Czech/French Nymphing Slinky Indicator

In response to a barrage of emails, here's 'How To' make my adapted & improved French/Czech nymphing indicator...

See video in larger format HERE

Tis' Grim Doon Sooth

For the last two weeks I've hardly been out on the water, the weather's been rubbish to put it kindly, and with all of my recent clients being beginners, it's not been ideal weather which to make an introduction to the sport, never mind, they're all re~booked for early December & January in the hope that things get calmer, even though they'll probably get colder as well...brr!

Having had almost a 2 week lay off I woke up cold turkey this morning and just had to go out onto my favourite river, the Coln. Having called Keith, a fishing buddy and tackle guru at Orvis Burford, we chose to meet up for some nymphing on the river.

Today it was another outing for a favoured 10ft #2 weight rod, teamed up with my slinky indicator set up (Similar to the French nymphing set up but better :-) - presentation personified, extraordinary visibility and total versatility)

The water was high, especially in the lower reaches where the flow was being hindered & backed up due to fallen trees and debris in a stretch beyond our accessible beat (Flood written all over it if you ask me ~ and the Mayor of Fairford actually did, as he passed walking his dog)

Fishing was tough, with so much sediment and debris plummeting through, the water clarity was down to a mere few inches. It was a case of heavy shot on point with a shrimp & nymph dropper - In this case a Hot Spot Shrimp and a Cased Caddis, the slinky indicator on 24ft of Stren, get in the water, then cast and search for grayling. Doing just that we both both managed to tuck into a few fish, all be it my first was a somewhat startled brown trout.

With conditions going from the sublime to the ridiculous and with the odd dispersion of sun, it just felt nice to get back on the water again, anyway I had to test my slinky leader a few more times if nothing else.

Keith & Steve below nymphing
Steve's the partner of Carol who I taught to fish some weeks earlier, it was nice to meet him by chance on what was only his second outing on a river)

The forecast still looks grim for the next few days but fingers crossed, the rain will stop and we'll succumb to some lovely crisp & cold early mornings to get the pulse going prior to a days grayling fishing... aah... heaven.

When the going gets tough...

...the tough say 'Sod this for a lark'

What a tuff ol' week it's been... memories of an AAPGAI assessment weekend came flooding (No pun intended) back to me viewing the news headlines this week. The time was earlier this year, the place was on the river Derwent at Cockermouth (Cumbria)... the said same location you'll have heard about all week, due back there again in April 2010 so with all the best will in the world I hope and wish the towns folk & business's a speedy recovery.

As for the rest of this week in the more Southerly climbs it's not been as bad, but still not so good. All my clients this week have been beginners which meant that cancellations would inevitably ensue, and they did, all of them.

I'm not one for just taking people out on days just for the sake of it, if conditions aren't favourable then it's just not on... fishing's tough enough when things & conditions are great, how can one expect to enjoy it when you're being brow beaten by both wind & rain?

Having said that I couldn't resist a few hours during the afternoons out on a local lake in gusting winds practicing a few sultry moves with the fly rod... if you want to master the wind, "you gotta be in it to win it", so to speak.

I did ponder on trying this method below which is probably all I'd have mustered on my local - The Avon... sometimes you've just got to adapt!

Notice the 3 other sticks in thousands of square miles of water... don't you just know you're still gonna snag on em!

Here's hoping for a better week this week so I can report on something a bit more joyous. Must get on and re-schedule some cancellations - have a good and safe week all ~ Jim

River Wharfe ~ Bolton Abbey

I spent the weekend in the company of Jim Curry , Mark Whitehead & his son Tom on the river Wharfe at Bolton Abbey. Having driven up for what seemed an eternity from Wilts' (That being nearly 6 hours ~ darn M6!). According to forecasts I was to be greeted with the most miserable of weather conditions you could ever wish for... I have to say however, in the main it wasn't too bad.

Mark nymphing with Mia admiring

Overcast it may have been, and with the odd drizzle here and there the Wharfe still provided us with a few hours of quite lovely fishing on Saturday & Sunday. We were taking turns to use my super slinky indicator on my super dooper MF 10ft #2 weight. It's my favourite rod at the moment and one I've used a lot this year. The slinky indicator though is top secret, infact it's mission impossible stuff... and an absolute nailer for nymphing.

The main reason for going though was to see Mark off, he (Mr Luckiest sod in the world) is just about to venture off to New Zealand for 3 months fishing... 3 months... 3 whole months... that's a quarter of a year!

Look after yourself fella. Mark will be posting his adventures on his blog so if you fancy it why not tag along.

Going off at a tangent ~ I've purchased some new toys by way of cameras, in fact Point of View cameras (P.O.V), head cam stuff... some exciting shots hopefully coming this way once I've fathomed out how to use it.

