Glen Pointon Fly Fishing Blog

Canal pike bashing

2011-11-08T09:16:00.001-08:00

Pike on the Trent Canal for £9.99

2011-11-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

Now you dont get more down to earth fishing than smashing a spinner on the canal!! Well wess sugested we go piking this winter in search of these true wild preditors..
Wess loves the preditor fishing for any of the species and nothing gets the heart pounding more than a angry pike...
A few weeks ago i purchased a spinning outfit from a outdoor shop in stoke, a 8ft spining rod with a reel and line for £9.99!!! well more than a bargain and money well spend to fish for the pike...
I loaded it up with braid, a few spinners and was away...

Last night i called in to the trent canal in Trentaham for a quick hour to get my fishing fix, its suprising after a hard days work that even a hour on the banks on a dirty canal is good for the soul...
Its like being in a different world in the hollow of a canal with so much going on, kids throwing stones in, moutain bikers whipping past you, dog walkers, boats singing past you...you could get pissed off with all this but you just got to join in the madness any smash your spinner all over the place!!

between to overhanging trees i underarm cast my spinner between them, a short twitch and that electric feeling of a double yank on the braid...up to the surface and a angry pike shaking its head all ovethe place, heart in the mouth stuff i tell you!!
Its such a shame we fish with wire traces and 20lb line for these wild preds, presentation is not the key and using huge traces does not put these fish off....so getting broke is never going to be a problem, but playing these fish and actually landing them on barbless hooks is so some skill is involved..

Lying the fish on the bank you can see why the pike game is so big, these fish are superb looking and require as much care as any other fish in the system, gone are the days where pike are thrown up the banks...
My mother came down to see me and i even taught her how to cast which ended up with the spinner behind us in someones back garden!!!
my dad passed away in april and it was 'Big Ivan' who got me into fishing at the age of 6, now 30 years on it was quite fitting for my me to be teaching my mother how to fish the Cutt lol .....So the fishing on the canal is free, my rod was 9 quid, what more do you need for some great action..

Nice one
Glen

LTDFFA Dove beat is just as good as it gets for Grayling

2011-10-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Top draw

One of my best off the Dove..a 48cm 2lb 9oz male..

A typical Dove Grayling around the pound mark, plenty showing up this year in superb condition

A afternoon on the Dove today saw the best Grayling fishing I have ever experienced ever fishing with bugs..It's the first time all year I have switched from dry fly fishing..The rain we have eventually had after months of drought Conditions turned the Dove back to the river I know so well, I have drifted along the banks this year gutted at the state is has been in...The Ldo were buzzing off, the trout were sipping and looked full of energy but the Grayling came out from there hidden holes and were heavily feeding and I had to make the most of this and fill my boots...Fishing a jt flash back and a shrimp I was pinging grayling out of the likely spots until I hooked a fish that gave me the fight I will remember for a long time...I thought i had struck into the bottom and the slow deep movement madee realise i was into a fish of a lifetime again!!!15 mins later after 2 huge leaps out of the water I landed a 48 cm 2lb 9oz mail Grayling in absolutely superb condition..The sheers muscle of these big ladies is like no other and landing one is another matter on light gear...Ladies and Gentleman the Dove has woken and has given met best Grayling fishing ever...LtdGlen

River San Poland 2011 Graying dreams are made

2011-10-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

left to right...Roger Bryant, Steve N, John Aussie, JT, Richy M, John M, Andy C, Richardo

Well here it was the second year for me on the famous river San in the south east of Poland, this year we had the same group as last year with the inclusion of top angler Andy Cliffe a good mate of Jt.. As usual I had my room mate big balls Roger Bryant, the Geordie cunts richy and john and big lad Steve (half Serb) and as usual our host Jonny T

John Aussie cunt

Ricardo what a top bloke!!

wojtek polish twat

Last year gave us some rock hard conditions and we all hoped for some better conditions to give us easier dry fly fishing, this year was pretty much the same the forecast was not good with hot conditions and low water... We were all picked up from the airport by Ricardo our polish guide, a top bloke who I meet last year and always up for some good crack...the two hour drive to our fishing lodge he told us the fishing was very testing with very low water and low hatches...grrrr... We were slightly gutted but hey I never listen to anyone until I seen it for myself and wet a line.... Arriving at the lodge we packed our gear and looked out onto the holy San in our back garden, it was a completely different river to last year showing it's bare bones!!! We all looked gutted... Well it's takes a lot for my to get down on fishing and I knew if the fish were there we would be in for some action... At the lodge we met a new angler john, a Aussie lad who had travelled to fish the San only two weeks after a hip opp to fish for the ladies, as you can imagine the crack got going as I gave him some stick and he returned with 'you pomm bastards' we all knew from then he was one of the lads!!

That night the lads went out for the last few hours and produced a few small fish, I was knackered and took the option of a early night to get myself fit for the following day.. Up at 9 tying flys with JT and breakfast at 10 we all loaded our stuff in the van....we were going to the beat 'the islands' a famous part that is known to produce good hatches and hold lots of ladies....winner... Here the river is at it's widest point and then splits around the islands...I choose to fish above the islands in it's widest point...a little scour looking upstream on my left looked a perfect spot to hold some ladies...now in these conditions stealth is the key back home but I am talking supreme stealth on this river, I waded up to my spot taking my time, almost a hour to get to where I wanted !! There was a raised rock in the river and I knelt down in the river for extra stealth and waited for the rises to come....... We all turn into mad dry fly men when we come here, our goal is to catch a grayling on the dry every day, we could all use duo techniques and French nymphimg to better effect but there in nothing like catching a Graying to the dry, and certainly a huge one we all know come and take the dry...this to me is what this river is all about...I could go back home and catch grayling nymphimg but where do you get a river that sees 50cm plus sipping bwo? Class Soon enough I saw a few smutting rises in 2ft of water, this was enough to get my heart pounding, the under water boil with a single bubble drifting downstream was the sure sign I had grayling in my pool.... I sat for a while watching and a lovely hatch of pale wateries came sweeping off...I selected my green fly size 22 and started to cover the rises, for a hour I my fly was totally ignored and I knew I was back on the San! I eventually went down to a 0.06 Tippett which might seem insane but these fish are so clued up you need a complete natural drift... Soon enough I had a take and struck into thin air! Before long I was getting takes and missing loads so altered my striking with a slight delay... This produced my first san lady, a small fish but i had fooled these San wonders... Richy and myself were in a corner and had the fish locked in and as the afternoon came we were matching the hatch with a pale waterie f fly...i took two fish bang on the 40cm which really did give the run around...San Grayling are like no other strain i have seen and they act quite different from the ones back home, they have a crimson flank and have a powerful body but most off all they have the same anger as a trout and go mental when hooked... In the evening the whole pool i fish came into a sight i will never forget, the sherry spinners and pale watterie spinners were in there millions and imwatched with amazement there were literally hundreds of trout and grayling feasting on this easy meal.. I had to wait for the fall to calm down as my spinner had barely a chance to get taken amongst this carpet of dying duns... Another lesson learnt.......... When the sherry falls onto the river the wings are upright like the dun, and obviously once the eggs have been laid the wings will lay flat as the spinner we all try to match... I noticed at this point that early in the spinner fall the fish would lock onto the upright spinner, ignoring the flat wings but the rolls would reverse as the flat wingers become more...

Notice the Sherry spinner with the upright wings, the bright orange is a huge giveaway, the grayling and trout would 'lock on' to the upwing!!!

Power Lines

Jts footprint olive is a perfect match for the Pale Waterie Duns size 21!!

Above the islands, presenting a dry in this is not for the faint hearted!!!

I took notice of this and back at the lodge that evening jt set to tie some of these upright winged bwo... Later that night we all had different storyies to tell and some of the lads had tough day with no hatches, this obviously showing that finding a good spot was crucial... The next few days saw us all have very testing action, the sun was bright and the river very low and we all stood for hours looking for rising fish, most coming in the evening as the light started to fade...all the lads were getting fish but there were no signs of any of the biggys we come for... The hard fishing took its toll and on the wednesday night we had a full session on the beer wine and spirits, this turned out to be a right good crack as we all got hammered...aussie lad John was on top form as he told us his storys of his fishing adventures around the world, and mainly taking the piss out of the pomms!, we did get our own back as we all strung into full chorus english yob style and sung him a song that i would not dare repeat on my blog lol In the morning we all had breakfast with Aussie John as he was leaving, a really top bloke who we all got to love, we sung his song as we pulled out the drive and he came to the van and said 'fuck off u pommy bastards' !! with cheers from us all we gave him the v and we were off fishing still drunk from the night...

Geordie John wore Vision gear and looked a right twat

Big cunt Steve..ppp

'They say it changes when the sun goes down'

JT n Cliffy, Jt kept missing his lips and Cliffy was singing artic monkeys all night!!Class

Bryant on the piss, my room mate...we had endless night of filthy sex together xxx

The night on the lash really battered us for the day and arriving at Balaclava the next day we all trudjed off quietley to our pools, Andy C had a 3 hour kip in the sun and woke up with a snake not far from him!!!

Last year fishing at balaclava i lost the fish of my life and hoped i would get rewarded with my hard efforts to land one of these clunkers that we all want to the dry...
Today there was a haze around and midday saw me and Richy get onto a huge pod of rising Grayling in a lovely hatch of PWO, we did not hang around and started to ping out 20 cm grayling to emerging duns and full duns, within half hour of the hatch the big boils started leaving huge bubbles the size of a golf ball!!! heart pounding stuff....Richy and myself had our chance and basically fucked it up....we were rising big 50cm grayling hooking them and the tiny 22 hooks were pinging out there mouths, richy hooked a monster and it dumped him in the weed instantly....we were gutted.....how could we possibly land these massive sippers on size 22 barbless, 0.06 mm tippet??? we could not get takes using heavier line and bigger lines...Jt has done it in the past with a 49cm which is some feat...
Night came and we all trudged back to the van for the trip back to the lodge....i was contantly thinking of ways to land these fish...It came to me as i spoke to Wojtek at the lodge...he said 'Glen you cannot land these fish on such light tackle, you need to go to them'

On Friday night we decided to got to the local club in Leskow, our guide Richardo said we would have a top night there, it was nice to get out for a change of stopping in the house tying flys...
Arriving was a eye opener, we walked down into a basement to a pumping euro hardcore, polish headcases with skinned heads dancing to this mental base line!! now i am not new to this seen but its 20 years since i seen a club like this.... Richy got stuck with a polish Alcholic and he would not leave him alone pmsl!!We all got stuck into the Vodka and before long we were all puling shapes in the mosh pit!! lol... Roger Bryant sank a full bottle of vodka and was off his face on the dancefloor!! There was one problem...we were being eyeballed by every polish lad in there, infact some of them never took there eyes off us...us English are always up for a ruck if needed but we were out for the crack and did not fancy a night in the polish cells!!! we stuck it out until i was having a fag outside, a polish lad came out shouting his head off..i heard his mention England at the end of his sentence, i turned to Richardo our polish guide and asked if it was time to go... he said yes!!! We rounded the lads up and were away in the van like the A team with stares outside the club!!! Near miss i thinks but a experience to say the least..

We all had the choice to fish where we wanted and my fishing parter Richy and myself decided to go to the Islands where we had good success on the first day, i knew the fish were there but getting them to take a dry here was very hard indeed...
we had learnt in the week all the flys we needed to get the takes, the most productive being a size 22 f fly with a very pale green/white dubbing...sitting for hours in flat water you get to see what is actually going on with the Grayling feeding...many a top angler will say a f fly is taken just for anything, this maybe true in some respects but on this occasion they were taking them for pale waterie as they were free of the shuck...i could see the fish only taking the emerging dun... our green f fly was imitating the moment where the wings are still flat down and the grayling loved them....the problem as i knew was going to be holding onto a big fish if it happened...i had taken note of Wojtek and had set my plan to hook and go to the fish....

Me and Richy had a L shape into a lovely scour and sat waiting for the fish to rise, a French group of lads pulled up in there van and looked gutted we were in this pool, they started to have dinner right infront of us making lots of noise!! this really pissed me off as they were trying to distract our fishing so we would move on...we were not having it and i think they got the hint as they must have spoken English as i shouted a few words across to the lads!!
Well some things happen in fishing and at this moment all my hard work repaid me over the last two years visiting the San..
I could see a grayling rising 20 yards away from me and i did not want to move downstream to spook the fish infront of me...i was pucking the odd 25/30 cm out and in the corner of my eye i kept seeing this fish feeding heavily... i pulled out a long line and covered the fish..it totally ignored my first few casts...the fish was rising at the back of a boil and it was slightly dragging my fly over it.. JT has taught me to present a beautiful presentation over the last few years and all my lesson paid me kindly... i did a huge downstream cast and threw a big slack lined loop across the boil...
Heart pounding thinking 'come on come on' and that lovely bubbled boil swept my f fly away..a side strike to my left and the rod sunk around...i then saw a huge bow wave come across the boil and saw the most magnificent moments in my fly fishing...the huge shape of a crimson bodied grayling came leaping clean out the water shaking its head!! i heard richy shout fuck me your into a proper san fish!!!
I shouted 'get the fucking camera'!!
The Fish was kiting for the fast water then back to the tree root downstream...in all the madness i realised i was was on 0.06 stroft..i was standing yards upstream in sidestrain holding the fish a best as i could but it was totally beating me about, i let of the power and ran down the river to the fish keeping only slight tension, i came along side the fish and to my amazement the fish was diving into a bolder shaking its head trying to release the hook..i lifted the fish away and it held at the side of me holding the flow...i was just holding the hook in and did not try to bully the fish...richy came running down though the river to give me a hand...we decided that i would hold it in the flow to the side of me and he would walk behind it and softly scoop it in the net, he got 5ft away and it spooked it into madness as it came around me diving away from the net hitting the richys legs!!! it started to go wild as it kept leaping out the water...i was in trouble as my fly excess fly line was downstream and this had caught my leader...
Now you see some mad moment in your life but Richy performed something for me i will never forget, he knew what this meant to us and he leaped across the river horizontal with the water, crashed underwater with just his head above and scooped the fish into his net... i stood there in amazement and he pulled it out the water and we both sceamed 'YESSS' ...I looked around and the French Twats who had been pissing about were all watching on the bank side with there faces dropped...they never even clapped or said 'well done', i did not care about them, me and Richy had just landed a fish of a lifetime, a perfect plump 47cm cock San Grayling...
We took him to a flat pool and rested it in the net for a minuite then got some snaps and released it back...the feeling i got was overwhelming, all the lads shook my hand at dinner and they were all buzzing for me..
After dinner they all went out fishing and i just found a secluded spot and sat and drank a few tinnies next to the river and soaked up a feeling only us specimen anglers have...winner

Check out the San strain...crimson flanks

47cm cock San Grayling on a size 22 dry dont get any better for me.....

Well this has got to be up there with my 23.13 carp , my first ever river Barbel, my Wye huge brown, and my Tean 2lb 2..

This trip was amazing for me as i accoumished what i set to do, but the crack with all the lads on this trip is second to none, JT sorts a quality trip here and is always there to help us out...Every one of us can fish to a high level and i really hope we all get to be in the crimson wacker club
I know there is Grayling there above the 55 and i have seen them for my own eyes, i shall be back in search of one of these and a night out in the club Vegas!!!

Still 'Living the Dream'
Nice one
Glen

roger lands his last fish of the trip on a sherry spinner class

Poland here we come!!

2011-09-24T22:25:00.001-07:00

It's that time again to hit the river San in Poland..
A early rise and as i write this I am sitting waiting for take off!!

'living the dream'

2011-09-18T16:08:00.001-07:00

My third trip to the amazing

Islay...

Wess, JT and myself met the night before and fished on the river Wye to get ourselves ready for the long trip to the hebredies,
As usual the Wye did not let us down and the usual flushes of olives gave us some great surface dry fly action, there was a tinge in the water and slightly raised which can turn this river into a dry fly heaven..
We did not hammer, we picked out hard fish and generally just chilled out in wait for our islay session.
I took a stroll with jt to the woods section and went straight for a fish that has pinged me off on two occasions over the last two years.. This fish is a wrt that is around the two pound mark, It has never moved from ita willow tree overhang and is the one of the hardest fish I have ever tried to raise..flat calm flow with a tiny food lane over the other side of the river and to make it worse I have never seen it take Duns, it locks onto midge pattens so small it's impossible to raise it with anything lower than a size 20..
I have tyed some new midge patterns on a bait hook that is lighter and thinner than any other hook I have used..on a spade end hook!!!
The fish did not let me Down and was sipping away as normal... Second cast was perfectly placed into the lane.. Jt stood watching as it calmly sipped my fly down just like it real food source... Like a man possessed stuck too hard and pinged the line!!! The fish rattled it's head and sunk to it's hole..

Third time and my over reactive strike has done me again, the problem being that my heart pounds as it rises to my fly and I lose all control in what I should do.. I think many of us suffer from this...
Jt went home to cook us a curry and Wess entered the town and landed a 5lb rainbow in absolute perfect condition.

So it was off to manc land stopping Jt's house and at 4 am we left for islay...
The trip is always a special one, the sights seen are top draw but on this occasion the weather was horrendous and arriving at the ferry port there was a chance of no sail to bad weather..
Arriving at the house was woody, Andy Heath (peak passport) Ronny Trevis ( DCAC) JT and Wesser..
We unpacked and got straight out on the loch... After a slow start I heard a cheer from jt as he landed his first islay brown.. other cheers came all around the loch as we all got stuck into these rising wildies...
The next day we decided to go and fish the sea, something I was looking forward to as I knew this area was full of fish, we had fly gear and spinning outfits for any conditions..
One thing I will say is that it was to become one of the most memorable fishing days of my life for all sorts of reasons..
The tide was out of our bay and I selected a dexter wedge with my old carp rod.. A hand made armalite made by Kevin knash himself over 15 years ago.. It was so nice to feel this 12 ft 2.5 lb tc rod after so long,
Within a few casts I was whacking my dexter wedge further than any carp rig I ever use to cast!!
Before long I felt a solid bump with that electric bolt down the rod!! I was into my fish and was hammering it to keep it away from the kelp..
A big cheer came from the lads as I landed a beautiful pollack around a pound.. The fight of sea fish is just pure magic, we talk of wild trout but a sea fish is just as wild as you get and the fight is something else..
I was then hitting into mackerel 70 yards out which gave me great sport, these were huge and performed amazing fights..
Wess and Jt got amongst the fish and it was becoming too easy as we all were getting a fish a cast..

Heathy was at hand as we swung them in and he despatched them quickly..
Later on jt gave the shout that a gannet had taken his wedge, it's had dived so deep to take his wedge we wre shocked.. Luckily we had andy heath with us and he guided jt to bring the bird in carefully which jt did superbly, we all were gobsmacked and scared at what this huge bird would do when handed in.. Istood well back..
The bird started to freak out and heathy acted superbly as he grabbed it around the neck and got it under control..
Luckily it was hooked in the bottom beak and jt had already debarbed his treble so a quick lift was all it needed to realease..
This was a seareal moment and all of us could not believe andy was holding such a rare bird..
Andy laughed as the gannet sunk it's beak into his thumb!! Blood pouring from his finger.. I then realised how hardcore heathy was and we were all so glad to have him around...

I passed my rod to ronny,woody and heathy as they had no sea gear and they all got amonst this mental action of pollock..
Jt hooked a 2lb pollack that gave him the run around and Wess came up with one that was pushing 3lb on the scales that stripped his line!!!

Bagged up at the end of the day we had over 20lb of fish!!
Woody gave some away and it was Wess who cooked us a superb meal in the evening..the nicest meal of the week...
We all sat in the evening back at Finnlaggen house with a wee dram and talked of one memorable day!! Top draw

The next days we had severe weather that knocked the fishing off and we stayed in the house tying flys, drinking and some severe top crack..
One evening I got my cutthroat shaver out for my fly tying and andy ended up giving me and Wess a full Turkish shave!! He told us it was his first time ever using one!! The talented Heathy did a perfect job and I was expecting him to give me a massage and a wank afterwards but this never happened lol...maybe next time bro pmsl...

