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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: Fly Fishing Forum

CORNWALL

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by Tony Mair in Cornwall

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Arundell Arms, Colin Hookway, Cornwall, Cornwall trout, Fly Fishing Forum, Inny, Launceston Angling Association, Marazion Midge, Ottery, Tim Smith, trout rivers in Cornwall, Wikipedia

A request for advice on Fly Fishing Forum, elicited the following warning from ‘Marazion Midge’, a serial forum Poster  –

“You’re quite welcome to come to Cornwall but please don’t count us as an English county. Good luck on your quest”

A double edged sword, if ever there was!

Now, for personal reasons, Cornwall (Kernow) is not my favourite county, but the fact is, that it is on the map of the UK, and is filled with trout, and I wondered whether it might just offer an end of season ‘bonus’ county, so I plotted. This was guerrilla, snatch tactics….in…out…and with the prize I sought but without being seen!

Wkipedia reveals there are thirty rivers in Cornwall, with most offering salmonids. Wishing only to make the smallest of incursions into this large county, it was obvious that this was possible with just the tiniest diversion off the A30, and only a few miles from the Devon border. I knew that the Arundell Arms  offered water on the Ottery, and arranged an overnight stay to use this loveliest of fishing hotels for my base. [see ‘Musings 10.1]

Searches showed that the Launceston Angling Association has water for which, Secretary, Colin Hookway, informed me, day tickets could be obtained from the Post Office in the tiny village of Lewannick. “And in any case, the parking in Lewannick is easier” he maintained. So I had options which excited, as I set off on the 225 mile trek, quite early, in Tonka Too.

A pit stop or two, but still a leisurely ride on a sunny late September, and my spirits were high, and the parking in Lewannick was only complicated by the narrow main street where everyone smiles! And a day ticket costs less than the Congestion Charge from TfL… to fish

September 2011- the Inny

Armed with a helpful map I was off to find the river. Now perhaps I went the wrong way, but I spent the next ten minutes hoping to God, that I would not encounter any vehicle coming the other way along the narrowest of lanes/tracks, whose bank side foliage neatly brushed off most of the recent mud which had accumulated along the flanks of Tonka. This lane was created for small horse drawn carts and farm beasts of the distant past and long before the petrol motor was invented, and is now a dog walkers’ paradise. But all this just increased the sense of adventure which accompanies such endeavours as my ‘quest’ and I found myself smiling, just like the locals!

I found the old grey stone bridge at Trekelland which separates the Associations beats 10 and 11,

and pulled over onto the verge, wondering why drivers had driven so fast across an ancient bridge to collide with it and cause so much damage, carefully restored by the good folk of Cornwall’s highways department.  Shame…what is the hurry, and in Cornwall of all places?

There are several miles of water on these beats, so which, and my choice was to set off downstream on the lower beat and fish back to the car, and then, maybe onwards and upwards. The meadows are lush and the cattle are lucky, and the pats were covered by those orange dung flies, which seem not to feature on trout’ diet? Any peering into the shallows and runs on my stroll had to be over the miles of barbed wire which kept the cattle away from the four foot drop into the drinking water they probably lusted for.  And of course the same barbed wire required some pretty gymnastic approach work from your author to get wading…but this was no problem!?

The water had a tint to it, after rains of a day or so past, but this is a good thing for anglers, and the wind, light as it was, was upstream, so if the dry was to be tied…! The trees lining the river all the way down,  provided a canopy which offered the careful cast, opportunity, but the careless one, a tangle.

I passed one stretch of some one hundred yards of tempting water, which registered,

and kept walking. Hang on! Looking back over my shoulder I saw what looked like a rise, and kept walking. Are you mad, I thought? Those are Cornish trout and I had just driven a long way to catch one, so, retracing, I was into the glide. And there were a couple of casts of the careless variety, before Mr Adams rose a fish which was too quick for me, as were the second and third, just like their tiny Devonian neighbours in the Dart system, but before too long…and the first was a silvery fellow with black spots,

followed by two more, in more traditional livery of buttery yellow flanks, and red and darker spots. The elk hair caddis featured, too, when sedges started skitting across the surface of water no more than two feet deep along that productive run.

