Our family holiday is to Brittany in August, the campsite has a trout river that can be fished and I have permission to take my fishing gear So I need some advice - I am just about to complete my first year of fly fishing, do you think I can get away with using the gear I have on this river? (Greys GRXi 7/8)

It is a river rather than a tiny stream and I am used to stillwater fishing at Elinor & Grafham. Also, while the wife is letting me take my fly rod I don't think I can afford or get away with (more importantly) buying some new gear for one trip.

Your thoughts please, or should I not worry and just give it a good go?

Cheers, Mark

It's a tad heavy but so what, just use it and go fishing, the delicacy of the fly landing is 90% from the cast itself anyway so just be careful with the casting, and use a longer leader so the fly lands a bit further away from the landing, 12-15ft will do. The rods a bit heavy for a sporting fight, but it's summer so you want to get them in quickly anyway to avoid stressing them too much. And don't forget drag, put some slack in the casts, what's a bad cast on a lake could well be the perfect cast in a river

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I caught my first river fish on a fly on a Greys GRX 6/7# whilst, as I was told later, poaching Oxford University water gardens soon after I started fishing. It was a chub which appeared from nowhere amongst the trout and took a GRHE. It put up a spirited defence if I remember correctly. I was made up at the time!

My brother-in-law, who is an old boy of the college was less than impressed although I have since been forgiven for this dreadful faux-pas.

Whatever rod you've got, go for it. You'll have bags of fun.

Oh god, my stalker is a poacher! You'll be telling me you go fishing whilst not wearing a tie next!

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Thanks for the replies fellas

Darren, could you explain what you mean about drag?

I'l be packing the fly rod then and enjoying the fishing - come what may

Go for it, have some fun. When I fish for chub & perch on the river,I only take a 7 weight rod. If the bleak, dace start rising. I will fish for them, just use a fine tippet. Small flys etc.

Enjoy your holiday

Sean

how deep is the river? if its say 6-8ft deep youll be fine i think youll have a hard job not to spook the fish if its much shallower but its still worth the effort even if you catch nout

gl

james

btw make sure you use a long leader

It is a bit heavy but lets face it the fish do not know what size rod you are useing so get out there and enjoy it!!!!!!!!!

OK, drag.....

Imagine you cast across the river at a 45 degree angle downstream in a straight line, the current immediately catches your fly line and starts pulling on it, this tension will pull your fly quickly across the water in an un natural way, this is drag, and will put off fish as the presentation isn't lifelike, it can also drown your dry fly. Simple answer is to cast upstream and pull in the excess slack as the line comes towards you to keep in touch with the fly, or cast across/down the river but deliberately put some slack into the line. This can either by a mend, throw some line upstream with your rod tip after the cast in other words, or by wiggling the rod tip at the end of the cast but before the line lands on the water to put some wiggles in the line. This means that for a few seconds the current acts on the line and pulls out the slack, and doesn't drag the fly across the surface.

Hope that makes sense, seems OK to me!

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