The loch fishing we did was hard going in the first few days but jt and ronny performed superbly on dry fly in the back end of a hurricane!!! Landing excellent numbers of fish..
One thing that i learnt from this trip is how the fish move so quickly..
Once fishing twenty yards away from Wess I was catching a fish a cast to the dry and Wess never got a take, a hour later the roles reversed and I stood an watched Wess take loads of fish while I just stood without a rise!!
So do these wild browns shoal? I think there is a good chance.. Jt is convinced.

You get to meet so many people in this fly sport and being away with two more lads was a pleasure...Ron Trevis is a rate sound bloke who just happy fishing or chatting, more laid back than myself!!
And Andy Heath is a one off, talented at anything he does and a true game man, not a wannabe we are all so used to seeing, I learnt alot from him about his way of life.
They all got the Pointon treatment and I might of taught them a thing or two outside of fishing!!
If you ever get to meet Andy or Trevis around ask them to sing my wedding song as I think Andy is singing it while strolling his passport beats!!
A top organised trip again by woody and superb meals by Wess and top advice from JT as always..

On the pollack

Cuttroat

Wankers

Zee Germans are coming

Woody and Harry potter

ltd
Glen

'living the dream'

Islay on the sea

2011-09-14T15:29:00.001-07:00

'living the dream'

Islay trip September

2011-09-13T14:09:00.001-07:00

The second trip of the year for myself on Islay with woody, Wesser, John Tyzack, Andy Heath and Ron Trevis..
As normal it's been mental and some of the things that have happened have been unbelievable!! I will report this when back but here is a few pictures for now !!

'living the dream'

Salt Water fly fishing Angelsey pure class

2011-09-04T15:20:00.001-07:00

Anglesey was the planned route for my first ever swff, I had heard so much about this growing sport and the mullet is something I dream of hooking on a fly rod.. When I was 6 years old I hooked one in Majorca on bread that was over double figures outside a harbour pub while my mum n dad sat eating and watching me, I had hundreds of folk watching cheering me on... A pissed up english lad went down to grab the fish and fell in knocking the fish off, a big cheer from the crowds made it a right laugh but I never forget losing that fish and still to this day i have yet to hold a mullet in my hands..
I been today and had a amazing few hours, might sound mad but did not land a fish but enough happened to give me heart pounding stuff!!
This was my first swff and I fishe around the Holyhead area..
Looking for signs of fish I saw some boils and the odd slash.. Creeping up I could see huge mullet drifting around and sometimes sending v's through the flats..!! Well this was amazing sight to see.. I only had river flys in my box so had called the local shop and bought some mackerel feathers and stripped them down to one fly.. Basically a clouser looking pattern..
I was standing in 2 ft of water and raised my rod getting ready to set a line to a sighted mullet... The whole place boiled around me as i spooked loads of fish!!!
Casting my fly my heart was proper in my mouth as a huge mullet followed my fly right upto my feet and then ghosted off.. Grrrr
From that point I struggled on the mullet, it was as if they knew I was there and closed there selves up just like grayling back on my rivers..
I stood for a hour and watched these fish, they were feeding on something just under the surface, if I had known what this was I am cconvinced I would of hooked one..
Does anyone know what they could of been feeding on?

Well the story did not end there as I saw a huge slash further out, I basically waded out as far as I could and sent my feather into the area, the fly just hit the surface and a huge bass smashed it like nothing I have ever seen!! I wacked into it as it headed away from me.. I was hammering my rod right over to stop it hitting a rope from a boat and that's when it all went wrong, the rod snapped into 5 pieces in my hand!!! Grabbing the line I tried to hand the fish but it was shut tight to a rope..
In the end I had to pull for a break.. Gutted but absolutely buzzing, I had my first swff and boy it was proper heart pounding stuff..
Be back soon
And thanks again to the swff boys on the fly fishing forum, without there knowledge it would take a long time to before I got to where I want..

No mullet pictures yet but the mussels were great
Nice one
Glen

'living the dream'

Nature will find it's way on the 'unknown stream'

2011-07-14T09:50:00.001-07:00

Living in Stoke on Trent You don't really get much chance to go and fish a wild trout stream, there is the Trent which is ok for your odd course fishing but it's a bad river as is passes through Stoke and hold lots of silt even over the fast runs which is not nice at all..
I went for a bike ride last week and spotted a small stream through a park, i biked onto a very old stone bridge and peered off the side as all fisherman know!!
A small bow wave up shot up the river and I turned to my mother and told her 'there's trout in here'
She laughed and said there was no fish and in all the time she has passed it there has never been a soul fishing it..
Well from that point I knew what I was going to do.... Guest the unknown stream!!
Back home I looked on google maps etc and it was not even shown on any ???
So how can a small stream like this not be shown
On Monday evening I tied up a few patterns, got on my bike and headed to the unknown river, I was buzzing like visiting a new river with unknown expectations, was the fish I saw a minnow??
I knew nothing but I knew if it held trout I would catch..
I arrived at the bottom of the stream where I had not even seen, overgrown to hell and all I had to look for was the hamalian bollsom lol!!
It is absolutely swarmed with the stuff, I peered through the 6ft growth to see a flat pool with sedge dancing above the water..good sign!

Nothing spotted in the first pool but arriving on the second one I saw what I had come for .. A slashy rise.. winner...

Ltd sedge on a size 17 was covered over the fish three times then I watched a trout rise to the fly like a carp.. Very slowly and sip it back...heart in the mouth stuff and I hit into the fish.. A short feisty scrap and I landed my first wild brown on the 'unknown river'.. I was buzzing to say the least

I had got action and now I could relax so I wandered Up the beat basically catching fish after fish on a ltd sedge... The takes were absolutely mind blowing, it reminded me of a wild Scottish loch.. In faster water they were leaping out to hit the fly!!
On every bend there were fish in the holding lanes rising to any natural.
I came across a massive weir, basically a waterfall where no fish could possibly pass upstream, a crying shame really as it's just defunct, I wondered if any fish could would be above this? The stream runs directly into the Trent so I knew the fish I had just been catching had swam from there..
I climbed through a old stone bridge to see fish boiling around a bend.. Again I took two fish out of the pool and they were getting slightly bigger.. The fish were above the weir so how had they got there ?
further up I came across another man made weir, this one was over 20 ft high and a dam for a small pond..
In 800 metres there were two huge weir with no way of fish passing so all these fish were land locked!! They were all small and wild fish in absolute perfect condition..it dawned on me that these fish are self contained and are spawning in there own section 800 meters long!!!
I sent a few emails to people in the know and one well known keeper told me ' nature will find it's way ' very true to say the least..Man has fucked the river by putting weirs in but still nature has bought these fish here..
I shall be taking a scale from one of these fish and get it all tested to see what clues they can give me..
a magnificent nights fishing for me catching hook virgin trout on pure wild fashion 'on the dry'

I am convinced I saw a grayling swim past me but that's for another day...

I have done a video of guesting this stream on the link below, it's not amazing but gives you the feel of what it like to be on the 'unknown stream'

Nice one
Glen

'living the dream'

Video tying the Ltd Sedge

2011-07-11T02:50:00.000-07:00

I been getting lots of email asking questions on certain aspects of tying the Ltd sedge, here is a you tube video i have done on tying this fly..
Hope this helps...
Nice one
Glen
Click link below

"https://www.youtube.com/embed/X44gS6NbMVw?hd=1"

LTDFFA Summer Social

2011-07-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

Well it was time again for the Living the Dream summer social at the Issack Walton hotel..
The lads all met around 7 pm and was great to see a cracking turn out..
Some of the lads had been out on the river earlier in the day and struggled at times to the low clear conditions..
Was good to see the waiting list lads and also Kev from my islay trip as the last time we met we were drinking and fishing constantly for a whole week, well nothing was any different tonight but the crack we have between these lads is like not other, we have the wizard Jt and the technically gifted John Pearson from the 'fish on team' giving us all there knowledge for free and Pearsons 'fish thinking' are mind blowing..
Paul the new lad from Stoke is looking to get into fly fishing and Jt give him his first lesson outside the Walton and how impressive this was to see Paul start to throw a line after 5 mins practise!! Paul has never even held a fly rod!

Well the ltd orange cap casting match was a right laugh, a shortish cast and trying to hit my cap was the goal.. Andrew (ennio) Dave and Gp all coming tops...

Jt won the long distance cast and sent my sage xp 5# with a RW dry fly expert line straight onto my backing which was amazing to see..

The evening saw tying, buffet and some excellent talks by Jt and Jp

The ale was proper going down and I can't remember much after 12 o'clock!!

Cracking times and what a great set of lads

'living the dream'

Nice one
Glen

Islay post 4 video special

2011-05-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Got a load of pics and vids together and put them on you tube so here it is if you want a look

Here is the link to youtube as the player not showing it fully on blog

http://youtu.be/jqrfRbgwgHI?hd=1

Nice one
Glen

Islay post 3 'finlaggen'

2011-05-30T01:19:00.000-07:00

Finlaggen at last!
After a mad travel and my previous competition on Loch Gorm it was wicked to get the chance to fish our loch right outside our mansion where we are staying..

Our view outside finlaggen house!!!

All the lads had now arrived and that compied of Terry( USA) Mark ( Australia) James (Nottingham uk) Kev (Burnely UK) Herman (South African) Katey (Glasgow uk) Snapey ( Stoke UK)

Left to right
Islay May 2011
Mark...Glen...woody...Terry...James...Kev

There was a good mix of nationality so good crack was to be expected.
We all had breakfast and had a quick chat on our methods and tactics to help on catching our first wild loch troot..
There was varied experience between the lads and Mark and Kev being very new to fishing so I was hoping to see them catch there first ever wild loch trout..

I had fished it 2 years ago so knew enough to catch fish but all my methods tend to be matching the hatch and dry fly but I told the lads this and told them they might get more fish with a tradition wet fly method...
The lads were happy to use mine and woody drys but we would switch to wets if fishing was hard going..
We all walked to the righthand bay of the loch armed with a single ltd sedge with a bright orange egg sack added for a extra trigger.. Something I have taken from Jt's sedge he uses..

The weather was superb, overcast with a slight ripple and I knew we were going to be in for some action...

Mark to my right had never really fished properly and was still at the stage of learning knots so as I looked around to see see his rod smacked over I was buzzing for him, his face was a picture as he went back to the bank side to give the fish a quick knock with the priest to add to tonight's food..
I went over and gave him a high five as I know how he would of been feeing..
Not bad for a Aussie faggot!!!

Mark the Aussie fag, showing what he was going to do to me in the evening rise!!!

The day went superb with all the lads catching fish to the dry, I was using three drys and most of the time my ltd was being hit so I opted for all three in different sizes..
The hits from these trout is so addictive, they either boil under the surface of head and tail your fly.. Striking home quick is the key and any delay will see you miss the take so you need to be right on the ball...
The fight from these wee trout is something else, for there size they hammer you around like no other I know..
All the Lads caught which was a huge success and Woody suggested a curry in town was on the cards..
The lads went off but I could not leave the water as I knew what the evening would bring..
A magic carpet of rising fish in the holy witching hour!!!
I had the whole of Finnlaggen to myself and as the light turned I took 26 fish in action like I have never experienced..
Well it was a long but lovely walk back to the house with a handful of trout in my bag for tea.. I met up with Herman and his mrs there who then cooked me the most amazing fish supper I ever tasted, I was tired and hungry and it was a perfect ending to a great days fishing, all topped down with a wee dram!!
The lads came back from the curry and we all got smashed while I got on the vice to knock ltd sedges out for the lads on the next day..
Winner

Nice one
Glen

Islay post 2 Gp competition

2011-05-21T17:10:00.001-07:00

Well after a nights sleep in the van I can say that I was absolutely knackered and today I was invited to fish in the local angling club in there annual competition on the famous loch Gorm!
Woody was working so Kev and myself headed off to the meet up on a farm where we all met up in the shed with all the local jocks..
I broke the ice with these hardy loch lads on entering the shed with ' ey up jocks the English have come over to kick your arses on your own water!!'
Well to be fair they took it very well and I got some right stick off them which was again taken well!!
We had to sign in, there was 28 anglers who were all mad for it,
We were given time to find our fishing position on this huge loch and start fishing at 1 until 5
The weather was shocking, blasting gails and heavy rain, far cry from creeping around my rivers back home but again thus place is wild and the fish even wilder so right up my street..

I started off with a three fly traditional set up, not my style but dry fly was not going to be on the list with big whacking waves across the loch..

2 hrs went by and I did not even have a pull, I was cold and starting to lose concentration, I could not see anyone else catching so just carried on.. It was proper hard going, I changed my flys, depth. Retrieving speed, you name it not a touch...

I found a pocket out of the wind and cast my set up out and straight away got smashed by a small trout! I cast again and another fish Rose to my fly, I managed to land my first fish!!
A big sigh of releif.. I had gone back to what I know... A big ltd sedge with a orange tag like Jt uses on his polish sedge..
I put three ltd's on and started to twitch them across the surface in short blasts... Omg the fish started to hammer my fly and I started to take fish..
Typical gp I had forgotten my landing net!! We were told to kill all fish and take them to the way in at the end, I was also using barbless hooks!!
Well I was slating fish out but could not land them and was trying to grab them and loosing them all at the hand..
One fish was well over a pound which I knew would put me in a winning position but again I dropped it as I grabbed it!! Grrr

The orange egg sack ltd was hammering them so I was buzzing, all the locals use wet fly and I was have dry fly sport in massive chopping waves in the rain.
Five o'clock came and Kev and myself grabbed a lift off a local jock back to the weigh in..
There were 28 anglers there all putting the catches in..
I could not believe it, over 10 anglers had blanked and the most caught was 9 fish to one of the famous Islay lads, I had caught 4 fish and lost 11 fish due to no net and barbless hooks!!! Including a 1lber
The crack in the weigh in was top draw, I was giving them loads and had them all shouting and giving me abuse but was all in good spirits, they loved it mostly when I told them I had met all types of people over the world but ' you jock c**** are the worst' !!!
I came 5th out of 28 and first time ever in a comp on a loch so was well happy, my dry fly had done the business but I was so gutted I had not taken my net and I would of won the match by miles.. But that's me , never organized!!
The locals were sound and gave me loads of drams so we went back to our mansion pissed!!
A cracking day and am glad in a way I did not win as think they would of strung me up in the shed lol..
All the lads are arriving now and there will be ten of us stopping in our mansion over looking the famous finlaggen!!
Internet is slow here so will post some pictures when I log onto a wifi in town..
Fishing finlaggen tomorrow and tying flys tonight with plenty off woodsy piss so all good..
Hope all well back home and the may fly are waiting for when I get back
Thanks for the comments on the first post..
Nice one
Glen
Jtuc

'living the dream'

Islay post 1

2011-05-20T09:45:00.001-07:00

After a long journey I am now sitting in our camp site with woody, snapey and Kev.
The crack on the way has been superb and it's been tear rolling stuff all the way up!!
Snapey a good mate of Woodys is psychoanalyst and works in a secure unit, he has diagnosed me with rampant satyriasis Now I don't no what it means so google will be on the way!!
I have streamed hard core porn on my iPhone for 4 hours and it has lifted the lads into good spirits..

The weather has been varied, we have even seen a splendid display of snow driving through the mountains..
The boat journey was amazing with sites I will never forget..

Tonight we shall be going a local jock hole for some ale and then back the tent for some kip as tomorrow we move to our house for the week on finlaggen house..
Tomorrow we will be hitting the loch in hope of some wild brown action.. We are then meeting up with another 6 of the party

I hope to be having a little peak on a small river I have seen by the camp site tonight so will see

I am knackered so will update very soon

Nice one
Glen

Islay here we come

2011-05-19T13:29:00.001-07:00

Well on the eve of my yearly trip to the sweet little Scottish island called Islay.
My goal is to go and fish in my style with the dry fly and from last time I went the wild feisty wee troot did not disappoint. Smashing my ltd sedge in amazing surroundings was just top draw.
Well am meeting Woody and a few newcomers at 4am tomorrow morning to make the long journey in the van then a 2 hr ferry crossing to our destination.
I look forward to fish n chips on the boat ( nicest ever) and having some proper banter with the jocks sailers who last time I ended up sitting smoking with them in there own canteen!!

Will been doing constant blog updates on my iPhone of out action throughout the trip..

Bring it on

Nice one
Glen

'living the dream'

LTD Mayfly Spinner

2011-05-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

Its not often i do a sbs on a pattern as it takes alot of time to do, its been a real cracker for me and has all the triggers to do the buisness, i used many of the well know patterns and i did find that after a fish they were a nightmare to remove the water and return it to fish well without sinking.

I studied the natural and looked for the main triggers, i noticed the white body was important in the clear water we had, the tails were huge, and at least 2/3inches long, the wings of a Mayfly spinner would be very much the same as the dun holding in the near upright position, it would dip its tail in for a second and return to the air, this would create a frenzy action of trout hitting them hard, i did see action where the spinner would stay on the surface after all the eggs were dropped and float down stream flicking its wings for at least 30 yards..these were taken well but nowwhere near as much as the dipping spinner...

I have two patterns that i have named in my LTD range, The Ltd sedge has been a terrific fly for me and others who have used it, Wezzer landed a truley will brown of 2lb 8oz two weeks ago and loves it, Woody loves it in the emerger too, he fished it on Islay and took some very nice fish which is very nice to hear... its nice to see the emails i get thanking me for putting the sbs on my blog, and stories of it fishing very well....

Well the LTD Mayfly spinner is one could not resist to put out on the blog, i would not give it the name unless i thought i had made a beauty..it really fished top draw, and to prove its effect i was taking fish on it in very slow moving water, gin clear and 1ft deep!! well if they catch in them conditions you know you are doing well...

Well here is the sbs, the pics are not perfect but if u have any questions do ask me and i will be gratefully answer them..

Material

Coypu (tails & rib)
Partridge sure wing size 12 or 10
Frankie Philips Coloured cdc dubbing (white)
Wild Duck cdc
Daneville's spiderweb (thread)
Red fox squirell (Thorax + legs) Celtic flytec

<><><> <><><> <><><>

Run thread from eye and do touching turns to rear of hook, i used a size 12 Partridge but a size 10 would be better for the spinners i saw..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

Take three tails of coypu and tie in with between 2inch and

three inch overhang at the rear of the hook.

Take the thread inbetween each tail to seperate them so they

do not touch together.

<><><> <><><> <><><>

3....Take some light brown cdc and dub in at the base of the hook, from studying the natural it has a clear dark brown patch at the rear, this is optional as i caught the same without this but still could be the difference on a hard day..make sure exess coypu is still at the rear as this will be wound up later..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

4....Take a good pinch of white cdc dubbing and

work into the thread, it looks scruffy here

but cdc is very light and can be worked into shape.

Dub upto just behind the eye..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

5...Once dubbed grab the excess tails of coypu and

wind up to form a rib like in the natural, this also gives the fly very good strength and pulls any excess cdc into shape.

Tie off the coypu with your thread..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

6....This is how the fly should look at this stage...

<><><> <><><> <><><>

7....Now tie in two cdc plumes lined up together and tie in on one side of the hook as shown, do figure of eight turns and give it some stick to hold well in place..make the wings large just lik the natural..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

8...Now trim off the waste cdc at the other end to form the first wing...sweet..

<><><> <><><> <><><>

9....Now take two more cdc plumes and repeat the same process as tying the other wing, make sure to tighten in well so the wing will not fall out while fishing...

<><><> <><><> <><><>

10....This is how the wings should look when tied in and trimmed...notuce the wings tied flat, these will be worked upto the natural postition on the next stage...

<><><> <><><> <><><>

11...Now take the red squirrel and dub around the thorax to give a buzz look and signs of legs..

Importantly work the wings to point at 45 degrees angle to the hook, the picture shows the underneath veiw of the fly....now tie off and go catch some fish (next year!!)

The spinner can be easily converted to a Dun by changing the dubbing yellow/cream and shortening the tails, this i did not try as i only really fished the spinner falls and boy did this fly do the job...

