Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Esox
I've been told about a fly called "The Octopus" which seems to be doing all the damage at Stocks at the moment.
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Interesting....
I fished Stocks on Wednesday 16th July...and had a decent haul,as did a couple of other guys who,according to the reports,had a similarly hectic day.
The fact that the level had just risen a few feet,but had a day or two to settle,and reports of Soldier Beetles on the wing made my set-up decisions for me - fish the margins,and bung summat red/orange/fiery brown ish and bushy on the top dropper. Thick cloud and a good old blow screamed floating line,especially as I was going to concentrate my efforts around the margins for the fish that move in to hoover up after the flood once the clarity has improved a little and the temperatures stabilised a bit. Anyway before I start to relate every drift,to cut a long story short - I had 21 fish,and the other guys,with a similar M.O. of wet fly-floating line-margins etc had 40 fish to the boat. Apparently they were cleaning up with the Octopus in one of it's many guises,not sure which. Incredibly, 17 out of my 21 came to this....
Soldier Palmer....'Variant'
Hook - B170 or 175
Tail - Glo-brite No5
Body - Mixed Seals fur - Scarlet,Crimson,Autumn Crimson,Red,Flou Red,Flou Orange (Red will do
)
Rib - UTC wire 'Hot Yellow' 'Brassie' size
Body Hackles - 1 Red Cock,1 Flou orange cock.
Shoulder Hackles - GP body feathers,1 nat red,1 dyed dark red/claret.
Thread - UTC red 70 den.
Now then, I bought this dyed red GP skin a couple of months ago...and it's been finding its way into many patterns
Any excuse to bung some big red straggly shoulder hackles into the dressing.... The Octopus was the last thing on my mind when I tied this fella,but when Matt and Pete in the lodge told me that the other guys had cleaned up with the Octopus,I then saw the similarities. Is mine a Solidier Octopus then
Whatever,it worked,almost to the exclusion of all else. I reckon it was more to do with a full dressing being stroked through the film on a blustery day when the fish were high and up for it. The other guys catching with a completely different colour scheme would back this up.....unless their Octopus was more akin to Gerry's tying with the red GP coming to the fore,rather than the more natural/olive dominat standard dressing
Who knows?
Went out yesterday with a similar M.O. but a very different story. Dark and damp,but with a 'neutral' kind of temperature and a much lighter wind of 10 ish. Had the Soldier on the Bob again...as you would,and swapped skinny dabblers around on the middle and had a kind of fiery brown nymph on the point to suggest a drowned Soldier beetle....and errr... nymphs! First cast on Grindys...the line went heavy as a 7lb+ rainbow drew the nymph away,and the action was pretty relentless untill it slowly petered out around 5 ish. Anyway,before I start to relate this one cast by cast aswell, I reckon I moved about 60/70 yesterday and 18 of em managed to grab a firm hold. The fish were litteraly bumping each other out of the way to get my flies at some points during the day! Swirling,kissing,bow-waving,slashing,coming short,turning away,missing,you name it I reckon I did worse than hit one in 3. Tried everything to remedy the situation... smaller,sparser,faster,slower then decided it was all good fun and better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick. It was a 33% split this week too with bob,middle and point all getting in on the action.
Tight in at Stocks has been the way to go over tha last couple of weeks with a pattern of heavy rain lifting the level a few feet,then a day or two to settle,then more of the same etc. I was lucky enough to pick my days inbetween the lifts and make the most of the opportunities in the margins.
What change in temperature today though.... the dog days will not be far away now,albeit a litlle delayed this season. Thank heaven for small mercies eh? The fish will now start to spread again,at Stocks at least,and the next couple of weeks should,with some decent cloud cover,offer some great top of the water sport. With Stocks not exactly the richest feeding ground in the world,and the buzzers hardly relevant at all again until Sept/Oct,the fish will be looking up for terrestrials if they wanna get fat
Nice flies boys and nice timing....gave me a chance to relate a couple of 'red' letter days
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