A week of fishing

So, what tactics would be used? This Tarn is stocked with Rainbows like most of the fisheries in the UK, and i am convinced that there are wild browns swimming around (i have never seen one, or heard of anyone catching one, however). My first method was to go searching for the fish, and as it was raining heavily and quite windy (which seem to push our fish down) there was no sign of any fish on the surface. On goes the DI7 sinking line, 5' leader, and a small #12 sunburst FAB. With the fish being at a particular depth, i needed to search for them, so the countdown method was used. This is an excellent searching pattern and resulted in 2 fish almost instantly, after counting to some 30 seconds (17' down). For fishing, the density index number doesn't matter between brands as I’m sure they are similar, however, the sink rate is quite a complicated subject that involves the Reynolds numbers of the line diameters (including drag). The density of the water depends on the temperature and impurities, so a DI7 wouldn't sink at the same rate in saltwater as it would in purified water for example. Additionally, one end of the line is tethered to the bendy stick, so the only end that is 'free' is the front portion. Anyway, i digress.

After the two fish, we, (all 8 of us) had a tremendously long lunch. Bear in mind it was raining heavily at this point, and I filleted one of the fish i caught and handed it over to be smoked, and i must say it was delicious. He used a variety of herbs which really brought out the flavour of the trout. After the lunch, i decided to swap lines to a floater, the rain stopped and the fish started to come up, so it was on with a washing line terminating in a G&H sedge. I had two droppers with small buzzers that didn't produce any fish, but the caddis imitation did. All in all, it was a great day catching up with friends, and a full bag (4 fish) was brought back home.

I also managed to fish my old river, which is famous for sea trout. Now, the season is far too early for that, but there is a good stock of brown trout and grayling, with the opportunity of catching a very large fish. I did quite well, a brown of 1/2lb, a large chub of 3’b and I lost a very good grayling. The river isn’t very wide, but It was nice to do a few spey casts to mix things up a bit. I was on the right bank, so a back handed single spey was used as there was an upstream wind (always keep that D loop downwind). What flies did I use? The chub was caught on a caddis larva nymph (casting upstream), and the brown trout was caught on a peter ross. I also hooked the grayling on this as well, which was achieved by swinging the fly.

Tanfield lodge lake was the next port of call, and this is another stunning location. We decided to get an evening ticket, which was surprisingly inexpensive, and fished dries and nymphs. The most successful pattern was a stimulator, which was a good choice, as the caddis flies that were coming off were much smaller than the ones I had in the box. 

Where else did we go? Well, I wanted to go to Alnwick to visit the new Hardy shop, and I was very impressed. I ended up buying quite a lot of Scientific anglers lines as I can’t seem to get them locally. The mastery standard was the choice, and I must say these are absolutely fantastic, both as a fishing and a casting line. I haven’t thrown the #5 down the tape yet, but after casting it, I am sure the will go a very long way. Additionally, when I was at the shop, I met Robson green and had a nice chat with him about fishing, and of course, he had an SA Mastery Standard line spooled up on his new (limited addition) reel!

It was a great week, but the best part was catching up with friends and fishing together, that’s really what it’s all about. Have a great week, tight lines!