A new season, a fresh start.

As I’ve said before, last ‘season’ wasn’t exactly great for me in terms of numbers of fish caught, but in many ways it was one of the best summers I’ve ever had – from a fishing perspective. I landed the best job I could ever hope for as a teen, got out on lots of new water, and learnt so much! In the words of the GEOBASS guys, last year I ‘got my ass handed to me’ by the fish. So many blanks, I got well and truly humbled, but it made me appreciate the other aspects of a day on the water. From the wildlife to the fresh air, every day was a pleasure, fish or no fish.

Never fear though, I’m here to share what I did wrong and what I’ve learnt, so you wont do the same!

First things first, wading. One of my biggest mistakes when approaching yet another beautiful slice of west country premium Brown Trout water was going crashing into the river with my great big clumpy boots. You all know how sensitive fish are to movement, vibrations and sound, well try being a fish when six foot of wader covered and boot wearing human jumps into your home! Metal studs on the wading boots adding even more disturbance. I do love getting in the water though, it helps you connect more to nature and gets the senses going. So, the answer to this issue? Wade only when essential, resist temptation to get in the water! To stop you wading you can leave the waders at home, if appropriate. On small streams I often wear walking boots instead, but if you have to cross the river or something then you’re best staying dry and just resisting getting in the water when you find the fish!

Next up, dry flies, presentation is key to dry fly fishing, fish are not stupid! This will break down into two parts - Leaders and the use of leader sink, as I have comments on both. Starting with leaders, do you ever add extra tippet material to your tapered leaders? I may sound completely mental, but I never used to. However, as soon as I did, next drift I found myself saying ‘He ate it!’ almost instantly! So I settled on using a 9ft tapered leader with 2 or 3 ft (dependent of the amount of wind and the size of the river, as well as how picky the fish are) added, that’s for my 8ft 3wt twig by the way, alter this according to rod size. So many ignored flies, so easily avoided, all for a little extra tippet! Leader sink now, ever used it? I’ll admit I hadn’t until late this season. I saw a lot more fish rising to my fly once I started using it though! The theory behind leader sink is that when a leader is trapped in the surface film it creates a silhouette and is easily spotted by the fish. Adding leader sink from around a foot before the fly will encourage the leader to sit a few inches under the surface, consequently becoming less visible to a rising fish.

I love my entomology, and I learnt so much about insects (especially the aquatic ones) last summer. It has sparked an interest that will never leave me, and it has proven so valuable to my fishing. So this Trout season, I want you to engage more with your surroundings when fishing. Don’t get so caught up on catching the ‘big one’ because that’s not what its all about. Connect with nature, communicate with your surroundings, allow yourself to be consumed by all the things that make a great day out on the water, and learn something new as well!

There you have it, just a short one from me today, I hope sharing a few of my mistakes will help you see where you are going wrong (that’s if you are going wrong, if not then smash on as you are!) The wild trout season is already underway here in the UK, so I hope this season you have a cracker, I know I will!

Lazy Sundays

We’ve had some massive spring tides here in Falmouth over the last few days, off the chart lows followed by flooding highs. Unfortunately, all the high tides have been late at night, so I haven’t been able to fish them! However, all is not lost, as a good low tide allows you to scrutinise every last inch of the ground that you will be fishing over when the water comes up. It’s really interesting to see spots where you’ve hooked fish, and to see the exact habitat they were feeding in. Anyway, today is a new day, and today its thrashing it down with rain… So what’s on the agenda for us anglers who always have to be doing something fishy? Well, I could brave the weather? Read up on some aquatic/fishing related topics? Do some tying? Your choice, but I’m going to stay in bed with a strong coffee and watch some of my favourite fluff chucking films! Of course, as usual, I will be sharing them with you guys.

Vision Fly Fishing, what do you think of them as a brand? They’re very popular in Europe and Scandinavia, but less so over hear in England it seems. I for one love their gear, I’ve seen a lot of it and held a few rods, but admittedly never owned any of it. One day though, one day! They’ve recently bought out loads of new gear, including a double-handed version of their very successful Vipu rod range (which I have my eyes on, along with the striking Kela reel for the perfect start to double handed Salmon fishing – My new years resolution).

I’ve probably left you feeling thoroughly confused. What does Vision have to do with watching videos on a rainy Sunday? Well it just so happens that one of my favorite YouTube series – Fly Tv – is produced in association with Vision Fly Fishing! So here it goes, get a brew on, crack a beer, I don’t know, whatever, just watch and enjoy!

