Faking it

The path of the angler is often circular. I started as a bait fisher at the age of four (my daughter caught her first fish at the age of three and a half). But not until thirty years later did I blunder into the strange and wonderful world that is fly fishing. 

I've kept my hand in with coarse tackle though and perhaps because of a             familiarity with artificial flies, a few years back the newly available fake baits seemed.. well.. quite natural to me. So on the float and ledger rods I enjoyed early success with fake corn, fake bread, fake luncheon meat, fake maggots, fake worms .. fake you name it..

Earlier last year I started to think how these plastics might cross back over into fly fishing style presentations. I had great fun last summer taking all manner of coarse species on a fake maggot cast on my little three weight fly rod.

A 3lb perch showing the effectiveness of fake bait presentations

More recently I have caught the ultralight bug and here too the fake bait scores.  When my gorgeous new UL outfit arrived and was duly spooled up with the finest of braids I was too excited to wait for the softbaits and special weights to arrive. I tied on a size 10 carp hook dropshot style and pinched a swan shot onto the ten inch tag end of my palomar knot. Then a fake little 2 inch bloodworm went on the hook and I was good to go.

a nice little perch with the fake bloodworm still lip-hooked

A couple of brief visits to the Grand Union turned up blank but on the third try I christened my new rod with a 3lb perch on the fake bloodworm. Unable to contain my excitement, the next day I mounted a lightening lunchtime raid on my beloved little river. I planned meticulously and calculated that I had exactly 35 minutes of fishing time once at my chosen swim. My crude (according to my UL fanatic friends) rubber bloodworm rig was flicked under a far bank overhang and in the closing minutes a lovely chub of 4lb 10 oz was horsed out from the tangle of branches.

This beautiful brassy chub took the fake blood worm in the back eddy of a strong current.

Now I was beginning to become convinced that this was a killer tactic and for a while it became my go to method. More good perch followed before eventually the call of my fly rod and streamers sulking in the corner became too loud to ignore. However, future plans include a special fake corn rig for tackling tench on my five weight fly rod. Watch this space.. oh what fun!      

It's in the can!

A trip to the river with cameras and I realise just how difficult it is to put together a good  angling film, at least when you are fishing solo. Four hours of angling (or is that filming?) resulting in a just few minutes of footage after a day's editing. It's all a massive learning curve to a complete novice...

But the new bug has bitten and I'm already planning future projects. This little snippet is a first attempt at filming brook pike on the fly and I learned a lot about a whole new heap of challenges and frustrations - as if fishing wasn't difficult enough already! The biggest challenge is psychological - splitting your attention between fishing and filming leaves you wondering whether you would catch more if you weren't mucking about with technology. On the other hand you come away with a nagging feeling that you could have captured better footage if you had paid more attention to camera angles!

I was trying really hard to get some footage of the take or at least some follows from the pike. But the brook was up and coloured from the heavy rains and follows when they happened were always just out of range of the submerged camera. I am pretty happy with my improvised 'landing net cam' though and the cogs are whirring as I dream up new dodges and angles for next time..

     

Pike epiphany

January and Winter is finally tightening her grip. Thoughts are turning to pike. I am a child of the epiphany, born on  twelfth night, and it's become something of a tradition to try for a chalk stream pike on my birthday. And tradition dictates that she should be taken on the fly. 
 

I need streamers to take with me and experience tells that the pike in this  river prefer bright and loud, turning their snouts away from more natural patterns. I want streamers that can be teased back across the little stream very slowly and with lots of movement. Natural materials seem a good choice and time is short so some bright feather, fibre and fur creations are hastily knocked up. For this one I used soft hen hackle and nayat hair with  a few strands of flashabou. A pair of rattling googly eyes and this wee beastie is ready to swim.

Conditions on the day are tricky. The stream is up from the heavy rains of Christmas, but more problematical are the thick beds of Elodea canadensis that choke the channel even now in January. Freakishly mild weather has allowed it to flourish when hard frosts should be cutting it back. High winds too have brought much tree debris into the water and swimming a fly deep enough to reach lurking pike will be a challenge!  

I do know of a couple of spots though where  deep holes have been dredged from the chalky stream bed and here the water is less weedy and usually holds a few pike. I cast to the far bank and a good fish hits the
fly instantly but a few head shakes and the hook is shed.   

I try the next deep run and a lively jack obliges and this time stays on. A small birthday gift this year but a welcome one! The fish is returned and honour is kept.