Going French!

I attended the International Fly Fair at Stafford over the weekend and picked up a few tips, and parted with a few pounds! The best purchase so far seems to be a French leader that Tyzack and the 'Fish On' team were promoting. The leader is six meters long and is made up of knotted together sections that reduce in diameter to give a gradual taper. When I finished work today I was itching to get down to the river a try it out. My local river is nothing more than a brook really but with a 7.5ft, 3 wt rod and a duo set-up with a clink and a hares ear nymph, the leader cast like a dream. I trotted the flys with a slack downstream cast. Cast one - clink went under and lifted into a fish that I bumped off. Cast two - same story. On the third cast I lifted more gently this time and I was into a fish that turned out to be this lovely brownie.

1 lb brownie taken on a 14 hares ear nymph.

I was unsure about this hand to line technique as described by the likes of Jeremy Lucas etc and wondered about the potential technical nature of this type of fishing. Despite this with such good results first time out I am definitely going to use these French leaders more especially for duo and double nymphing etc. It will be interesting to see how they perform on bigger rivers and how well I can cast them at longer distances. The turn over is very good considering that you are casting with mostly nylon leader and very little fly line.

A slightly damp River Ribble!

Members, or rather three of us dedicated souls fished the River Ribble at Mitton on Sunday, (I think the fair weather fishermen were kept away by a bit of precipitation)! Despite the weather the river was running low and clear and the fish were seen to be rising at times for the surprisingly varied fly life that continued to hatch off the water all afternoon & evening. Between us we managed a total of eight fish including grayling, Brownies and even the odd chub.

Martin James Capturing the imagination of the audience with tales from his fishing exploits.

A nice Ribble Brownie taken at the head of a fast flowing pool.

In the morning some of us attended the Prince Albert Angling Society open day at Ribchester. The day was very enjoyable with some great bargains in the second hand tent and some great talks were given on everything piscatorial by speakers including Charles Jardine & Martin James.

The fly that worked for me on the day. A hairs ear Clink fish Duo with a hairs ear nymph underneath.

Other methods that were successful included Czech Nymphing and North Country Spider styles.