This first video shows some amazing Pike fishing from the fantastic Niklaus Bauer, chucking huge flies for massive Esox. What’s not to like?

Now for something a little different, the 180 Challenge, where two anglers have 180 minutes to tie Pike flies, and catch a fish on them. There’s an added twist to this video, the two tiers/anglers are so young and talented, what I’d give to be involved in big brands like Vision at my age! Unfortunately they didn’t catch, but the video is still really cool!

Its not all about Pike though, how about exploring some tactics for hitting Perch on the fly?

What about big Brown Trout, high in the mountains, that love to hammer rodents (and sometimes birds) off of the surface?

Finally, how do you fancy stalking big Sea Trout in a small river?

Hope you enjoyed those videos, theres many more for you to check out on the YouTube channel! I've been watching these guys for ages, and love their style, and have learnt so much from them!

Patagonia’s Damnation Movie - A Review.

Patagonia isn’t a massively popular brand over here; it seems more popular in the States, and as I’ve said before, I definitely believe there are fashion trends in fly fishing. Anyway, I love Patagonia Gear, both their fly fishing and general outdoors wear products are fantastic. Their whole ethos is really cool too, with projects such as ‘Worn Wear’ – Encouraging you to buy second hand Patagonia gear and make your own gear last as long as possible, in order to be more environmentally responsible, as well as reaching out for peoples stories about how they’ve worn Patagonia products all their life, a pretty humble campaign if you ask me.

Anyway, I’m getting distracted. This post is meant to be about one of their conservation projects – Damnation.

First off, as expected, the UK is always left slightly behind and as far as I’m aware, Patagonia’s Damnation Film has only recently become available in the UK. It’s on iTunes for £7.99. I was stoked to see it was finally available! However the Damnation merchandise is yet to grace our shores. Hopefully it will appear in the stores soon!

 

Some interesting activist responses to the dam movement
in America.

A very moving picture of the making of Damnation.

So what’s this Damnation thing all about? Our need to produce energy has effected different countries in different ways, in the UK we’re all about nuclear at the moment, along with the looming threat of fracking. In the USA hydropower is massive (along with the need to manage and regulate water supplies for farming) and the desire to dam every piece of moving water has led to some extreme activist movements. The film goes into every aspect of environmental issues, cultural issues of people who depend on the Salmon run for food and spiritual reasons, the conservationists side who just want to see the Salmon and Steelhead run again, the political side of addressing the majority needs and the men and women who have worked on the dams for most of their lives. It’s a horrible dilemma, but as an angler, the most satisfying sight is seeing the Salmon run a river that has been dammed for decades.

What lies beneath a reservoir?

Energy production will always affect someone, and I’m not trying to be hypocritical, because no matter how much I hate seeing oil spills or local species extinctions from climate change, the bottom line is that I still drive a car and use electricity. Its just that as an angler, the damming of rivers is something closer to my heart, as aquatic ecosystems are something I am serious about conserving.

Striking and inspiring underwater photography features
throughout the film.

So go and buy it from iTunes, you wont be disappointed, it was a real eye opener, and amazing to see a group of people so passionate about aquatic habitats.  

DamNation - Trailer from Patagonia on Vimeo.

By Any Means Necessary (I will catch fish!)

We’ve been in the grips of a low pressure storm here, which has dumped tons of hail, rain and some pretty nasty winds on us for about 10 days, but last weekend we were blessed with a couple of pristine winter days. The wind direction was good, the tides were perfect, this was not a weekend to stay inside! So me and my fishing buddy David headed out for two days of rock fishing. Finding potential fish holding spots takes commitment. I’ve been spending weeks watching weather patterns, tidal trends and walking the shoreline at low tide looking for the rough ground these coastal fish love so much.

 

Winter fishing at its most beautiful.

Saturday saw me showing my stubborn side and persisting with the fly rod, desperate for that first saltwater fish on the fly, and David on the spinning gear. For easy access we went to a known spot and scoured the coastline all day. We had one fish to show for it, a decent Pollack on David’s spinning gear in the evening low light. It was a tough day, but sometimes it doesn’t work out.

Sunday was to be a different story. You all know how much I love my fly fishing, but I was desperate to knock into some fish, and to be honest, the lure fishing game is brilliant anyway! So to explain the title of this post, By Any Means Necessary, if you really love our sport then you should be putting prejudices aside and catching fish wherever you can on whatever gear you can. With this in mind I left the fly rod at home and grabbed the spinning rod.

 

David's fish from the second day, a
nice schoolie sized Pollack.

