The Fly Fishing - And Now All Types of Fishing Thread!

[RichB]

coppice said:

Seconded...

And later today it's time for tench - lift method , of course .

Thirded... wonderful looking fish.

I've always wondered why the tench doesn't drop the bait as soon as they feel the extra weight of the shot but as it works they obviously don't. Perhaps they're not as finicky as carp?

[otolith]

The weight of the shot is usually largely counterbalanced by the buoyancy of the float. And lift works for carp and bream too. It’s really just a way of presenting a large bait hard on the bottom using a float.

[wc98]

otolith said:

The weight of the shot is usually largely counterbalanced by the buoyancy of the float. And lift works for carp and bream too. It’s really just a way of presenting a large bait hard on the bottom using a float.

Great way to fish as well. I always chose whatever float method would suit the venue i was fishing, that anticipation watching the float never gets old. Even in salt water it has a myriad of uses and we have had Cod, Pollack, Coalies, Mackerel, Seatrout, Wrasse and even species like Dogfish and Conger on the float. I've even used it to good effect for Flounder and Turbot on occasion. That ability to cover ground in moving water and present a more natural looking bait works everywhere.

I ended up not going today, the wind in the area i was going to fish was a bit strong and it lifts a lot of green algae leaving it suspended in the water column, makes it hard work on sub surface lures or the fly. I'm off Wed/Thurs this coming week so hopefully get out then.

[wc98]

RichB said:

coppice said:

Seconded...

And later today it's time for tench - lift method , of course .

Thirded... wonderful looking fish.

I've always wondered why the tench doesn't drop the bait as soon as they feel the extra weight of the shot but as it works they obviously don't. Perhaps they're not as finicky as carp?

Thanks all. I spent a silly amount of time chasing them in fresh water as a teenager but it's a whole different ball game on the open coast. I've seen a few fish on both east and west coasts into double figures and one of my local rivers has a reputation for chucking out really big fish from time to time. A casting instructor friend of a friend had one at night on the fly just over 17lb in that river a few years ago, i can't even imagine what that went like.

The visual aspect of it early morning is great, really keeps you on your toes. I have had 5lbers chasing and bumping weedless soft plastics i was testing for Bass fishing and with decent glasses it is possible to watch them sit literally 20 mm off the end of the lure following it's trajectory, they really are very wary fish. Time of day and water clarity play a big part in how successful a trip is but the biggest jump i made in consistency was working out how to induce takes. Boulders work for me, work the lure toward a boulder when the fish starts following, then up and over the top and let it flutter down into the scoured depression at the back, boulder needs to be shallow enough the fish won't follow it over the top.

The fish will scoot round the boulder when it loses sight of the lure and as you lift the lure up out of the depression it usually induces the take as the fish spots it again. That all usually happens in about 1 second and it's a great feeling when you get it right. Took me a while and dozens of frustrating follows from some nice fish before i got it down pat and it obviously doesn't work on clean sand/shingle where more regular techniques like spin stop, jig to surface plane and drop will give a better chance.

[Powerkiter]

I'm a member of a fishing syndicate in Gloucestershire, which has fly and course fishing on specific sections. I also fish a local river that is free to fish with a healthy stock of wild brown trout. I've fished several times already this season but it's amazing how slow the fishing is. The wet weather and cold temperatures are playing havoc with the insect life. I've not seen a single mayfly this year.

I fished from 5pm to nearly 9pm last night. I saw only two fish rising (and it was almost impossible to determine what the fish were rising to) over nearly a mile of river. A cast to these rising fish with a Klinkhammer connected with both.

[coppice]

A lovely couple of hours in my little piece of heaven on the North York Moors . Goldhead PTN and Adams , both 16 , produced 13 pretty little browns , none more than 9" but such dogged little fighters on a 6ft #3weight . Mayfly hatching but olives and midge preferred.

[coppice]

I can't remember if I've shared this - a chub of exactly 4lb on a mayfly last summer .

[RichB]

coppice said:

A lovely couple of hours in my little piece of heaven on the North York Moors . Goldhead PTN and Adams , both 16 , produced 13 pretty little browns , none more than 9" but such dogged little fighters on a 6ft #3weight . Mayfly hatching but olives and midge preferred.

