Post by myotis on Jul 31, 2012 13:55:07 GMT
Well, my attempts at fishing the Eden failed for various reasons, but I did manage three to four hours on the Devon (20th July) just downstream from the Dam. At £17 a year for a trout licence, you can’t complain about the price, even if I did only get 4 hours fishing out of it.
In the picture below, the Dam is just visible as the river vanishes in the distance.
Further downstream it is a mix of slower stretches (see pics below) as well as some faster and deeper riffles, pools and pockets. A nice mix in a lovely setting, and although it doesn’t look it, a fair bit of the water was too deep for thigh waders.
In the four hours I saw four fish rise, and there were very few insects around. Later there were a few sedges and a couple of olives of some description. In the past I would have gone for a nymph or a wet spider, but I was determined to use a dry fly.
I started prospecting likely spots with a 12 Klinkhammer, but with no success, then I tried a 14 CDC and Elk and again no success. Then put on a 14 Blue dun, and the rising fish that had ignored me until now, immediately took the Blue dun. Of the four rising fish I saw, two were hooked on the blue dun, one continued to ignore it and I never managed to get a decent cast to the fourth.
However, that blue dun brought up another ten fish. seven I hooked and three I missed entirely. The bad news is that of the seven I had on the hook, five very quickly got off again, so at the end of the day, I only got four fish into the net. They ranged in size from about seven inches to around ten inches This was the size of all the fish that I missed or got off. Except for one.
This fish was in a deep pool where I first caught and netted a smaller fish, and then almost on my next cast raised this fish of at least 14 inches. It seemed twice the size of the other fish I had caught and seen in the water.
Unlike the smaller fish that had all grabbed the fly in a very excited manner, this fish very slowly came up, sipped in the fly, turned and slowly swam towards me. I took up the slack on the line as it went past me, and once it had moved a little further away, gently struck the fly. I hadn’t really been able to pull the hook home with the fish swimming towards me. For a millisecond, the rod bent and I could feel the weight of the fish. Then I saw him gently shake his head and my fly fell out of his mouth.
The smaller fish were all fairly feisty, and one took several leaps straight at me. I had no time to do anything except wrestle the net into position just in time for the fish to leap straight into it.
All told while I failed to take anything home for the pot, and I am going to need to do something about the number of fish getting off the hook, it was an almost surreal return to fishing. I can’t ever remember hooking so many fish in such a short time, especially to a dry fly when so little was rising.
And of course , In addition to my nostalgic return to the river after 25 years or so, the new element was trying out my Tenkara set up, An extremely interesting, and I think valuable, experience that I will put in another post.
As footnote to this, I have just discovered that I shouldn't have been fishing this stretch of the River. For three miles down from the dam, fishing has been stopped after two fish kills in the area. It isn't marked as such on the map you get given, but I have just been told after reporting my fishing experience on another forum :-(
In the picture below, the Dam is just visible as the river vanishes in the distance.
Further downstream it is a mix of slower stretches (see pics below) as well as some faster and deeper riffles, pools and pockets. A nice mix in a lovely setting, and although it doesn’t look it, a fair bit of the water was too deep for thigh waders.
In the four hours I saw four fish rise, and there were very few insects around. Later there were a few sedges and a couple of olives of some description. In the past I would have gone for a nymph or a wet spider, but I was determined to use a dry fly.
I started prospecting likely spots with a 12 Klinkhammer, but with no success, then I tried a 14 CDC and Elk and again no success. Then put on a 14 Blue dun, and the rising fish that had ignored me until now, immediately took the Blue dun. Of the four rising fish I saw, two were hooked on the blue dun, one continued to ignore it and I never managed to get a decent cast to the fourth.
However, that blue dun brought up another ten fish. seven I hooked and three I missed entirely. The bad news is that of the seven I had on the hook, five very quickly got off again, so at the end of the day, I only got four fish into the net. They ranged in size from about seven inches to around ten inches This was the size of all the fish that I missed or got off. Except for one.
This fish was in a deep pool where I first caught and netted a smaller fish, and then almost on my next cast raised this fish of at least 14 inches. It seemed twice the size of the other fish I had caught and seen in the water.
Unlike the smaller fish that had all grabbed the fly in a very excited manner, this fish very slowly came up, sipped in the fly, turned and slowly swam towards me. I took up the slack on the line as it went past me, and once it had moved a little further away, gently struck the fly. I hadn’t really been able to pull the hook home with the fish swimming towards me. For a millisecond, the rod bent and I could feel the weight of the fish. Then I saw him gently shake his head and my fly fell out of his mouth.
The smaller fish were all fairly feisty, and one took several leaps straight at me. I had no time to do anything except wrestle the net into position just in time for the fish to leap straight into it.
All told while I failed to take anything home for the pot, and I am going to need to do something about the number of fish getting off the hook, it was an almost surreal return to fishing. I can’t ever remember hooking so many fish in such a short time, especially to a dry fly when so little was rising.
And of course , In addition to my nostalgic return to the river after 25 years or so, the new element was trying out my Tenkara set up, An extremely interesting, and I think valuable, experience that I will put in another post.
As footnote to this, I have just discovered that I shouldn't have been fishing this stretch of the River. For three miles down from the dam, fishing has been stopped after two fish kills in the area. It isn't marked as such on the map you get given, but I have just been told after reporting my fishing experience on another forum :-(
