Force Majeure

I have been unable to fish for a couple of weeks thanks to me cutting myself with the small blade of a Swiss Army knife. I was cutting something in my hands instead of on a firm surface. What a fool. Anyway, 3 hours in the hospital and some stitches later... my left hand is useless with big bandages on the index and thumb.

Check out the source of the pain:

I can't tie knots in the fishing line for another week or two...

How To Fish

How To Fish, by Chris Yates. Published by Penguin, 2007

I have watched a few of the Passion for Angling programs and was entertained by the aproach and zen-like attitude to fishing of Chris Yates and Bob James. I too like to simplify things and try and get in tune with the water, nature and the fish. Chris Yates seems to be a sort of guru of classic fishing with a holistic approach and using split-cane rods and center-pin reels.

You probably know that Chris Yates caught the biggest fish in the UK (c '80s), the giant 51-pound carp at Redmire pond in 1980. That feat certainly puts him up amongst the best, but one gets the feeling when reading the book that the author considers himself as a modern Isaac Walton. I would have been happier if this book was called: How I Fish.

Don't be misled by the title of the book though. It is not a how-to manual. It doesn't give away secrets, it doesn't tell you where to fish, how to fish or how to rig a trace and it doesn't go into detail on bait and tackle. It does tell you, in the first person, how Chris Yates fishes in a series of tales and memories of his childhood and youth. We hear of his friends who all seem to enjoy drinking tea and eating cake on the riverbank; we learn of his exploits in all sorts of weather and his aproach to stalking fish.

The central theme of the book shows how one can become obsessed with one particular species of fish. We discover how Chris Yates became interested in fishing, fished around the UK for various species of fish, and now how he has become infatuated with one species of fish - the perch. At least that is what this book is about - Chris Yates has written other books on other species of fish, but this one raises the perch higher than the rest.

After catching a few perch the other day on a wet nymph and a fly rod, I personally don't see any mystique surrounding the fish and can't understand how someone can become so obsessed with one type of species. Sure I like to catch trout, but I'm happy catching anything... if I catch anything at all ;-)

As the book concentrates on perch fishing, it is rather bemusing to see that the only colour photo of a fish on the back inside cover is not a perch, but rather a chub - a nice one at that. The stories culminate in a frenzy of fishing by Chris Yates and his band of merry men on a private river fishing 'til they drop - and then they all head off to the pub in typical English tradition.

An interesting read overall. An insight into British coarse fishing for any non-Brit who may be intrigued why the English drink so much tea, don't eat the fish they catch and why they get so excited over little river fish.

Get this book at:

The Loue river vally, Doubs, France

We've returned from a trip to the Doubs region in eastern France where we tried a little fishing on the Loue river. We have seen quite a bit of trout there before on previous trips, but we never fished there due to a lack of licences. This time, we picked up a couple of weekly licences and tried some lures as the river was much to strong for fly fishing. In the week we were there I didn't even see a trout let alone catch one! What a shame. I did however get quite a bit of practice with my lure casting. Here are some photos of the river.

The 'source' of the river Loue. Actually the river is water from the river Doubs that has gone underground in a few places to the south-east and come out here (see below for how they found this out). The source has some powerful flows and there are a few hydro-electric power stations taking advantage of the force of the water.
A few kilometres downstream, the village of Lods sits picturesquely on the river. As you see the flow is strong after a month of heavy rain. Downstreram from Lods is the town of Ornans and further down again is Chenecey Buillon with it's arched stone bridge over the river.
Normally, there is flow between the central arches and the arches on either side are dry. The area immediately around the bridge itself is a reserve, but the fishing up and down the river here is some of the best on the whole river.
Down from Chenecey is Quingy where we were fishing - or at least trying to fish. The locals suspected that with the heavy rain, most of the fish had been literally washed downstream. We saw a few barbel that were unceremoniously chucked out of the river as they are an alien species and considered a threat to the trout and local species.

