Blank Day on the Dee

[belgiumcast]

My recent fishing sessions on the Dee have been trotting for grayling and to be honest it's almost been too easy at times.  Once the shoal has been 'switched on' it's almost been a fish a cast.  So yesterday I headed up the Dee Valley towards Carrog armed only with my Tenkara Rod.  No one else was booked on to the beat so I had free rein to wander to all the best holding spots.  Of course it was cold with the hill tops still showing a dusting of snow.  But it was gloriously sunny and thankfully there was very little wind.  My one worry was what if I contacted one of the pewter 'clonkers', the specimen cock fish that this beat throws up quite regularly, on my fine Tenkara Rod.  In the Autumn I had landed fish up to 1 1/2 lbs successfully and on a lower Dee beat the method had shown it's worth when I landed many, many fish on Tenkara style dries and traditional Klinks in warmer weather, though none was bigger than 3/4lb.

Well at a nice height (around 0.75 I would guess) in clear water I could wade to all the winter grayling hot spots.  Immediatley, I appreciated the lightness, simplicity and mobility of Tenkara as I walked the beat, stopping off at this pool and that.  Nothing was emerging on the surface so I stuck to two weighted nymphs, later increasing the weighing of one of them so I knew I was getting on or near to the bottom.  Of course, this wasn't classic Tenkara but an elongated version of East European Nymphing I guess.  Well apart from one out of season trout I had no response, which both disappointed and surprised me.

Had a friend been there with me with his trotting gear he might have confirmed that the grayling were where they normally are and where I fished this day.  I know that bait fishing with the additional dimension of smell and the movement of the worm can 'wake a shoal up', even more so with maggot, when you trickle feed and they compete for the bait (allowed on some pools of the lower Dee).  Then the sport can be hectic.  Towards the end of my session, I finished with some dries just to practice my Tenkara casting, but again to no avail.

Well, deep winter might not produce the best conditions for Tenkara but I still enjoyed the 'process' of fishing it.  Was it the gin clear water, or the cold temperature of the water, reinforced by the full streams coming down from the snow dusted hills, which left the grayling feeling anything but in a feeding mood?  I just don't know but I would be astonished if my flies were not moving past fish from my past experiences of the pools and runs I have fished many times at this time of year.  As they say, however, there's always next time, though I might pair my Tenkara rod with my trotting gear just to be certain I've definitely located some fish before I apply Tenkara as a method so deep into winter.  Yet, it says so much for the sheer pleasure of Tenkara as a wonderful presentational approach that you can enjoy a days fishing even when you blank - which is a first for me with Tenkara, though I am very much a Tenkara novice.  I will fish the Dee again soon and take my trotting gear with my Tenkara Rod and will report my findings to the forum.

Mick

[dbl]

Today I had a beautiful, though frustratingly blank afternoon with my T rod, exploring the lowest CADAC beat on the Dee, the new Coed yr Allt beat. The weather was good, the river clear and in prime condition, but the grayling seemed to have gone abroad for their winter holiday!
Ah well, the good news is that the river at this point (just above the the Ceiriog river junction), is glorious. A firm stony floor, deep glides and pools,long riffles, and easy access along open banks on the lowest part of the beat that I walked up. I was surprised to meet the friendly bailiff, Peter Bentley, and astonished to find my 2015 membership card in only the second pocket I looked in.
Driving to it is another matter. I have had previous experience of taking the "road" past the McDonald's burger bar. My advice is, don't if you are going to the lower beat access. Instead go to the Chirk roundabout, take the eastbound B5070 and turn first left onto the tiny, but passable, Rhyn Lane. If you follow this all the way to the lower Ceiriog river you should eventually get to the Dee with your suspension in one piece...

[belgiumcast]

Well, although I would have loved you to have had some sport dbl, your report has made me feel a little better. Whilst you were fishing many miles downstream of where I was, we seemed to have encountered similar conditions and the same failure to provoke a response from the grayling. Of course, this presupposes the fish were stationed in the 'swims' where we were fishing. I know my Carrog beat really well and my inclination is that the failure to get any response from the fish was not due to their absence from the pools I fished, but rather that there was some metabolic factor which disinclined them to 'feed' or move to my flies. Of course, I am guessing but perhaps next time when my Tenkara rod is complemented by some limited trotting of a prospecting nature will prove or disprove my theory.