One taken on the caddis filled me with gratitude, for what our past time can offer in very special moments. On the water there was just the slightest movement and a modest and the gentlest of sips, as he sucked in my #18. This was no ‘take’ of May violence, and with my, lifting equally gently, there he was, hooked…a magical moment in the tranquillity of the Cornish sunshine, and the fish was returned to grow on. So calm, so perfect, so complete, so ‘fishing’…I think it was instinct which prompted me to lift my rod. A rare moment of fishing ‘perfection’.

Perhaps, I should rethink my perspective on Kernow!

I wandered happily downstream,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

observing what I imagined are sea trout lies, and just stopped and cast into trouty lies. Returning, I has a few casts into where I had began, but with no luck this time, but did not care! At several more likely places I clambered into the waters and was rewarded, and on returning to Trekelland Bridge,

realised that some seven fish had come to my net, more than justifying my 225 mile ‘indulgence’. I was happy. And so to the Arundell  Arms.

The hotel is for anglers. The public rooms are filled with memorabilia. The corridors, too, along with a notice board informing which beats are for which visitors, and their catches, thereafter. The real attraction (apart from a spectacular menu of fresh, seasonal and local foods) is the sparsely merchandised, but historically impressive, ‘Cock Pit’, where I bumped into, Instructor, Tim Smith. I had telephoned him some weeks before, to enquire about availability of the Ottery beats, and he remembered speaking to the man ‘collecting counties’. There followed a truly enlightening conversation about the end of season fishing on his waters, the rise and the flies still hatching, and the influences on the Tamar catchment. And….on relating my afternoon fun to him, he quickly realised that my silvered spottie was a juvenile sea trout. Fantastic…!

Now, in truth, fishing the Inny was a bit of a punt, for I thought that the hotel’s beat at Hellescott Bridge might produce what I sought.

And the next day, it did, eventually  (one brown and two grayling)…but my enduring memory of the Inny, will remain, just that…Funny how the unexpected can be so rewarding, and the expected, sometimes, disappointing. But that’s life.

What a wonderful season I have had.

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NOTTINGHAMSHIRE

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by Tony Mair in Nottinghamshire

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Chris Hawkins, Fly Fishing Forum, Julian Atkins, Meden, Nottinghamshire trout, Tim Jacklin, trout rivers in Nottinghamshire, Warsop, WTT

Nottinghamshire was always going to be a problem and this required ingenuity. Who did I know, or who did I know who knew someone who might? Where could I seek information which might lead to where…because the ‘Where to’s ’… seemed  unable to.

Julian (Atkins) had a pal who might know…and Tim Jacklin (WTT) offered some really helpful thoughts, but it was a speculative plea on Fly Fishing Forums, which produced a response from, one, Chris Hawkins, who is one interesting young man.  So some words about him, first.


He is a local lad who left school and started a mechanical engineering course which did not excite him. So eager and ambitious, he set about obtaining some ‘A’ Levels, which he did, in order to secure a place at (Aberystwyth) University where he studied environmental sciences, but to what end? Well, already a keen fisher, and also one with a strong conscience, he chose to enter the charity sector, and parlayed his love for fishing in particular, the outdoors in general, and utilise his generous spirit, to try to help vulnerable youngsters by offering some insights into something/anything, or in his case, fishing, so that new learnings might give them an improved sense of worth.

His own fishing journey is evolving  as he moves from coarse to game, excited by the hunting aspects and the artistry, too, and today, he  is generally at the still water stage, but he is now learning river craft , and I hope some of my experience was helpful to him. But, it was his inquisitiveness and eagerness to learn about this new fishing which led to him, finding me, as he used the Forums to learn for himself! He is a special chap.

He  gave me some time during a rare holiday week, and my SatNav got me to the very car park where he wanted to meet in the pretty town of Warsop.

August 2011 – the Meden

We strolled his stream for sometime, he pointing out potential runs on a weedy water where the chub could be seen waiting, but it was only after clambering over fences and wading cross stream, avoiding some outsize cows,  that he excitedly told me we had arrived where I might succeed. And a rising fish excited me, too, but a snagged weighted nymph trailing a dry probably saw him off, from what turned out to be just six inches of water, anyway.

