I thought I would share this with you all. I went fishing the other day on my local river Hull, conditions were not brilliant, the water was low and there was lots of weed. Also the weed cutter had been in action upstream, so I had to contend with massive rafts of floating weed. I never saw another angler because it would've been impossible to fish with a float or ledger in such weedy conditions.

This is where the fly rod came in handy. Without the fly I don't think I would've caught many fish as they were quite some distance out in shallow water just above weeds. It took a while to find the right combination but in the end the best way to fish was a tiny nymph under a dry fly (New Zealand style). The distance between the nymph and the fly varied from 6 to 18 inches just enough to keep the nymph above the weed.



The little pheasant tail was THE fly that day! It accounted for 29 fish which consisted of perch, roach, ide and even a skimmer bream! But the fly had to be fished dead drift for the fish to take. If I pulled it along the roach would follow but not take the fly.



I went again a few days later on a different stretch of river. This was up near Baswick (a notoriously difficult stretch due to clear conditions and heavy weed). I had to walk nearly two miles to find the fish (they gave themselves away by topping) my only company that day was a small bright kingfisher (he was a far better fisherman than me!). I managed to winkle out 7 roach using the New Zealand method. I tried using a nymph on its own but couldn't see the bites unless they were really savage.



I missed lots of takes and had a few heart-stopping moments as some bigger fish (probably chub or ide) rose to the dry fly but just nudged it with their noses. All fish were taken on the tiny nymph. I only had a few hours so even though the fishing was good I had to return home. I feel certain that if it wasn't for the fly rod I would've failed to catch any other method. It was a great couple of days on a river that seemed un-fishable.

Nice one , a little time and effort pays off

I see you have a Trion rod and reel there , I also have these but rod is a 6-7 . Mine is due to be changed and the cork rings have split

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Your fish ----> ><((((º> My fish ----> ><(((((((((º>
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Cheers Danny

Co-Founder of S.S.F.D 2010

Nice one Paul.
Did you get many ide and what sort of size?
I'm surprised you've got clear water, with all the rain round here it's been far from clear!
Dee

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It's not flyfishing if you're throwing bait in....learn to do it properly

Hi Dave yes had a few small ide nothing big, when they are small its hard to tell the difference between them and roach there are so many hybrids about. There were some really big ide up at bridge near the boats milling around with good size roach but that area is out of bounds to fishing, so I just watched. Very frustrating!
The water is clear at the moment the rain does not seem to have coloured up the river yet but it could happen at any moment so I am making the most of it.
The hardest part is locating the fish, huge areas of river seem devoid of fish then suddenly you will find a shoal in some random place but thats fishing.
How is the fishing going at your end?

I've not been getting out too much, not like winter when I fished 3/4 times a week. My ebay job has really taken off and I'm working 24-7 almost litterally!
I fished the Welland near Stamford a couple of weeks back. That was a great day, the river is stuffed with chub and some right beasts, far bigger than the usual top limit in my regular Leicester rivers.
The biggest I had was probably 5 to 5 1/2lb but I saw plenty of fish that may have topped 6lb.
They rarely top 3 1/2lb in the Soar and it's tributaries.
Lovely river, plenty of fish to cast to, plenty of challenging lies and lots of big dace and nice roach too, although I ignored the roach on that visit...will be back. Rumoured to be a fair few brownies too.
The bad session......
Last week I decided to have a bash on the Biame. It was about 4pm and the PC was doing m y head in, so despite rain I decided to go and fish for a couple of hours.
When I parked up the heavens really opened so i decided to empty my chest pack of all unnecessary fly boxes...save then getting soaked.
Grabbing boxes and chucking them in the dry boot I felt a sharp jab in my thumb. I'd hooked myself to a fly that was hooked through the material of the pack.
Bit of pain but at least I always de-barb except this wasn't coming out.
**** I'd found the only barbed fly in my kit and was now attached to the tackle bag by my "now painful" thumb and this fly.
I grabbed it firmly where it entered my flesh and pulled firmly, so hard that the #14 hook bent a little but didn't budge.
I now started to get a little worried, i couldn't drive with my bag stuck on my thumb and besides i really wanted to fish.
I found my de-barbing pliers and really pulled hard. With a horrible crunching, squelchy sound it eventually came out, to leave me with a very throbing thumb.
Pain and rain...great, undetered I still headed for the river which was coloured and rising fast.
I had a small dace and a chub casting into slacks but it was a struggle.
I decided to try the slack below the "green pipe" that spans the river...you may have seen that picture of me fishing from it in winter? The central pillar creates a nice fish holding eddy that you can fish very effectivly from actually sitting on the pipe, about 6ft above the water.
Not this time though.
I jumped on and straight off again, like one of those Japanesse game shows. I plummeted backwards into the dirty river, the back of my neck/head splashing down first.
What a muppet!
Only 2 foot of water and I'd completely submerged myself!
Somehow I didn't break my rod but when dragged myself up I realized my hat was missing. My favorite fishing hat
Twenty minute of searching for it down stream proved fruitless, so I called it a day(all of about an hour in total)...a day I hope never to repeat!
Come and join me sometime Paul!
All the best.
Dee

__________________
It's not flyfishing if you're throwing bait in....learn to do it properly

That's a cracking Roach Paul!

Skateboard Dave - that is some day!

Are there many ide in the river, and do you know how they got there? They're not native, afterall...

That sounds like a bad day Dave, still we all have them I fell down a hole last week on the river bank. one minute I was walking through the reeds the next I disappeared down a muddy hole left by cattle I was caked in stinking mud and had to go home!
Shame about your hat I will look out for it

---------- Post added at 10:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:40 PM ----------

Pixie yes you are right about the Ide they are not native to the river I believe they were washed into the river from the fish farm further upstream during the bad floods. There are quite a lot and they grow to a good size too, brilliant fish to catch on bait or fly

I had a couple of hours on the Thames on Sunday evening, and caught about a dozen dace and small chub. At some points I was missing a rise from dace every cast, they're so quick. I was a bit surprised with the size of this one, though:

Wow that's amazing! Look at the fish compared to the fly! I thought this was small