Mick

[tubefly]

Feb 7, 2015 22:37:50 GMT belgiumcast said:

  Of course, I am guessing but perhaps next time when my Tenkara rod is complemented by some limited trotting of a prospecting nature will prove or disprove my theory.

Mick

I attended the GAIA day at the Sun Trevor last November, the morning sesion was Jeremy Lucas nymphing

for winter Grayling and Louis Noble trotting for Grayling.

The morning was cold and the river was up Jeremy blanked whilst Louis by some slight of hand pulled

a young Dee lady first cast.

Maybe Orange Otter can help you with your theory.

Harry

[belgiumcast]

Well Harry I've had the pleasure of having been instructed by Louis/orangeotter and he knows the Dee and its grayling as well as anyone I would guess, and I would be interested to hear from him on this. Sometimes when you trot the response is not immediate, it can take a little while for the first dip of the float and then the action thereafter can be frantic. This is why I was patient on some of the 'hot spots' I fished with my Tenkara rod. Changing flies and gaining greater depth and when I got my first response my heart beat quickened, only to be disappointed when I saw a trout struggling on the surface. And, as I've explained, the lady never did oblige me.

Two years ago I was lucky enough to fish a backwater of islands near Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The guide was a little surprised when I told him I wanted to fly fish the whole day. We had had great sport the previous days by various fishing methods but now I wanted all of my sport to be on the fly rod. To be honest, it was quite hard work initially. Bonefish and Redfish are intensely targeted and can be very, very spooky in this part of the Caribbean. So after two near misses with both species my guide took me to a little inlet through the mangroves where a saltwater rivulet entered a little bay. I cast to small jacks and snapper and had some fun. But then the guide asked me to reel in my line and pass my fly to him. He anointed it with fresh shrimp flesh. 'Cast again' he said.  In the crystal clear water the result was amazing as larger jacks appeared as from nowhere to compete for my fly. It brought home to me the vital importance of smell as an attractant to fish. Though really it shouldn't have for at the start of my fishing career in the estuary of the River Wear we used to fish for flounders on our rudimentary tackle in the late 1950s and early 1960's. Times were tough and we could ony afford a piece of kipper from the local fishmongers for bait. It would still produce modest results. But one day I used my 'saved-up' pocket money to buy a small plastic bottle of pilchard oil. Using it to anoint my kipper bait would multiply my catch many fold.

So in the depths of winter when the 'ladies' might be rather torpid in their lies, perhaps it's no surprise that the whiff of something delicious can wake her up more effectively than even the best presented nymph Tenkara style!

Mick

[flatsghost]

It has been very interesting reading your accounts but I would only add this to the mix.
There is no doubt in my mind that certain meteorological and barometric conditions can have a huge effect on catches both positive and negative. Throw in variable water conditions and temperatures as well. I have had many trips where you would swear that there are no fish in the river when you know full well they are there. Sometimes later the same day things can switch on and it may be due to something you cannot see but which the fish are receptive to. I recall reading that it was proven that many specimen fish were caught on a variety of waters in different parts of the country not only on the same day but at similar times and this can be no coincidence.
I recall fishing Farmoor 1 reservoir last year and having a very successful morning only to find that at lunch time the fishing switched off totally and for no obvious reason. I spoke to the bailiff an few hours later and exactly the same had happened on Farmoor 2 and was due to a sudden pressure change.
So, what is the moral of this? Don't lose heart! Sometimes we get those days as part of fishings rich experiences and have to accept them.
Hope this helps
Glyn

[belgiumcast]

Thank you Glynn. I agree with many of your observations, and let's face it, if it was easy every time we went fishing it would cease to fascinate us in the way it does. Drawing on your stillwater analogy when I have been fishing in the late autumn and even the early spring for salmon, harder though that process becomes every year, when, after many sterile hours fishing you become convinced there are no fish in the pool, or even the river, and then suddenly there is a brief spell when the sun breaks through the cloud, the chaffinch start their lovely song and the air seems a trifle warmer. It is then, that low and behold, your fly can suddenly draw away and your freezing body suddenly fills with adrenalin and assumes a warmth you did not think was possible. What was formerly a bitter, fruitless day rapidly transforms into a joy.

