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Who's Counting?………….. A Fisherman's Journey

~ My mission…'to catch a trout from a river in every county'

Who's Counting?………….. A  Fisherman's Journey

Tag Archives: Dart

WARWICKSHIRE

20 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by Tony Mair in Warwickshire

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chris Skuse, Dart, Farlows, Grangers, Juhn Burton, Orvis, Swift, Trossley Flyfishers, trout rivers in Warwickshire, Warwickshire Flyfishers

This was initiated via a web search in the New Year (plotting season!) and I found Warwickshire Flyfishers who in addition to five still waters, offered one stream. An email to the Secretary, yielded this response from Chris Skuse –

“Having discussed with members of the committee the opinion is that yes you can fish the river if you buy a guest ticket at £15 and are accompanied”

…a ‘no-brainer’! And I was soon to fish   –

June 2011 – the Swift

 A couple of calls to Bailiff, John Burton,

and arrangements were fixed.

Warwickshire….cars, football, industry, Coventry, motorways, Shakespear, the Belfry…a bit of a mixed bag.  John asked me how I liked to fish?  “ For a couple of hours, then maybe a pub snack, and then a couple more” I responded. “There are no pubs where we are going” was his concerning reply! To the countryside is where we went, even if the river ran under and alongside the A5 trunk road, but just for a little while.

Diving off the main road, and through a padlocked gate reminded me of accessing Fortress Trossley, in Kent, where I spent many a happy hour in the late nineties and early noughties with Fraser and Pick. And the river is a typical lowland stream, running over clay, and with a just little colour, and low, as all waters have been this season.

John determined that our best plan was to walk to the bottom of the beat, at least to where this most diligent of membership had done the most improvement work, and whilst we chatted and he imparted much of what has and is being achieved, he had continually to drag an inquisitive me back from the waterside so we could complete our 45 minute walk.

John’s is a narrow river, and even narrower in those places where reeds have still to be cleared,

but elsewhere, a continuum of bends and pools, and enticing lies under overhanging bushes, interspersed by riffles caused by the introduction of many, many deflectors, and the odd etched pool below where rocks have been placed to create mini weirs. There are places where clearance makes casting easier, and many where, and always above and behind where one saw a fish rise, that the nettles are dense, and I will have to make another visit to Farlows, or Orvis, or Grangers, to replenish my stock of Adams and Klinkhamers, as well as my 6x tippet material.

It was passing such a mini weir that I was convinced my first trout would be taken, but it was not, and nor was it below the second. I noted that John has developed a style of fishing which clearly works for him on this river….more of a stalker hunter approach,

crawling and hunching down to approach the bankside where he favoured to run a dry down as close to the overgrowth as possible to tempt trout out and from under those roots and grasses….and did, and missed, frustratingly. But also, did!

Mine was a more conventional approach, seeking fish from familiar lies in the safety of rippled waters alongside feed lanes, and cast with a longer line than John’s Dart like flicks.

We happily leapfrogged each other, and my first came to a parachute Adams where I thought one might be lying in quick water, above the site of an ancient mill.

And then so did a second, along a stretch which John described as unfishable a year ago, but with considerable clearance work is now, and members have been rewarded, for along its one hundred yards or so, more fish have been caught there this year than elsewhere on the water. And it was the only stretch where fish rose constantly, and we both hooked and missed a couple.

I learned that only a few years ago, the club was close to going under when falling membership reduced subscription income to a total, barely higher than rents payable; and that a growing interest in the Midlands for conservation, is credited with rebuilding numbers. Maybe ‘word’ of what is being undertaken by this noble band is getting about…I hope so! Conservation and preservation of what is so special to us, must not be limited to the eforts of the few…the countryside, and all that is stands for and provides, is unique. HRH The Prince of Wales thinks so, too…we must all support his vision.

Back to the fishing!….I watched John teasing chub with a sinking nymph; and he was impressed to see my third come to another trout which was lurking where I knew one might, below a stony outcrop; and then, ‘piece de resistance’ he hailed me to reveal another fish caught on a weighted nymph…a twelve inch pike, which was quite rightly, dispatched!!