Will be at the ready for next year...

Happy tying

Nice one

Glen

LTD

GP Midge Spinner takes me a Tean beauty

2011-05-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well for the last month i have been down to wess and my own Little gem of a river called the Tean, not a famous river, but a clasy little unfished beauty holding lots of grayling and not many trout but huge ferox trout on every likely pool..
I caught my best fish to date last year a 2lb 2 oz brown that will stay with me for ever, i wrote a blog on the fish last year around the same time... we have a rule between ourselves that we only fish the dry in trout season and bug it for the grayling in winter..
These huge fish do come up and take the dry but getting them to take your fly is just different gravy..
There is a particular trout that we caught last year once on the dry and it weighed 1lb 14 oz, we watched it come back to its pool on April 6th and have never cast a fly at it so we can study is progress..
Like a mad man i have sat for hours just watching how this fish behaves and i have learnt so much this year from this method...
Its lives on a bend under a sunken tree root for most of its time but comes out in the day to feed at the rear of its root in a food lane, it is so spooky that a bird flying over it will bolt to safety..
I can position myself within ten feet of the fish and watch its every movement while on the feed....
I noticed that the fish was feeding most of the time on flys that i could barely see, just a dot in the surface along with other scum i could not believe how it could pick out food from non food at such a tiny size.. there is all sorts that comes down this food lane and seeing it pick out the food was great..no wonder lots of flys get snubbed at as these trout are fully switched on..
The problem was that this fish would totally ignore olives, sedges, stone fly, reed smuts!!! i could not believe it!! Why was this fish taking tiny flys and not bigger more substantial food? I watched in amazement as a short flush of olives never made this fish twitch a fin...
My main priority was to find out what this fish was actually taking so i waited for the trout to come heavily on the feed and then entered the river behind it a netted the flys...
To my amazement this fish was taking dead drifting buzzers, the ones that you see the rezi lads raving on about, i have had many a angler tell me 'buzzers are just a rezi fly glen and only come off in lakes' I was always unsure of this as buzzers hatch in a bucket of water if left for a month!!
These buzzers the fish was taking were 'spent' and one thing stood out, they had there wings splayed out just like a olive spinner...they were however tiny!!
I sent a email to WTT and ltdffa member Paul Gaskell asking him his thoughts on the buzzer thing..
Surley enough i had a long email stating that there are hundreds of different types of buzzers that come off rivers, some of them huge!!
I also put the question to John Tyzack and Paul G on why the fish would sip these all day long and ignore the bigger olives etc...
Answer...
Both said the same...the fish can get more protein, from sipping thousands of buzzers all day compared to a short flush of olives...so they are looking for this food source and become 'locked on' a tilt of a fin to sip a dead drifting midge or a chase of a fluttering olive ? the buzzer wins!!
I see many a angler saying 'stick a big fly on and u will have it' well this from my experience is totall bollocks, and just the easy way out...yes you might get the odd fish smashing it but the trout i am talking about would not even look at a big fly as my story continues i found this out...

Taking a egg layer

The trout would only take dead drifting midge for 90 percent of the time, other times it would take a egg laying buzzer (midge spinner) as it dropped on the surface for a few seconds, this is the only time it would move slightly quicker as the fish knew it could leave the surface again.. but the dead drifter were its main priority and just a very gentle sip would do the job..

A fish that sipps buzzer downstream of the fish i am after

My next plan was to try and catch this fish!!
My problem was to create a fly so small to match the hatch that i was going to have to use very small line to get drag free presentation... but this fish is a wild power beast and would snap me straight into the roots, i had to hook the fish and hammer it instantly to get it down stream..
I sat at home the previous night designing a midge spinner pattern, i had never seen or heard of anyone using a fly like this , the flys i had collected were tiny buzzers with there wings splayed just like a 'sherry spinner' as previously mentioned..
I ended up with a lovely little pattern tied on a small 22 partridge hook...i just hoped it would do the trick..

I decided to go down and catch the fish (if possible) Wess was away so i had no one to sight the fish for me.
I knew i had to go strong so i opted to see if i could tease the fish with a bigger pattern, the fish was sipping away as normal and i started with a ltd sedge, nothing.. olive nothing, f fly nothing not even a twitch of a fin ...
So i had to go with the fly i had made a few night s before, my midge spinner... i had to go down to 1kg stroft with such a small fly to get it drift right...
surely enough first cast it landed 5ft above the fish and tilted its fin and sipped it straight down as calm as ever, my heart was in my mouth at this point and i waited for it too dropp then set the hook home..... i was in !!! a huge bolt for the root and i hammered my rod into it and ........PING....
Well i should of known really but i did what i wanted...fooled it for a dead midge....winner...
I was a bit gutted i had left the hook in but knew i would be back again in a few days to land the fish...

Two days later i was back and Wess had been watching the fish, as normal it was sipping away and looked in no mither... this time i went for strong twang again, i tried to tease him up again with bigger flys but Wess kept shouting down to me....'not even looked at it bro'
I was about to try the GP midge spinner again as last resort and choose a big Griffith knat, one of the most luckest things happened to me in any fishing i have ever done...Wess shouted ' no mate not took it'..... I could not see the fly and was about to retrive, my fly had sunk... my line tightened up and i was in!!! it had taken a sunken Griffith Knat lol
Well i had 1.8kg line and belted the rod right over, i could hear wess shouting 'keep it from the fucking roots'!! it was slashing all over the rear of the root and i hammered even more into it.. i managed to turn the fish and something changed...the fish was playing different to normal.. the hook had released itself from the mouth and stuck in the fishes back...
I played it into the net with a big sigh and wess laughed his head off of how it took the fly...
I then unhooked the fly from its back and found another hook stuck in the same position....i looked again and it was my midge spinner from two nights ago when it broke me!!!
The hook had caught hold of the spinner hook!!! now is that luck or just fate... bet i could not do that again...

Well we weighed the fish and looked at her in full light out the water...i had watched this feed for a month and spent hours looking at it in the water... i felt mad that i was now holding her... we took a few shots and watched her glide off fit and well... winner....
The pattern i have developed is very simple, nothing like i have seen but has all the triggers of a dead drifting midge, i shall put the step by step on my next blog post...

Today Wess gave me a call to say it was back out in the pool but not feeding so was really happy to see she ok, this fish has taught me so much and it wont have a fly cast at it again until next year...

LTD
Nice one
Glen

Pure Tean wild ferox trout on the dry mmmmm

Poppy Pointon 'chip off the block'

2011-04-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well before i start my next post i must thank everyone for all the emails, comments and texts that i have received from so many friends and blog followers.. some of the messages have been heart warming and its clear many peolpe have been through the same situation..

Walton Baliffs

Its fitting that on Wednesday i took my little daughter out poppy fishing down Dovedale, i knew that JT was down the river with a few syndicate members showing them the ropes...
My plans were to strap Poppy in my new ruck sack and take her for a flick here and there..from my previous posts i have been desperate to catch a fish for poppy to see and this was my plan.

Daddy n Poppy on the dry

Driving down Beat 1 i saw JT in the river with Henry and Steve(Poland)... a few piss takes were shouted across the river and we all soon met up on the car park for a ice cream..
I met up with Tamer Bone who looked right in the zone, he was buzzing his head off and had been taking fish down the lower beat...always good to see...

I had a stroll with the lads and managed to put the odd spec cast as no fish were rising in the low hot conditions.. Poppy and myself went upstream and had dinner together, i had knocked us up a picnic and sat just chilling out, a special moment that we shared together, poppy asking about my dad bought back memories of our times together..I just hope that i can give poppy memories that my dad left with me...
The day had gave me two rising fish which i had pulled out from being over excited!! dry fly makes my heart pump and i can gt that sharp with my strikes i can be too quick...still i had not taken a fish for poppy but we were loving it..

The end of the day i strolled down the river with JT, Henry and Steve...
Jt Popped into the river and did what he does and hooked into a fish... he then handed the rod to poppy to catch her first ever fish...she grabbed the rod and jt guided her perfectly to land a absolute classic Dove Grayling..yes out of season but on this moment it can be forgiven as shes just like her dad lol..
Poppys face was a picture and a full clap from the crowd gave her something that will stick with her forever!! She shouted 'Daddy...a lady of the stream' !! Poppys first ever fish
Well i took the picture below and its got to be one of my best ever....do pictures speak a thousand words? this one does..

Thousand words!!!

Poppy and me were over the moon, even JT Henry and Steve were buzzing, we all went up to the walton for a pint a talk over the days fishing...
Top days and out with my little girl just makes things so much better with the loss of big Ivan xx
'All good things come to a end'

Thanks JT just what i needed bro...

Poppy first ever fish!!! priceless

Big Ivan my dad and best mate

2011-04-09T15:47:00.001-07:00

Dad aged 58

Well it's been the most toughest weeks of my life.
I don't know where to write this but my fishing blog is where I write my true thoughts..

My dad (big Ivan) passed away on Monday at 2.55 pm, age 65, the last 18 months saw him lose his leg through diabetes and then six months later was diagnosed with cancer..
My dad was a best mate and my memories of him in my younger life are so strong..
He played for Port Vale and football was his life to the day he died, he would take me everywhere with him from a early age and soon football became my life..
One freezing winter my dad asked me if I wanted to go fishing, all the football matches were cancelled and my mum had got us a 'beginners fishing' book from the library where she worked.
My dad had never fished in his life and I can see the picture in the book now, showing a bubble float with spaced lead shots and the worm hanging just nice in the bottom..all drawn with pencil and reprinted.. My dad and me sat at home wondering how we were going to go off the book..
We went to the local fishing shop and bought all the gear needed.. Wow we had a diawa 12ft glass rod that was so heavy I could not hold it with one hand.. A basic reel loaded with 15 lb line and a bubble float that was the 'new' plastic style!! Some shots and a bait tub!! Winner!!
We decided to go and fish a local pond called the mill pond.. A small pond that was overgrown with reeds all around the edges..
I was aged 7 and was buzzin my head off and my dad was I thought!! Lol
We arrived to one of the coldest days in winter, the lake was dead and no riffle of wind..It's strange as I remember it so well but that's because this day totally chAnged my life and gave me something some never feel....."addiction to fishing"
We sat on a old wicker basket that my grandad had sourced for us, it was slanted and always collapsed to one side..
My thoughts are quite blurry from that moment but I remember I had been sitting on my dads knees freezing cold but the book had told us that if the float goes under we should 'strike' wow this word sounded amazing to me at aged 7 and my eyes were totally focussed on the hand painted orange float..
The float had not moved for hours and my dad was getting pissed off lol..towards the end I have a picture in my mind that is clear as a bell..
We were both leaning over the wall looking at our float that was 12 inches from the bank!!! The book had not told us where to cast but we were fishing this close in!!
Well the float twitched.... And twitched again!!!! My dad shouted 'strike' and I said 'no' wait for it to go under!!!! My dad shouted strike again.. I still waited and then the float never moved again........
So there we were, my dad and me driving home arguing on weather I should of 'strike' or not!! The book had told us to wait for it to go under grrrr
Looking back I think my dad was right as the float was that big the fish would not be able to pull it under lol...
Even still to this day I often day dream of this moment and now my dad had passed away it is even stronger..
My dad hated fishing but he had gave me something that became my life from a early age, something that kept me off the streets pissing about.... The anticipation of watching the float go under got a hold of me big time and made me the fishing maniac I am today..Thanks Dad x
I was in Pickering tackle shop last week and in the queue a lad turned to me and said ' on the fly youth?' I turned and said yes holding some feathers... He said ' soon be time for watching that float go under, nothing like it youth' ... I knew exactly what he meant and just nodded my head and drifted back into my thoughts with my dad..

I was quite a keen footballer too, I played lads n dads where my dad would come and watch me, he used to egg me on to kick the best player and I would often run upto a player and kick him off the ball..I was the only player to ever get sent off in under 10s !! But I blame my dad for that..
One game I had been strolling around the pitch day dreaming with my hands on my hips!! My dad would go berserk with me for not trying and I remember walking off the pitch and him shouting in front of everyone.... Glen!!! ' JUST FISH' !! Lol
My dad took it very serious but I had fishing on my mind....
I went into all sorts of fishing and found my place on the rivers...
I did go and play football at a non league standard for years but always had fishing eating away at me..
Well my first ever fish caught was on holiday and was in the company of my dad so I was over the moon!! The mullet in Majorca don't fuck around twitching the float and I just shot under!! The electric bolts of running mullet was just a true buzz and another amazing memory of being with my dad!!

Dad with me in Majorca ltd

My dad used to play football until in his 50s and we finally got the dream to play in the same Sunday team together, the crack we had was untrue, my mates loved him and he would always start trouble on the football field mouthing off at the other team.. Now I know where it comes from in me!!
One time it caused a massive brawl with 22 men fighting on the football field, we would all get a kicking but my dad would stand there laughing about it after as we were nursing our black eyes!!

My dad was far to old to play in the later days and we would 'draft' big Ivan in if we were short..
One occasion I rang him early and begging him to come as we were short, he said only if we had a good side out..
We all sat getting ready in the changing room and my good friend tex had brought a supposedly cracking new player in.. The new lad turned around and asked if anyone has any spare boots? My dad asked him his boot size and he said 'medium' !!! My dads face was a absolute picture...class

The memories of my big Ivan are huge and he taught me in life to take no shit off the so called 'blaggers' in life, I have seen many over the years and fly fishing seems to attract them..
The ltdffa is full to the brim of 'anglers' and something jt and myself are proud of...

My memories of my dad are sweet, my sister Natalie sat by my side as we we watched him slip away earlier week.. I used to ask him until the end how he was feeling? He would just say 'never mind me how are you? '
And that says it all for us...

I have one message for you dad.. Yes I should of 'striked' when you said... But could never admit it..

We will miss you Dad
Love always

Natalie and Glen
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dad aged 20

Glen aged 5

Glen dad Nat mum

Post 4 Wye just bowls me over!!

2011-04-01T14:20:00.001-07:00

Well sitting at home now and just coming down off my day with jt on the first day of the trout season on the holy Wye..
I did the live posts and they all loom sound on my blog..
It's good to do the Live posts but nothing better than getting home and thinking back on the days events..
Today had it all but the Wye has never failed to give me a buzz and I always drive home with a new tail to tell..
Jt and myself had decided the plan for the day.. We would walk the river and look for rises picking them out as we went along hoping for a nice flush of large dark olives
Around 11 we took a stroll through the town and this being some great fun if quiet can always fill your day with some electric action.. We were not to be let down.....
I took the first fish of the day with a absolute class looking wild rainbow pushing the 5lb mark.. We were site fishing the bigger fish as they were very willing to take the dry fished correctly as we did not want to hammer the section so early in the season..
We saw the Wye man himself RW and was so nice to see him since last year when I 'fished the spinner' with him in one of my most memorable days on the Wye...he was on his bike and making his way down to the lathkill all loaded up and buzzing..

Jt took a few nice fish in town then he just kicked into his level of fishing and caught the two biggest fish we saw all day!!!

Now this is the biggest fish I have ever seen to come out of the Wye !!! Omg

A huge brown of pure beauty that took jt all around the show!!!
His hand is still shaking now lol

Manc lad and a Stoke lad ltdffa

True wild rainbow classy fish

Well we moved out of the town and fished our way around the pumping station... This is where are real deal dry fly started to come on.. There was no real hatch going off but the fish were willing to take a well placed dun.. We had 1lbers smashing the jt olive!! A pure joy to see after such a long break away..
We were not going to get into just hammering pools so we decided to find a rise then both have goes at the riser.. This was great fun and a superb way to fish if your out with a fishing partner..
We did hit a pod of rising fish that turned out to be grayling so we moved on sharp..
We meet up with my friend Jan Hobat (river keeper), a good chat was had and he did take the piss that NASA had contacted him saying there was two flashing orange beacons in bakwell with bending rods!!!
Today I was using my iPhone 4 and had downloaded skype, this was used to Live video chat to woody in his shop!!! We even got jt to hook a rising fish while he was watching!! Mad technology!!
When we first logged onto video chat jt and myself were amazed to see Woody sitting in his front of his computer wanking his cock off at the fastest rate I have ever seen, looking at a 1980s razzle mag...
He soon realised we were watching and got into normal
chat..lol

Well my time come at the end of the day... We were fishing 'man from boys' pool and one fish was Head and tailing in a channel with at least 5 different paces of current!! Now these are what I love and after 5 mins hard graft I hooked a 10 inch wild rainbow in the hardest conditions I will find on the Wye.. a size 24 did the trick.and I was over the moon.. Jt knows a hard pool and said 'that's a string in your bow lad'
So I was buzzing my head off yet again

The Wye today had it all for us early season... Ldo fishing and midge fishing in short patches

A true great day out with a top lad on a class river

Winner
Nice one
Ltd
Glen

Live post 3 Wye

2011-04-01T05:29:00.001-07:00

Fishing middle beat and taking fish to the dun, bits of hatches but nothing much.. The fish are rising in places but are willing to smash a dun..
Quality
Saw RW on his bike going to lathkill dream water
Hope he has his tie on under all that clobber!!

'living the dream'

Post 2 Wye

2011-04-01T03:18:00.001-07:00

Just had early session, no

hatches yet of now, speculative fishing

'living the dream'

Live post 1 Wye

2011-04-01T01:18:00.001-07:00

Just arrive at grouse and claret
Two orange hats and no tie!!

Bad start

'living the dream'

Wye!! A live blog post

2011-03-31T23:42:00.001-07:00

Well here it is the first day of the season on the Wye!!
I am booked on with Jt...
Meeting for breakfast then strolling about in search of the Ldo
Will be doing a live update today with pics on my iPhone
Keeping it real
Ltd

'living the dream'

My Birthday treat conitinued and a bit more

2011-03-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

better than kissing a woman

Dave Percys Face after i told him i had poached his river for ten years!!

After putting all the pictures on of my previous outing i thought i shall do the write up on such a top day..
JT had invited me to join a few of the lads on my birthday on the holy river Wye on the cressbrook and litton stretch lower section..
I met JT in Rowsley and had a breakfast around 10 and we both chatted about getting onto the Wye for the grayling on the last day of the season..we both hoped for a hatch and one on the dry too..
I have not fished the Wye for Grayling over the winter and looked forward to some action here, my membership saw me on the Peacock at Rowsley in the trout season but a divorce sent my head wayward for the winter months and i started Grayling fish too late for the Wye..well women and fishing dont mix as most know!!
Divorce sent me on my arse and i fought to get my money together for the Peacock again for the forthcoming season but in the end i could not scrape the money together so missed out on the deadline, was hard to take as i met some sound lads on there including Jan Hobat (river keeper) who has become a good friend, my Sundays saw loads of locals coming out to see me, i learnt so much there and improved my dry fly no end.. i hope to join again in the future but for now a day ticket here and there will sort me out.. like my famous qoute on my fly forum page ' the true riches are found in a anglers soul and not his wallet!! ' could not be more true as i am chomping at the bit to get out back on the dry....

We pulled onto the car park and met up with John Pearson, Dave Percival and Chris Prior, been a while since i had met up with Chris and Dave and there was some rate good piss take thrown in as normal, Dave checking me over to see if i was clean shaven enough and wearing the right gear lol!!! Well the usual 'Fuck offs were made and we all set on our way to get on the Grayling... I stood and watched John Pearson for a while and its obvious the lad is right on his game, he is always thinking of ways to improve and he kindly gave me a few bits of kit that were very impressive which i will review in a future post...
JT and JP were hitting the grayling and catching in good numbers, i was happy to just be there and had the crack with Percy..i just wondered about looking for that hatch...well nothing happened so i had a few chucks in a pool with the bugs and was rewarded with 4 lovely Wye Grayling...the Wye Grayling are plentiful but i have never seen something in there to really get my heart pounding, its full of them but compared to the Dove i see no comparison to size..maybe its the ammount of fish in there that stops them growing so big, i am unsure but the Dove does produce the biggies..
Towards the back end of the day i saw a rise at the back of a pool....was it a trout or Grayling? it looked Grayling..i starred at Grayling rises for a solid week in Poland and i can now see a big difference..
I selected a jt stripped quil emerger as there were trickles of ldo coming off.. first cast into the flow saw the cdc tuft just sticking out the surface.. i had the old heart pound that i have not felt for a few months due to no dry fly action!!! if you love your dry fly you will know the feeling i am talking about...if you dont its just like you stripped a bird down to her knickers and you know what coming next!!! lol
Wallop that grayling swirl where you never see the fish... i struck late out of time but hooked up to the fish i knew straight away it was a grayling and JT and Prior were cheering for me...God i landed it and had the biggest smile on my face ever....That was it for me, how could it get any better.. i packed my rod up and just went taking pictures..the last day of the graling season and i take one on the dry...winner..
So we all went back to Dave Percy's local for a pint and some snappin, full of shit kickers and inbreds but great food and great company..
Thanks for the pressie JT and thanks to the cress n litt boys

LTD

Nice one
Glen

JT provides me with a perfect birthday treat on the last day of the grayling season!!

