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Post by lanhal on May 11, 2014 12:57:18 GMT
Glen Helen was one of the early tourist attractions to be developed on the Isle of Man and is now a National Glen, so fishing is open to anyone with a Manx 'Other Waters' License. The river running down the glen is the headwater of the River Neb which runs to the sea at Peel. The river is channelled in a steep sided valley through a rocky and boulder strewn bed. The water was crystal clear. The Glen has suffered from storm damage in recent years which has brought down many tree with some lying across the river. With large boulders, deep pools, slippery rocks, and steep bank the access wasn't the easiest.
The weather was awful: cold with heavy rain throughout but at least the glen provided shelter from the wind. As on previous days, I prospected with dry fly in likely-looking spots as I worked upstream, clambering in and out of the water to get round obstacles. This eventually proved to be a productive method, but only after I'd put on a foam-headed bibio pattern with a white poly wing as a sighter. Black was definitely the colour of choice today and it worked better still if the fly was drowned in the surface layer. This made spotting the fly rather difficult in fast, rippling, water further heavy patterned by falling rain droplets. It became a case of lifting at any surface movement near where I guessed the fly was. At the head of the Glen is a large waterfall with a deep pool below it. Dry fly in the slack water didn't work here, but Dave Southall's 'heavy nymph' did (large tungsten bead head with lead wire wrapped around the shank - thanks Dave).
At the end of a very wet morning I finished with 13 trout with a few more lost. The fish here were of large average size than those from the Silverburn: typically 7" or larger. They were also very dark-backed and heavy spotted both in black and red, a reflection of the local environment I suppose.
Definitely worth a return visit in the future, but preferably without the rain.
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Post by Paul G on May 11, 2014 21:22:21 GMT
Great trip reports Allan. :-)
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Post by custheyder on May 12, 2014 8:09:15 GMT
Great stuff! There is another Tenkara fisher out and about on our waters at last. Perhaps we'll meet up sometime.
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Post by lanhal on May 12, 2014 10:02:32 GMT
Hello Paul and Custheyder Thanks to you both for your kind comments. I'll get in touch when I'm next over, but it might not be until later in the year.
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Post by paul1966 on May 13, 2014 10:48:54 GMT
Great reports keep them coming, I really enjoy reading reports about places that get overlooked by most anglers I'd be happy catching those beautiful little trout all day.
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Post by orangeotter on May 14, 2014 9:04:17 GMT
superb water and intelligent fishing - I'd love to visit sometime !
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Post by lanhal on May 15, 2014 6:37:18 GMT
Thanks for all the kind comments - but its all down to custheyder. Without his reports I probably wouldn't have bothered with the IoM rivers. I've been visiting the Island several times a year for a while now but my fishing activities have been on one of the stocked reservoirs. The fishing on these can be excellent - the rainbows are certainly not flabby - but turning to the rivers adds a whole new dimension. Although the lower Silverburn would be fishable with conventional gear, the more boisterous waters would not be in my opinion. Glen Helen and Glen May and the upper Silverburn, for example, are just ideal for tenkara.
The Island is a great place to visit - it's very beautiful. Perhaps the main drawback is the variability of the weather. But that's not too much of a problem if you want to get out fishing.
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Post by lanhal on Oct 17, 2014 16:23:58 GMT
A lighting visit to the Island in late September and the chance to do a bit more fishing. With river levels low and bright conditions, open streams such as the lower Silverburn were not an attractive prospect. However, this was not the case for the upper Neb in Glen Helen. The stream flows in a deep gorge with both high level and low level tree cover. The water itself features deep pools with attractive runs between them.
I started out at the weir pool at the bottom of the Glen using an 11' Iwana, fishing with a bead head nymph (dull tungsten, or copper coated) under a New Zealand style indicator, with the depth adjusted to suit each pool. It wasn't long before a small WBT was to hand and this was followed by a sea trout. Only a small sea trout admittedly (about 1lb) but a sea trout nonetheless. A first for me on the Island and my first on a tenkara rod.