Perfect timing

Spent time with Richard today from Aylesbury, a course angler and first time fly fisher. Not a jot of wind, so all looking great from a casting perspective... overcast and mild so pretty encouraging from a fishing perspective, we were in for what hoped to be a cracking afternoon.

Having covered the tackle basics, what for, why for & where for?... it was time to move onto the casting. Using a neat little teaching method that gets em' casting within circa 5 or 10 minutes, Richard was well on his way to perfecting both the overhead & roll cast.

In no time at all we were out onto the water, firstly from the platform (not pictured) where we spent a wee bit of time, not too long a cast is required from here due to the platform being 52 feet out into the lake already.

No joy initially on our two olive hares ear nymphs fished some 4 feet a part, suddenly we spot a fish rising directly opposite us on the far bank... with nothing showing at our current location we decided to move almost immediately to that particular area where the fish had risen. what follows is the 10th cast at that location, I was in the process of just taking a photo on my mobile of Richard and his casting prowess, thankfully it was set to video... Perfect timing... Richard was just in the process of pulling into this 3.5lb beauty to really make his day... and mine!

Well done Richard ~ another converted me thinks!

BFFI (British Fly Fair)

Spent some of the weekend at Trentham Gardens with guys from the AAPGAI. Although the weather was fair it wasn't half nippy.
Managed to catch up with plenty of clients (now friends) that had spent some time out on the water with the Wiltshire Fly Fishing School during the course of the season.

It's been a great season so far, not that it's anywhere near over I might add, the grayling river fishing gets ever more popular. I'd highly recommend it if you've never given it a go... Just make sure you wrap up warm.

Going of at a tangent... I've had quite a few emails from followers of my blog & website to introduce some fishing hints, tips and techniques. I see it as an opportunity to enhance the blog/journal so will look to do a regular slot in the New Year.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this one, I'm posting this from the all new fandagled mobile phone and don't have any decent pictures in the gallery as yet.

This means some future updates will be coming live from the waters edge, all exciting stuff.

Regards
Jim Williams
Wiltshire Fly Fishing School
Mobile: 07870 305 749
email: fly@fishinglessons.co.uk
web: http://www.fishinglessons.co.uk/

Same rivers, better result...

I had the pleasure of catching up with good friend Malcolm Hensher last week. Malcolm comes to me twice a year, and has done so for the past four. Mainly an angler at Farmoor reservoir (and a good angler at that), he doesn't get many opportunities to diversify, so I take the opportunity to get him river fishing.

There's just usually one problem... every time we get together, no matter what time of year it is, the weather is dismal... we just can't seem to avoid it for some reason. That is - until last week, with the October weather perhaps not as it should be, we were blessed during our trips to the river Coln & the Test (Wherwell) with some exceptional fishing weather. The result of which meant being able to re-visit the same rivers as last year, only this time fish them better, and in conditions that proved fruitful.

Water levels here (down sarf!) are pretty low at the moment, I'm finding fish skittish and easily spooked, and to catch the blighters (Grayling - obviously), flies need to be in the main pretty darn small.

So to the river Coln for our first venture, without regaling all that's been written in my previous blog threads about the Coln, it was straight to the bottom reaches to gather up some lunkers that hold in the deeper margins. As luck would have it and after about 20 minutes Malcolm set into his first fish from a deepish pool.

Having decided on the small flies early on, we barely changed all day long... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kind off thing ~ small grayling nymphs were certainly the order of the day... sizes 18 & 20 seemed to do the trick.

The only time we changed to a larger fly was in faster troubled water, the larger size in this type of water/current gave the fish a slightly bigger target to notice, in this case it was an olive free swimming caddis in size 12 (weighted)... it seemed to do the trick when called upon.

With the weather holding up, Malcolm fished his socks off, plenty of fish were having a go at nymphs... some brought into the net, and some not. Malcolm's attitude to fishing is one of the reasons I enjoy his company so much, just to be in the river and the surrounding environment excites him, I don't let that be enough though, I'm not happy until he's hitting fish... regardless of his consoling nature in not letting me worry about it.

All told Malcolm brought ten fish into the net, a great performance considering we hooked probably double that... at least it's a starter for ten before hitting Wherwell for a good afternoons fishing the following day.

On to Wherwell (Day 2)
Wherwell (Hampshire) is another exceptional venue for grayling fly fishing. Tackling up I went in search of grayling with Malcolm. We decided to go upstream to the top of the river where I new there were good open gravel beds and the opportunity for Malcolm to do some sight fishing. Spotting a few fish as we went I got Malcolm to cast to visible grayling, covering them as he did we could see they were really spooky, a misplaced cast, or anything other than perfect presentation soon had the fish scurrying for cover...