2011-03-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

JT lands a pounder on the dropper

Post to follow!! whoop

One word 'was like a babies arm youth'

2011-03-07T01:56:00.000-08:00

Had a meet up today with syndicate member phil (tyhmilis) at Dovedale
Phil had been on the car park since 8 in the morning and was buzzing to get going, due to commitments i strolled up at 11.30 and made my way up to see the manc lad 2..
Phil looked shattered and had said he had been through many a pool with nothing doing..We took a stroll and with him being new to this river i told him to chill out and wait for it to warm up as it had being fishing poor in the day..we went back out of the valley into the sunshine and decided to fish together with a single rod between us, this is something i do quite often now with JT and i find it a great crack as watching someone can be very rewarding, picking up tips and having a good crack.

Well Phil being another manc lad like Jt there is always going to be some piss take along the way and Phil is right 'mad far it' lol

showed Phil another pool that is rarely fished and new we might find a fish or two..i worked down the pool with the typical 2 bug set up and had nothing for my efforts..Phil picked the rod up first cast and bumped into a small war battered grayling..he was happy as mustard and i got a right buzz from seeing his spirits lifted..

The sun was out and the Large Dark Olives started to come off more than i have ever seen for the time of year.. nothing was rising but a great site to see, these ldo's seem to be huge this year and very dark brown almost black, i would say a size 17 tiemco!!
We walked around pools together and started to take the odd Grayling out here and there but never more than one fish per pool..
Fishing with one rod can take the pressure off the river too and this is something Jt and myself are working on to keep our own beat in good condition..
Phil hooked a absolute superb Grayling around a pound and half in a pool i have never seen a fish come from, nice to see someone who does not know the river and will pick a pool i never fish, this is a lesson for me as we are all victims of fishing the pools we know produce fish..

Towards the end of the day i led my nymphs through a pool and the line stopped dead, i lifted to feel the horrible feeling of being stuck on the bottom...I started to lift and the snag moved up slowly.. i was waiting to see a huge Branch being dragged up when the line started to move upstream at the slowest pace i have ever seen..i realised i was into a fish and \phil could not believe his eyes when it started to take line of upstream...this was no trout, more like a big carp at the end of its fight...it turned into the current and took me down stream right past Phils feet and we could not get a sight of the fish, it was bottom hugging and i could not lift its head..at one point i saw my top fly come out of the water so i knew it had taken the jt flasback..
Phils kept saying 'your in something a bit special here arr kid' this is when my heart started to pound...the fish come right into the back eddie and all i saw was the biggest dorsall fin i have ever seen, it was dark black with no red which i found strange, i did think for a instance that i was into a land locked Salmon but the big dorsal fin was a huge giveaway...i know knew i was into a fish of a liftime and got my head on....the fish was starting to come off the bottom and i was winning the battle until the most strangest thing in fishing happened to me...
The fish was wallowing around on the other bank and then the rod lifted up in the air but with a fish on still....a thrashy trout appeared on the surface and i found myself retrieving a small trout of around half a pound!!!! oh my god, the trout had taken the other dropper and this in turn made the point fly unhook itself from the Grayling??? We could not believe it, i was absolutely gutted and Phil looked the same...the worst part was it being a old tatty thick stockie!! thank god the two clubs do not stock with these poor fish anymore because i dont think a wild fish would of done that !!

Well shaking and gutted Phil and myself had one of my Kelly Kettles brew and we sat going over what had just happened...i had just hooked a fish that i would not even dare say the weight or lenght but thats fishing and hopefully i will get it again one day..

I rang JT later telling him the crack and he just said ' only huge fish do what i had explained to him '
Well 'was like a babies arm youth'
LTD
(i dont know)
Nice one
Glen

perfect

Dry Fly!!! How many do you need!!!

2011-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

I see many a post and blog that hammer on about different flys colours shapes size, you name it there are thousands of different patterns that come up every year claiming to have the new killer fly...
Well i am far from any 'expert' in these lines but all i can say is what i have learnt and what i have seen in my fishing situations on the river..

There are two split differences in fishing the dry... you get the lads who just stick on a attractor pattern eg a big sedge and fish everywhere hoping for a trout to smash it through its instinct..

Then there is the lads who will wait for a rise, select the right fly ( match the hatch) and then then catch the trout by its feeding match..

I have found that the lad using the attractor pattern will catch a very good fish from time to time, due to the size of the fly used..
But on the other hand the lad who 'matches the hatch' will catch many more fish over the season
What is the best i dont know but i have done both and use them at different times throughout the season..
I do prefer to match the hatch as you feel as you worked for your goal when it comes off...but this is where i see millions of flys being tied for each and every dry fly, and in my view this is where most fail...

For me i only use 5 flys for all of my season, if someone is in any hatch i find i have it all in these 5!
Every one of my flys i use will match any most hatches but most of all the SIZE matters.. every one of my patterns will have at least 5 different sizes...

I shall be blogging all my flys but for now my no 1 LTD SEDGE....
This is a fly i tied a few years back and its nothing really flash but has worked no end for me and others who have used it on the Derbyshire Wye..
You could say it can be a attractor pattern and yes its superb for that but when the sedge are out i have used no better..Woody has used it and loves it, infact i tied him the emerger and standard pattern and he had unbelievable results on both..some days emerger and others standard...
We used this in Islay on the wild lochs and a very small size 19 was just the job, any bigger and we would not even get a rise to it!
This is where i come back to the size thing....i fished the Wye in Derbyshire and the famous black sedge were coming off in huge hatches, the tricky Grayling were Cooley sipping them down, i could not get the ltd sedge to work on a size 17 until i went down to a 19!! now you might think this is bullshit but the river keeper Jan Hobat saw it happen..Grayling will not hit anything unless it looks like the real thing and you know you are fishing well if you hook Grayling in a hatch..
When tieing this pattern i make sure i build them to the size of the hook, i see many fly tiers do them on a size 19 when really they have tied the build on them like a size 15!! so when they choose a smaller hook they are still fishing the same size!!! Big mistake
Click on the link below for the step by step
Nice one
Glen

http://glenpointon.blogspot.com/2009/07/ltd-sedge-pattern.html

A "reel" turn up for the books

2011-01-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

I recently got a mention from online fishing tackle people Fishtec. They reviewed a load of fishing blogs they liked and mine was in amongst them. - it's always good to be appreciated, i do write as i feel and have met some fantastic people in the sport, and have had some oportunities to fish some exellent water due to my blog..

They've been in touch with me and this year, I'll occasionally be doing some honest reviews of kit for them and they've even invited me to do a guest post on their blog. Here's the link to it -

http://www.fishtec.co.uk/blog/

As you can see I'll be along side some pretty good fishing writers.
What can I say? I'd better get some fishing in and some good crack to get the boys buzzin..

Nice one Fishtec
Glen

Dry fly verses nymphing in Severn heaven

2010-11-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Well its been a while since ihave done a blog post but beleive me i have still been weting a line, i have had many a call asking me what i have been doing which is nice to know so many people read my blog..

2lb 6oz wezzers fish really

Work has gone through the roof and i have been hitting it hard, there is also another very good reason but i think Woody and JT will fill u in if you ask them!!
Well Grayling fishing on the San was a dream come true for me, and without sounding a cocky twat my dry flying has been risen to another level, to say it was hard to get a grayling on a dry was a understatement, i had to use hours of drag free, right fly, stealth, position, casting...you name it, it was done...Paul Procter went the week after us and the rain came down and brought on bwo hatches galore, overcast weather the lot... i felt a bit of a kick in the teeth but when i think back i reazllise it was the best for me personally as easy conditions like they had are not my thing.. i come back a dry fly expert!!

Wess, oasis pose!!

I arrived a Dovedale a few days after on my Issak Walton ticket and looked at a fish rising in a back eddie.... mmmm how the fish has done me over the months...i just selected a JT stripped quil emerger olive (dont know if he has put them in his range yet but get on the phone to him!!)
first cast walop!! a trout was hooked and flicked off...well i had spent 1 week hardcore fishing and at that moment i reaised i had got my casting spot on...
I fished around the river and took fish to the dry that i would always seem to mess up on....the San had taught me well...

Grayling fishing kicked in a there was a period where i went onto the holy Wye with Woody... dry fishing was superb, with Grayling coming to the stripped quill emerger...i was slightly gutted that lots of trout were still feeding heavy and i knew it was time for me to give my Wye a rest...my plan is to go back when it really gets cold and the fish pack in tight... putting a bug in there on early Grayling season is like fishing with maggots to those Rainbow trout...not for me....
The mad day came when top nympher Wess and myself went on the Dove full bugging style, we were spoit to the max when i took 3 Grayling over the 2lb mark and Wess taking a 2lb 6oz Gralying of superb quality!! At 46cm it was the fatest grayling i have seen... i hooked the same fish 1 min after it was realeased full on in the mouth!! this is mad and has happened to me before but all credit must go to Wess for finding the fish....
Well the day came of dreams for me when wess and myself went to the upper Severn, we met up early doors and had a 2hr drive over talking of all Grayling fishing we would be doing for the season...Wess is mad on the nymhing techinque and shows very well in his fishing, we both work on site together with Wess being a plumber and me a spark, most days are spent shouting abuse at each other or talking fishing!!!
We started fishing with a three bug setup on Wessers knew indicator setup which is a dream to fish, something i will blog if he lets me, we knew by low water levels it was going to be hard but fishing got underway as we started to take these famous Grayling, nothing big and not huge numbers but we were catching...the buzzing part of fishing this river is you just know there is a chance of a record breaking fish which gets the heart pumping...

Grayling on the dry!!! Does it get any better this time of year..no!!

A pounder hits the net on a jt stripped quil emerger!!

In the afternoon we walked to the the top of the beat and a good hatch of LDO came off!! and my heart skipped a beat when i saw the typical Grayling rise that i know only too well, this to me is fly fishing heaven and at this time of year was a beautfiul site..bright cold day, leaves falling and fish rising!! sweeeeet
I ripped off the bug setup and selected a olive, totally ignored!!..i netted a natural and noticed my size was all wrong...going down to a size 20 and this did the trick..my san skills put me on top and i slautered the rising Grayling...one fish that was rising totally did my head in...a very good sized fish, it would rise every five mins but if i got within 20 yards away it would go down.. i waited and waited but it had me done...
Wess stayed with the bugs and did very well and we both had the banter of bug versus dry and both ended up with the same ammount of fish and were buzzin..the biggest fish that came to the dry was a 1lb 4oz and i was chuffed to bits!! was this my last dry of the season? i dont know but last year i saw a ldo hatch in late december on the Wye where the ladies went mad.. we will see..
We drove home buzzin.. a great day to remember..nice one Wess..

Sweet San is just soooooo sweet, the conclusion

2010-10-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

gettin off the plane and into the fishing mobile

Well i never got a good chace to continue the blog days as the drinking at night got too much in the end!!
I have had many emails asking me o continue the Dream session so here goes......

The last post shows top angler Richie holding the fish of the week and it was well deserved indeed.
We arrived at the power lines pool which comprised of a long slow glide for over 300 meters...as our goal was to catch these huge grayling on the dry this looked perfect...it was obvious these fish were going to be very hard and me and Richie decided to pair up and go and stalk out rising fish together...i cannot tell you how hard the Grayling can be to catch on a dry, back in the UK they can be teased up by a fancy pattern like the sturdys fancy or a grifth knat, these fish are a nightmare, they will only take a perfect match of a hatch, the size, colour and drag free are all absolute critical, the trout are much easier to catch but still can be hard but like i say the Grayling can send you mental!!!!
Ritchie and myself waded into the river and stood still for a good hour, any movements would send the fish down, this was the technique for the week, get in your spot and wait for them to come on the feed, all around you!!!
We were taking it in turns to cast at rising fish, the difference from the Grayling rise and the trout rise was obvious, something i have learnt to a T on this trip...We saw a nice fishing sipping every five mins and we both covered it with no success...after grinding us down for over a hour Richie just flicked a dun to it and it just walloped it!!!!
Wicked!! the fish played him mellow until it found the deep water.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz this fish went mental taking line off...these fish are different strain to ours and are nasty in the fight, after a few mins the fish tailwalked right infront of us to give Richie a heart stopping moment...soon we landed a 46cm 2.8 oz San wacker on a size 20 dun pattern!!!
Top angling by Richie as you just dont catch on this river by luck, hard work paid off and a high five was given to him after we released it.....
Later in the evening was something else for me that night, i was at the bottom of the pool waiting for some rises......i saw a huge hatch of pale wateries emerge off the pool, now i learnt more tonight in all my fishing on fly rivers...the trout and grayling would only take the emerger at this stage as they were coming out of the shuck, any full duns would be left alone... i selected a emerging dun with no luck...why?? i could see the fish sipping them no more than 5ft from me!!! I had no drag, the size was perfect.... i then thought of colour? something i dont really believe in....i selected a pale green shade emerger like the real dun and then bang!!! 3 Gralying coming straight to the net!!! great feeling that but then i could not get a take........they had switched to the full dun at the end of the hatch and selecting a full dun in green batterned them again.....i was standing in the river and realised how switched on u needed to be to get into these fish...yes you might get lucky with the odd fish but to take them u needed to be on your game...a lesson learnt....how many times do you see a angler walk past and say 'they are on the emerger today'! well now i would always think that could have changed in ten minutes!!!
In the evening the spinner fall was mental.......a sherry spinner took the odd trout but i was getting so many refusals it was not right...they were taking the real spinner but not mine...i went home happy but gutted i was doing something wrong... i soon would find out...

On the Thursday we went to a pool i cant remember the name but one that i wont ever forget...
The sun was out, bright clear and a flat calm pool that looked like a lake....i was not going to flog my heart out when the lads all ventured off to get in the river... i decided to stay back with JT and we sunk cans of lager for most of the day in the most scenic place i have ever been...just being with JT at the side of the river we just chilled out and talked of past sessions in our fishing days....Richardo came to the river at dinner time on most days and cooked us full barby meals next to the river...sausages, pork the full job, we were right looked after....
That evening i made my way upto the top end of the beat as Jt had advised me of some deep runs that hold big ladies...
I walked up and got into my position and waited.....waited....a hour gone with no rises and i saw a huge fin come out of the water with a typical grayling boil....my heart started to pound.....i put my line though and waited for it to rise again....nothing..... i thought of moving but this fish was huge... i then waited bollock deep in the river for another hour!! the lads were catching fish and i was staring at a blank for the day but this fish was a proper ltd fish!!! i had noticed from the week that a big fish will hold its pool so i just stayed and waited..a sudden flush of P waterys came off and the fish came up again... then one minuite later again....this was my chance... i selected a full dun in pale green, size 20.....i knew it was my chance....the cast had to be down stream, no other would do, drag would kill it off back to the depths...i mudded my 9 x tippet and just hoped it would hold the fish if i hooked it...any bigger tippet lower than 8X would send me home with nothing on this river...
A few false casts and i dropped the fly perfect in the scum lane of drifting olives.....the fish came up and nailed a real dun 3 inches from mine!!! i was now starting to get that sinking feeling...i then put in the second cast and fucked it up with swinging drag...i then though that was all over....i then put a third cast in thinking i had put it down.....i saw the huge fin come out roll over my fly, the sheers size of this fish was mental, as soon as i saw the huge crimson colour down the side my heart just skipped a beat as only anglers will know this feeling...like slow motion i struck down to my left and the lovely feeling of the line tightening as the hook set home.....i was in!!!! the fish came back upto the surface and my heart was beating out my chest when i saw the real size of this fish...it was bigger than anything i haad ever seen...over 50cm no probs and over 3lb for sure...
The fish snapped it head and the fly came pinging back to me hitting me in my chest!!! FUCKIN HELL!! i screamed across the river!!! i had just pulled out of the fish of a lifetime on the dry....i had waited all day for that and stood over the fish for nearly three hours!!!
I was so angry i had the the thought of snapping my rod in two to ease the pain....
I caught fish in the spinner fall that night but the thought of losing this fish hurt me deep...Richie stood 20 yards up the river from me and saw what this fish did to me, he looked as gutted for me as i was...

Back at the fishing lodge at night we had some right good crack, sinking beer and just full piss take all around...all the lads on the trip were sound, i got to know all of them very well,
Roger my room mate is so cool, takes everything in his stride, and had massive balls...
Steve, a calm mellow lad, who just sits there and laughs all day long...always catches fish
John/Richie two geordie cunts who are hard to separate, always smiling and talking and both very good fisherman, a joy to pair up with and fish..
Clive a sound lad who loves his fishing and a right nob after drinking!!!
JT A bloke who is hardcore, can fish hard, drink hard, nothing bothers him, shares all his knowledge and a right good laugh...
On the last day before we come home i stumbled across c=some Polish fly men and got chatting to them which turned out to be a right good laugh, non of us could speak each others language but we swapped flys and they give me Vodka shots next to the river!!! real LTD with the Poles!!!

The trip was one to remember and i will be back there again next year, i learnt so much and never thought fish could get that hard, its made me a better angler for sure, the fishing was hard going at times but this was not normal for the time of year but hey thats fishing, i still sit here now writing this and that fish i lost is still in my head, i could go back to the very spot tomoz and know where the lunker is... i will cover that pool next year and hopefully have more luck....
Nice one
LTD
Glen

2nd cast of the day!! Johnny

My room mate Roger

Geordie twat

Clive in the spinner

wankers..all of em!!

Steve

time to go

JT shows us the snake roll pissed up

the dream liver

Richie into the fish of the week...top angling shag

crimson wacker

the downstream cast

wojek

The Polish lads on the Vodka!!

Day 4 - Richie bags 46cm (2.5lb) clunker in a San 'living the dream' session

2010-09-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

San slab

More to follow........................

Day 3 - Sponsored by Tyskie (not Queen of the Moorlands Piss)

2010-09-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Poland's finest piss

JT with his tits out giving his masterclass

Went to El Dorado today, river very low, clear and very hot conditions.....all caught fish but nothing to shout about...........we ended up getting leathered on the bank with a JT casting mastercalss session which ended up with 25 cans of piss being sunk whilst sat on the bank.

Ricardo - collapsed after nailing a load of Polish piss

Ricardo brought the cans over and ended up drinking more than us. We left him in a pile as we headed up out into thr river. He was our only drive home so we had to wait til dusk until he could sober up (bonus was the spinner potential). We all sobered up for the evening rise which produced a 15 minute spell of fish-a-cast action on the spinners.

Pissed up trying to catch a San grayling with GP drag drift method

As i write this I am getting more sexually frustrated over the week and Roger's hairy bottom looks more appealing by the day when I get morning glory in the mornings........ I will let you know how things go on this week.......

Nice one

Glen

Me and JT - just before we went into the bushes together

Holy San, Day 2 - San Soul Breakers

2010-09-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

Day 2 started early after a night on the lash in our luxury fishing hut. As I mentioned before, this hut is the bollox. It has drying out rooms for wet waders, full fly tying room, games room.....about everything you could imagine....like a fly fishing brothel!!