There was just a little fly life (olives and caddis) on this overcast and windy day.

And , not too much farther upstream, I spotted a run which, after just two casts, delivered a Nottinghamshire trout which Chris netted in his outsize net  – “to be sure”! – and on a dry, and on my reliable Adams, the onsurface equivalent of the subsurface ‘hare’s ear’!

His is a small stream.  It is narrow but laden with features, and more than enough variety to engage. Gravelly bottomed, but protected in parts by steep banks, and many a leaning bush and tree to snag poor casts, and at this time of year, there is plenty of overgrowth tumbling into the water to give much needed security. Council owned water abutting an old quarry, and part leased for grazing, this is not a tended stretch. Public space therefore, it was noticeable that strollers and dog walkers, this day, respected our need for stealth, for the trout were all wild, and we saw plenty…in escape!

The upper beat, through farmland, is shared with young lads bottom fishing ‘au maggot’, and  I learned just what specimens this stream holds. One, asked – “Is that a fly rod, Mister?” and the other, his pal, shared proudly, with me, two pictures saved on his mobile of brownies he had caught at the very spot under an old brick rail bridge where they were fishing, which put my solitary 8” tiddler to shame! It also shared with perch, and at one spot, it was lovely to stand and watch a family of them swim fearlessly between my wadered legs!

LINCOLNSHIRE

23 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by Tony Mair in Lincolnshire

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

FishPal, Fly Fishing Forum, Great Eau, Lincolnshire chalk streams, Lincolnshire trout, Robert Gibson-Bevan

The FishPal website identified the River Bain, a chalkstream, but not how to access it.

The Fly Fishing Forums website led me to Robert Gibson-Bevan, who listened enthusiastically to my plans and invited me to fish his syndicate’s beat near South Thoresby. It’s a long drive to north Lincolnshire from London and after leaving the A1 near Spalding the trip was slowed by agricultural vehicles and more, but to a Southerner the Fens were a revelation. I discovered and decided that there is true beauty in mile after mile of flatness, and no chalk stream in prospect until after hitting higher ground north of West Keal.

I met Robert north of Spilsby and off we drove to the beat on –

May 2010 – the Great Eau

An entrepreneur, ex-City type and outdoorsman and organiser of shooting and fishing, professionally, he refused any payment, such is the interest that fishers have in my quest. He carefully walked the top end of the beat, explaining that he had put me on to the “prettier” parts.

My letter of thanks to Robert (he does not ‘do’ email!), hopefully said it all –

Dear Robert

My grateful thanks to you for generously indulging me in my pursuit and enabling me to add Lincolnshire to my ‘List’ which I duly have !

The weather was kind to me. After you left (and thank you for the short tutorial which on a new river, like a golf course, is always welcome), I walked to the bottom of the beat. It was frustrating to see fish rising below the bridge, and therefore ‘off limits’ but encouraging too. So I jettisoned the nymph set up in favour of the dry fly, or more specifically an olive emerger, size 18 with CdC hackle, a favourite of mine. I had two fish quite quickly, and spent the next three hours slowly casting my way upstream, enjoying the remarkably different pools, bends, and riffles, and really enjoying fishing the very intimate stream that the Great Eau is. There were no members about so I had the whole river to myself, and I connected and netted seven fish. I missed loads….they are quick, and must all have been wild. They are canny and shoot out from under bank or weed, growth of which even from a late Spring, is enough for plenty of cover already.

I enjoyed the stretch where you and the WTT did some narrowing work some years ago. I arrived there during a hatch and had three, and all were fin perfect. They were no net breakers, just beautiful fish up to ten inches or so.I did drive through Claythorpe to check out the river below the Mill, and I thank you for putting me onto beat one, because a perfunctory view of that water suggested a beat of more mixed fishery than higher up (although I am probably wrong about that), and I feel I had the very best that the Great Eau can offer.

And so with renewed thanks and best regards


 

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