week and I've explored a few new areas. This afternoon I tried another new area, in fact this is a tributary of my club river, it is purely spring-fed and wouldn't look out of place on Hampshire. On the section we have permission to fish, the brook runs along the bottom of several gardens, it is the just what you would wish to have running at the bottom of your garden.

The first part of the brook flows fast, with good depth as it narrows to under three foot across. I elected to fish my herl, flash & drab klink due to the pace. There was a horrible, squally wind blowing across the river making fly placement difficult, patiently waiting for a break in the wind, saw me get the fly on target after a couple of attempts.

Much to my surprise the klink disappeared in a swirl, a quick tightening of the line hooked the fish; it gave a good account of itself in the pacey flow. The trout was lean but was a good ten inches long and most certainly a wild fish; the brook has never been stocked.

Further upstream I could see a number of fish rising. Most of the them were positioned close in the edge. This section is evenly paced, the surface smooth except for boils caused by beds of ranunculus.
There were a few small up-wings hatching, possibly small spur-wing as they were quite pale; I did see one large dark olive lift off. Several times I saw trout leap clear of the water chasing duns as the left the water.

As I watched the rising fish I changed flies and tied on a pale version, size sixteen Barbour paraloop dun. Again the wind caused me issues, blowing my fly across onto the wrong side of the brook. Again I had to be patient and wait for breaks. I slowly made my way upstream, picking off fish that were rising and others that were unseen. Cursing quite often, many fish failed to connect or stay on for long, but I managed another six fish up to eight inches, with as many, if not more lost.

A numbers game - a bright future ahead.

I fished in an area that marked the start of my fishing season last year. There have been significant changes since then; notably the weather, it is in stark contrast to last year and the river levels are the highest they have been for a number of years. The previous season I didn't start fishing until the middle of May, even with a late start I struggled to find fish. However, as I wasn't alone I wasn't particularly concerned, most people were finding it difficult locating fish, and the blame, lay mostly with the cold spring that gripped the country.

As the season progressed, I fished other areas, concentrating on stretches that proved more productive. I simply forgot about the section that started my season. A full free day gave me the opportunity to revisit; I had a plan. There was a run that has always alluded me, the current sweeps tight against the near bank, cover overhangs the water making it a tricky spot to fish.

On my arrival the plan changed instantly. Someone had been busy over the winter; the whole stretch has had massive habitat improvements; narrowing, islands, brushwood and flow deflectors. With this revelation I headed much further downstream.

I found an inviting set of runs and settled down on top of a trunk laid in the margins. The river ran fast and clear, ranunculus swayed in the current. I took my time setting up, a brisk downstream wind necessitated a short steeply tapered leader. I tied on a klink I made up the previous day; herl, flash and drab. A cream JP pupa with a 2.5mm copper tungsten bead accompanied it underneath.

I caught a small trout within a couple of casts, a tiny trout around three inches. The next cast produced the same and so the day continued with succession of trout falling mostly to the JP pupa, with enough slashing and taking the klink to prove it's worth. Most of the trout were around five inches with the odd fish going bigger. The largest of the day barely measured nine inches.

I lost count relatively quickly. I would say I hooked fifty plus fish and landed over thirty. The one thing that surprised me was the sheer number of small fish I came across. Normally the fish would average ten to twelve inches, never have I caught so many small fish. This got me thinking about last season. I wonder now if the reason there were so few fish to be found was because they simply weren't there. I think the fish I came across were two year old's so they would have been there but too small to catch. I suspect the river has been poached, this may explain the lack of sizable trout; the biomass having been replaced by the numerous smaller fish. If nothing else the future bodes well.

Small stream delight.

This afternoon I fished on my new club river. I decided to fish the very upper-most beat the club has. This far up, the river is virtually untouched by man. Meanders twist tightly, often bringing the river close to touching itself. Mostly it is four to six feet across, often much narrower and widening occasionally on larger pools, there are deep pools on every bend, most holding a fish or two.

Due to the steep banks casting is problematic, bow-and-arrow casting is almost a necessity. Contrary to what most people would think, I actually feel a longer rod would be more beneficial. The need to keep back from the edge being the main requisite, the longer reach - and subsequent increased length from bow-and-arrow casting - help to keep to the angler as far away from the trout. It's a theory that will have to be tested next time.

I spent a couple of hours mostly wondering and looking. I managed to catch a lovely red-spotted wild trout on a bead-head biot nymph. I also have a couple of areas noted for next time, including one that held a cracking fish.

I've never seen so many red spots on a trout before

I also fished another beat after meeting up with a a club member who kindly gave me a box full of magazines and showed me along a beat. Thank you Adrian. I fared substantially better on the second beat. I caught three trout, all on dry-flies. I christened my Barbour paraloop dun which incidentally caught the biggest fish of the day.

There were a small number of upwings emerging throughout the afternoon, surprisingly though they weren't LDOs, they were smaller and paler. On the way back to the car I caught one and took a macro picture. Zooming in to see the hind-wing I can identify it as Centroptilum luteolum - Small spurwing.

Stripping peacock quills using bleach

Peacock quill is universally popular. It creates a great segmented effect, useful for all types of flies, but it especially lends itself to use on imitative patterns.

As always, with something that is great to use, it has a downside. Preparation. There is a way to over come this; pay a company £3-4 for twenty five pre-stripped quills. I don't know about you, but as good as they are, I loath to pay that much for them.

So what do you do if you too don't want to pay for pre-stripped quills.

Watch this video.


Here's some that I've done this afternoon.

Natural peacock eye

Nature's Spirit peacock eye dyed sunburst

As you can see it gives pretty good results. There are a few fibers left; I'm not so bothered by these, they easily come off by pulling the quill through your fingers. And you know you haven't got too far with the bleaching and potentially ruined the feather.