fishydreams

This weekend was my first chance to get out on the river for a while and I managed to fish on the evenings of both Saturday and Sunday. The river was in pretty good shape and there were a few fish around.

The gypsy barbel seemed very spooky initially and I was forced to go down in size both in nymph and leader. Curiously the fish would often be frightened of the little splash created by the nymph as it landed. When they are “on” they can often be attracted to this and even swim over to investigate, often accepting the fly in the process. I found that it was better to offer the fly from slightly upstream and often give the nymph a little movement when it was close to the fish. Continue reading →

The weather people said that on Sunday the rain would appear. That´s good news. The reservoirs are low for this time of the year and need some winter rain now to top them up before the long summer arrives. So Saturday seemed like a good time to take a look at the river before the change in weather shakes things up. If the rains are sustained and heavy it can knock the river out of kilter for a while.

There is a very nice stretch of water that my friend Norman Smith introduced me to and I thought it might be nice to take a look at it again. The last time I was there it seemed that it had been recently polluted and I was told a goat herder had seen a lot of dead fish during the week between my visits. I was curious to see if things had improved. Continue reading →

Having thrown together a few little “Plastic Bag” nymphs this morning I took them to the river to give them a little swim. I had only an hour or so on the water since Ireland were about to play the All Blacks and we had invited neighbours around to watch the game on the telly.

The river was looking good but the water temperature seems to have dropped. The river was also carrying a little colour. It is difficult to be precise about the temperature change since my thermometer consists of my legs and feet! I have a pair of neoprene boots which I use to wade and they seem to be falling apart. The puppies have been chewing the damn things.

There were a couple of fishermen on the stretch I had hoped to find some carp and so I gave them a wide berth and headed downstream a little way. There were no carp to be seen but a few barbel were around although difficult to see.

The little nymph  took one barbel but I hooked another which came off after some time. Interestingly, the fish took the nymph which was dragging downstream as I waded slowly upstream looking for fish.

In the head of the pool there were some fish but they were difficult to see. I decided to fish a nymph blind and swapped my little PB nymph for something with a little more weight. I just cast the nymph into the deeper area with strong current and just tried to keep in touch with it as it drifted downstream.

It was a real eye opener! I managed to hook two or three good fish but all of them came off. One was a decent fish too. I was not in the least deterred by not landing the fish. It was interesting to see how productive the “blind” nymphing can be and it suggests that I might be able to catch a few fish when the winter comes on and there are few fish to be seen.

And the rugby? Ireland lost to the All Blacks but they came as close to winning as it is possible to come. It was a terrific performance.  Final score: Ireland 22, New Zealand 24. The All Blacks are undefeated this year and Ireland, a team that has never beaten them, came within a whisker of spoiling the party!

Christ, you can´t beat sport!

The river was carrying a little colour

A new stretch of river for me

In the heat of battle!

The one fish I managed to land.

Such lovely fish, these.

Look what the puppies did to my wading boots

Just because they´re cute they get away with anything!

This fly was heavier than the PB nymph and was taken by several fish which were unseen. Interesting!