With it being nearly the end of the coarse fishing season, I thought I’d do a bit of coarse fly-fishing yesterday. I’ve caught loads of coarse fish on the fly this season, but always fishing as I would for trout: dry fly or nymphing on flowing rivers. I had some small perch & roach on the canal last summer (on dries), but this time thought I’d hit the local canal and ‘float’ fish a buzzer & a bloodworm under a booby ‘float’.
First couple of hours: zilch; I’m starting to think ‘how will a fish at the bottom of eight feet of murky water take a red feather tied to a hook?’ when the booby slid under. It looked like the suspended flies had just got too heavy for the booby to support anymore, so I started pulling the line out, and lo & behold! There was a fish on: for a second or two because I hadn’t struck. However, now I had confidence so I carried on, & the next time the booby sank, I struck properly, & had to contend with this baby. IMG]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm108/Blainey_bucket/Bloodwormfirst001.jpg[/IMG]

I would like to thank everyone on this forum who’s written about coarse fly-fishing, esp. Skateboard Dave. Without you guys’ write-ups I’d never have tried this kind of fly-fishing. The good news is, the canal doesn’t close for closed season! Tight lines! Another view: -

Dave. Ah! The pictures won't insert. How do I insert pictures?

Yes fly fishing for coarse fish is brilliant, as there are very few trout waters were I live, so I have to make do with what I have in the area.
I have also found that some waters respond better to the fly than others, wierd I know.
Skateboard Dave is very good at flyfishing for coarse fish, and has been very helpful on this forum, perhaps he should write a book!
Must try and catch a coarse fish from my local river next season, I always struggle to get the fly down deep enough in the flow!

Here you go you missed the first bracket on the IMG

Cheers for that. Was that all it was? Oh well. Now I'll have to catch some more worth posting!
Dave.

So was that fat chub your fish Blainey?
If so and if your canal holds lots of them you could have some great sport.
Try trout sized tadpoles cast to the far bank features(trees/reed beds/bushes etc) and twitched/fig 8ed back. Only a couple of casts then move a bit further, pay lots of attention to moored boats...get as close as poss. to them, chub love to hide under the hulls.
You will also pick up the odd bonus perch on taddys but if you are lucky several chub a session will be your main aim.
I've had some great sport from chub in canals but unfortunately my local canal holds very few, only had 4-5 ever.
Dee

Indeed the fat chub is my fish. Another view :-
Interesting to compare her with a much smaller male caught in the Wandle just before close of season.

Note the tubercle on his gill cover and bright breeding colours. The chub from the Lee Navi was a nice surprise, but I’ve been back a couple of times to try again, with no success. (Though see my other thread “I won’t do that again”). I guess therefore they’re few and far between. I shall continue to try, however, & will certainly try the tadpole suggestion. It’s a good cheap day out: - £3.00 if the bailiff comes along, & no closed season.
Tight lines.
Dave.

Beautiful chub but I don't think that's a spawning tubercle.

Mr Crabtree used to flyfish for chub with a big soldier palmer but that would have been after June 16th.

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Old fishermen never die, they just smell that way.