Too much weather

It's traditional for many members to not bother fishing in July and August, and in many ways I can't blame them, but although catching is nice, fishing is nicer. It can be a little frustrating if you don't catch anything at all, but that's a great motivator to try something different instead of flogging the same old flies in the same old places.

Of course, the weather has been a big factor in how successful you might be, with suffocatingly hot days, storm force winds and now torrential downpours. With our river having so many trees along the banks, and a lot of them well past their prime, it's wise to avoid the river in really windy conditions. Just look what happened at Harpers last week.

As you can see, this could have caused a few scratches if a car had been parked there, but luckily it happened at night, and Stephen cleared it away pretty quickly.

Last night's torrential rain has had in interesting impact on the river. I was fully expecting record high levels today, but unless the EA monitoring station has been struck by lightning, the river seems to have gone down to 22cm. I imagine that the pumped water from Bewl has been suspended pending the expectation of rising levels, but nonetheless, the drop is a bit weird. Make sure you check the river level, either on the TAOA site or the HMG site https://check-for-flooding.service.gov.uk/station/1087 before your next visit, as who knows where the level will be.

Back to the subject of trying something different, on a very hot day last week I spent the day fishing with nothing but a Tenkara rod. Unsurprisingly I didn't catch anything (except a little Dace, possibly twice), but it was very relaxing, and challenging, getting back to basics, and a great contrast with the usual nymphing. Talking of which however, another member, John, went in the exact opposite direction a few days ago, and with predictably better results. Here are his words on what he tried:

Interestingly, after catching a couple on floating line and nymphs early on, things went a little quiet ,so around midday I decided to try a complete change of tactics. Something totally different - fishing a green and white Cats Whisker stillwater fly on a DI3 medium sink line and figure-of-eighting it slowly back! Would you believe it, but fishing from the top of the Chain Pool I had a big chub follow me in first cast, and then I hooked and landed a rainbow and a brown within just a few casts! I've never tried fishing sinking lines in the river before, but perhaps it's a useful occasional tactic to have up ones sleeve when the fish want the flies that much deeper down.

I can't help thinking that John is confusing the chain pool with a small reservoir, but at least that's a technique that does work. I admit I have occasionally tried two heavy tungsten beaded nymphs there with some good results, but it's fun at the moment to spot a fish in the remarkably clear water and try and tempt it, even if it is in vain. At least it was, before this promised week of rain, so maybe I'll have to dig out the nymphing rod again next time after all.

Incidentally, for those of you worrying about putting fish back, the river temp recently was still only just over 17 degrees, so no need to panic yet. Of course it's still important to play and retrieve the fish quickly, handle it carefully in the water, and release it only when it's ready to go. No need for anything different there, unless you can manage the no-touch release technique which is even better.

Enjoy the fishing anyway, despite the weather, and try and enjoy that too.

Cheers

PeterB