Post by myotis on Sept 16, 2012 13:07:27 GMT
On the last day of August 2012, and our last day on Dartmoor after a few very windy days of being more concerned about standing up than going fishing, we finally got onto the river.
We had an enjoyable 5 hours or so, but once again no fish, so don’t expect any fishy pictures, sorry. So this is more a tale from the riverbank, than a fishing report.
We were fishing on the West Country Passport scheme (http://www.westcountryangling.com/).
For those not familiar with this, it’s a scheme where you buy tokens in advance and you have access to 43 fishing beats in the West Country simply by turning up and dropping the appropriate number of tokens in the box at the beginning of the beat. The tokens are interchangeable with nine similar schemes throughout the country e,g the Wye and Usk in Wales and the Eden in Cumbria and can be exchanged for a Dartmoor day ticket that lets you fish several streams across Dartmoor.
The river we were on was the West Dart , just below Prince Hall hotel. You can park close to the bridge in the photographs, but you need to ignore the sign at the top of the road that suggest you aren’t allowed access: you are.
This is the river just above the bridge close to the car park, which is signed as anglers car park.
The main purpose of this trip was to give Mrs myotis (Moira) a go at fly fishing and using the Seiryu rod she won in the M&M beer glass competition.
So here is me setting the rod up for her:
and here is a pic of her first go
It was still very windy, and casting was only really possible in between the gusts of wind, so the focus was on just getting a feel for the rod and line. In between gusts she got on fine with the casting, but never came close to a fish. She did however enjoy the experience and is looking forward to getting out again.
However, her highlight and lowlight (if that’s a word) was that almost my first cast with the Seiryu, in the pockets just below the riffles in the first picture, induced a take. The fly, a Stewarts Black Spider, was the fist fly she had ever tied. The fly continued to be successful, and I continued be a failure, missing every take :-(
Eventually, I lost the fly to a rocky bottom and replaced it with a Stewarts black spider that I had tied, not a single fish showed any interest in the replacement.
Maybe this is why she is now so keen to continue fly fishing, in the belief she couldn’t possibly do any worse than I am doing. She has also decided to take charge of the fly tying, and last seen the vice was on her sewing/craft table.
We only saw a couple of fish rise and the only place where a fish rose more than once was on the far side of the river in the picture below
I just couldn’t reach it with the Tenkara rod, and as I had also brought a 8’ 6” 5wt with me, I switched rods (but its the Tenkara rod in the pic). I dropped a dry blue dun, into the waters edge on the far bank and a fish took it on the first cast, which I missed again. I am beginning to get irritated with this and hoping its lack of practice and not just old age.
I didn’t manage to get any interest after that, and by now, our “couple” of hours on the river had stretched to over 5 hours, and this saw the end of the fishing.
Overall, we both had a really good time, Dartmoor looks a fantastic place to go fishing with a choice of several streams, all covered by the same permit. £10 a day, or £30 a week. From what I saw they are all perfect Tenkara waters. We will definitely be going back next season.
Finally, my need for the 5wt to reach the far bank was because I wasn’t wading. With thigh waders I could easily have reached the fish with the Tenkara rod. As for the Seiryu, it is difficult to say as it was so windy, but there is certainly nothing obviously negative to say about it, and I was happy using it.
Graham
We had an enjoyable 5 hours or so, but once again no fish, so don’t expect any fishy pictures, sorry. So this is more a tale from the riverbank, than a fishing report.
We were fishing on the West Country Passport scheme (http://www.westcountryangling.com/).
For those not familiar with this, it’s a scheme where you buy tokens in advance and you have access to 43 fishing beats in the West Country simply by turning up and dropping the appropriate number of tokens in the box at the beginning of the beat. The tokens are interchangeable with nine similar schemes throughout the country e,g the Wye and Usk in Wales and the Eden in Cumbria and can be exchanged for a Dartmoor day ticket that lets you fish several streams across Dartmoor.
The river we were on was the West Dart , just below Prince Hall hotel. You can park close to the bridge in the photographs, but you need to ignore the sign at the top of the road that suggest you aren’t allowed access: you are.
This is the river just above the bridge close to the car park, which is signed as anglers car park.
The main purpose of this trip was to give Mrs myotis (Moira) a go at fly fishing and using the Seiryu rod she won in the M&M beer glass competition.
So here is me setting the rod up for her:
and here is a pic of her first go
It was still very windy, and casting was only really possible in between the gusts of wind, so the focus was on just getting a feel for the rod and line. In between gusts she got on fine with the casting, but never came close to a fish. She did however enjoy the experience and is looking forward to getting out again.
However, her highlight and lowlight (if that’s a word) was that almost my first cast with the Seiryu, in the pockets just below the riffles in the first picture, induced a take. The fly, a Stewarts Black Spider, was the fist fly she had ever tied. The fly continued to be successful, and I continued be a failure, missing every take :-(
Eventually, I lost the fly to a rocky bottom and replaced it with a Stewarts black spider that I had tied, not a single fish showed any interest in the replacement.
Maybe this is why she is now so keen to continue fly fishing, in the belief she couldn’t possibly do any worse than I am doing. She has also decided to take charge of the fly tying, and last seen the vice was on her sewing/craft table.
We only saw a couple of fish rise and the only place where a fish rose more than once was on the far side of the river in the picture below
I just couldn’t reach it with the Tenkara rod, and as I had also brought a 8’ 6” 5wt with me, I switched rods (but its the Tenkara rod in the pic). I dropped a dry blue dun, into the waters edge on the far bank and a fish took it on the first cast, which I missed again. I am beginning to get irritated with this and hoping its lack of practice and not just old age.
I didn’t manage to get any interest after that, and by now, our “couple” of hours on the river had stretched to over 5 hours, and this saw the end of the fishing.
Overall, we both had a really good time, Dartmoor looks a fantastic place to go fishing with a choice of several streams, all covered by the same permit. £10 a day, or £30 a week. From what I saw they are all perfect Tenkara waters. We will definitely be going back next season.
Finally, my need for the 5wt to reach the far bank was because I wasn’t wading. With thigh waders I could easily have reached the fish with the Tenkara rod. As for the Seiryu, it is difficult to say as it was so windy, but there is certainly nothing obviously negative to say about it, and I was happy using it.
Graham
