Ten Desperate Men

I realise that age dims the memory, but I'm finding it hard to remember what it's like to fish the Teise, despite having a Winter ticket. Keith got so desperate last week he braved the 60cm torrent, armed with some extra-heavy squirmies, and actually manged to land a very nice Grayling. Brave man.

I'm not sure it's a course I can really recommend for most members, as the banks will be slippery, the current strong, and who knows what changes have been made to the river-bed over the past few weeks. If you're really feeling desperate however, you could have opted to join the 12 other members who'll be volunteering in a work-party tomorrow. We'll be working at Stonebridge, but not in the river for a change.

Another strategy might have been to join the fly-tying group back once again at the Chequers pub in Lamberhurst.

There was some good beer and food and chat enjoyed there by Chris, David C, David M, John, Keith, Miro, Paul, Peter B, Peter S, and Tony, and we even tied some particularly useful flies.

The first was one of my personal favourites, which has often been successful in the past for picky Grayling - the Double Badger. No roadkill was harmed in the tying of these flies - the Badger bit relates to the striped hackle typically used in tying this fly, but in fact a wide variety of hackles can be used. The only other component is some Peacock herl for the body, so it sounded quite simple, which appealed to me.

The fly is formed from a hackle at the bend, a peacock herl body, and another hackle at the eye end. This makes the fly sit very high on the water, though nobody's quite certain what the fish think it represents, but they do often go for it. Typically, it is tied on a size 18 or even smaller hook, but we sensibly opted for a 16 or 14 hook for this demo.

The finished Double Badger is on the right of the left cork, and you can easily see what it should look like. The cork on the right shows what you can do with the same materials and instructions, but a complete lack of skill, dexterity and concentration. It was still fun to do, and might conceivably attract a desperate starving fish, if it doesn't fall apart on the first cast.

The other fly (top left) was one variation of a Mayfly nymph, of which there are dozens of patterns, at least. This one, demonstrated by Keith, involved weighting the body with a bead or some metal or lead-substitute wire, adding pheasant tail for the thorax, tail, and legs, and two types of dubbing for the rest of the body, plus more wire for segmenting the tail section. Complicated? That was a relatively simple version, and once again, my own interpretation demonstrated how tricky it can be to get those techniques right, but it still looks just about eatable, hopefully, and if not, the weight might stun a fish if it lands on it.

As I've said before, it's more about the participation than the end product, and although some members are very skilful, it's really not essential.

So don't get desperate, try the fly-tying evening or a work-party; they both involve food and drink and good company and nobody fails to enjoy them.

Until the rain stops ....

Peter B