JT with a proper San slab

Knocking out olive emergers in the 'lodge of dreams'

Still hung over from a heavy night, Richard our Polish guide took us to the 'islands pool' in our seven seater Citroeon mini-bus, all kitted out. Driving around Poland to the River San, I have noticed that although this is a poor country it is extremely clean and people are very friendly. Driving through the forest we have even seen the Polish lumber jacks who scare the shit out of me. They glare into my eyes through the van window and I have to put my hands over my arris, memories of 1970s classic film Deliverance starring Burt Reynolds!!....

Pulling up next to the river I realised what a place this is to fish..the scenery reminds me of Canada...even though I have not been there. Huge valleys either side with loads of trees.....Richard the guide warned us of bears roaming in the woods and to be well aware if approached. I fear the polish lumber jacks more than i do any bear!!

Everyone spread out on the mighty San

We spread out across the river we approached a flat calm drifting pool. I followed JT and the Geordie cunts Richie and John. I gazed up the pool to see literally millions of pale waters hatching off.....were they on 'em? Oh yes they were!! I thought this was going to be easy takings until JT shouted across..these fish are no mugs and drag is a big no no. I started to select small emerging olive paterns and covered fish taking olives waiting for fish to wallop the net...but this was not to be. These fish were as selective and wised up as I have ever seen in any fishing I have ever done. Watching these rising fish was something else....half an hour had gone and even JT had struggled to rise a fish to his artifical. It was time to get my head on and really get a grip of these fish.
I saw a fish at the rear of mesipping the full dun I could tell by the rise form this was a grayling and I knelt down in the water and spent a full hour trying to get this fish to take my olive. In the end it came down to a 10x tippet with a size 21 pale watery, a drag free drfit and the lady calming sipped it down and I tigtened into my first San grayling. What a joy!! But hard......I can't explain what it takes to catch such wised up fish....a San soul breaker. To watch your artificial duns drfit past..these fish don;t even twitch a fin. I now relaxed as I had caught a fish and went to fish a streamy pool for some action. There I selected my LTD and twictched it through a streamy pool where it produced six small wild brownies....not really my style but I needed a destress from fishing those flat calm pools.

JT and Richie waiting for the hatch

All the lads were having the same problems and Roger was also having problems getting a hard on. I decided to go solo and find some spots for myself and ventured into another flat calm pool full of specimen sized brown and graylings. These two were rising heavily but I knew they were going to be no mugs again. After one hour i sat on the grass after using all my fly box and not getting a take and just sat deflated at the river edge, sparked up a Benson, started to look again at what was going on and selected a special fly JT had given me earlier in the day. It was an olive emerger with three tails that hung in the water and obvious bright green ribbon with a CDC tuft sticking above the water. I could see that these fish were taking pale watery emergers and were ignoring every dun that went past. Three casts later and three cracking wild browns all above pound and a half mark all fighting like virgin hooked browns!! From sheer frustration to sheer joy.....I had chosen the perfect fly after numerous flops and personally i think it was down to the colouration of the ribbing as I had used other emergers with different colours to no avail.
This river San gives you more ups and downs than a moody girlfriend....

Our guide Ricardo with his massive Polish sausage

The lads liined up where the stag crossed the river

Our guide Richard shouted us up for dinner which comprised of sausages fully barbecued on a wild camp fire. All the lads were starving and made short work of the grub on offer. After dinner the lads got back in the river and I saw one of the most insane things ever. JT and the Geordies were lined across the a pool and a huge stag came dashing through the woods and dived into the river 50m in front of the 3 lads and swam the full width of the river back into the wilderness....we all stood there in amazement. A memory I will never forget.

The day comes to an end on the San River

The evening for me was a failure as I was still tired from the last nights lash up. JT found a pod of 40cm grayling and battered them with his spinner in a magic hour spell. We all headed back to the van where our guide Richard had set up a camp fire, baking local Polish potatoes. Starving again, all of the lads huddled around and scoffed the potatoes before getting into the van and making our way back to the lodge. We got back to the lodge with talk of fishing and got in the hot showers....but not all at the same time.
We all sat down for the evening meal which comprised of sausage meat burgers. Later on it turned into a full lash up in hard core Polish style.

Roger 'big bollox' Bryant

I must admit at this point that i am rooming with old leek and district chum Roger Bryant a good old friend of mine from LADFFA who as it turns out farts like i have never heard in my life. Roger tells me that I talk in my sleep and i keep shouting sexual obscenities about John Tyzack. I am getting worried about this as I dont have these feelings in real life!!! Something else i must say is that Roger has the biggest pair of bollox I have ever seen in my life!! his ball sack hangs to just below the back of his knees when released from his y fronts!
Nice one
Glen

JT wastes no time......into a clunker on the San

JT's Magnificant 7 hit Polands famous river San (Day 1)

2010-09-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

Arrived on the holy San today with JT, Clive, Roger B, Steve, and Geordie cunts Richy and Johnny.....
After a early hour flight we arrived in Poland at 10 am and were picked up by Polish Richard and driven to our digs...
The house we are stopping in is owned by Wojtek, a house made to fit a group of anglers, we have a chef, our fly tying room, infact its the bollox!!
Standing at the rear of our fishing home is the river San and seeing it was something else, a huge wide river with rifles all over and just looks like fishing heaven...
We could not wait and after some Polish mushroom soup we all got onto the river...
I walked down with Johnny M and we spotted rises going off all over a steady flowing pool, my heart was in my mouth as I saw huge browns head and tailing taking olives which were coming off in thousands!!! these olives were hatching in blizzards!!, something I have never seen....

A cracking wild San Brownie - pure class!

Johhny M shouted me over as he hooked into a clunking brown on his first few casts...I had not even put my leader on and was already taking pictures of a brown pushing the 3lb mark, wild and pure beauty...
I soon got myself set up and put on a JT olive, i covered a few fish that were rising in a pool before i could reach my huge brown....slowley the fish came upto the olive and sipped it down as cool as they come and i tightened into my first San brown, not a big fish but a cracking wild brown...i was in the zone and looked across this huge river in awe as to what the week might bring me....

My first San fish - small, but wild and beautiful

I quitey waded over to the huge brown, every 10 seconds it would head and tail, a fish of around 4lb!! i usually count this rise as a spinner take but the duns were struggling to get off and were drifting around 20 yards and this fish was taking advantage and sipping away with no energy spent... i worked out the flow and knew that it was a one fish cast....i placed my fly bang in the zone, the fish calmly follwed the olive and calmly sipped it down... heart in the mouth stufff and i struck low and hard and the fly came straight out of its mouth back behind me!! the big gun just drifted to the depths as to say 'unlucky'... i had just pulled out of the fish of a life time.....ltd (nearly)
I was thinking this river was going to be easy but this was far from the truth, we had arrived in the middle of a huge hatch and the fish were 'on it'

7 of us were all dotted around this huge river and pulling the odd fish but the fish just switched off, hatches were insane, but these fish are spoilt and they can feed whenever they feel they need to...and getting your presenatation right is pure critical..

The hatch goes off and waiting for the spinners the start falling

We all had a few hours fishing but we were all fucked and the air went cold and it was time to get back to our fishing lodge.. the fish had just smacked us in the face and turned off.....i had thought this river was going to be easy but i soon realised that this would not be the case......

We all went back to the lodge and were made tea by Wojtek's wife, a superb cook.........

Everyone gathered - before getting rat arsed

Me and JT planning our trip for the next day on the San River

Pissed as a cunt - ready for some ATM

Professor Pointon reads up on the San River (glasses borrowed from the Geordie cunt)

Well it was all set up for a mellow night but JT got the beers out and it was a night of pure crack!! with some of the funniest stories i have every heard...

All the lads we have with us are quality lads and it sure going to be one of them weeks u never forget....

I am sitting writing this at 12.30 am and we have had a day to remember today but will post about that tomoz...

Nice one

Glen

A Spot of Grayling fishing on the Dove is just too good...

2010-09-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

Spoke to Woody in the day and he mentioned that the rivers were running slightly up with some colour pushing through, i decided that i would give Dovedale a go as i knew what would be happening.....fish going mental!!!
Before i arrived i decided that i shall go for the Grayling and bug with pink hoping to pick out any Ladies as not trout, i only enjoy fishing for trout on the dry and have found that trout tend to stay away from pink so this was my challange for the evening...
On arriving i saw top lad Adam Booth and he had been out on the dry all day and had bags of fish, i soon thought about going on the dry but it was gettin on and there were not many rises going off...
I went with a two bug set up and fish with a heavy point to clunk the bottom, i fished all my known holes from the winter and even explored a new sections of the river...

1lb 14oz of Dove beauty

My first half hour produced nothing and it took me a while to get in the flow of my bugging style, its been a while since i fished with the bugs and it soon started to come back to me...JT taught me this method and i feel it is the best method to fish if you want to catch fish....it took me months of hard work before i got 'the feel'....something that anglers who use this method will know what i mean...it all looks very easy but this is far from the truth, when learning i would stand along JT and fish the same method as him and he would be banging them out and i would have the odd fish! i now have this method sorted and it can be devastating Grayling...
Well the first half hour was poor due to myself being slightly rusty and then it all went mad...in 2 hours i caught 7 Gralyling all over a pound and two clunkers that both went 1lb15oz on my scales..two absolute cracking fish taken on a JT flashback tyed by myself...
The fish were 'at it' too, fighting harder than i knew Grayling could, one giving me a tail walk which was heartstopping as it was one of the 1lb 15oz ers!!
I did think that i should be still fishing the dry for the trout but i just could not weight to get on the Grayling and boy did i enjoy it...

Nice one
Glen

Poppy Pointon n Annie Rose on the fly and LTD

2010-09-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

Annie on the net waiting for action

Well i have had my little chickens over the last few days and since they were born i have dreamed of them fishing with me at some point.....
I have taken them the Wye once and once the stones were being thrown in i had to call it a day after 2 mins!!

Well Popps is 5 and Annie nearly 3, yes too young to take them fishing yet but everytime i ask them to go there little face light up and i just cant help myself to give it a go...they have never seen me catch a fish and this is a goal for me but on two occasions i have failed as they get bored after 5 mins..Wednesday i took them down to see Woody fish the Dove near Rocester, well this was a chance to get them to see a real fish for the first time, we arrived to the shouts across the river of WWWooooddddyyyy!!, my girls love Woody and always laugh when i mention him so they were keen to get there...

The river was shocking for rising fish, infact i think the Dove has been very poor this year but thats another story...

Poppy n Annie living the dream

It looked like we were on for a blank when Woody got the bugs out as this was going to be the only way to get a fish...watching Woody fish was a pleasure, he has come on to be a very good angler and fishes very well, far from when i met him a few years ago on the bridge at Elly, he catches fish whenever he goes and his whole fly selection and presentation is as good as any these days...Woody is also a very good friend and has done things for me that only a proper mate would do, through my ban on Leek and district he stuck by me through this tuff time and stuck his neck on the block without batting a eye lid..a 'proper sound youth' where i come from...

Well before long woodys line stopped and he tightened up into a beautiful Grayling and brought it over to my girls...there faces lit up with anticipation, they touched the fish and were loving it, i told them that this fish was the lady of the stream and they looked at it like magic as i do everytime i land one!
A real special moment for me and one i wont forget and i dont think they will...
We left Woody after a few more fish shouting WWWooodddyyy all the way home...

Tonight i got the chance to take them down to the stepping stones at dovedale, my plan to get daddy to catch a fish for them so i could be there hero for the night!
I knew i would struggle and opted to play around the stones pool until i saw a fish rise, this never happened and it was time to give Poppy her first proper casting lesson, shes a left hander and boy did she pick it up, pausing and the back cast and putting a line out!!! wicked!!
The river is in the saddest state i have seen, it so low it looks nothing like the river i knew last year, time will tell but i feel if the rain comes the Dove will fish its head off for trout in late September...
I tried to fish but had no chance, there were no rises and i just was happy to watch Poopy casting a fly while Annie Rose thrashed the water with my net!!
At the end of the session i still could not catch one for my girls but this day will come soon i hope..
On the way home Poppy asked why i had not caught? i said its very hard to catch a fish and she said 'but Woody caught them last night'!! what more could i say...

Was i living the dream? oh yes, we all were!!!

Nice one

Pure Magic

20lb Carp 'on the fly'

2010-08-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

Had a few hour session on my local carp lake tonight and landed this wacker on my 9ft 4# streamflex!! Taken on the JT elk hair chum mixer fly..
Earlier on I had foolishly pulled the fly out of a carps mouth by being too sharp..
Later on I was patent and let the fish turn its head and then set the hook home to a huge eruption.. the fish was given full power and landed after a mental fight to produce my biggest fish on this lake yet, I have seen a big common that will be my next target..
Not every fly mans dream to fish like this but can be some right fun if the rivers are not fishing well..
Nice one
Glen
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

Who the **** is Terry Hearn

2010-08-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well I have had one of the most mad weekends ever!!!

It was all set up for a mellow weekend fishing the odd spinner fall on my locals until I saw John Tyzack on my Blackberry ringing....
Jt was around for the weekend with his lad and and wanted a nights kip at my cottage...well from there it turned into three days of ...........

Jt arrived, we cracked a few cans open and I told him of my found carp lake a stones throw away from me, he said that he had landed his first ever carp at the CLA on a fly and he liked it!!

Well I was expecting him to be not interested but his eyes lit up and I then knew my little treasure would be in for some fishing...

We took a stroll across with some dog biscuits and flicked a few out... The light was turning and the fish were not willing so we opted for a few beers at mine which ended up with full on guitar strummin session... JT giving his 'Animals' version of house of the rising son!!!

Well I had to go to work on Friday and woke up to see JT at the vice at 7 in the mornin tying a splayed deer hair pattern matching a pedigree dog biscuit!!!

I went to work telling Jt that these fish do not come on the feed until late afternoon....

I was fitting a light and my phone beeped... 10.30am and my email downloaded a picture of a common carp looking around the 14 pound mark!!

Well I should have known better, JT is a master fly man and this will make him good in all fishing, I then had messages banging through of beautiful double figure carp... all taken on his new patented pedigree chum elk hair dry fly!!!...

Tools were soon downed and I raced back to see Jt with a huge grin on his face....he had matched the hatch!!

Friday morning I had to go to work but was woken up by john to breakfast in bed wearing my daughters blonde wig!! Had to look twice as he did look quite sexy..he should watch out or he will have a sore ring after too many beers!!!

John had been up early and was tying his flys, a joy to watch as he banged out fly after fly to a pace that was untrue, each one bang on the same!

Sat mornin I arrived back from a night on the lash with the lads in Manchester... Stil hungover i arrived to see Jt with a huge smile on his face, he had been on the lake again and landed some more clunking carp, one upper double that took him 40mins to land!! Taken on his chum fly....

I had spoken to Woody who was doing a whisky event at the leek show in his marque..we decided to pay him a visit and taste some of the piss he sells..well jt was in his element, we were tasting ever wine on offer, jt taking a liking to many different wines!Woody was well stressed with how busy they were so we took the piss out of him for a bit and bought two of his best known piss and headed off back to my cottage for some duck eggs on toast..

In the evening I wanted to show Jt my rarely fished stretch of river and we both decided on fishing for Grayling...

I do love Grayling as they seem to have more a wild feel than trout, and I have seen some right lunkers while perched in my sighting tree..

Well we decided to opt for 1 rod between us, something I have began to enjoy doing, I first did it with top lad Chris Prior from Cress and Litton, its a good way of taking in turns to fish while one can focus on the rises ect, you get more a feel as your fishing together..and the craic is even better...

Tree boy!!

Well we walked through a favourite pool of mine with nothing showing in the way of rises... I decided to climb my tree which looks all over the pool..I sat for a while just studying the river, something that has come from my carp and barbel days, you learn so much more from looking rather than just hard fishing..I know this long pool very well now and might seem sad but I know where most of the fish are here, I know where they hold up and also know where each fish feeds, I have not caught them all as they can be very selective and the pool is a medium paced flow so presentation is critical..the Grayling have changed there style in the last 4 weeks, they have stopped shoaling up in pairs and are now in there own chosen food lanes and spread out over the pool..these Grayling are huge and are no mugs, get it wrong and you will go home gutted as I have done many a time.. Firstly we saw bwo fluttering off and a small trout just smuttering under the surface taking emerging duns, out came the faultless JT olive and third cast produced a stunning wild brown, only around half a pound but one of the finest around, the same strain as the one I had in May fly, there are not loads of trout here, but its not stocked and very lightly fished and it does pay off from what I have seen..

I looked over the pool and found a good grayling nymphing its head off, moving around the pool very smoothly taking the ascending nymphs, I was high in the tree and directed Jt to the fish.. A single size 20 nymph was casted upstream of the fish and within 3 or four casts Jt landed a 2lb 2oz Grayling in superb condition...Jt asked me if I wanted next go but it was superb method guiding the England man onto all these fish, I could see everything from the nymph to the fish taking it..

I spotted a bigger fish down stream, this was going to be hard as the cast was a difficult one but if jt could not do it then I could not.. The fish did not look on the feed, I directed jt with the position as he could see nothing from his ground position, his first cast. Plopped 5ft above the fish, my heart pounding in anticipation.. The fish just drifted towards the fly and the fly disappeared, STRiKE! I shouted, JT calmly struck down to the side and the huge fish just rolled and held itself side on in the flow.. As the fish came along side us we new it was a special fish, its dorsal upright and a deep blue tint..

We landed the fish, weighed in my mcleans net and off she swam no worse for wear.. 2lb 6 oz and the scales and a excellent fish for the time of year..

We had done enough to the pool, other fish were there but any more would have spoilt the fun, we moved to another pool where I took another Grayling and a trout that pulled the hook.. We had only been there two hours and we were both on the way back my house buzzin our heads off!! Top draw fishing in a class way of doing it...

Back home it was time for a curry and to test some of woodys wine (piss), the guitar came out again and our new vocals were made to the Artic monkeys tune 'scummy man' please watch out for the upcoming video!!! Jt did not dare put the blonde wig on again as I was gettin horny late on so it was time for bed..

Sunday morn was a good one for me, Jt showed me how to tie some of his best patterns and best of all gave me a few hours casting in the garden, u think u are quite good until you see Jt work the line, his skills are somewhere else and and to watch his technique you can see why he is on top.. Its something i need to get bang on, yes I catch fish but there are times when a magic cast can land me a special fish..its something I will be putting right soon..

JT's breakfast

Well jt made his way off home midday and what a great weekend it was... Carp on the fly, big grayling, Woody marque, curry, wine beer, guitars and most of all JT in his wig!!!

Does it get much better... Not much...'Living the Dream'

Nice one

Glen

JT chilin in the cottage of dreams

'Dry Fly Expert'

2010-08-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

Regular rod
A famous angler who lives on the banks of the river Wye, a man full of tradition and who is known by many a angler...
I have had the chance to meet the man in question who has taught me some of techniques, he often wonders out of his house to greet me with a huge smile and talks of the wonders of the river..my Sunday evenings are just that bit more special when he has his tackle with him...
Well he has started a blog and its a cracking read, full of information from a man who has seen it all...reading it i do get the feel i am getting top draw info for free...which is very rare in the fly fishing world...
Take a look on the link below...
http://www.dryflyexpert.blogspot.com/

Nice one
Glen

The JC Mouse pattern and the Commo Shuffle on the banks of the river Wye...

2010-07-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

I had seen Commo had been through a rough time on the Dove with some lads pushing him to the floor, well if u know Commo he is just not the sort and this spurred me to invite him to my Wye, proberly the best river in the uk..
The great Johnny Colemans was due on and my best mucker Woody, it was nice for all of us to get together for the crack..
The plan was to meet in the in the Peacock around 12 and fish until the evening, i had been woken up at 4a.m to the sound of my door! it was my old Carp mate Rob Chadwick who was buzzin to have a go on my found carp pool! I decided to have a few hours before Commo arrived...i sat on the lake watching the sun rise in this top spot only a stone throw away from my house... action was slow and no fish were rising so i left my mate and went back in to tie a few flys for the coming day, i looked at m watch, it was 6.00am! yes i am insane, i had been carping and now i was going to the Wye for a full days session..sweet...
Commo arrived and we set off...

commo on the ltd sedge

We were slightly early and we sat down to my usual tea in the lounge at the Peacock, i took my fly tying bag as i am so low on flys and knocked up some ltds and fflys for the day ahead, Commo was buzzin and was right in his element, 'this is rate sound in ear youth' from commo! he has a broader Stoke accent than me and we must sound a right pair of twats!