My brother is encouraging me to start fly fishing and he fishes a small river like that. As a course angler the numbering system is new to me. He joined me for some lessons on a lake where I used an 8' #7 rod but for the river he wants to take me to he's suggesting a 8' #4. What length rod did you use on that river?

[coppice]

I used a Shakespeare 6ft 3 weight with a WF3 line and a 10ft leader. Lower down the river I use either a 7-6 or 8ft 4 weight , and on a medium size river a 8-6 5 wt .

My river where pictured is jungle warfare in places and I very much struggled when , all those years ago now, I switched from reservoir to river fishing . The biggest change is fishing at short range and hardly ever overhead casting . It's all side casting and roll casting .

Edited by coppice on Friday 14th June 09:29

[otolith]

The number relates to the weight (literally the weight, not the strength) of the fly line that the rod is designed to cast. So equivalent to the casting weight given in grams you see on spinning rods.

A heavier line will generally be easier to cast further into the wind and will turn over larger less aerodynamic flies, so if the situation demands a heavier line, you need a rod which can cast it. Coming at it from the other end, if you need to use a stronger rod in order to land the fish, it will demand a line heavy enough to load it or you won't be able to cast it effectively. And conversely, a heavy line won't land as delicately as a lighter one which can scare the fish, so if your presentation needs a lightweight line you need a rod which you can load up with so little weight.

Coarse fishing equivalent - imagine trying to cast light float tackle on a stiff carp rod, or a big method feeder on a light float rod.

The length comes down to much the same practicalities as coarse rods, sometimes more length is useful, but it comes at the cost of more weight in the hand when you're holding the thing all day and of unwieldiness if you are waving it about in an overgrown river.

[RichB]

Thanks chaps, I sort of got the gist of it from the chap giving me some lessons but it seems I will need a different rod for the small river my brother fishes to the lakes where I had the lesson. As i'm spending a fortune on my car at the moment I want to buy something cheaply, especially if I don't take to it and revert to chub, perch and barbel. Seem you can get a rod and reel for £100 from the online discount sellers

[otolith]

The Shakespeare kit is cracking value for money.

[otolith]

https://www.fishingmegastore.com/shakespeare-fly-r...

[Bonefish Blues]

Maxcatch has this end of the market nailed. Good kit, huge value.

https://m.maxcatchfishing.com/fly-rods/61-ultralit...

[wc98]

Powerkiter said:

I'm a member of a fishing syndicate in Gloucestershire, which has fly and course fishing on specific sections. I also fish a local river that is free to fish with a healthy stock of wild brown trout. I've fished several times already this season but it's amazing how slow the fishing is. The wet weather and cold temperatures are playing havoc with the insect life. I've not seen a single mayfly this year.

I fished from 5pm to nearly 9pm last night. I saw only two fish rising (and it was almost impossible to determine what the fish were rising to) over nearly a mile of river. A cast to these rising fish with a Klinkhammer connected with both.

That's great angling to get 100% hook up ratio when it is like that, well done. Some things are well behind this year due to that cool cloudy spring, especially around the coast and unusually the west and sou west coast up here has less life showing, the water temp is still way down in some areas.

I did 14 hours on Wednesday although an hour and a half of that was driving between marks to make the most of the forecast being wrong and getting out of the wind that was supposed to have dropped. Managed 2 mid fifties Bass from two hits on soft plastics fished very slowly. There was still a fair bit of lethargy in one fish that is usually gone by now in more usual water temps.

[wc98]

coppice said:

A lovely couple of hours in my little piece of heaven on the North York Moors . Goldhead PTN and Adams , both 16 , produced 13 pretty little browns , none more than 9" but such dogged little fighters on a 6ft #3weight . Mayfly hatching but olives and midge preferred.

That's a lovely bit of water and a stonking Chub for the fly. That's my kind of water. I have a small burn that is usually loaded with Trout within walking distance, it's where i hope to see my grandson catch his first Trout on the fly. Lots of small fish but the odd 1lb plus fish can appear and occasionally even bigger when there has been a wet winter with lots of overspill from the Reservoir it runs out of.

Great fun and a great place to hone short range accurate casting given how overgrown it is,although fly fishing isn't my strongest discipline so it inevitably takes it's toll on my stock of hoppers, olive and black spiders.