I am told that Scandanavian salmon anglers on the Scottish Dee are meticulous in taking water and air temperatures, examining barometric pressure levels and monitoring river levels at regular intervals and adjusting their fishing strategy accordingly. Their relative success levels seems to suggest their attention to detail is time and effort well spent. Maybe there is a lesson there for me to learn there prior to and during my grayling sessions!

There is one other point I would add and it's the social dynamics of the quarry we seek on our fishing expeditions. Michael Evans, in a talk he once gave, quoted the example of the migratory salmon on the River Test. Watching above a bridge in the gin clear waters of that river he spied a sizeable cock fish which stayed behind resting in comfortably cushioned pocket by the bridge stanchions, when its fellow travellers continued with their progress upstream. Then, after some time, Michael saw the salmon's fins quivering demonstrably. As a hen fish swam up and alongside the cock the reason for its sudden excitement became apparent. Shortly after, the two fish swam off upstream together. 'So touching it was enough almost' said Michael, 'to make you give up fishing for salmo.'

With a shoal fish like grayling what are the social dynamics that come into play that can effect our fishing? I've already indicated that when bait fishing the competition of the shoal to get to the bait can make them somewhat reckless in their haste, making our fishing both exciting and a trifle easy at times. Hard to replicate this with fly, of course. But there must be many examples of social dynamics that also affect our fishing that we're simply not aware of. Are there lead fish which suddenly decide it's time to leave a pool and, if the group follows, it is that which renders our fishing pointless? Or the reverse? Underwater filming is revealing more about the sub-aquatic world but surely only a fragment of the factors which affect our fishing. One thing I'm learning about Tenkara is that its far more stealthy and more naturalistic approach is far less likely to send alarm signals through a shoal or pod of fish. Of course, how we play a fish after hooking it is also quite important in not subsequently frightening off the rest of the fish in our 'swim.'

Mick

[orangeotter]

I think that this apparent 'switching on' is one one of the most perplexing issues of any branch of angling, as it's common to game,coarse and sea - but isn't it part of the attraction. I'm no more an expert than any of you but I believe that the success of trotting is down to the smell of either worm or maggot, something that we cannot as yet replicate in a fly. I'm a lapsed coarse angler and when piking, a dead (or in the old days,live bait) was infinitely more successful than a lure. As regards taking times,in the winter I consider the witching hour to be around 2.00 pm and when early Spring trouting it's between 12- 1.00 - many years of fishing never ceases to dispove this 'rule' and I try to plan my sessions around it. Spring trouting is especially interesting as I usually see the first olives around mid-day and rising fish about 1.00 - with winter grayling a hatch is not apparent and yet they seem to switch on at 2.00. I strongly believe that at these times there is a rise in air pressure which can result in the increased activity of aquatic insects and therefore fish.I'm sure that we've all noticed when the atmosphere softens at these times. Consider the Grannom and March Brown situations: sun comes out and the wind drops, flies and rising fish everywhere - sun goes in with even a slight breeze and the fish and fly seemingly disappear. There must be some scientific info'about this, can anyone help ?
Perhaps as belgiancast infers, the best approach for the Winter Ladies could be trotting to start with followed by fly - I notice that outside of Winter these specific taking times are not so apparent and fly is good all day.

[daves]

It's all interesting stuff. There is no doubting that the fish seem to be attuned to changes that we don't register. Also they are switched on by the availability of a vulnerable food source e.g. LDOs increased nymph activity them emergence around mid day in April. One factor in the success of trotting is inducing a 'hatch' of maggots by careful 'feeding' of free samples into the swim (on waters where it is allowed). Sometimes it can take up to half an hour of careful 'feeding' to with on a shoal of grayling that are torpid. When fly fishing we have to rely on the fish being 'on feed' as we don't ground bait our swims (except for folks who 'shuffle', something that should be condemned because of the damage it can do to trout redds, however when I've done kick sampling for the Riverfly Monitoring I've often seen grayling come straight into the area that I've disturbed.

[belgiumcast]

Thank you for the replies.  The fact that we will never truly 'know' all of the factors which incline fish to move to our flies is, as orangeotter says, what makes our sport so fascinating.