Sortin the lads out!!

The service i get in the Hotel is superb, a posh hotel like that and they always welcome the fisherman in in all there scuffs ect...tying flys and drinking tea in the lounge just adds to the whole day..

My mucker Woody turned up and joined in the fun, dressed in his posh shirt, he did look the part but is just a nob like me and commo!!

Commo has bought Roger's shades, he was arrested later

JC arrived late as usual and we all had the crack and set off...

I wanted to show Commo the delights of the river so did not bother to put my rod together and show him the crack before i started...
We started on the lightly fished lower beat, i knew it was going to be very hard but the Grayling would be willing in certain spots...
We fished the LTD sedge as there was no hatches going off and this pattern was needed, we were rewarded by a nice wild rainbow on the first casts of the day....

JC working rising trout

Well we were starting t take the piss out of each other already and we were struggling to take some fish when JC decided we should go bigger and pulled out his sedge pattern!! i looked at it and shouted 'fuck me JC is this your mouse pattern' !! we were all pissin ourselves and from there on JC started to take fish on the mouse pattern...
Woody was in good spirit and looked hungry for fish, i knew we would struggle early and kept telling him and Commo to chill until the evening,,,
We moved into a well know Grayling pool which were rising, great, this is my style, spot the rises and fish them, i have no interest anymore in fishing a searching fly...

My mate Woody missing two fish again!!

Well we were all fishing together and taking it in turns to fish the rises with us all watching, loads better than spreading all up the river, we were all havin the crack and taking the piss out of each other...i was not set up and enjoyed watching the lads, it great that i can do this now and being a member has totally changed me, i can watch and just chill out and have a flick here and there...

Woody was put onto a rising Grayling, i knew this was going to be very hard to get to take, i have fished them lots and u need to get the fly smack on, no drag whatsoever and strike at the right time...

Commo with the only brown of the day, well done son

We all stood back and watched this 5 oz Grayling give Woody a lesson, Woody is no mug and catches fish but i knew it would be right hard so we all watched this fish do his head in...
We were giving him loads and e was taking it very well and eventually hooked and landed it after much frustration, Woody had done well, a rising Grayling to size 30 midges is harder than any trout...
JC had been catching well so it was Commo's turn, well we were all diving all over the place as his back cast was whipping all around us no matter where we stood, i even saw Woody do a SAS roll!! He had the same stick off us all until we decided to go and fish the top beat...
We arrived to my well known spots but it was obvious the fish very totally switched off, we had a walk around and just fished here and there but i could feel the Wye driving us in a false despair, i have seen this river do this to me many a time, u are catching fish then all of a sudden it just bites u and the river turns off, well i have learnt well, this is the time to pack ur rod up, go asleep next to a tree and just leave the fishing....
I decided we should get down to the Peacock for a much needed afternoon brew, i was not going to see Commo let this river frustrate him as it has done me in the past...
Walking back we met up with Jan ( haddon keeper) who come out to see us, a usual he was buzzin
Down at the Peacock we sat down and just had the usual banter in the lounge and had the much needed rest...i knew what was coming and told Commo to get ready for it...
Woody and JC had see this before and knew what a night we could have...
We made our way upto the town and fished around, Commo took his first ever river Wye wild rainbow, his eyes came alive and he was now buzzin, i loved seeing him catch fish more than myself...
Later on i saw something i have never seen, Commo found a pod of rising fish and started to take fish big time, we all walked over to him and cheered as he hooked another fish, he did some kind of dance while into this fish and we all pissed ourselves, it was kind of a walking shuffle while low to the ground!!! i made the name as the new Commo shuffle!!!

I have never laughed so much on the banks of the river...never mind the fishing we had the COMMO SHUFFLE....

Woody with a smacking Male Grayling on the dry

We moved upstream in the town and Woody had a absolute cracking Grayling pushing the 2lb mark on a LTD sedge, now there's me for weeks trying to tempt them on size 22/24 midge patterns and Woody smacks one first cast on a ltd sedge!! well done bro...

As the light faded we all fished the town and had sport that you can only dream of, i did not bother to fish much and got more of a buzz watching the lads fishing it so well.. Woody lost a 7lb plus rainbow and was absolutely gutted, we gave him loads of stick until he nearly started windmilling!! Commo was in a zone and i gazed over from the town seats buzzin off watchin him loving this river...

The biggest of the day

JC is a very good fly man and just oozes quality, we found a small black sedge coming off and JC selected a pattern that just took him fish after fish the biggest around the three pound mark...i have watched his methods for years now and i noticed how we fish very similar, why? we have both been taught by top guide John Tyzack!

Woody made up for his loss and landed a rainbow of 4lb, that gave him the run around, fully deserved from good fishing..

Commo did very well indeed as he is new to the river game, but this did not show, he caught lots of fish in the evening and i ribbed him telling him he was putting too much pressure on the river....he was lovin it..

I sat back on the town benches stuffing a Chinese down me, today i was not bothered about fishing, i have months of fun coming up soon, i was watching the lads fishing a sedge hatch buzzin there heads off and was just lovin it....shouting the odd bit of abuse to them all.....

Days like this don't come often and one i will never forget for the laugh between 4 real fly men...

Nice one

LTD

Glen

Rolling back twenty years, Carp on the dry is just heart pounding stuff...

2010-06-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

Went on a local lake this evening and invited Wess down for a evening ... the rivers are fooked and the only one worth fishing is my Wye on Sundays...

Well i have moved in my little cottage in the sticks and its taken me a while to get used to after living in the bustle of Stoke, i am now a bit of a country bum with a loud Stoke accent!

I decided to move this way as to be closer to the river Dove and Wye, and its just been perfect, i can be make the Wye in 35 mins and the Dove at Elly in 10...so yeah fishing has put me here and i am loving it...

I wandered out of my house a few weeks back and stumbled across a good sized lake that looked totally overgrown and out of sorts, well lake fishing has been something that takes me back twenty plus years, and yes Carp fishing was my life as flyfishing is now.....were there any in hear were my first thoughts and would i still get the same feeling that left me years ago when i moved onto the barbel...
I was with my two little girls and had no time to study the lake so it was just left at the back of mymind..

Last week i asked my two little girls if they wanted to go fishing with Daddy? well they are 5 and 2 years old and there faces lit up! yes Daddy take me fishing! i want a fish!!

Well i have taken them twice before on the Wye and on the Dove hoping for them to see me catch a fish, and both times i have failed due to stones being thrown at my fly!!

I planned to take them to my found gem and take a picnic to keep them calm, well this again lasted 30 mins, we ate the picnic and i picked up the rod to get in the water and Poppy was crying she wanted to hold the rod and Annie wanted a poo!! Well that was it get the stuff and go home....i had lofted some bread across the pool to see for any signs of action, i looked as i walked away to see huge open lips calmly sipping the bread down... a sight a Carp man thrives on and a sight that made my old feeling come sailing back...get on the dry!!!
Well i had spoken to some of my old carp mates and told them of my find, yes i was going to target these but with my fly rod, yes a bit mad but i hear its something getting quite big..
I got home one night and had that urge, get out of my game fishing head and go and catch these carp Chris Yates style, nothing fancy, just fly line, mono and a loaf of bread....far from my days of delkims and rod pods....
Wess was late so i opted to stroll across to the lake and get a early look in...

On arriving there was a slight ripple across the lake, i wandered across to the back end and stubbled across a shoal of 5 carp all sitting in inches of water, there shear size was untrue, some over twenty pounds and some upper teans, creeping near them like stalking a sipping brown i tossed a handful of bread crust in the area around them, they totally ignored them at first and after 5 mins they started to swirl at them but not taking, then the lips of a huge common carp came out and slurped down a piece of bread, my heart was in my mouth, this carp was a very big fish and totally out sized all the others, they all had started to switch on to the bread and i just sat and thought out my move, i was going to target the big gun..
The common would circle around hit a piece of bread then sink to the depths, again it would just appear from nowhere and take the bread...i selected a size 10 grub hook and a looped a big crust on, a roll cast did the job and i sat and waited.... nothing for a few mins, had the rod spooked them... the huge common came straight up and supped the bread, my heart in my mouth i waited and it sunk its head down and i watched it twitch its head as it felt the line.....wack!! i hit it so hard to set the hook, the fish bolted and made a run straight into my backing!! i was hammered right over with the rod and holding this fish but it was not stopping, i soon realized i had stupidly choose my 9ft 4# fly rod, i had forgot the power of these fish and had no control, i held hard as i could and the fish headed straight for the island and i give it full power.... snap! the line bust at the hook link.... fuck me, i had just hooked a twenty pound common and made a right fook up, i needed a big powerful fly rod and felt a let down to such a quality fish, the hook was left in the fish but wisely i had crimped the barb and that made me feel better...
i sat there with my heart pounding at what had just happened....

Wess came along and i told him the story and he was also mad for some action... the fish went spooky for a good hour and came back to show interest...
I hooked a fish 3ft from the bank and this time i made sure i had beefed up and got into a twenty minuite scrap with a double figure mirror...
this was very good fun on the fly rod and wess slipped the net under a fish of top draw onditon, a fully scaled linear in superb condition...i sent memories back to my old carp days of which i loved with a shear passion..

Wess hooked another fish that give him the right run around and soon we slipped the net again under a superb double linear...

Well the night was drawing in and i sat with Wess in a superb location and we just chatted into last light, it was a joy to be out wit a mate bashing carp on the fly rod, many years ago i made huge amounts of friends in this carp game, yes i loved it but i have moved on and will have the odd go but game fishing is in my blood and always will be, it did made me realise that i am not a fly man purist and i might have slipped into a fly fishing cliche, but i see myself as a angler who has been into most types of fishing and boy have i lived the dream over the years and will never ditch a course fisherman as they are much better anglers than most fly men i see prancing around the river.....
Another bonus on the pool i noticed a sedge hatch and a buzzer hatch, small fish were rising the take these, and some looked a quite a decent size(9oz) i tried to hook them on a size 22 midge pattern, i was getting rises but could not connect, i think they could be rudd but not sure, my question is to ask if anyone knows how to connect with these fish and what they might be? i would love to catch a rudd on a dry fly..please leave a comment if u could help as it will drive me mad until i catch one...
Well was nice to be drifting back to memories of carp fishing but my heart is with my sipping Wye brown and i am loving it at the min...
Nice one
Ltd
Glen

LTD Mayfly Spinner Pattern

2010-06-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Its not often i do a sbs on a pattern as it takes alot of time to do, its a bit late to do this May fly pattern but its been a real cracker for me and has all the triggers to do the buisness, i used many of the well know patterns and i did find that after a fish they were a nightmare to remove the water and return it to fish well without sinking.

Well here is the sbs, the pics are not perfect but if u have any questions do ask me and i will be gratefully answer them..

Material

Coypu (tails & rib)
Partridge sure wing size 12 or 10
Frankie Philips Coloured cdc dubbing (white)
Wild Duck cdc
Daneville's spiderweb (thread)
Red fox squirell (Thorax + legs) Celtic flytec

Run thread from eye and do touching turns to rear of hook, i used a size 12 Partridge but a size 10 would be better for the spinners i saw..

Take three tails of coypu and tie in with between 2inch and
three inch overhang at the rear of the hook.
Take the thread inbetween each tail to seperate them so they
do not touch together.

4....Take a good pinch of white cdc dubbing and
work into the thread, it looks scruffy here

but cdc is very light and can be worked into shape.

Dub upto just behind the eye..

5...Once dubbed grab the excess tails of coypu and
wind up to form a rib like in the natural, this also gives the fly very good strength and pulls any excess cdc into shape.
Tie off the coypu with your thread..

6....This is how the fly should look at this stage...

8...Now trim off the waste cdc at the other end to form the first wing...sweet..

9....Now take two more cdc plumes and repeat the same process as tying the other wing, make sure to tighten in well so the wing will not fall out while fishing...

10....This is how the wings should look when tied in and trimmed...notuce the wings tied flat, these will be worked upto the natural postition on the next stage...

11...Now take the red squirrel and dub around the thorax to give a buzz look and signs of legs..
Importantly work the wings to point at 45 degrees angle to the hook, the picture shows the underneath veiw of the fly....now tie off and go catch some fish (next year!!)

The spinner can be easily converted to a Dun by changing the dubbing yellow/cream and shortening the tails, this i did not try as i only really fished the spinner falls and boy did this fly do the job...
Will be at the ready for next year...
Happy tying
Nice one
Glen
LTD

The last dregs of the Mayfly spinner fall do me proud

2010-06-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

Its been a funny old Mayfly time for 2010, last year saw a 4 days where it was complete madness with rivers overflowing with rising fish, i remember seeing Dovedale alive with fish and its was a bit surreal to see how many fish were at it...
This year has been more mellow but still very nice to fish, for me the Dun action was more of a steady flow, i found this to be the same for both the Wye and the Dove..I fish quite often so i got chance to catch things at the right time, i had a session on the upper Dove where dun action was superb but only lasted for around 3 hours, i also had the same sort of action on the Wye...
I knew from reports that people were talking of fish not locking onto the Dun, rivers were on there arse and gin clear, heavily fished rivers made the fish very spooky and they were not obliged to take the dun, i made a decision to go and fish sections that rarely get fished and this paid me well, i would walk well know sections that would have the Drake coming off well with no fish rising, i would walk to unfished spots and they would be getting hammered!! Fishing pressure? i am unsure?
I also knew that the guards would be dropped at the witching hour so most of my fishing would be directed at these times and the spinner fall action i had was pure class, i don't remember anything like this last year and the fish were absolutely smacking egg laying spinners...
From lying in bushes and climbing trees i learnt alot of the May spinner, from mid afternoon the big white duns would start to dipp there eggs in the river and fly back up and return to place all over the runs, this would drive the fish mad and trout jumping clean out the water was seen many times, almost like dun action in the day..
A hour before the witching hour was producing swarms of Mayfly spinners and boy did the fish go mad! I rarely saw the dead Mayfly spinner with it wings flat out dead drifting, i assumed that this would happen in the full darkness hours...
It might seem odd but i found that a very slight twitch to my spinner pattern would get me take, this is not the common technique to fish a spinner but my hours of watching them showed lots of movement in the water from the real spinner...
I have caught brown trout that i don't think i will ever beat for pure looks, full on wild browns that fight to there max, i am sure these fish will go missing after the Mayfly but that's something i hope to see...
A big downfall for me was not being able to catch a fish i was after on the Wye, a brown that looked to be around four pound, not a town fish, a pure wild fish that i have only seen twice that got my heart pounding, i never saw the fish feed but i know where it lives and it will come to my net before the season ends (i hope)...
I hooked a fish on the Dove in the same condition as the ones i have pictured below and it looked to be on the 3lb mark, my mayfly spinner hook pulled as it ripped my across the river, i have seen it since but i fear i have made it extra wary so this is another one for me to have ago in the future...
Well my Mayfly has been cracking, not huge numbers of fish but some pure quality and all caught on my own LTD mayfly spinner which is a extra bonus....
Bring on the Grayling, my next target is a clunking Grayling on the dry!!
Below are some pictures of my Mayfly fish ect....
Nice one

Glen

Peacock Wye and RW shows his true sherry spinner class

2010-06-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

I went for my usual session on Sunday on the Wye and contacted Haddon river keeper Jan H early doors to ask him about the river conditions, he gave me the full low down on what was going down on the river, heavy rain!! much needed, well what other club can you join that look after you like that! Jan will always give members full info and is always on hand to help you where needed, i regularly ring him and he always shows willing to give info..top bloke

Well the heavy rain made my eyes light up, i knew this would spark the river into a feeding heaven so i made my way up there and arrived at 10.30...I parked in my usual spot and got warmed up on a stretch i always fish to see what they might be taking, it can be one of many bugs and hopefully not too small...
I took the gamble of a new stretch that i am green too, i have 7 miles of fishing which will take me years to get to know properly..
Early doors was quite, there were no Mayfly around, but there was they were rising to the small stuff which can be very testing indeed but i started to take fish where possible, the river was slightly coloured from the rain so it was hard to get my usual approach of stalking out bigger fish, i had to go for my old method of just fishing the rises, before long i went onto my new Ltd Mayfly pattern, the same as my spinner on the previous post but with a green/yellow colour, i have noticed that the wings of a dun and a spinner Drake are very much the same due to watching this last week, they do not flatten out on the water like a BWO spinner...(i could be wrong here as they might eventually flatten) but this is what i have seen...
They were not taking the Mayfly as there was only the odd ones coming off due to weather conditions, them Mayfly are not stupid!! But i knew that the trout had seen them coming off for weeks now and were happy to take them...

A wild brown 2lb 2oz, 1 hour it took me to hook this!

This did just change the slow start, i was catching hook virgin trout at a unbelievable rate, on one section i had all brown trout, every fish over the pound mark and the biggest just over the2pound mark, they were in top draw condition, the best one came with me leaning through a overhanging tree and winding my line to 12 inches from the rod tip and dapping it onto a pounder brown that was feeding head and tailing to the aphids...this brown must have never seen a fly as it went berserk when i hooked it, probably the angriest brown i have caught, i even kept my finger away while unhooking it!!
The action i was getting was just untrue, there was no big hatch going off but they were well hungry and in the mood, i had to calm down, i opted for a kelly brew and had a nap to soak in this wonderful spot..
Later on i had a visit off Jan and the fishing had slowed, at one time i would be flogging the river but now i just chill out and pack the rod away for a bit, why flogg the river if they are not on it..
I went down the Peacock where i had a brew with Jan and we knocked up a few patterns, my box is getting so low on flys i take my tying kit with me now and knock some up for the day, i need to sit down and do a load because i am still bad for hitting all trees around me!! Basically i use 5 patterns in different sizes for all my fishing, nothing else....

My LTD Mayfly spinner is doin the buis for me

Today was one of those days when it was all happening for me, you probably get one or two a year, but everything was sweet and i sat in the Peacock knowing what would come on later....'The Mayfly Spinner fall' now this i was looking forward to....

I decided to fish the middle section, it was now around 6.30pm and i decided to work my LTD spinner through the likely pools, most fish were willing to sip the fly down but a dead drift was the key to a rise..
I hooked into a fish that give me a fight that opened my eyes, a slight dimple as the LTD Mayfly was sipped down, you hear people saying the run peeled the line off but this fish took me down to my backing with the braid just coming through my rod tip!!! I have never had a fish with so much power, it was jumping out the river and hitting branches a foot above the water, landing the fish weighed 2lb 2oz rainbow, these fish are complete joy to hook and i have never seen power quite like it, the big guns in the town can be fun but a wild 2/3lb fish tests ur skills to the max..

top class wild rainbow

The evening started to come in and i moved upstream and met up with Derbyshires most famous angler, Richard W, i have seen him posting on the forum for years and its always nice to see a angler who is known for his skills, i am the type who learns off other anglers, i have fished with some real top anglers who all have there different approach, when i fish with other anglers they don't probably realize but i watch every single move they make, sounds a bit mad, but if i put all these together its can only help me to become better, J Tyzack has been my mentor and watching him is untrue,i have studied him very well and his skills are maxed out but his concentration is something else...

I walked over to see Richard, sitting there with a sweet old fishing hat full of flys and a battered old hardy bag, holding a cane rod.

We chatted for a while and i was interested in the methods he uses fishing the rusty spinner(bwo spinner), its something i have heard him talk about and others, he once caught a 13lb fish using his method, now to me this sounds some feat but when i saw him fishing it i could see why, these fish lock onto the naturals in the evening when all the bread feeders have gone home, but they are no mugs and you will not catch fish unless you are fishing right, looking across the river you could see huge browns and rainbows head and tailing, a sure sign of taking dead drifters..Bakewell town was something else tonight, the crowds had not come and we had the beat to ourselves, the light was fading and the river as alive with slow sipps from the hungry trout...
Richard was very willing to give me all his advice and his cool methods and i stood and watched this veteran at the top of his game dead drifting the spinner....Top draw stuff...
I moved slightly upstream now and changed my pattern to a sherry spinner, i was going to try and hit these clunks on at size 18 sherry!!