[limmy01]

Didn't realise we had a fishing thread! Just planning my first tench campaign. Working away for the next three weeks then have a week off... hopefully I've not left it too late to still target these magnificent species... Any tips would be great as still pretty much a novice in the fishing area..

Jamie

[wc98]

limmy01 said:

Didn't realise we had a fishing thread! Just planning my first tench campaign. Working away for the next three weeks then have a week off... hopefully I've not left it too late to still target these magnificent species... Any tips would be great as still pretty much a novice in the fishing area..

Jamie

Going by the lovely pair otolith posted a couple of pages back i think he would be the man to ask.

[Bonefish Blues]

wc98 said:

limmy01 said:

Didn't realise we had a fishing thread! Just planning my first tench campaign. Working away for the next three weeks then have a week off... hopefully I've not left it too late to still target these magnificent species... Any tips would be great as still pretty much a novice in the fishing area..

Jamie

Going by the lovely pair otolith posted a couple of pages back i think he would be the man to ask.

Ooh missus!

Brace, shirley?

[otolith]

wc98 said:

limmy01 said:

Didn't realise we had a fishing thread! Just planning my first tench campaign. Working away for the next three weeks then have a week off... hopefully I've not left it too late to still target these magnificent species... Any tips would be great as still pretty much a novice in the fishing area..

Jamie

Going by the lovely pair otolith posted a couple of pages back i think he would be the man to ask.

Thanks!

Not too late - traditionally the closed season applied to stillwaters as well as rivers and tench were seen as a prime opening day target for June 16th. Will probably still be feeding well into July, the only risk is that they will decide to start spawning.

Most important thing, as with any other species, is to find somewhere with a decent population of them, and these days also somewhere that hasn't been filled in with carp. If you can indicate the part of the country you're in someone may have some ideas.

Strategy will depend on the kind of water. Broadly, I have three approaches;

1. Float fishing small baits - standard waggler setup, bait on or just off the bottom, most of the shot around the float, some at half depth, another six inches from the hook. Maggots, corn, small worms, prawns, etc on the hook.

2. Float fishing large baits - lift method, chunky quill float attached with rubbers, just one large shot (large enough to sink the float) 1-3 inches from the hook, set well overdepth and then tensioned until the float is cocked. Used with a big piece of bread flake, a lobworm, cube of luncheon meat, mussel, etc.

3. Scaled down carp approach. Alarm and bobbin, in-line semi-fixed lead with feed in PVA mesh sausages - or in-line semi-fixed method feeder (Some people prefer helicopter rigs, I've never bothered). About six inches of line between the lead/feeder and hook. Hair rigged bait, typically three fake red maggots, or a boilie, but whatever works. I do sometimes fish this sort of rig on a quivertip rod without the alarm, when I may change to a simple running leger rig with the lead or feeder on a link to a swivel or ring running on the main line and stopped by a bead and swivel joining the 18 inch to two foot hook link.

I would use the first approach when I can use lighter tackle and where the tench are a bit tackle shy, or where I'm also interested in catching other fish (rudd and crucians, say). Also where there is a layer of weed on the bottom that I don't want the bait to sink into.

I would use the second approach where I need heavier tackle to get the tench out, because you can balance a big bait, big hook, strong line, also where I want to avoid smaller fish by getting a big bait down to the deck quickly. It also has the advantage of not needing the depth to be set with any great accuracy, so works well when the topography of the bottom means that an accurately plumbed float will have the bait dangling away from the bottom if you aren't exactly where you plumbed it.

I would use the third approach when fish are at a distance and where you might be waiting a long time for a bite. Typically, going after big tench in gravel pits, where you find a feature at range and need to cast and feed accurately and wait it out. I'll use one to three rods for this, depending on rules and just how scarce they are. The fake maggots are brilliant if there are small roach and rudd which will reduce real maggots to chewed skins before a tench comes along, and are also slightly buoyant which pops them up a little.

I tend to use a decent amount of groundbait, but you have to play that by ear a bit. I tend towards the fishmeal and ground hemp mixtures, and usually add whole hemp and some samples of hookbait. The fish I pictured earlier were caught on bread flake - for them, I submerged half a loaf in a bucket of water until it stopped bubbling, then drained it, mashed it, and added dry groundbait until it was stiff enough to ball and throw.