Working upstream from the weir I switched to a 10' Kurenai, still with the nymph, to give a bit more pitching room under the trees. By the end of playtime I'd caught 16 WBT + the ST and lost/missed many others. Another superb afternoon's Manx fishing. Roll on April next year.
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Post by custheyder on Oct 21, 2014 9:01:31 GMT
Great stuff! The Manx rivers really are excellent and varied.
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Post by lanhal on May 12, 2015 17:07:28 GMT
A day's fishing in Glen Helen once again, beginning behind the Inn and working upstream. Rods used were: Eso 205/245 zoom for the tight spots, Kurenai H30 for most other places, and Kiyotaki 3.3 for the open parts (of which there aren't many!). Weather varied from bright and sunny to cold windy and overcast, with rain. So that's the full range of British weather then. The River Neb had a good level of water, and was crystal clear. At the outset dry fly looked the best bet, but thing were rather slow - some stonefly about but little moving at the surface. A switch to a bead head nymph (eg copper head Endrick spider, red-collared PTN) got things moving especially in the deeper pools, but a return to dry fly in the shallower runs eventually did the business. Black flies were the most productive especially a black IOBO Humpy, but difficult to see in the lighting conditions. A useful variation was a dark-bodied, dark-winged deer hair fly with some yellow deer hair mixed in improve visibility. I resorted to a scarlet red Humpy at one point, and amazingly, caught on it too.
At the end of the day I'd caught 22 mostly smaller fish and lost count of those risen and missed or bounced off. A challenging day - both in terms of struggling up the river through the undergrowth, and with the fishing itself - but immensely satisfying. Pristine, totally unmanaged, wild fishing: excellent.
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Post by custheyder on May 12, 2015 17:58:10 GMT
Well done. It is very satisfying to winkle out these truly wild fish and you're doing really well.
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Post by lanhal on May 14, 2015 16:25:13 GMT
Thanks for your kind comments custheyder. I was planning to go to Glen Rushen this afternoon, but the 2 ton weight limit on the road down put a stop to it. The 'van is probab;ly heavier than this and I wasn't happy to risk the aggravation if things went wrong. Plan B was the River Neb at the Raggatt. Water levels were good but the downstream wind was strong, so that too was aborted. Plan C - back to Glen Helen, concentrating on a few pools in the limited time available. This time it was sunny and bright, but the deep valley shielded the easterly wind and there was quite bit of fly life about. Smaller fish responded well to a small light fly eg size 16 deer hair pattern. Their bigger brothers were lying in deeper water underneath the in-flow at the heads of pools, so sunk flies or nymphs were more attractive to these. 14 to hand in a couple of hours, so not a bad afternoon. Glen Helen is difficult to progress along because of steep bank sides, fallen trees, deep pools and slippy boulders, but its such a nice water to fish; every pool and run brings a new challenge.
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Post by custheyder on May 19, 2015 10:15:10 GMT
It's a bonus that you can switch about the water and different sides of the Island to avoid the worst of the weather. The steep banks can be an issue on many of our waters.
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Post by lanhal on Aug 18, 2015 20:03:35 GMT
Another visit to the Island. What a joy to fish in Glen Helen once again - there's a nice flow of water which is such a change from the drought conditions of East Yorks. Three visits so far, all on days of bright sunshine and cloudless blue skies - but under the trees of the Glen these conditions were irrelevant. A superb place to fish in the high summer.
A first trip for a couple of morning hours, working upstream from the weir. Few fish were rising, but prospecting with a dry brought them up nicely. Small klink type flies did well and the fish were quite kind to my out-of-practice casting. A second trip for a couple of hours in the evening, concentrating on the lower part of the Glen below the weir. The foresters have been clearing away bankside rhododendron in this area, making fishing possible in many more spaces. Smaller flies worked best, in particularly Paul Procter's detached body midge pattern. Third trip, this afternoon almost completed the river as far as the waterfall. A red letter day. Fish responded well to klink patterns again and came up readily to flies dropped into in almost every conceivable lie. 37 fish for the afternoon.
Rods used were Iwana 12ft, Kurenai 10ft and Eso 2.05/2.45 zoom.
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