Jan was out with his dogs keeping his eye on the river, we stood there chatting with a local chap who lives on the town, the first five mins saw me with no action, i soon got my head on and improved my dead drift, Jan shouted me and i looked around at him and he returned with, 'its just been taken' i looked around to a boil and i was in!! a good scrap produced a wicked 2lb 15oz rainbow on a sherry..i was buzzin...

I soon started to take fish on this method and it was a complete joy to use, the fish steadily rise and sip down as cool as anything, a complete change to the slashy rise most are used to, i did often look around to see the RW with rod bent action as he was taking them too..the method was not easy, a drag free drift was the key, anything else and the fish would not even look..
I stood with Jan and we watched Richard fishing away, Gaffer Warren turned up in his usual buzzin style, we all stood there havin the crack, it was a great time to be out on a warm evening fishing the spinner, i even managed to get Warren land a fish for me!
Richard has a style about him that most try and pull off, the hardy bag and the cane rod ect, its not my style, i see myself more of the modern fly man but this bloke is the real deal, he is the old school fly man and you can see that the hardy bag is battered from years of being on the river, a true flyman without any attitude, there are not many of his style around now, just the wannabes that just dont cut it...
Richard kindly gave me one of his famous sherry spinners, this will go along with my collection with a Oliver Edwards dun i managed to get from him..
A days fishing to remember and the evening was just that bit special, i had been fishing the sherry with the RW!!
This picture shows Richard Ward at last light, its one of my favorites and just shows Wardy 'Living the Dream' on a spinner fall, but i fear he has lived the dream far more times than myself....
LTD

Richard Ward fishing the sherry......

Nice one
Glen

Top class sport on Mayfly spinners

2010-06-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

Finished work around 4 and had one thing on my mind, get the rods out for the last few magic hours of the day...
I do lots of my fishing in the evenings and its something that i a very used to now and when most anglers go home for there tea i am arriving knowing what goes on at this magical time of day...
There is usually a lull 2hrs before the light goes and i suppose that's why many choose to go home, i sit around smoking and gazing over the water preparing myself for usually a hours metal action..
All my specimen fishing has learnt me this, when i fished the dove for barbel i would bait the swim all day with hemp ect and watch the huge monsters drift in and out of the weed with no interest whatsoever but when the magic witching hour came the barbel would drop there guard and you could see them absolutely walloping the bait down, at times you could pick the fish out you wanted with ease..

Well this goes for Trout fishing, they too drop there guard and its surprising how close you can get to these fish, i fished with Crewe lad Phil Smith the other week at Dovedale and we saw fish feeding in only inches of water!

Well tonight gave me them same action but different to normal is that we are right in the middle of 'duffers fortnight', the Green Drake is away and its a time when anglers come out from everywhere to get some action, i hear anglers moaning that they only see trout men in mayfly, well to me thats fair enough, some are not as addicted as us and why not go and and catch a few fish when its easy...well this is not my bag, it quite the reverse, i have found Mayfly can be non challenging, i went out the other day and had three fish in three casts! bad casting, drag, they will still hammer your fly...

How i have changed (learned) at one time i would hammer the river and come away saying 'i have had 20/30+ fish in a few hours!! well now i would be quite embarrassed to say this, i love it hard (not that way Prior!) something that really gets me thinking, John Tyzack will tell you that i am always asking him Why? What? ect, i like to know what happening and fly fishing though at times can be very easy, it can bite you on the arse and send you home puzzled..

Tonight i fished the upper Dove, on arriving it was obvious that the mayfly were coming off well, every likely pool would have a fish 'searching' for the Drake.. I started to fish and taking fish, i soon had a break when i caught a very small fish to a huge mayfly pattern, this fish will sulk for 4/5 days and will miss out on some good mayfly that it will obviously need..catching these fish must do them no good so its another good reason for me to go siting bigger fish..

I watched in amazement in a deep back eddie, mayfly nymphs swimming to the surface and braking out of there shucks, i could see the whole thing, on entering the surface of the film they would be out of there shucks in around 3 seconds, obviously they are very prone here to feeding trout, one thing that did strike me was the colour of the dun as it just left the water very deep yellow colour, within 30 seconds the dun would change to the colour we all most know, this is something to keep in mind when matching colours...

I also noticed that most of the trout would take the emerging fly preferably to the dun, due to less effort for the fish, there was no splash, just a powerful swirl under the surface, the erratic jump would come when the fish hit the nymph too late and would dive out the water to take mid air!! also i did notice the trout would dive bomb the dun to sink the fly then take it, now i know why i miss lots of takes on certain days...

I had calmed down and wandered the river watching Duns getting nailed all over river, i was in the middle of the best hatch yet and just sat and enjoyed watching them, i have learnt so much by watching trout feeding than actual fishing, i can watch a trout now and know exactly where to place it with different fly patterns, believe me this does make a huge difference..more on this when i get more time...

I decided to take a few 1lbers and moved down to the bottom of the beat, lit a fag and had 30 mins kip on the bank side...
I soon come around to see that wonderful orange/red glow of a sun set that photographers dream of, a time where you can take a pic of a lifetime, there were huge mayflys dancing all over the river, yes it was the wonderful mayfly spinner time!!
The fish were onto them big time, the rises had gone from huge slashing dun takes to the boil of a easy prey spinner...
Easy for the fish but a spinner fall is never easy on the angler, drag is a pure no go, patterns need to be very alike as spinners tend to be taken in very slow flat flow so the fish has plenty of time to inspect your fly, this is my kind of fishing, hard....
I selected a new tyed pattern by myself called the LTD Mayfly spinner, its always buzzing to have a new pattern to see how it fishes, my LTD sedge has done wonders for me and i continue to get messages thanking me for doing a step by step on my blog..and some very good comments about this fly which is very nice, Wezzer had some given to him by the quality Crewe angler Tony Slade which was nice to see...
I watched big wild browns taking spinners in a flat calm above a rifle, to present the spinner i was going to have to get in the fast flow behind the fish and get a slack cast in to give me some time before the drag kicked in...my first cast brought me a nice brown of around half a pound, not the fish i wanted which was slightly above...
The orange glow across the river was amazing, spinners were all over the place, not just mayfly but the Sherrys in perfect form...
My heart started to pound as i moved in position for the bigger fish, i could not see it but the bow waves coming while feeding showed a decent fish, the light had nearly gone, it was deadly silent and it was just me against this fish...i blew the water out the cdc wings, ginked up my coypu tails and made a cast well upstream of the fish and waited, will it wont it, i just saw a head pop out as calm as anything and disappear, i waited then bollocked the hook home with a side strike, well the water just erupted, flat calm changed to a bow wave, the fish tore 20 yards of line off, the water was only inches deep and i could see i heading for its home... i thought i am into a fish of a lifetime here with a 2lb tippet...the fish was played back towards me and went straight down the fast rifle pool, i have learnt to lay off the pressure when this happens as you will most certainly lose it if you bully it, laying off the pressure and the fish will find a place beside a stone out of the flow, this happened and i got behind it a swung it into the net...
I was expecting a huge fish from the scrap it gave, but holding the net up the fish weighed a very respectful 1lb 10oz and as wild as they come, a fish almost certainly a hook virgin...the fish was photographed and carefully returned and went down as one of my best fighting fish ever...and to a Mayfly spinner made it all the better...Sweet!!
The LTD Mayfly spinner has done me proud, it will be tested on the Wye tomorrow so will give a update tomoz..i will do a step by step if anyone want to try one, i dont put them on my blog unless i know they are worth it....

PS A note to the my blog followers..
I would like to thank all the lads for the support i get from my blog and the comments many of you leave, i have met so many sounds lads through this and its opened up lots of fishing opportunities for me, its something i do for all to see and i enjoy writing them, all my posts are from my heart and get me in slight bother sometimes but i just cant change the way i am, i will always tell it like it is and honest it what i am about...

Nice one
LTD
Glen

Valsaline in the Lost Valley with Chris Prior on the Cress Wye

2010-05-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

The Straggle!

CP the Canny angler working a pool sweet

I got invited by Sheffield's 'Canny' Chris Prior again to fish more water that we did not get time in the last outing, the numbers we took last time to the dry were untrue and i was hoping for some same action but with a clunk thrown in if possible.....

Chris had spoken to me on the phone and told me about a lad he had fished with that used vasaline instead of gink and said to bring some along to see what i thought! Well last time i had a sore ring from his spicy chicken so the vasaline purchase would be handy anyway!!

Off to the local chemist and i started to look for a small tub of vasaline, i did feel quite strange as i dont think i have ever bought a tub of vasaline ever as i don't really want to be known as a fudge packer!!

Anyway i purchased a small pot and walked out the chemist with all the Lady's thinking i was going to 'push some stools in'......

I met Chris at 11.30 and we were to meet up with Dave Percival and Chris Dore (river keeper) and have some snappin in duffers hut...

We all sat down to some right good food with Chris P serving a chili con with garlic bread, as usual Percival was taking the piss out of my trainers as this is not the usual dress in the hut, i did tell them to **** off as i am a Stokey Chav and not a Derbyshire 'shit kicker,' he set me up by telling me to put loads of a sause on my chilli, well i took a mouth full and my mouth was on fire with all the lads pissing them selves!! I spoke to Chris Dore the river keeper who has got a big job on his hands looking after this huge stretch of river they have, catching poachers all day must drive u mad, a sound lad who is again like my mucker Jan from the Peacock, is only to keen to help you out... he eventually took us off road in his 4x4 and took us through the scariest tunnel i have seen, a lock and key at each end and in pitch blackness we drove through to the other end...

Chris Dore dropped us off and we shook hands and he wished us luck and we were on our way to the 'lost valley'...

The lost valley as known to the lads in Cress, and the scenery is just breathtaking, i think dovedale is amazing but this is well on par, and better with there only being a few walkers due to the harsh tarain...I read a article in T&S last week and a angler said that you sometimes get ur blinkers on while fishing and don't appreciate where you are, this is very true and its nice to just chill out and take it in (once u have caught!)

Anyway the fishing....

This is probably the nicest brown i have ever caught

The river was on its arse and in need of a just wash out, the fly life was very sparse and it was obvious it was going to be tough on the dry, we opted to go for the nymph to see if we might get one of those clunkers in there...

We started to fish with a single bug and work the section fishing the likely holes ect, as usual Prior was banging his jokes out having me in stitches!

The fishing was superb as normal and we were catching lots of small browns and rainbows, today was not going to be a dry fly day so we kept on bugging, around the afternoon i spotted a very nice rainbow at the back end of a run, we stood watching its movements and decided to drop a nymph in front of it, at first it seemed to be spooked but on the second cast the fish just came and hit the indicator and then hit the nymph! tightening into this fish drove it mad and i scrapped away with this clunk for a few mins, we dropped it in the net to weigh a cracking 2lbs of wild Wye rainbow, a smashing fish in fine condition, we had done just what i had wanted to do, a wild clunk from the C/L, i have seen well bigger but they would surely have to be stalked out at feeding time...

2lb wild rainbow in superb condition

All at the Ready, Chris was not smiling 10 mins after!!!

Chris Dore (River keeper) and Chris Prior

Bad Angling Pointon Continued...................

2010-05-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

Well I did a post recently on the Wess,s Tean stretch and the Buttercup brown has been driving me mad!!

Well here goes the update...

It might be me but I do get rather obsessed when I can't beat something, it stays on my mind most of the time, I have been in bed at night thinking of ways to get this brown, I am not talking a fish that is easy to catch here, this fish is totally unapproachable from the front, you need to get around the back of it, it will only feed around mid day to olives which usually last for around a hour then it will go back under roots in 4ft of water, you can't make any sound under foot, you cannot put much fly line on the water and certainly put mono over it head!And drag!! How do I know all this? Well I have tried to catch this fish on four outings and each time made a certain mistake which I have then gone away and thought of my next approach.. As many of my blog followers will know I have always been a specimen hunter, in barbel, chub or carp, Game fishing is something that has really made my angling complete, the use of a fly rod has something very special that only we fly men know how it, I am a sucker for a 'specimen' fish and I still love catching small free rising trout but the rewards of a 'clunk' are buzzin.... ..catching that bigger, wilder trout is very hard indeed, and to the dry is even harder, fish like these are not that big by being foolish..

As I have said before I could put some heavy nymph through the run and stand a much better chance, but if your like me I do love the dry and that's what fly fishing is all about (my view)...

So back to the fishing, I turned up on my fifth session, walked straight to my know hold like a man possessed! This was getting to the point where I would wait for a good flow as I was failing..

I turned upto my view point behind a tree in bunches of nettles, this position has become very familiar to me! The nettles trodden down, I know every shadow that lies on the river, every boulder and stone on the river bed! I think most anglers know that feeling from being in one of your favourite positions on the river...

The fish was there as normal, holding right in the slow off on a rifle, about 2inches from the surface, I knew there must be a good hatch going off as this fish would stay high up in the river spending no energy sipping olives, at the back end of a hatch the fish would go to 4 or 5 inches below the surface and rise on the last dregs of the hatch..

There were Grayling rising further back and they were taking what looked like to be emergers as the trout was taking the full dun...the Grayling would shoot from the bed of the river and hit the fly and return back to the river bed..

Today the buttercup was acting different, it was totally walloping duns and looked to be totally preoccupied with them, I knew this was my big chance...

I set my camera up on video and left it on the farmers fence pointing to the spot, pressed record and walked downstream, got over the fence and crawled upto my casting position, behind a tree in a hole, from this point I could not see the fish but could see the rise.. My heart pounding as normal I was waiting for the right moment, wait for it to rise then drop it on as not to spook it, I then went for it putting some false cast in then finally dropping it in, the fly landed a into the food lane, as it dropped on the surface I saw the fish take a olive to the right of my fly and then head for my fly!! Mouth out the water, swirl, then tighten up....yes the hook set home... Buzzin my head off, I was just holding the line tight as I got in the water and the fish was just holding and violently shaking it head, I knew this fish had never seen a hook so it was acting strangely until it saw me with the net, It shot down stream without my knowing at a instant turn of pace, this catching me out big time and my fly line got stuck around my reel, the rod looped right over and I was waiting for a snap but managed to release the line and it took line off it needed, I knew then I was in for a good scap, I was on stroft 1.40 kg so was limited in the stick I could give it.. I managed to get the fish upstream of me and it then started to hit roots and roll, ever time it saw the net it would bolt off, I got to the point where I thought I was going to lose the battle, I could see I had only hooked it in the lip and started to think it was going to pull, I made a last pull to the net and she came in!!! Wicked, I had a great feeling of relief, I had just done what had been driving me mad for a weeks, I had done it, a wild clunk to the dry...I picked her up to weigh in my mcleans net and she tipped at 2lb 2oz... Shaking I held her in stream to get her wind back and got my camera at the ready.. Picking the fish up was untrue, a true 2lber in fin perfect condition, wild as they come and hard a fook to catch, the underside was the lovely buttercup yellow I have seen..

Made up I took a few pics and held her in stream and she kicked off as sharp as ever..

I slumped down next to the river and sparked up a bensons,took in what I had just had, a great feeling...I looked up the river and saw another huge fish sipping olives, should I get the rod out again or was I really bothered now, then reaching over the fence our farmer shouted across 'ows they goin on Glen' the fish bolted! 'Sound youth' I replied..He had spooked the fish, i was not bothered, I had 'lived the dream'!!

You can see the video of catching the fish if you click on the link below...

Woody tells me my language is terrible and now I know...you can see the brown rising amongst the shadows of the three trees in the river, you can see the fish also rise as my fly hits the water just to the right of my fly...the rises in the middle downstream of the trees are Grayling, notice they are of no interest to me!!!

Cressbrook & Litton Wye Guesting with member sec Chris Pryor

2010-05-05T12:14:00.000-07:00

I recently had contact with Chris Pryor the secretary of the famous club Cressbrook and Litton on the Derbyshire Wye, we had a long chat and he kindly invited me to share a rod with him on this exclusive river..

Well you could imagine my excitement getting the chance to go and fish this river with a very experienced angler like Chris..

As i am a member of the Peacock fly fishers on the Wye it was going to be great to see what the river was like further upstream..Well this is the story....

I met Chris at 10.30am and had a quick chat where we decided to head higher up the river as this would be a different challenge to my normal fishing on the Wye, i followed Chris through the windy lanes and eventually came to the river which we drove along for a good few miles, i nearly ended up in a ditch as i was totally fixed on the river driving down and my heart picked up a beat as i started to see how good this river looked!

We pulled up and Chris give me the low down on methods used to keep in the club rules, 1 nymph could be used or 1 dry fly and wading allowed...

We tackled up and Chris asked me to try my 9ft 3# streamflex for the day whichi was glad as i have started to use this in most of my fishing...the weather was very cold with a blustery wind and felt more like a mornings fishing in January...

We opted to fish with a single nymph as it was still early with no hatches apparent..

perfect brown

On entering this river you can see why its so good, the river bed is scoured clean with no silt, the water gin clear and a good flow rate, it felt strange to be wading as the Peacock have a no wading rule..

Chris working the single nymph

We fished the first few likely pools with Chris pointing out likely holding lyes, we had no action for half hour and i managed to bump of a small rainbow, we were moving further upstream and Chris spotted a rainbow of around a pound then both of us opened our eyes to see a huge wild brown in the 3lb mark, then a rainbow looking on the better side of 4lb!! this river always seems to shock me of the quality it holds, this far up i was expecting a 1lb fish to be good but there are huge fish all over the place...

Catching these big fish is a different game though, we tried put nymphs and drys past them but showed no interest at all, if i had more time on the river i would sit and wait out for these big guns to come on the feed as hooking one of these in this small stream would give you a right buzz...

Chris guided me upto the old mill which he told me was to hold a good head of fish, we soon started to take fish to the nymph which was nice as it was looking to be one of those days where the fish were just not on it..
A few small rainbows and brown came to hand and it was time to head off downstream for some dinner..

We drove further downstream, opened a few gates with lock and key and pulled onto the famous fishing hut at duffers pool! Chris opened up the hut while i looked onto the river and noticed a nice rise from what looked a good fish, well a rising fish to me is like seeing a woman bend over, i just cant wait to get on it!! Chris could tell i was buzzing and shouted over for me to have a crack at it, on came a old school Adams dun and first cast up came a 2lb brown and slowly sipped the fly in, this sort of rise really does it for me, when fishing a back end of a pool where it really slows offyou have to get the your presentation smack on, or expect nothing, when the fish just slowly gets in the lane of your fly and puts it mouth out of the water this can be heartstopping.. well i hit the hook hard home and the brown went nuts driving me all over the pool, Chris came over with his net buzzing for me and off pinged the hook!! gutted...

Well i have never been in the environment of a fishing hut and its never really been my thing but on entering this famous hut i soon realised that it was no usual shit hole, it had food, wine, bread, full cooking, heating, you name it, it had it all!.. Chris had put on a spread for me and he had really gone to town, chilli chicken, salad, olives, wine! fuck me i felt like a star for the day, i was not expecting this treatment, me and woody usually have a dodgy spar pork pie next to a coloured river, and i might get the ferro rocha out if the co op are doing 2 for 1!! The hut has a good feel to it, and there must be some good crack that goes on in there between the lads and you can see that lots of work goes into this club to make it special for all the members and guests..If you do ever fish with chris beware that the food he prepares is hotter than a vindaloo! even now i am still putting the bog roll in the fridge for the mornings ring sting!!

