Colapteryx virgo

Colapteryx virgo (Male). European damselfly photographed at Bailleul sur Thérain. Very difficult to get close to, but with a little patience you can get a lucky shot like this.

Brown trout in Crillon

We visited the fish farm in Crillon (Oise) last week. They buy in the fry and raise the trout for sale or to stock the dozen or so fishing dams on the site. They have Rainbow, brown and golden trout. Some specimen that are 6 years old grow up to 6 Kg! 

French Flies 2.0

If you read this blog from time to time, you will notice a change in the layout, address, feed address... actually quite a bit has changed.

I had problems trying to manage the format of the last blog as it was an FTP blob hosted on my server, but managed by Blogger. Some features of the Blogger blogs are only available if you host with Blogger using a Blogger address or your own domain, managed by Blogger.

So I set up http://fishing.teggin.com as the new address of the blog. The old addresses (http://www.teggin.com/fishing/ and http://www.teggin.com/peche/) will route to the new address.

Features that are quite neat are the Archive feature that is now hierarchical, there are 5 posts per page, with older posts linked to at the bottom. This improves page loading times and allows a reader to navigate in a logical way through the blog.

I may still tweak the template a bit or change it completely if I find something better out there.

So update your bookmarks and make sure to update your RSS reader to: http://fishing.teggin.com/feeds/posts/default

Pflueger President 2056

I was looking for a reel to match the light brook rod that I recently picked up. This American Pflueger  President 2056 Fly Reel is light and strong with good looks too. Hopefully when loaded with some line that I'm expecting soon it will balance the light rod well. I've greased it up with Hot Sauce and switched from left to right-hand wind.

The 2056 reel is 3-1/2" in diameter, it has a 31/32" spool width and weighs 5.8 oz. It can hold up to #6 line with 30yds. of 20lb breaking stain backing. I'll be loading it with Monic All-Weather clear fly line 4 WT and some 30lb backing that I have lying around.

Pflueger President 2056Features:

• Large arbour spool design
• Forged, machined and anodized aluminium frame and spool
• Oversized ball bearing and one-way clutch bearing
• Patented center-disc drag system for total drag control
• Convertible left/right hand retrieve
• Large rosewood knob
• Easy-release spool switch
• Protective storage bag included

Decathlon Fly Rods

Tom and I have 3 Decathlon Fly Rods. These are relatively inexpensive and do the job of casting and landing fish very well. I'm not too fussed about spending a lot on a rod as long at it is very special or vintage cane, but why pay a fortune for a casual river rod - something that can be pulled out when are on the way home from the lake and you see a couple of brownies in the stream. You don't need a $700 G-Loomis for that.

It is obvious that one should have longer rods for casting further on large rivers and open water and shorter, lighter rods for precise casting in smaller rivers and brooks. It is not just the rod length, but the capacity to carry a certain weigh of line. You don't want a heavy #5 or #6 weight line in a small stream only a couple of meters across, rather you want a light line with a delicate touch.

So looking for lightness and precision, our most recent rod is a small 7'5" Geologic Fly 500 #4 rod. It comes in a nice cordura covered tube. Very light indeed, it will be used with the very light Pflueger President reel that will be arriving soon and 4 weight line - more on both reel and line later.

My personal large river or lake rod is the 8'6" Caperlan Fly 300 #5 rod. I use this with WF6 line on the Vision Koma reels.

Tom mainly uses the older Decathlon Set Fly 8'5" DT4-WF5 rod. We bought this in about 1999 when we first embarked on fly fishing in France. It works really well and is the perfect rod to chuck into the back of the car with the casting rods just in case we get some fly action.

Decathlon have continued to produce good rods over the years. The sub-brand names have changed, but the quality has remained. They reels unfortunately are not up to standard. Their current range of plastic reels are so cheap that they are not locked away in a glass cabinet as the older better quality and more expensive reels used to be.

Upwinged Flies in the Kitchen

I had a small swarm of Upwinged Flies in the kitchen yesterday. Yep, the kitchen. These were either Large Dark Olive (Baetis rhodani), Medium Olive (Baetis vernus) or Pond Olive (Cloeon dipterum) flies. It is probably a Baetis spinner though showing the large turbinate eyes.

I'm not an expert on flies and there are so many different types of these flies - what could they be exactly? No running water nearby, only my little garden pond out the back.