...persevering Malcolm tried his best to draw the fish to his fly, they seemed to be having none of it. Speaking to a number of anglers on the river that day, most of whom had blanked, it was likely we were in for a tough day.

Time to change tactics I thought, small weighted grayling bugs as used on the previous afternoon, lightish tippet (3lb BS) and off we went to seek the faster riffles and deeper pools where there was troubled surface current.

Bingo!... we'd hit the mark, changing our tactics and concentrating in this type of water paid dividends, fish after fish, and take after take... I can't recall how many times I shouted strike throughout the afternoon session especially. Malcolm started to pull in the fish, sadly the best fish just happened to be an unwary brown trout estimated at about 2 1/2lb (No photo).

A combination of small grayling bugs and the odd size 20 pheasant tail seemed to do the trick this afternoon.

Having passing conversations with others anglers who were still having little or no joy at all, and sharing with them what tactics we'd deferred to, I was really pleased for Malcolm, he continued to make the most of the situation and active feeding fish by rooking up yet another 10 fish into the net, with a further squillion (at the last count) on and off before we knew it.

Over all a few great days fishing, here's looking forward to your Christmas present and seeing you again next year ~ Jim

BRITISH FLY FAIR INTERNATIONAL

If you're stuck for things to do this coming weekend, or the weather puts you off your fishing for the day. Why not visit the BFFI?

I shall be up there with the likes of Paul Procter, Gary Champion, Gary Coxon, Tony Riley, Jim Fern, Lee Cummings & Vic Knight (Fellow A.A.P.G.A.I members demonstrating)

It would be great to see you there

First river, first cast, first grayling...

Of all the fishing I've done this week, one of the most memorable days was having the pleasure of meeting and spending some time with Roy, a first time fly fisher.

Agreeing to target some lovely grayling on the river Coln, we were confronted by some turbulent and unpredictable weather. Not ideal conditions for a beginner but we'd gone based on a 'dead cert' forecast the previous evening, "one of calmness and glints of sun"... not darn likely. Although the rain had been forecast as drizzle, strong winds descended on us without warning.

Not one to be swayed, Roy was determined to give it a go... and I duly obliged. So off we went onto the open ford in the middle reaches to 'learn how to cast', over coming the windy conditions it wasn't too long before Roy had a cast good enough to get him fishing. Having hit the mark and without further a do it was time to tie on a favoured Klink & Dink method to fish the lower reaches (The dink being a micro-shrimp).

Within 5 minutes he'd plucked this peach out, I would say actually within 6-8 casts... it got our day off to a great start. True to form and knowing this pool as I do within no time at all he'd drifted the shrimp off the apex across fish and plucked another beauty tight into the margin. A few more offerings were had before we decided to move on and try further upstream to attempt some Czech nymphing.

Sacrilege, I'd miss-placed my potent in line indicator so Roy had to use his sense of feel to detect a take, with the line taught Roy hit into yet another deep holding grayling, sadly and all though we didn't get the grayling into the net, he did play it for some 30 seconds before it wriggled free. That's catch & release at distance I think!

The morning was certainly what we'd ordered in terms of fishing, the weather deteriorated further in the afternoon which made it for the most part quite difficult, although we did inadvertently attract a nice brown trout, we did our best to concentrate in grayling territory.

A big well done to Roy, some frustrations along the way but perseverance he had in spades. I feel another fly fisher coming on!

The A.A.P.G.A.I

I've just returned having spent the latter part of the week and weekend in Caer Beris with fellow instructor members of AAPGAI, one of two annual assessment & CPD events that are just too darn good to miss.

One because I get to catch up with some good friends who are amongst some of the best instructors & casters on this planet, the other is to meet and help out those who are there being assessed as potential newcomers to the association.

The associations standards are maintained to a very high standard and it was great to see the quality of the new talent coming through. Not only that but on this occasion I got to absorb and learn new techniques & teaching methods from the likes of Tony Riley & Lee Cummings to name but a few.

Our next event is in April 2010, one of the days is dedicated to visitors (Potential instructors) who join us to see what it's all about. Places are limited so checkout the AAPGAI web site regularly for confirmation details should you be interested.

Here's me (above) demonstrating the roll casting technique to an audience, verbally aided by good friend Vic Knight (Mr Roll Cast) who's out of shot.

What you can't see is how white I've gone and the nerves kicking in being stood in front of my peers demonstrating...

As is always the case, you never get long enough to spend time with friends & those you meet. Pete Tyjas (Based in Devon if your in the area) was a friend I'd not seen in ages, we barely had time to say hello so had to catch up on the phone.

Now to put all I've learnt into practice