Post by lanhal on May 11, 2014 12:29:52 GMT
I had 3 sessions on the Silverburn last week.
First outing was near Ronaldsway Halt on the steam railway. Weather was cold and grey with a strong upstream breeze. Not very promising but at least the casting was easy. I used my 3.6m Iwana and started out with my default bead head nymph - nothing doing. But then I spotted a rise nearby, even though there was little fly life apparent on the water.
I changed to a small deer hare caddis as a searching dry fly pattern and by the end of a couple of hours I'd had 5 brownies, with a further 2 bounced off and many missed takes.
Not a brilliant result but very promising - the last time I fished here was in the summer of 1968 and with the river very low I didn't even see a fish let alone catch one. Upstream from here the river becomes more closed in by bushes and trees so I decided to use the 3.3m handle on the Iwana for my next visit.
Second outing was the next day, this time working upstream towards Ronaldsway from Poulson Park on the outskirts of Castletown. The breeze had died down a bit from the day before and although still under grey skies, the air temperature was up a bit. Fish were rising to small black terrestrials so I took the hint and but on a very dark CDC plume tip, size 18, changing to a small black gnat pattern or a deer hair caddis for variety. This approach brought results almost from the off. Working steadily upstream I managed to net 25 fish by the end of 4 hours or so with a further 10+ bounced off and many, many more 'missed' rises. (The misses were sometimes refusals by the fish and sometime by poor timing on my part.)
Typically fish were lying right in the tail of a pool, or just in 'crease' waster at the pool head. I doubt if I would have been able to make any sort of decent presentation with conventional gear, but with a tenakra rod it was (relatively) easy. One fish was different from the rest - silvery and with small black spots only. I initially thought this was a salmon smolt, but the adipose fin had a red colouration which I understand is characteristic of trout. So perhaps this was a brownie preparing to go downstream to sea?
Next day final, short, visit to the Silverburn, this time to the lower half of Silverburn Glen which is a heavily wooded public open space just north of Ballasalla. The river here is much narrower than further downstream at Ronaldsway and Castletown and largely hemmed in by trees and bushes.
The weather was dry, warm and sunny although still breezy: I could see the fish and presumably they could see me too! This was more like jungle fishing; in most places the 3.3m Iwana was too long so I used a 2.7m Kiyotaki rod in tight spots under trees. Dry fly once more; there were a few olives coming off the water, as well as midges and the occasional daddy longlegs. I managed a total of 6 fish in a couple of hours, with 2 bounced off. A pleasing outcome given the bright conditions, my lack of wading stealth, and the river being next to a public footpath. I'll have to return here on my next visit to the IoM, as there's a bit more water to explore in the upper half of the Glen.