I was introduced to a few of other members who came into the hut who were very polite and i even had to tone my swearing slightly although i do find this hard..
Chris told me to get ready as we were going to some rarely fished water as he knows thats what i love, the weather had warmed up slightly and i was hoping for some dry fly action, i could have stayed in the hut longer and got on the wine, something i fear if Woody ever joins, as i can just picture him crawling out of the hut leathered lol....
We made our treak for a few miles upstream and this was something else, the views were amazing with rock faces either side in stunning scenery, i did not know these places existed but to fish hear also gave it the extra edge..We soon spotted a rise and Chris kindly said 'its your fish mate, its your day' What a sound bloke, Chris was letting me fish loads more than himself and just kept telling me to keep fishing..top bloke....
I covered the fish with a JT olive and whack i landed my first cress wild rainbow to the dry, a small fish but lovely..
Well from then on the large dark olives came off big time and the whole river erupted with rising fish, we were fishing in the middle of a stunning valley with fish walloping olives, i was fishing quite hard as not expecting the hatch to last long, but it went on for over three hours!!
We were catching fish after fish, we had chance to see which fly worked best and the JT olive came on top every time, the Adams did ok but JT's Olive took the piss slightly when a natural dun came drifting down with the JT and the JT was taken over the natural!!! Chris and myself saw this happen twice....

The Fishing hut!!

Well none of the fish we had were over a pound but we did not care, the sport was amazing, like nothing i have ever had on the dry, i would say a 50/50 split between Rainbows and Browns..

In total we shared one rod and had 46 fish to the dry!! we did not hammer pools too, we would take a few and move on..it was dry fly heaven..

We strolled back towards the fishing hut having a good crack between us, and we met up with river keeper (retired i think) Dave Persevel, well i had seen him on he Jt Mayfly dvd and new his face, he approached us and said, 'yes i have reported the dodgy van on the hut car park to the police with a poaching Glen Pointon!!' I gave him a bit of stick back and we had a good laugh on the walk back..

Chris found a fly stuck to his neck which we all said that we had never seen one, it was a huge olive, studying it we come up with March brown pictured below, something i have never seen and the river keeper had never seen, a beautiful fly nearly the size of a Mayfly..

While chatting with Chris and Dave i did notice that these lads are proper sound, i expected them to lord it slightly but this was the total opposite, they were very keen to see how i had gone on and wanted to know what i thought of the river, Dave P did say that this club is run for 'the anglers' and this shows through very well in there set up on the way they run this fine club, i did expect it to be a 'exclusive' which it is but in a true anglers style...

Fishing with Chris was a proper buzz, he is a grounded lad from Sheffield, and was telling me jokes all day and had me laughing my head off, he has been fishing for years and it shows in his approach, i picked up lots of tips from him and watched his methods like a halk as i do with any good angler..I would like to thank him for giving me the chance to fish this class river, i will return the favour on one of my waters but he might have to rough it slightly!!

I must say that anyone can fish this river Wye as the cressbrook and litton club do a day ticket which is around £40.00, the stretch they use for day ticket is top draw and will give you better fishing than any other river in the country, the fish are plenty, not from stocking but from the river being a gem, you have to see it to believe it, there are huge fish to be caught also, i heard of a 6lb wild rainbow being caught!!

Living the dream with Chris

inside the holly hut

My advice to anyone fishing is to be patient and wait for the olives to hatch and some frantic sport will be had, this river is for the experienced or the newcomer, i would of been put off by fishing here years ago thinking i was not good enough but the keepers and members are very willing to help you out.. its also well worth going to see the fishing hut...

Anyone wanting to Fish Cressbrook & Litton Dayticket water should phone head keeper Stephen Moores on 01298971676 or there website is http://www.cressbrookandlittonflyfishers.co.uk/

Ltd

Nice one Glen

March Brown?

Bad angling Pointon!!

2010-04-27T08:21:00.001-07:00

I have been fishing the river Tean over the winter period on a beautiful spot that is on the banks of my mate Andy Warems (Wess) house..
Andy has sealed all the rights to fish this wild river and I have joined him to see what's in there, well we had a very successful Grayling season and visits gave us plenty of action with fish upto a pound.
We did kick samples and were amazed by the quantity of invertebrate.
In the last few weeks we have wondered the river looking for signs of trout, we started to see trout in likely looking spots but to my amazement these fish are huge! Most looking to be around the 2lb mark, now these are truly wild fish, this river has never been stocked and ever been fished with the fly so we have been very eager to get a taste of the action..
We were unsure about hatches of olives and again it has been rewarding to see fair amounts of Ldo coming off around 1 o'clock but also to see Grayling rising to them yet another bonus, the big question was would these huge trout we had seen be brave enough to rise to the olives. Well this is how the story has gone so far.....
In the middle of our beat wezz and myself were hiding behind a tree watching ldo trickling down, this was great as the river is quite clear and we could watch there behaviour taking the dry, this is when we saw a huge buttercup yellow brown glide into the middle of the run, and hang just below the surface, we both lay there our eyes fixed on this wild fish, before long it did what we had hoped for, it started to take the full dun, now this was pure fun to watch, we were at least 10 ft away watching it on the feed heavily, it must have taken 30 plus olives in a half hour space.. Now these fish have not got this size from being foolish and we soon had to work a plan out..we decided to come back the next day all prepared with the dry..
The next day we once arrived at the river all geared up to have a go at this fish, both of us buzzing of what we had seen before..
As we arrived around 12 the pool looked dead with no hatches or rising fish, I opted for a method explained to me by John Tyzack...we would sit and wait and the fish would eventually feed at some stage..sounds boring but not when you get the rewards of catching a fish like this on the dry, many a angler I know would just work a duo through the pool with no hatch and properly stand a good chance of catching this fish, but as Jt tells me 1 fish to the dry is worth 20 to the nymph..how I believe this to be true, to catch this fish to the dry would be some feat, now you might think this is not hard on most rivers but these fish are so cautious I have seen no other spooky when the river is low, even a branch snap puts these fish down, they have not grown this big in a small stream from being foolish..if not feeding they are down in there lye, this one under a tree root in a deep hole.
After a hour or so of talking shit between us we saw the Grayling start to rise, emergers at first then the full dun, before long into the hatch the big old dogger came calmly into the swim and started to walop olives down like his daily treat, it was Wez who set up to have a go and I was going to stay put giving info to wez as he go in position, we opted for a crawl infront of the fish with a down stream cast hiding behind a tree, wezz got in position and I watched this fish rise every ten seconds full on show to me and told wezz the position..I was buzzin and wezz was too, he flicked his rod back and cast a nice line down the food lane, the fly was drifting straight to the fish and for a reason not known the fish just turned away and sunk back to his deep hole, ahhh gutted, that was it, something had spooked the fish and put it down, there was no drag, the fly was a Jt olive.. The only thing I could come up with that the movement of wezz,s rod upstream in the fishs view put it down or the flyline hitting the water...we had failed but our hunger to get this fish got stronger..
We left it over the weekend and decided to have another go this week, we arrived again at the magic 1 o'clock to see this fish again in the middle of a full hatch on the feed!
It was my chance to get ago at this fish as it had got in my head and Wess has past it over to me as he knows how much I would love to catch it, he has got another one he has seen in his head!!
I opted for a different position on the other bank suggested by Wess, I would have to put a upstream cast in this time as not spook the fish again..
I crept around over the weir bridge to the other side, wess was now opposite me who could see the fish but the light was bad from this side so he had to guide me of where the fish was stationed, I selected a long tapoured leader down to a 2lb tippet mudded up with a emerging olive pattern I had tyed the night before just for this fish, the fish was taking full duns but I think a emerger can look more appealing to a spooky fish...
I had to lay on my front in nettles holding my rod out infront of me, I had told wezz to shout strike when he saw the fish turn as to hook it...my first cast was a bit wank which put me in flat water so I waited and then dropped it perfect in the food lane 3ft infront of the fish, Wezz whispered 'sweet cast bro' my heart was pounding in my chest, I have not been this nervous for a long time but I just knew how hard this was going to be even if I hooked it...the fish would just bolt to the tree roots and would my 2lb tippet hold the lunge as I was going to have to give it some stick..
I could see the cdc sticking out the water as it drifted down sweet, then the fish turned and headed straight to it and the gulped to fly.. My heart was in my mouth, I struck down stream hard and 'nothing!!' I then heard 'strike' from wezz, I had struck too soon and pulled the fly out of its mouth, I had not even pricked the fish but again it slowly drifted back to its hole...I heard a voice in my my mind from my teacher John Tyzack 'bad angling son bad angling' this is something he says to me when taking the piss if I have messed up!!
Wess looked across at me gutted, shaking his hand in the sign of a wanker...
Well you can imagine how gutted I was but the bonus was I got the fish to take the dry and that is sweet for me so as I write this the fish is still in my head big time..
I know I could wait for the river to get some colour and flow back and this will make it easier but I love it hard and to catch it like this would be a memorable one...
This is now my main target, so watch this space...

Andy Warem is doing day tickets for the stretch, and he lives on the bank and will show you the river, it a testing river but the trout are huge and rise to the olive, plenty of grayling that take the dry too but a nymph is a killer. stealth is the key...its catch and release only...
If you want a session ring Andy on
07989323051

Nice one
Glen

Glen Pointon Electrical Contractors
mobile 07973951352

Wessers Wye Wacker puts a smile on our faces

2010-04-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Has my usual session on the Wye Sunday and guested my mucker Wess for his first session on the dry at this holy river, i met him at the Peacock at 9.00am and we sat down for my now regular coffee in the lounge..

Just seeing Wess's face was a picture as i knew how he would be buzzing as i was on my first visit, even i am still the same every time i come to this place..
Jenny Mcenzie brought us the flys that are sold at the Peacock and we had a chat about how are day would go, there is nothing like the antispation of getting yourself ready for the days fishing as his place can make dreams come true. I told Wess of the mistakes that people make who come to this river which i have done myself, You pay your money and go mad fishing everywhere trying to cram it in in one day, by doing this you end up missing hatches all over the place and can go home with a smacked arse..my method is to choose a section and get to know it and wait for it to happen...because it always does..
I choose to work the beat above midway, somewhere i know quite well and this would give me chance to help Wess all i could.
We drove along the A6 following eachother with our arms hanging out the windows inpersonating being into a big fish!! Peolpe walking past must have thought we were mad!!
We soon tackled up next to the river with some pure piss take from our dress sence, Wess thinks he looks cool with his chav cap and his mchammer type waders!! when i look pure class on the street! with my barbour gear!!
I wanted to start by showing wess some nice runs and did not want to fish until he had taken a fish, i sometimes feel a bit under pressure when showing a section i fish incase it does not happen and i would get some severe stick if we drew a blank..
But it was not 5 mins and Wess hit a fish on a elk hair caddis, a small fingerling rainbow but a true wild one and Wess was buzzing!! He started to get the feel and started to take fish so i got my rod out we went wondering around and sighting fish..
We saw a big rainbow in the gin clear water and it was my turn for a go so i just flicked a JT olive into the path of this fish with not much confidence, but like in slow motion it slowly moving into it path and sipped the fly in, i waited then bang set the hook home and she was off downstream zingging my lamson, after a right good scrap wess netted my a nice 1lb 8z rainbow..
It was now Wess turn and he did exactly the same but this time a nice brown came to hand and was realeased..sight fishing is superb, wess was on a high he was shocked to see what was going on, i too could not beleive that these fish were 'on it' and a fly put past in the right manner would be taken..
We spotted another good rainbow and Wess flicked his sedge out only to see the rainbow smash it like i have never seen, a few scary minuites and i put the net under a wild cock rainbow that was perfect in every way tipping the scales to 2lb 2oz...
The first three hours gave us tremendous sport but there after we were punished and the river switched off in the afternoon, we got to the stage where we were flogging the river slightly and it was very hard going wth fish showing no interest at all, so we opted to chill out in the town and have some tea..
Nothing got going later on so wess got off buzzing his head off and i went the Peacock for my posh pt of coffee
Sweet
Glen

Wye oh Wye its good to back!!

2010-04-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have not been blogging lately due to having no internet due to moving house and it feels like I have had my arm off.

I am still not sorted yet so I am writing this on my blackberry mobile.
I have had some great session in the last few weeks with some great pictures all ready to be uploaded so keep a look out.
I fished my first proper session on my Peacock fly fishers licence today and it turned out to be another special one..

I turned up at the Peacock around half nine and sat down for a right posh coffee to sort me out for the days fishing, the service in this hotel is something else, far away from in Stoke where you get 'what's want duck?' Well I suppose you pay triple for the coffee as you would back home..I was quite embarrassed when the waitress approached me and said 'good morning sir, hope your well and would you like me to pour your coffee!!'

I had to have a quick look around to see if it was me she was talking to! I think they are super pro in this hotel but this talk is not for me and I turned to the waitress and said 'its orate duck you don't have to talk to me with that shit!' She just looked at me with a smile and left me to it..she must have heard that 'lord rocher' was on the Wye!

Well the fishing, I met up with river keeper Jan and we spent a few hours running around the river showing me parts of the river that I could only say opened my eyes big time..
Jan is a good lad as I have said before and is always there to help you out with anything, he takes no shit and is strict with all the rules that I respect, I even managed to wangle some eggs from his chickens that were superb!!

Jan got off and I set up my first dry set up of the season, a 12ft tapoured leader down to a stroft 2lb 2oz 10inch tippet..(Sorry JT still not got to grips with 4x ect)

The river was looking sweet, gin clear with just the right amount of flow, I started to cast a line to get a feel and could not believe how shite my casting had got due to bugging for months...I soon got something like so headed off in search of fish, it was not lond before I found trout moving around on the feed taking nymphs, well as dry fly only I knew it might be hard...I spotted a huge rainbow only 8ft from the bank just holding current in a scum lane...I crept on my hands and knees very close to the fish and watched it for 5 mins, it was moving only 3 inches either way taking nymphs, I had seen sparse hatches of sedge so I opted for my size 17 ltd sedge...I used a method that Jt taught me with the dry last year and believe me no other method would of taken this fish..I put the fly 10ft infront of the fish and watched it sail down perfect, now I was no confident this fish would rise but she twitched her fins when the fly was 5ft away and my heart started to pump,(we anglers know that feeling, it might be a float twiching or a single beep on your delkim) you know what coming next... The fish very slowly pointed itself towards the surface at a angle and its mouth came 2inches out of the water and slurped it in!! I waited 1 second and hit... Fook me! This fish went nuts and zzzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz zzzzzz zZzZzzzz... Line just kept going!! I eventually landed the fish that was a tap under 4lb in superb condition...what a start to the dry fly for me.. Some people ask why I have joined the peacock and that is the reason, where in the country do you get wild fish of that power that push your fishing to the limits..

I carried on the day searching out fish and most were willing to take the dry...the hatches were sparse and nothing really got going on a hatch but all were willing to take a well presented fly..
I had a lot of fish today and don't want to gloat on numbers as my plan this year is to search out quality fish..
I did have another fantastic fish but that's another tail for another day...
Keeping it real and Living the Dream on my Wye!!
Will post pictures when online..
Nice one
Glen
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

The John Tyzack Spring Ldo masterclass

2010-03-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the lads on our outing with Jt, days don't get any better than this, good set of anglers learning from England's JT.. The whole day was wicked with piss take going on all day..
I am having probs with my pc so here is one pic from my phone to get started, will be updating later this week when I am back online..
Also purchased some fly materials that is going to be the bollox so will be doing a review on it very soon..
Nice one
Glen
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JT Spring Masterclass...superb lesson pays off for the lads...

2010-03-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

Post to Follow....

Dove wild fish is pure beauty......

2010-03-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

Had a quick session this week and caught a wonderful wild fish that had spots like glowing LED's, got to be one of the best looking trout i have ever caught...

Butter cup Yellow and the ladies wont leave me alone!!!

2010-03-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Been all around Derbyshire and Staffordshire rivers today to have a hour or two on each river and generally moving about..

The rain had changed river slightly in the night and got just what it needed, the rivers have been on there arse and good to look at but not the best for fishing so it was time to get out and a bit of colour would give me more stealth in my new approach to fly fishing, i am getting in very close to fish and keeping as much line off the water as possible, even while fishing the dry or nymphing is basically the same, i am using rod of 3# but 10ft and 9ft in length...this might seem odd for the smaller rivers but i am after better control and presentation, seeing the methods in czeching has opened my eyes on drag ect and time will see how i go on but today hit me bags of fish but most the oos Grayling...

From entering the Dove i could see that it was milking up slightly and from general fishing on rivers i know that if you catch it on its way up there is a short spell in 4hrs or so where you can get superb action, i think the fish sence what going on and start to hit the food before they have to take cover on a river high and coloured.....
This is what happened and my first cast into a likely looking pool produced a OOS Grayling arround a pound...I then moved around areas hitting fish after fish who were willing to hit the JT straggle nymph, the only downside being Grayling, yes its out of season now but the fish dont quite know it yet and are feeding heavy, the Trout on the other hand are not quite switched on and have not moved the Grayling out of the way and seem to be holding in back eddies tight to the banks out of the flow, another few weeks will see both species swap positions. Its very hard to change your fishing spots as all the likely ones still hold Grayling...
I did manage to catch 5 trout, one beautfiul fish in its buttercup yellow, all were taken on a nymph as with heaavy rain there was never going to be a rise...i had too many Grayling really and one was huge but i did not weigh it as it just not feel right now they are OOS, i did not dare guess the weight!!!
I did see quite a few hatches of LDO coming off but nothing to get the fish turned on...

A great day out in heavy rain, nothing on the dry yet but i am ready and waiting!!!

Nice one
Glen

John Tyzack's Dove 2lb 12oz Grayling video release!! Wicked footage!!

2010-03-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is some fish!!

'Living the Dream manc style'

Nice one
Glen

A Dovedale half day guiding with JT produces a 2lb 12oz clunk!!

2010-03-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

I have had a great season on the Grayling this year and caught some huge fish i could only dream of, fishing the bugs has been something that has got hold of me and will look forward to next season, being guided by JT from knowing nothing about Grayling fishing was the best thing i did, i picked up no bad habbits and i learnt to fish John's way which after a hard 6 weeks or so it clicked, i had a few problems that i wanted to iron out so called on Tyzack to give me a half day session at Dovedale.
We met around eleven at Dovadale and had the usual good crack and tackled up, i said to JT it looked like it was going to be very hard with the river being so low and clear and he just gave me that look and said 'the fish are still hear brother and we will have em' well that gave me a confident booster and we set off nymphed up...
JT's new fly for this time of year is the 'straggle nymph' that was thrown at me and told to put on the middle dropper, dont know who picked the name of this fly but it sounds like something i have been watching on red tube!!
John said that in conditions like this its pretty obvious where the fish were going to be and the added bonus was that there would be lots in there, how true this was when i took 5 half pound Grayling on the 'Straggle' out of a small pool, and a few trout to the point fly
We were taking fish out of lots of swims but they seemed to be in quick paced flow with a deep scour,
I took one fish pushing over the pound mark and then lost the one paired up with which looked a good fish...
Then it was the 'champs' show as i stood being intructed of a hot method and watched his line stop dead, he lifted into this fish and it rolled backwards and took a run dowstream, we knew she was a clunk but when the fish held in the flow with a 4inch dorsel we knew it was a bit special, JT's fish playing is soooo cool its untrue, never once did this fish ever look to have him over, it would not be bullied and John let it do what it wanted but with pure control, a joy to watch in a very tight space...
We slipped the net under and John's manc accent shouted 'its a clunk ar kid' weighed at a wacking 2lb12oz she was pictured and slipped back with some underwater camera action, i am waiting for JT to post it across to me as it is wicked!!
Well we were buzzin now, the biggest i have seen come from the Dove this year and we know theres bigger but they will have to wait until next season...
I must thank John for guiding me into a Grayling man this year, sounds a bit like i want to shag him but he is one top guide and makes you catch fish in any condition's, he is not there to lord it, never gives it the big un, and most of all he a right sound bloke who once you have been out with him for guiding he always helps you out with any free advice on the phone and stuff....if you want to sort your fishing, even if your already a top fly man, JT will get you 'on em'

Going for a river walk with Jan next week on the famous Derbyshire Wye, now that will get me buzzing!!!
Nice one
Glen