Thornton Beck

[lanhal]

A Pickering Fishery Association water. I've never fished this before despite it being nearby. Daves has written about it in FF&FT (November 2013) as 'jungle warfare' fishing. He's not wrong.

It's a small beck, largely enclosed in a tree corridor. 

It made my 2.7m rod seem huge; casting was possible only in a more open spots. Still, once you're there you may as well give it your best shot, so I prospected upstream with a deer hair caddis pattern. Stealthy progress was hard work; the slightest mistake led to a fly in the trees and, of course, the associated disturbance of retrieving it.

When I finally managed to rise a fish I don't know who was more surprised: me or the fish. Most were small but I did manage to winkle out this one, which was around 9" or so.

The Beck is full of fish which are very visible in the gin-clear water. I must have scared off 25 fish or more for every one that I caught. After this, Pickering Beck will be a doddle!

[daves]

Well done. I usually use a 6' 2 weight rod with a 12' leader. Tenkara is very hard work there & too much risk of damaging a rod. Even in ideal conditions expect to spook 10 fish for every 1 caught.

[lanhal]

Thanks Dave. But how do you manage a 12'leader?? Bit long for a bow and arrow cast on a short rod and a bit difficult to roll cast I would have thought?

[daves]

I'm usually fishing at too great a distance to bow & arrow cast & when I roll cast I've usually got at least 6' of fly line out plus the leader. I do a lot of modified jump roll casting. Bow & arrow casting will work with just the leader out if you use a leader with a long butt such as the Rio Powerflex copolymer leaders.