If I might take it one stage further on to an issue that may well have been discussed before - what might be called "preferred foods" in the trout and grayling buffet. You know how sometimes when you're reading or watching TV say, you say to your wife (in these times of over-indulgence) have we got anything in to nibble?  And she kindly replies yes there are some crisps in the cupboard.  'Any beef flavour', you reply?  'No, just cheese and onion.' And then you ponder because it was the prospect of beef which really tickled your fancy, and cheese and onion does not, at that moment, have the same allure. Well, do trout and grayling have their own 'beef crisp moments'?

I ask this because last spring I was fishing western style (on this occasion Tenkara would not have worked) where the Eamont enters the Eden.  I was with the river keeper of the club in question, a good fisherman in his own right.  Just where the Eamont current curved into the Eden and lost its pace there was some lively trout activity on or near the surface.  I could not say for sure because it was a fair distance from us on the bank - a good double hauling distance, which is not usual when river fishing.  As I carefully entered the water getting as deep as I could proceed, I stopped and watched whilst letting the water settle, with the keeper watching too.  We could see there were lots of olives floating down. Sizeable offerings that were surely attracting the trout's attention.  But after double haul casting as stealthily as I could to place my dry olive imitation amongst those floating down, it received no attention, even after several carefully delivered repeat casts, where I could not distinguish my fly from the naturals, though this was all observed from some distance, so I'm probably flattering my fly tying.  I then tried olive emergers, but again to no avail, even though the trout were still quite frenetic in their activity.  In frustration I stopped and watched carefully.  The trout were taking just below the surface for sure but not olives in any state, emerger or dun I felt certain.  Is there a midge hatch also going on I thought, as the air had plenty adults on the wing.  I changed my tippet ending to something finer, took out my 'micro fly box' (I really enjoyed Dave's recent article and advice on this) and put on a size 24 midge pupae with just a suggestion of dark hare's ear, degreasing the last few feet of my tippet.  First double haul cast caught me a lovely 1 1/4 pound brown, though I'm not sure if you would call it an Eamont or Eden fish!

Now even though there were olives a plenty to be devoured as emergers or floating duns, the fish I felt were having a 'beef crisp' moment even though the cheese and onion alternative were there in greater size and certainly in numbers!  After I released the fish the sun disappeared and a cool wind blew and the fish went down, but one fish caught like that feels like a real achievement and stays in your mind.  But I wonder if fellow forum members have seen this preferred food situations on a regular basis in their fishing.  At closer quarters, of course, the whole thing is easier to interpret and respond to.

Mick

[merlyn]

the best time for taking grayling is last hour hour before it goes dark reg rhygynni mentions in his book the grayling they feed because of the long nights [e-mail]

[orangeotter]

belgiumcast - the fact that you were fishing at distance suggests that you may have been getting 'invisible drag' and it wasn't the pattern to blame - but who can tell ?

I've experienced similar frustrations with rising fish and have often found the answer to be a Skues Medium Olive nymph, s16,fished an inch or two down, dead drift. Worth a try I think.I can let you have a couple to try.

Cheers

[dbl]

This is not a useful contribution, but a note of appreciation: the recent threads A Blank Day on the Dee and Fly Patterns illustrate perfectly for me the attraction of this tightly focussed forum. The initial intelligent enquiries and the thoughtful contributions in response by experienced anglers like (for example only!) daves and orangeotter are gold-dust for novices like myself.
Thanks guys! Oh, and some cracking prose in that last entry, belgiumcast!

[daves]

Mick, there have been quite a few occasions when I've encountered fish selecting tiny food items when there has been an abundance of bigger/more obvious food about. On Driffield Beck in summer the trout are often fixated on Agapetus Sedge pupae (size 20) in the surface film even when there are masses of Black Gnats, Hawthorn Flies or Olives; on the Tees & Foston Beck I've failed to catch on size 14, & 16 Olives when there have been good hatches of Olive Uprights & other Olives only to discover the fish were taking the few Iron Blues that were about & a change top a size 20 Iron Blue has resulted in success; on the Rye I experienced trout feeding on Thrips/Thunder Bugs when there were loads of Small Dark Olives hatching & I only caught when I dropped down to a size 24 IOBO Humpy. I could recount quite a few similar instances where fish were feeding on tiny items even though there was an abundance of more substantial food available. However, as mentioned fishing at range creates real problems with drag & if I'm not catching my first response is to suspect that my presentation is not good enough & only after I've satisfied myself that this isn't the case do I question my choice of fly.