We must have been feeling somewhat adventurous on Sunday. Heading slightly further afield with an hours hike in to another known rock mark, the day was looking prosperous. With some choppy waves and a good strong tide running in I was sure we would locate some Bass. Despite the initial excitement of site fishing for Wrasse, exhibiting some strange surface feeding behavior, the rock mark didn’t produce for us. With the sun going down and wind picking up we moved locations to find less wind, more sun and more fish. Heading along the coast path we came across a rough track, leading towards the waterline again. After a pretty nasty climb (note to self, bring rope next time) we hit one of the best looking rock marks I’ve found since I’ve started fishing here. Rough ground and deep water, the perfect combination. Working the soft plastic lures tight to the bottom requires patience and self control. The Pollack are hard on the deck in the day and come up to feed as the light fades, and the Wrasse are tucked up in the rocks and kelp. A slow and jigging retrieve proved most productive. As the tide started to run in we both knocked into some fantastic fish and had a great session.

 

For two days we fished hard.
Chucking lures, climbing and hiking.

The cream of the crop, a 20.5 inch Pollack from the shore in January.
 On a 7ft 9-27grm spinning rod this thing put some heat on when it
was hooked! 

For the middle of January we managed to pull out some stunning fish, including my specimen Pollack of 20 ½ inches which tipped the scales at just over 3lbs, plus a much smaller Pollack which was left to swim another day and a hostile Wrasse which bit my lure in half! Dave took two nice fish over the two day session. It's safe to say this helped me shift my cabin fever and I suggest that you go and do the same, because when the fly isn’t producing, there is no shame in breaking out the lures or bait. If it catches you some fish then why not. This was a real 'red letter day' for me, and I will not forget it in a long time! Get out there and nail some fish By Any Means Necessary!

The Bear Grylls Ultimate Multi Tool - Review

Although he’s not big in the angling world, Bear Grylls is a bit of a legend to say the least. Outdoors and survival skills aren’t everyone’s bag, but it’s important to be prepared. To relate this to our fishing, what if you’re on a hike in to a distant lake or stream and something goes wrong? Or get caught out whilst chasing Bass off of a remote rock mark? You need some good quality outdoors gear to help you get through these scenarios. I’m a sucker for ‘boys toys’ and love anything like this, so here we go, my first gear review!

On first impressions the Bear Grylls Ultimate Multi Tool looks quality. The colours, the metal work, and the stylish engraving all add to a great looking piece of kit. It is supplied with a military grade ballistic nylon sheath and a Priorities of Survival pocket guide written by Mr Grylls himself.

The pocket guide is fun, interesting
potentially life saving. 

The military grade, ballistic nylon
sheath is tough and adaptable.

The sheath can be attached in a multitude
of ways.

The multi tool is comprised of 12 tools, all intricately tucked away inside the two-part construction:

-        Spring loaded pliers with wire cutters at the back of the jaws.

-        Scissors.

-        Fine edge knife.

-        Serrated knife.

-        Saw blade.

-        Phillips screwdriver.

-        Small flat head screwdriver.

-        Large flat head screwdriver.

-        Bottle opener.

-        Can opener.

-        Lanyard ring.

All made with weather resistant parts and materials, which to me, says keep out of saltwater! However if you wash and oil your multi tool regularly (as you should anyway) and immediately wash it after use in salt water then it should be fine.

The components also have a locking mechanism, which not only makes the tools safer but also easier to use.

The handles are ergonomically shaped, making the product look and feel good in the hand. As multi tools go, in my experience, it’s quite a heavy tool. However I like this, as it really feels as if you’re holding a sturdy piece of kit, which in reality... You are! To go with the brushed finish on the metal work, the handles feature a rubber grip boasting the Bear Grylls logo, all in a grey and orange colour scheme.

Now lets talk money, it’s a cracking tool, so I’d expect it to come in at the higher end of prices. However, even on the Bear Grylls official site it comes in at a comfortable £64.99, and other sights have them up as a lot cheaper. When compared to other products which can vary from £20 to over £100 dependent on quality, I recon this tool is priced very generously.

In conclusion, my favourite features of this brilliant multi tool are:

-        Spring loading on the pliers.

-        Subtle, yet smart colour scheme and design.

-        Ballistic military grade nylon sheath with a Priorities of Survival guide tucked inside.

Heres a few words from the man himself: 

Get yours here:
http://www.beargrylls-store.co.uk/tools-c6/gerber-bear-grylls-ultimate-multi-tool-p22

Hope you enjoyed my first gear review. I'm hoping to do some more in the future, and when the weather finally turns (i'm in the grips of a big storm at the moment) i'll be out on the fish again!