Burning Man pattern

Down at the pond the other day, I bumped into a local fishing with an orange popper that reminded me of the Burning Man pattern that I had seen recently on Global Fly Fisher [link: Burning Man]. They describe it as:

"A strange but efficient foam popper for all kinds of strange fish."

It looked like an easy pattern to make, so I had a go.

I used some orange floating fly line for the legs, orange braid and black cotton for other parts. These four variants took about 20 minutes to knock-up and I have no idea if they will work, but they should send all the right signals to the fish. Apparently you need a few as the fish reduce the length of the legs quite quickly. That sounds like good advice.

polarised fishing glasses

Tom and I use polarised fishing glasses to help us spot fish under the water. Mine are clip-on polarised lenses that attach to my normal glasses magnetically. I can flip them up when I need to see something without the dark lenses. Tom's glasses are from Decathlon. They do the job well, but have a slightly less polarising effect than mine.

I bought my Magna Flip glasses from an eBay store: here.

Tench (Tanche)

Here is a short video clip of a Tench in a local pond, filmed with the polariser filter.

The Tench
The tench or doctor fish (Tinca tinca) is a freshwater and brackish water fish of the cyprinid family found throughout Eurasia from Western Europe

More info:
Wikipedia (English): Tench
Wikipedia (French): Tanche

Polariser Filter

I've recently added a Polariser Filter to my video camera and it really works well to reduce water reflections, cutting out the virtically polarised reflected light.

Check ou this short video clip showing how effective it is.

Making new friends along the river

We had a good day out yesterday. Fishing at the lakes in the morning then on the river in the afternoon. Not much was biting and nothing was caught with trout pâté on the lake. Most of the other fishermen had gone home as we arrived, but we saw some fish. I saw a large trout close to the shore and tried about five timed to cast just in front of the thing with no luck - it wasn't interested.

Quite a few insects flying about. On the lakes were these crane flies (below), on the river we saw some sedges.

I have decided to use my best (working) bamboo rod - "The Richard" made by Lee of Redditch. It is 9'2" with a hexagonal section. Originally made in the 1960's, it was restored in 2008 and has a semi-parabolic action. The reel is my Hardy Sunbeem 6/7 that is 3 7/16" (87mm) in diameter. Made in the 1980's. With this cobination, I can get the line to the far bank of the river with ease and it feels quite good doing it.

We're fishing just behind the Conty horse driving grounds.

A pair of swans were feeding on the algae in the river. There are about a dozen swans on the river and lakes and many other aquatic fowl that live in this well looked-after environment.

Olivier trying out my Lee rod and Hardy reel. Olivier is the secretary of the Société Pécheurs De L'Yéres. See their site here: La Truite Yerroise.

Tom fly fishing. He had a go even though not many fish were seen. We practised getting our flies wet. We were just too hot as we had dressed for the cold morning and both of us had thick socks and multiple layers of warm clothing. You do need the protection though because of all the nettles.

What's in my flybox?

I have a good collection of flies. Some new, many old and some antique. Salmon and trout flies, some pretty and some fugly.

What do we fish with this year? Last year I fished mainly in the summer and had good results with stoneflies and daddy long-legs. This year, I'm approaching the concept more carefully and looking at the hatch a little more carefully.

I have made up one box with a good selection of flies that should appeal to the pallet of the most discerning trout or greyling in my local river.

We have a Dun/adams pattern (bottom right) for the Spring Mayflies. The effective Stonefly nymph patterns in black and brown. A few yellow Dun/Yellow Sally patterns to see if the fish are interested in a little variety. The Daddy Long-legs that excite the fish with their knotted cockerel plume legs. Some March Brown patterns as they work so well. A collection of sedges on quite small hooks to attract the little tricky fish if there are no big ones around - these are stored on the threader needles of the Orvis box. I've included a red spinner and a couple of Jassid patterns just for pot luck.

Spring fishing in Conty

Tom and I spent the morning down by the lake trout fishing. Pressure had been a constant 998hPa over the past 24 hours. Nothing was biting, but the weather was great and we had fun. We saw some nice trout and greyling in the river on the way home. Next time is fly fishing.

Trout Fishing Conty

Gamefisher Machined CNC Aluminium Fly fishing reel #5/6

Game-fisher CNC LA # 5/6 Fly Reel

Manufactured from aluminium and CNC machined, the Game-fisher large arbour fly reel features a smooth progressive drag system and is completely salt-water proof. They represent excellent value. If you are interested in a similar reel and a matching rod, you can get it here.