Many thanks, John, and thank you to, Warwickshire Flyfishers for indulging me.

Now….John knows and loves his water, and I must share his recent note to me which testifies how effort and result blend so beautifully. I hope you agree  –

“On the Friday after your visit I landed 7 trout and on the Saturday 11. On both    occasions it was at the end of the day. They mostly came from the tightest lies and narrowest channels so it was a real challenge. Until this Monday I had only taken fish from this year’s stocking, but at the top end of our beat I landed a trout of one and a half pounds. I have just ordered 20 tonnes of gravel for enhancing one of the sections, which will, hopefully, encourage some trout breeding in the Autumn. It would be an absolute delight to hear that a member had landed a young trout next year. We have tried the egg boxes and provided a number of gravel beds, but we have yet to see any results. The stockist believes it will be hard because of the large number of chub and perch which love fry. We live in hope.”

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DEVON

30 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by Tony Mair in Devon

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Tags

Dart, Deer Park Country House Hotel, Duchy waters, Lyn, Otter, Peter Everden, Taw, Teign, Torridge, Wye Usk Foundation

I am drawn to Devon by its beauty, its peace, its pace and way of life, its people who have ‘time’, and its pure variety of fishing…the steeply sided valley through which flows the pacy river Lyn in the north; the bigger, more adventurous Torridge and Taw rivers in the north east of the county; the delightful little streams of the Duchy waters flowing into, and including the Dart; and of course, the picturesque Teign.

Devon offers plentiful fishing through a number of hotels, and all of them are my 2nd favourites. (see: ‘Musings 1’)…and also through a Passport system, initiated by the Wye Usk Foundation, and now making waters in more parts of the country more accessible.

Part of the joy of a week in Devon is to drive from venue to venue and to be enthralled.

Did you ever see wild horses frolicking on Exmoor, careering over grass and tarmac, oblivious to people and cars?

You have seen the sheep sheltering roadside on Dartmoor from the winds, haven’t you?  They own the moors, and it is their space, not yours or mine!

And how can you not just adore the narrow lanes overgrown with colourful wild flowers, and to hell with the scratches, and let’s hope there’s nothing coming in the opposite direction, because I don’t think I could reverse this thing back up that incline!

It is impossible not to love this dreamy county.

I ‘conquered’ Devon during many visits in the nineties and the early ‘nought-ies’, but this year I fished a new river for the first time –

May 2010 – the Otter

The River Otter takes its name from the creatures which once thrived on its banks.

It originates from the little Otterhead Lakes close to the Somerset border and flows for 34 miles to enter the English Channel at Budleigh Salterton. The Deer Park Country House Hotel outside Honiton has five miles of deliciously fishy water, and non-residents are welcome to fish it for the modest fee of £20!

Tonka Too bumped its (wrong) way around a big hay field to the parking space between 2 and 3. Excited to see a fish rising just in front of me, it took two casts to net him on a small Grey Wulff,

then and I walked downstream to the wooden bridge at the bottom of 4, and worked my way up.

I found one deep pool at the bottom of 3, where a good fish was making ploppy rises, and whilst both Olive CdC and a pale Elk Hair caddis, failed to excite him, when a CdC May did, I had a ferocious fight on my hands and netted this beauty of 1 1/2lbs.

I fished beats 4 & 3, and enjoyed a great variety of water. Interesting pools and glides, shallow riffles, stony bottomed and easily waded, and streaming weeds produced good fly life on the sunny day, it was for me. I noted caddis galore, a few mays, and some caenis. Enticing runs are formed by a number of man-made weirs, of which there are four, on beat 2, alone.

After a short snack, it was to beat 1, for half an hour, before having to head west to meet Sue at Exeter, then on to Chagford for a fun filled weekend with Jan & Peter, and a house full (and a morning on the Teign at Fingle Bridge, introducing Peter to river fishing for the first time (and he did very well, too)

My day at the Deer Park water yielded 8 fish, all of which, apart from the specimen, were in the 6 – 8 “ size, indicating a nice healthy stream.

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