How the source of the Loue was found not to be a unique source, but that it is actually a deviation of the Doubs river.
In the summer of 1901 during an accidental fire at the Pernod distilleries at Pontarlier, a million litres of Absinthe was dumped into the river Doubs in an effort to prevent an explosion in the cellars. Absinthe is a green aniseed liqueur. Two days later, the waters of the Loue river was the opaque opalescent white colour and taste of Absinthe and the fish were drunk! The underground channels were thus discovered and were later confirmed by a geological survey.

Brown Stonefly strikes again...

The brown Stonefly nymph in the post below is amazing. It catches all sorts of fish.

 

Today we were at the lake trying to hook one of many trout that were swirling around figuring out the hierarchical pecking order between themselves (what is that activity called?). We pulled out a few rainbow trout and I hooked a 40cm fish, but it escaped when we tried to land it. I then had a go with the fly rod and instead of the trout biting, I got bites straight away from some perch that were in the shallows.


I was aiming at the small fish to get my eye in before going for the trout, but I hooked a few of these little fighters. I was quite surprised. I let them get on with their business, but failed after that to even land a trout.

Funny day indeed.

More info on the Perch (Perca fluviatilis):
Wikipedia (English): European perch
Wikipedia (French): Perche commune

The greyling's cousin

Well the weather service got it all wrong. Although blustery, the front passed over us with only a few drops of rain at dawn. The rest of the day was sunny and fine. We went fishing after lunch and tempted the trout and greyling of the steams. Tom and I ended back where I caught the greyling yesterday. At first we saw a few small fish - not sure exactly what they were, but then we saw a couple of larger greyling take up position in the stream, head facing into the current. Perhaps they were related to yesterday's fish. I tried a fluffy little fly with no luck and then changed to this brown stonefly pattern (with a 22mm hook), below, that hung a few inches under the surface and one of the greyling took it straight away.

Unfortunately the fish got away as we were landing it. We need to work on our landing procedures a bit better. It all gets a bit chaotic when a fish takes the fly and we fluff about bringing it in, getting the camera out and trying to take a shot. Anyway, we had fun. Tom was a bit frustrated getting his line tangled up a bit, but he was happy that he saw so many fish through his polarised glasses. If you have the patience to pause a little you will see one little fish and then by his movements, you'll suddenly see a whole lot more. We are so lucky to have such a nice chalk stream virtually all to ourselves.

The Lady of the Stream

So the weather was not that bad. It did rain, but there were some clear patches and the sun even came out once or twice. During one of the clear periods, I went out on the river to see what was in the swim. After an extraordinarily wet June, the river was full and slightly murky. There were a few fish though and what I found was this: A Greyling (Thymallus thymallus), known as The Lady of the Stream. Caught with a small daddy-long-legs dry fly hiding a 13mm hook (below). The fly is actually mimicking the Crane fly which you will find in abundance near the rivers.

This particular fish was about 30cm long and a very beautiful specimen. I actually mistook it for a trout as I saw it next to a small bridge on the river Selle at Conty, just up from the old railway station. I was able to cast the fly over and above the fish without having to back-cast as I was only about four meters from the fish, luckily just out of it's angle of vision. For five minutes I played with the fly, trying to tempt the sleepy creature. And then, as if just for my pleasure and knowing that it was a protected species and would be put back, it rose and took the fly. Without much of a fight, I landed the young Salmonid onto the bank. I don't know who was more startled, me or the fish. "A Greyling!" I proclaimed to the birds and trees. The first one that I've caught here as well.

I fumbled to get my mobile phone out of my pocket to take the photo above. Not great quality, but it shows the beautiful dorsal fin, indicative of the species. I removed the hook and returned it to the water. The poor thing didn't move for about a minute and I thought that it was dead, but then it stopped pretending and rolled over and swam off to same spot that it was caught. It would not have been fair to catch it again, so I left the fish alone, knowing that one day, we may just meet up again.

More info:
Wikipedia (English): Greyling
Wikipedia (French): Ombre

The weather...

... is wet. Grotty weather forecast for the next few days. Not looking good for fishing on the lakes or river this week-end. There is a trout competition on Sunday and I was hoping to enter, but I may just reserve that decision for tomorrow. If the conditions are bad, then I may just simmer for a week.

