Thames mayfly

Tuesday, 21 May 2013 at 07:31

Lovely shot of a Thames mayfly, sent by my old friend Howard Seabrook. 'There was a fairly prolific and steady stream of Mayflies coming-off the Thames about 4:00pm,' wrote Howard, 'with a few circulating swifts taking advantage. Unfortunately, there wasn't much surface activity from the fish but as we were standing at the end of the Thames Ditton rowing regatta course, maybe there was just too much human activity for the fish to show...' The image brought to mind one of the most charming angling books I know, At the Tail of the Weir, by Patrick R. Chalmers (first published 1932).

Reffitt, Halford and Kilnsey

Friday, 17 May 2013 at 12:02

It's strange how stupid one can be, sometimes. For years I'd looked at a lovely watercolour in the fishing room at the Tennant Arms in Kilnsey and seen the ascription to 'J.W. Reffitt, 1904' - but foolishly, I'd never connected Reffitt with Halford. It took a new book by Mike Hodges, who has been a member of the Kilsney Club for over thirty years, to put me right. In Kilnsey Angling Club: The Early Years (privately printed, 2012), Mike points out that Reffitt, as well as being a pre-eminent local angler and secretary of the Kilnsey Club, was also the 'first-rate wet-fly man, a Yorkshire fisherman...' mentioned by Halford in Halford's autobiography (1903). Halford speaks admiringly, if a little condescendingly, of Reffitt's angling. Yet before encountering Halford on the Test, Reffitt had also been in contact with the great G.E.M. Skues - Mike reckons in or around the early 1890s - and it's splendid to think that the Kilnsey Club has a solid connection to these very different Greats of fly-fishing history. I thoroughly recommend Mike's book: it's well-written, wonderfully illustrated and the materials are assembled with judiciousness and skill. It taught me afresh about many aspects not only of fishing and its long history in Wharfedale but also of those characters - keepers, landowners, farmers, worthies and anglers - who made so much, and so much remarkable, of wider Craven and Dales history.

Ask not what your Booby can do....

Friday, 17 May 2013 at 11:56

I blame myself. I shouldn't have told JW that I'd been experimenting during the early part of this trout season with fast-sinking lines and Boobies. Because he's...well, what is he?  Because he's '...of an experimental turn of mind'... off he went and promptly caught both zander and, remarkably, catfish (see next entry) on a small Booby attached to a sbirolino set-up. In my view he's become slightly touched. But there we are: a slowly-fished Booby can account for zander and, er, catfish. Make of that what you will.

Basket case

Friday, 17 May 2013 at 11:53

Strange what one can catch on a slowly-presented Booby fished on a spinning rod and sbirolino.  Er.... a catfish, perhaps?  And before you ask, no, I don't know why JW has a basket growing out of his head.

Yorkshire 2013: Buzzers

Monday, 6 May 2013 at 12:46

Here's one of the stars of the piece as far as spring trout fishing on stillwaters is concerned: the Black Buzzer, or Chironomus anthracinus to you, chum. These insects can hatch in numbers in April and early May and can provoke - I say they can, not that they invariably do - the first general rises of fish of the year. I find a Cove Pheasant Tail nymph (size range 8-12), a Connemara Black and/or Black Pennell (sizes 12-14), small Black Hoppers and a variety of dark, hatching midge representations to be perfectly adequate for the fly-box, and fish these in any and all combinations depending on whether the trout are taking the ascending pupae, the pupae trapped in the surface film or the newly-hatched adult flies. [Hand: © Steve Rhodes, 2013.]

Yorkshire 2013: A stillwater brown trout

Monday, 6 May 2013 at 12:42

Last week I had the pleasure of fishing what we now know as the Lake That Slopes together with Steve (Rhodes) and Rod (Calbrade). The conditions were fairly brutal: cool variable winds, sunshine and a glitter of light. Still, there were some buzzers hatching (see above) and the day brought a small handful of wild brown trout - all very lovely fish, and all subsequently released - to the boat, and the company and the pies and cake were unforgettable. When we drove away my sides were aching with laughter. These days are among the highlights of the angling year.

Wharfedale 2013: The delights of cane

Monday, 6 May 2013 at 12:34

A lovely shot this, and used with permission from my old friend Rod Calbrade, with whom I've often worked on T&S jobs and whose photos so often grace the pages of that magazine. (Readers may look at Rod's many wildlife, bird and angling shots by clicking on Rod's photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/69722372@N05.) We were fishing on the Bradford City water of the upper Wharfe on a cold day during which the river seemed low, gelid and almost devoid of fish. I did spot one trout moving very quietly at mid-day, however, and careful coverage with a tiny Black Spider brought the fish to the net after a spirited tussle - a wild brown of around 1¼lb.  Cane rod, DT4 silk line...and when I look at this lovely image I also see that that is how fishing rods are supposed to bend.