Post by Tony T on Jul 17, 2014 21:18:45 GMT
First outing for my new sato rod.
River level at Kettlewell - 0.25m - Very low water.
The Wharfe at Buckden is fairly high up and so suffers first when rain is scarce but conversely is usually fishable when most other places are running too high to get out.
This first picture taken from the bridge facing downstream shows low and very clear water with barely any flow to it.
The rock in the foreground is my usual reference point, in normal levels it would be sat in a few inches of water
Upstream of the bridge was just as bad barely any water and no flow…things were looking bad but I thought perhaps this is where tenkara may score better compared to rod and reel.
Attached 3.5wt level line just short of 13ft with 4ft of 5x tippet and tied on one of JP’s clipped hackled dry flies with an orange silk tag and loop (apologies for not remembering the name of it).
Had my first rise to the fly at the tail of the pool in skinny water (above pic, top left) but wasn’t a good hook up and so the first of my long range releases.
Walking upstream and spotting fish without alerting them to my presence proved to be very difficult as more often than not I had spooked them before I’d seen them. As a result saw them dashing away mainly downstream of me.
Found a tree lined section of sluggish water with a few fish rising, carefully lowered myself into the water, stage 1 successful…fish still rising. A sideways cast covered a rising fish, which took the fly on the first pass. Fish on but not for long, the fly pinged out and was sacrificed to the tree gods.
Managed to find some broken water to hide me. A downstream cast and a short drift resulted in a solid hookup and first fish to hand, which took the cdc olive.
A good few fish were rising in this large but static pool.
Working the margins 2 more fish to the cdc olive.
A few fish were rising at the start of this foam lane but they were put down when I hooked this lovely wee brown.
A lean day with just 4 fish, despite the low water I felt (with hindsight) I could’ve done better. Instead of approaching pools/run from the low exposed river bank which forced me to over reach and cast further laying too much casting line on the water. A better approach would have been to battle the vegetation on the high bank for cover hence getting closer to the fish and at the same time giving better presentation with shorter casts. The only downside is the difficulty in landing fish with being higher up and on the bank.
My fishing buddy blanked unfortunately but conditions were against him using a thick fly line on spooky fish.
Any suggestions for tackling tricky low water conditions like this would be more than welcome. I’d like to be able to get those spooky fish in the open water. One thing I ought to have done is put on a longer casting line (20ft) but it never crossed my mind as daft as it sounds.
River level at Kettlewell - 0.25m - Very low water.
The Wharfe at Buckden is fairly high up and so suffers first when rain is scarce but conversely is usually fishable when most other places are running too high to get out.
This first picture taken from the bridge facing downstream shows low and very clear water with barely any flow to it.
The rock in the foreground is my usual reference point, in normal levels it would be sat in a few inches of water
Upstream of the bridge was just as bad barely any water and no flow…things were looking bad but I thought perhaps this is where tenkara may score better compared to rod and reel.
Attached 3.5wt level line just short of 13ft with 4ft of 5x tippet and tied on one of JP’s clipped hackled dry flies with an orange silk tag and loop (apologies for not remembering the name of it).
Had my first rise to the fly at the tail of the pool in skinny water (above pic, top left) but wasn’t a good hook up and so the first of my long range releases.
Walking upstream and spotting fish without alerting them to my presence proved to be very difficult as more often than not I had spooked them before I’d seen them. As a result saw them dashing away mainly downstream of me.
Found a tree lined section of sluggish water with a few fish rising, carefully lowered myself into the water, stage 1 successful…fish still rising. A sideways cast covered a rising fish, which took the fly on the first pass. Fish on but not for long, the fly pinged out and was sacrificed to the tree gods.
Managed to find some broken water to hide me. A downstream cast and a short drift resulted in a solid hookup and first fish to hand, which took the cdc olive.
A good few fish were rising in this large but static pool.
Working the margins 2 more fish to the cdc olive.
A few fish were rising at the start of this foam lane but they were put down when I hooked this lovely wee brown.
A lean day with just 4 fish, despite the low water I felt (with hindsight) I could’ve done better. Instead of approaching pools/run from the low exposed river bank which forced me to over reach and cast further laying too much casting line on the water. A better approach would have been to battle the vegetation on the high bank for cover hence getting closer to the fish and at the same time giving better presentation with shorter casts. The only downside is the difficulty in landing fish with being higher up and on the bank.
My fishing buddy blanked unfortunately but conditions were against him using a thick fly line on spooky fish.
Any suggestions for tackling tricky low water conditions like this would be more than welcome. I’d like to be able to get those spooky fish in the open water. One thing I ought to have done is put on a longer casting line (20ft) but it never crossed my mind as daft as it sounds.
