River Test 8th September

Blimey seems like an age since I put finger tip to keyboard. I shouldn't have been under any illusions that writing a blog wouldn't take up a considerable amount of time but there we go.  August was a month off, we are all deserving of time off and what a pleasant month off it was too.  Not that I wasn't working, just not as hard as I should....  I did manage to fit in a bit of fishing and in fact, although there was nothing in the bag to brag about I did manage to tick off a few species - Sea Bass, Mackerel, Garfish in Deveon and Catfish, Chub and lots of small Sea Bream (which Max caught lots of which was great to see in South West France.

 

Late Summer Berries

Fishing at this time of year is challenging to say the least, well it is if you are a dry fly purist and only prepared to take home those fish you have managed to coax to the surface with the offer of a little morsel of fly when the fish, which I have come to the conclusion, are lazy bastards and would far rather stay put and move their mouth from left to right only snaffling up those bits of food that don't rely on the smallest amount of effort of swishing the tale and moving off their lie.  In fact I am pretty sure if most of these fish weren't disturbed by some eager animal hell bent on tricking them to eat a sharp hook, they wouldn't move at all.  I can't say I blame them, must be quite nice being in suspended animation, kept in position by the flow of water of a streamlined body with only the occasional movement of the tail and fins (sure I know they probably do more than that or they wouldn't be so nice and muscley) and constantly eating.

So we arrived at the river not really knowing what to expect, at least it wasn't raining which it had been on the way down.  You rely very heavily on the weather, especially the warmth if you are to have any surface action, you need the warmth to stimulate a hatch, without that it is very unlikely you will persuade a trout (that isn't suicidal) to come to the surface.  They may be lazy but they aren't entirely stupid and at this time of year they are very skittish.  That combined with low, clear water makes it hard to catch them unaware.  Also when you have disturbed one they have the habit of telling all their mates and charge up stream so the knock on effect can be quite profound and bloody annoying.  So lazy until provoked to be otherwise and the silhouette of a man with a 9 foot rod in his hand is definitely enough to stimulate the 'get the f**k out of here' response.

The GH Prince 

The tactics therefore needed for this scenario were stealth and nymphs, and fast sinking nymphs at that.  It was the Czechoslovakians who came to the fore with their Czech Nymph, a fast sinking nymph which earned them the world championships one year.  Armed with some gold headed nymphs (we justify this addition of a brass bead as mimicking an air bubble which is common with a rising nymph - in actuality its more likely an attractor and the fish uses its mouth to see what it is!!).  The first fish came relatively easily, I had spooked a few but was lucky with the position of a relatively high bush which gave me some cover and managed to get the nymph far enough ahead to allow it to drop and to not spook the fish.  The fish made a just-perceptible opening of the mouth, enough of a sign to know that the mimicry had worked and sure enough the line went taught, the rod bent and the fish went off downstream very fast, understandably pissed off.  It stripped the line down to the backing and gave a very noble account of itself, several strong runs, a powerful fish indeed.  A good start with a rainbow in excess of 4lbs on the bank always gives confidence for the rest of the day.

Wood Ear Mushroom

The next fish went the same way.  This was a text book lesson in upstream nymphing.  This was a big fish and was in a very narrow, shallow carrier and I was able to see it before it saw me.  Again this was going to be one cast - get it wrong and that would be that with that particular fish.  Luckily the fly landed just far enough ahead and reached the fish at the right level at the right moment, a slight tilt of the head and the tell tale whiteness of the mouth and then WALLOP!  A 7lb brown trout to the net, a really solid fish which is now at Robinson's being smoked..

A fat 7lb Brown Trout

I caught a couple more and waited for the rise which never materialised but it was a good day nonetheless.  Whilst the fish are stocked these were really good fish.  All of them gave a fantastic account of themselves, some of the best since we have been lucky enough to fish The Test.

A Happy fisherman

I am now in the process of curing and smoking the Trout Roes and will be hot smoking some of the fillets and curing the others to make Beetroot Cured Gravadlax.  I am very excited as I have also just ordered a cold smoker....

Beautiful late summer sunset