Summer.

[flightliner]

I love my winter fishing but come the close season I'm ready for the summer.
Anyone else ready for some warm weather?

 

[@Clive]

Me!

Thankfully I'll only have to wait another month as we are off to Spain for a fortnight and I'll get the chance to fish my all time favourite swim.

 

[Philip]

I like winter angling but this year I am really looking forward to the warm weather.

I plan (fingers crossed, hoping desperatly) I will be able to free up some time to go after some big Rudd amoungst other things, they are real clonkers ! ...its the sort of thing that does not last forever so I know I cant put it off forever.
I am also looking forward to getting back to a big pit I did a bit of time on last year after Tench & Carp that are little fished for and hoping for the very outside chance a good Bream might put in an appearance. Also hoping to get out for some Barbel in some nice places, its always a joy to fish for them when you can visually seee them in the low waters of summer. Then theres the summer Mullet which I always try and spend a few days after. I might even dust the moth balls off the bivvy and spend a night or two chilling.

...oh dear....I know already I wont be able to do it all which is a little depressing so somethings got to give...

 

[mikench]

Warm weather sounds just the ticket. Not having to dress like Nanook of the north and catch relatively easily will be most welcome. I have a month in the south of France over Easter so it should be warm but only sea fishing. We have a trip to Corsica planned but definitely no fishing. It has felt like a long winter.

 

[Keith M]

I’m really looking forward to a warm spring and summer and I’m hoping to spend a lot more time after my favourite species; the Tench; which in recent years seems to have virtually disappeared from my usual haunts; so I’m going to have to venture further afield this year.

Keith

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Right now we have a few t in blossom and the forsythia is bursting into yellow blooms.

You can just about see a little green tinge appearing in sine trees but still a way to go before summer.

 

[The bad one]

I've been bitten by the fluff chucking bug, looking forward to warmer weather. Went the other afternoon mild but a coldish wind so nothing showing. Fished a wet fly and had 1 follow by a good trout. That for me and Mart my nephew was a result as neither of us know really what we are doing. So it's the blind leading the blind!

 

[John Aston]

River or lake? If the former, on any spate river you can do a lot worse than a snipe and purple and a partridge and orange, fished across and down. It covers lot of water, gets lots of interest .And quite a few missed takes too.

 

[The bad one]

River or lake? If the former, on any spate river you can do a lot worse than a snipe and purple and a partridge and orange, fished across and down. It covers lot of water, gets lots of interest .And quite a few missed takes too.

For now it's lake fishing. Need to do a crash course in flies. My mate and mentor died in October, so I can't ask him about what and which flies are and when to fish them. So it a bit of, oh that looks a nice fly, I'll try that one at the moment.

Come the summer. I'll go and fish the upper river Eden at Kirby when I'm staying with my sister where I've had some success with dry fly blue winged olives.

 

[John Aston]

Don't get too preoccupied with patterns, as location and presentation are far more important. There is no magic fly. I've fly fished for over 40 years and I'd be happy with 5 or 6 patterns for 90% of river fishing and even fewer for stillwater. I get at least 50% of river trout on one pattern (goldhead size 14 Pheasant tail nymph ) , and I catch a good number. Ask away if you want any tips - it was a bloody struggle for me when I started ...

 

[@Clive]

I'm in agreement. I could get by with the following; PTN & GRHE in natural and beaded versions. A peacock herled fly like an Alder or Grannom. Snipe & Purple and Patridge & Orange spiders. Grey Klinkhammer & EHC.

 

[flightliner]

My first visit to Ladybower with an old friend two years ago was proving to be a struggle for both of us until he changed to a lure I did'nt know of.
He went on to take three good ranbows and a fair old brown trout. Asking what it was he told me it was a Mopfly that he had tied using one of those gloves we can use to wash our cars (the orange ones) , he gave me one and I was into a rainbow trout within minutes.
I used one last time out and it did the trick when all others nearby failed to catch.
I recantly picked up an angling mag and saw the pattern mentioned inside.

 

[@Clive]

It was either orange or black with fluro green lures that seemed to work for me at Ladybower. I made some shrimp looking things with ethafoam bodies covered with orange or green fluro and fished them very slowly on a 6" leader to High Density fly line. The bobbed just above the stones that litter the bottom so didn't get snagged like surface down flies did. They worked a treat in the early part of the season.

I am just compiling a small box of flies that might be suitable for mullet fishing next month. I've stretched and cleaned the fly line, made up some leaders and just have to select the flies that might work. I'm short of red tags so will have to tie some.

 

[flightliner]

Interesting reply Clive, back in the very early eighties I often used an "Alexander" that was predominantly green.
I would cast and allow it to sink to the bottom giving it plenty of time to settle then slowly inch it back towards me.
It was deadly on the right day and sometimes when begining the retrive there was already a fish on with no previous indication
I hasten to add that this was on mainly Strawberry bay where the bottom is mostly sand.
Saw Jack Charlton there a couple of times later on too.

 

[flightliner]

Not too far away now!

 

[@Clive]

Interesting reply Clive, back in the very early eighties I often used an "Alexander" that was predominantly green.
I would cast and allow it to sink to the bottom giving it plenty of time to settle then slowly inch it back towards me.
It was deadly on the right day and sometimes when begining the retrive there was already a fish on with no previous indication
I hasten to add that this was on mainly Strawberry bay where the bottom is mostly sand.
Saw Jack Charlton there a couple of times later on too.

Wor Jacky was my boyhood hero and had his own trout lake when he lived at Worsbrough Hall while managing Sheffield Wednesday. He was a keen fly fisher. We used to see him when out on the shoot that surrounded his house. He was very welcoming unlike our other famous neighbour Arthur Scargill who was an Anti. He would berate us every time he saw us and the beaters being redundant ex miners gave him it back big style.

My old spaniel had a nack of getting through his wrought iron gate and retrieving shot partridges from his back garden

 

[John Aston]

Jack Charlton? My one encounter was when fishing the Ure at Wensley. He and his mate decided to stand behind me, talk very loudly and pretend to critique my casting. Maybe all this noisy bantz is a football thing ? As far as I was concerned he could f*** off and leave other anglers in peace .

 

[flightliner]

If we were ever to meet up I'll tell you about one of the times I saw him at ladybower John.