Gilfin 455

A 100mm (4") Gilfin 455 reel that I picked up recently. Great movement and excellent brake system. Case says: "Gilfin Model 455, Distributed by Gilfin International Fishing Tackle Ltd., London, England."

Fly fiesta !

I have been scanning some of my flies. As you see, these are old salmon flies. I've printed them out in hi-resolution and now they are framed and posted around the house. These are low resolution images... if anyone is interested in the big files, drop me a line.

Firstly, a Shrimp of sorts, hook 28mm long:

Some old Dee salmon flies, hooks 30mm and 40mm long:

 

Old Dee or Spey salmon fly, hook 40mm long:

Below, a Toppy, a very early pattern described by William Scrope in Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing on the Tweed (1843), together with a Toppy variant. Hooks 45mm and 50mm long:

 

The rest of this little collection that belonged to the previous owner of a JJS Walker Bampton rod that I now have in my possession. Some of the doubles and trebles look quite ferocious:

 

Here is a box of flies. I haven't touched it since it came earlier in the Spring as it looks interesting as is in a random sort of way. One or two salmon flies, but mostly trout flies. All in a Richard Wheatley box that was made for Hardy Brothers:

JJS Walker Bampton & Co 9' 6" trout rod

9' feet 6" inches the rod is in perfect order throughout and weighs just 204 gms. Green silk whipping. Spiral lockfast type Brass ferrules are in perfect condition and pull apart with a good distinct pop.

12" inch Cork handle with alloy reel fittings in perfect condition with screw-fit rubber button. Lower alloy fitting is stamped " J.J.S. WALKER.BAMPTON & Co Makers Alnwick " It also bears impressed serial number '17372'.

A vintage English split-cane fly rod in lovely condition.

 

 

 




 

 I also picked up a few salmon and trout flies, that belonged to the previous owner of the Walker Bampton rod. Some are stunning indeed. Here I've roughly sorted them to size and used an old wooden box to store them.

 

Timed target casting

Field & Stream's FFlogger blog has an article that challenges you to Cast 40 Feet in Four Seconds. Instead of going for distance - as we all tend do, the article encourages you to set up targets at about 40 feet that are called by a gillie and then targeted by the caster. This improves your accuracy over realistic distances and helps you perhaps track a moving fish.

I'm all for it as this is the way that you learn to catch the fish. I'm still casting under my trees out in the back garden during the week when we're not fishing and I find that as the summer progresses, the tree branches are drooping with the weight of the leaves and perhaps moisture. I have to modify my techniques every now and then.

Check out the full article @ Field & Stream

The Selle and Evoissons

After a week of June rain, the rivers are full and silty. The fish are not biting in the lakes and very few fish are even visible in the rivers. The sun was out so I took some shots of the Selle and Evoissons river. The image on the right show some clear water in the shallows.


The Evoissons joins the Selle at Conty. In this photo (left), the Selle is on the left and the slower flowing Evoissons joins on the right.


(right) The little footbridge that allows us to cross the Selle to the left bank of the Evoissons. Some good fly fishing spots with plenty of space to cast.


(left) Walking up the Evoissons a little, we come to some shallow runs where the local cross-country carriage racing courses ford the river. Plenty of wildlife visible. Birds, water rats and frogs.


(right) A moorhen with a young chick on the Selle.







(left) A pair of swans on the banks of the Selle.












(right) One of the lakes of the Conty system called Les Etournelles that is not fished and therefore has plenty of wild fish. Crystal clear water, perhaps 10 pairs of swan and fish everywhere. Here some fry are swimming around in the safety of the weed.






One of the lake swans. What a life!

Cleaning my Walker-Bampton reel

After a little research and some very good advice found on The Classic Fly Rod Forum, I have started to clean up the old 4" JJS Walker-Bampton reel.

The reel has been taken apart and the individual pieces are wiped down to remove grease and grime. The reel and parts are then soaked for half an hour in a 4-part warm water, 1-part vinegar solution. This slightly acid mix stabilizes any corrosion and loosen caked-in grime. Afterwards, I cleaned the parts with water and a little detergent (slightly alkaline) to remove any acidity and clean further. Then a good rinse with cold water.

The reel is then waxed and the moving parts and threads are oiled and greased.

Finished results: