Bluemoon Angling Thread

my tip is, whatever you do, don’t try to lose your barbel virginity on The Dee. There are hardly any. You need to learn the ropes on a river with some in, as you don’t learn without getting bites. If you don’t mind travelling The Severn is ideal for your purposes. Otherwise The Dane has a lot more than The Dee.
Thanks DD, that kind of advice is so valuable, without this thread I would have probably gone steaming in there and been dissapointed. I might still go as its free and looked great, but now I can fish relaxed and take whatever comes, rather than be frustrated by the lack of certain species. I could blank anyway, which is quite likely as I havnt really fished a "proper" river yet, but blanks are for learning from I always say. As for your advice on the Severn, I did some research recently and Shrewsbury Town Fishery has some cracking looking stretches at Monkmoor and the Quarry Park in town plus lots more, they have a decent website. You can buy a day ticket online for just £7 too. I might drive down there to take a look soon with the view of going next year when I hopefully allow myself more time, its about 40/60mins to get there and its not a bad run.
 
Thanks. So I see where the oarsman sits. Does the fisherman cast from the front or the back? Looks like you have a lot of storage bins. Are they sufficient for all your kit?

Very different to our boats which are designed to drift downwind with two or sometimes even three anglers.

Lomond 3 man boat seat DIY advice | Fly Fishing Forum UK

Thats fairly typical. Room for two anglers plus their fishing boxes, bags and assorted paraphernalia. In anything other than a gentle breeze the boat drift will be controlled by a drogue slung out the back. As there will be numerous boats on a fishery (sometimes up to 50), there is a set of etiquette guidelines which ensure that for example, boats keep their distance from other boats and bank anglers. With up to three anglers casting from a boat, care and timing can be important if you don't want to spend your day untangling your leader from that of your boat partner. Some fisheries allow anchoring, some insist its drift only.
View from t'other end
20200913-111940.jpg

The person up front always casts forward(fish the future) the one in the stern picks up wherever. They're pretty roomy but not designed for hauling loads of gear for multiple days and nights.They have an anchor and you can mount an outboard for either lake use or just heading up stream. They have a flat bottom, no keel so sre really maneuverable, pretty much designed for slowly working the banks where all the big trout like to hang out
 
View from t'other end
20200913-111940.jpg

The person up front always casts forward(fish the future) the one in the stern picks up wherever. They're pretty roomy but not designed for hauling loads of gear for multiple days and nights.They have an anchor and you can mount an outboard for either lake use or just heading up stream. They have a flat bottom, no keel so sre really maneuverable, pretty much designed for slowly working the banks where all the big trout like to hang out
Please tell me thats a drinks holder I can see halfway down the side of the boat, and not something to do with the oars. After all, you have to put yor beer down somewhere safe when playin a fish.
 
Sister in law caught a 4lb pickerel (walleye to the Yanks) on Bark kale last weekend. I don’t think you have them in the UK. Very tasty and much coveted fish.

View attachment 2512
Have caught them when I was a teen on holiday in the Us. A lake close to Lake Huron. Walleye and lots of other smaller fish I think they called them sun fish. Great fun.
 
Sister in law caught a 4lb pickerel (walleye to the Yanks) on Bark kale last weekend. I don’t think you have them in the UK. Very tasty and much coveted fish.

View attachment 2512

Wondered what a pickerel looks like since reading "a Pickerel Yarn", a short story by a guy called Fred Mather in a fishing anthology I got as a prize from school. Assumed that it was a small pike which I suppose, it is but with the mouth of a perch. Interesting and good fish.
 
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Out on the wonderful Lake of Menteith on Tuesday next week. The weather forecast looks perfect for dry fly fishing, gentle breeze and overcast. Currently the fish are averaging above 3lb, a perfect weight if you like a fight. Cant wait.

On Monday I had a day on Coldingham loch. Weather was warm, up about 18c, overcast and light winds. The fish hadn't yet thrown off their summer laziness and weren't feeding with any real enthusiasm. Its no wonder really as the loch is a natural larder with huge insect hatches and lots of terrestials and fry so they really don't need to move far for a feed. I had a couple on dries, a fly called a big red:
Big Red Dry Fly - YouTube

and one on a candy booby by lunch.

As the fish weren't exactly throwing themselves on the hook, i thought i would try something different, a bung arrangement. A bung is a sight indicator which sits above a single or team of flies and has the duel purpose of suspending the flies static in the water and also (like a float) indicating a take when the bung disappears. Here is a competition standard bung:

The BUNG | Fly Fish Tuition

Some fly fisherman have a bit of an attitude towards fishing a bung; 'its not true fly fishing' they say. Not me, I think its a perfectly valid method when the trout prefer their food completely static in the water (which they sometimes do). Anyway, on went the bung with a millenium bug suspended about three feet under it.

Cat Bug - jmackayflies.co.uk
Millenium Bug

This proved to be a bit of a game changer and I took another half dozen trout in the afternoon on that setup.

So finished with a creditable 9 on a day when many struggled.
 

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