Something Different - Fly Fishing in Northumberland UK

Another summer vacation and Holly and I head up to Chatton Trout Fishery again for some fly fishing with Bob Smith.  She caught the sole fish on our last and her first visit and experience of trout fishing with a fly rod.  This time it was my turn.  It was a return to the adventure of the book Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout (Kindle ebook and now as a full colour 5"x 8"glossy paperback at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1729146147    ISBN 9781729146149 for £6.35,  as well as the A4 sized hardback).  However, this was no early morning session.  It was a civilised drive in the late morning for a post-lunch start.

View from the car park

Bob was a little delayed in his arrival at the venue so Holly and I had lunch before doing about 15 minutes unsuccessful fishing before Bob arrived.  We saw a tiger trout swim past our feet a few times while we waited. 

This was the first Rainbow caught

The Fritz patterns I usually start with were not attracting anything.  

Bob arrived and we walked over to the upper lake at its far end where the spring enters into deep water. This was local knowledge coming through.  It had been a low hot dry summer to that point (as evidenced by the parched soil in the photo above), and the fish were deep in the cool fresh spring water.

Bob suggested a small hook wrapped around with copper wire.  Bang!  First cast and as the intermediate line began to sink past a count of 20, the fish hit.

So it continued, the line sinking deep with various pheasant tail nymphs, wire nymphs and olive nymph lures all sinking close to the reeds where the spring fed in.  All in all I had about 7 on and allowed them to come off the hook prior to landing to speed the catch and release process, (and avoid getting the hire car smelling of fish from my hands).

Holly had one on and lost it with Bob's help but he had a floating line and the leader wasn't really long enough to get down to the depth of the feeding fish.

We had a good session and all too quickly had to get back to home and farewell to a lovely spot where NO English (Environment Agency) rod licence (available online or at local post offices) is required as its part of the River Till catchment area feeding into the Tweed.

Saltwater Flies and Lures

The images on this post show the selection of flies and lures I have used in the Arabian Gulf.

They have each performed with varying degrees of success, though by far the most successful in terms of numbers of fish, are the orange trout poppers followed by the white floating fry (of which I have none of the originals left).  The white fry shown tried to combine the qualities of the red and white poppers and fry and worked well until the flying treble was lost along with most of the tail to a toothy critter.  In the pictures, the more successful a fly has been, the less legs it has remaining attached.  The attachment of a flying treble also seems to improve the rate of hook-ups and this I attribute to the hardness of many of the fish species' mouth areas.

I have used bit detectors to construct my own popper variants as often it is difficult to get the appropriate materials in UAE, Qatar or Kuwait.  Fore example, I was unable to get olive wool for the Arno's Milky Dream fly so used some chartreuse material and white marabou and, at the time, had no internet access, so had to go off a verbal description of the fly scribbled on a piece of hotel note paper.

Some trout poppers ended up being so chewed up they disintegrated.  The one mentioned in the picture is the last of the three originally purchased.

Some of the flies are sea trout trebles and salmon doubles which are too heavy to cast from the shore or while wading with my 9'  rod with 8 wt line, and so are used  trailing from a boat, or flicked into deep water from a pier and allowed to sink and drift before being retrieved.