This reel is loaded with Woodstock 30 pound braided Dacron backing and a 25 meter Loop Adventure WF6F line. Paul from New Zealand will now be using this reel hopefully catching some nice wild NZ trout. Check out his local fishing ground: Waimakariri River Fishing.

My favourite way of cooking Trout

Trout is a very delicate fish and it has to be cooked with care. The bones spoil the pleasure of eating this tasty fish so why not fillet the fish removing all the bones. If you leave a couple of pin bones, it won't be too bad as these are quite soft and can be swallowed.

I fillet the trout, removing all bones and the skin. Then place the fillets in a shallow dish and add a generous dose of lemon juice and a good quantity of olive oil. I crush a few cloves of garlic and add that to the fish. Try and get the marinade to cover all parts of the fish. I cover the dish well with plastic-wrap and keep in the refrigerator overnight.

After at least 12 hours in the fridge, you could probably eat this fish just like this as a Carpaccio, but lightly cooking it brings out more of the trout flavours.

The next day get the fish out, carefully scrape off excess marinade and prepare the serving platter. I lay the fish on a bed of seasonal salad. Here we are using Mâche (Corn salad).

I lightly brown some Almond flakes in a dry pan over the heat and melt a generous amount of butter in a larger pan. I add about some dried Thyme to the butter. I actually did this an hour before cooking the fish so Thyme infused into the butter. The fish is cooked two minutes before serving and it cooks for two minutes. Turning once or twice gently.

Served on the Winter cress and garnished with the roasted Almonds, the trout is delicious. Tender, light and tasty.

Start of the 2008 season

We woke at 06:15 and headed off to Conty. It was snowing outside and the temperature was 1° C. I doubted that there would be any fish taking the bait. The fishermen of Conty were out in force. We saw a few guys on the river, but the water seemed murky and fast moving as the river was swollen after a week of rain. So we decided to head for the lakes.

The water was bleak and it was cold and damp with the occasional snowflake falling through the drizzle. We arrived on time for the opening at 07:30. The weather cleared a little over the next couple of hours, but it remained cold.

Before I had my rod set up and baited, Tom had caught a little Rainbow trout weighing 280g. Tom was cold even though he had quite a few layers of clothing and he was wanting to get home so just after 09:00 we decided to go. I had one last cast, as one does... Guess what I hooked on that last cast! This beauty:

47 cm long and 1270g Rainbow trout. Probably the biggest fish I've caught at Conty to date. We took a few photos and packed up. Home by 09:30. Now we have some nice trout to fillet for Easter Sunday lunch.

George Hinton & Sons of Taunton Greenheart & Split cane rod

I recently came across a few classic rods that were restored by a rod maker in the Paris region.


Here is something rather special. This greenheart fly rod (with split cane tip) was made by George Hinton & Sons of Taunton, Somerset in the 1920's.

George Hinton & Sons Ltd was an old established gun making business that was sold to Charles William Hellis in the late 1940's.

How many of these fine rods do you see these days?

George Hinton & Sons of Taunton - Greenheart & Split cane Fly rod
Originally made in the 1920's, recently restored.

- 3 sections + spare tip.
- Length: 10'5".
- top 6" made of split cane.
- Weight: 385g.
- New whippings in green and olive.
- 19 snake rings in good condition.
- Wooden handle.
- Reel seat and rings made from decorated brass.
- Ferrules have hooks to attach a flex control line along the back of the rod.
Good fitting, no play.
- Original ferrule plugs.
- Straight rod. Semi-parabolic supple action.

George Hinton & Sons de Taunton - Greenheart
Canne année : Env. 1920
Très belle Canne a mouche exceptionnelle en très bonne santé.

- 3 éléments, encombrement : 114cm.
- Long : 3,18m (10'5")
- Seul les dix derniers centimètres des deux scions sont en bambou refendu.
- Poids : 385g
- Ligatures neuves, verte et vert olive. Plus quelques ligatures laiton.
- 19 Anneaux serpentiformes d’origine bon état.
- Poignée en bois très bonne état.
- Porte moulinet très bon état laiton a bague ciselé.
- Viroles, avec crochet d’attache bon état.
Pas de jeux, emmanchement très bon.
- Les deux bouchons de virole liège/bois tournée sont d’origine.
- Canne droite. Action semi parabolique souple.