This piece is an attempt to answer the posting that Conor made after my first article where he asked for info’ on how to tackle those “dead days”.
I think the first thing to say is that we all stand to suffer from those days when nothing disturbs the surface and fish seem impossible to tempt – the reasons ? – perm any one from several…
In my experience, this can be attributable to four possible factors , there’s no fish there, I’m there at the wrong time of day, its too hot or it’s a low barometric pressure period which will inhibit hatches.

No fish: possible in some fisheries but you will know more than me about the Alyn – can’t imagine that’s a problem.

Wrong time of day: often a cause. It’s all relevant to time of year, in Spring the main activity is around mid-day so the evening could look dead (and often is) – late Summer will see activity towards evening but dead in the day. A problem with all of us can be that we have to go when other factors permit, not when we think it will be best – a busy life is a mixture of this but we hope for the best.

Too hot: in small streams particularly, spells of hot weather will raise the water to a temperature that fish feel uncomfortable in with the result that they sulk on the bottom and won’t rise. This is because the higher the water temperature the less amount of oxygen that can dissolve in the water. Thus there is less oxygen available for the trout and their aquatic invertebrate food supplies to use in the manufacture of energy.

Low pressure: now this is logical stuff – the greatest fly and fish activity is (usually) approaching or during a spell of high pressure with one causing the other and its uncanny how it reverses in low spells. Can I just say that this phenomenon also seems to apply to salmon/sea-trout fishing as well as trout. High pressure encourages fly to hatch which in turn encourages fish to feed, all logical stuff so the opposite applies. I’m no expert but high pressure presumably increases the oxygen content in the water. I have always consulted my barometer when planning a trip and listened keenly to weather forecasts because experience has shown time and time again that low pressure puts me at a decided disadvantage, usually with the result that I won’t go.
But we’re fishermen and need to go, so even if the conditions are poor, what tactic will give us a decent chance of a fish or two.
I really only have one fall-back method and that’s the ever faithful Pheasant Tail Nymph which has been a good servant to me all my fly fishing life! However, I do tie it in a variety of colours and sizes with s16 probably the most generally useful. I don’t add legs, bead heads or flashy bits, just staying faithful to Frank Sawyer’s original dressing and yes, I use fine copper wire as tying silk.
I don’t think there are many situations when a well presented nymph will be refused because it’s largely the staple diet of trout and particularly grayling – apparently 90% of their food. Even if not disposed to hatch for whatever reason, nymphs will always be present either on the stones, in the weeds or darting about and I should add that it’s basically Olives I refer to, something that the Alyn has no shortage of.
Good colours are the natural brown, dyed olive and pale grey ( Sawyer called this his Grey Goose nymph) and s18 also very effective – have you seen just how tiny some nymphs are – makes a s14 hook look massive.
To make the best of this versatile nymph it must be presented as delicately as a dry fly and given some semblance of life – Sawyer’s “induced take” method cannot be bettered and this means moving the rod tip up and down which of course makes the nymph do likewise – something that few fish can resist. All we are doing is imitating what a natural does, maybe not the stone clingers but certainly the darters and slow creepers.
Because I use wire to tie them  they are all weighted but you will need different weights in the same sizes – as each pool or run is approached you must question what weight to use – too heavy in shallow water and it snags, too light in a deep pool and it doesn’t get down. It needs to sink quickly and still be heavy enough to respond to what is effectively a “ sink & draw method” quite hard to get right sometimes.
Most importantly, be ready for a take moments after it sinks, especially on the first movement upwards – if nothing happens then quietly work it back towards you but stay alert. I didn’t say earlier but the best line of attack is upstream which encourages sinking – a downstream cast just makes it skate and isn’t very effective.
An important point is that the leader must be greased to within, say, a foot of the nymph and this is your bite indicator – it doesn’t always shoot forward but often just stops or twitches, especially in deep slow, water. Please resist the temptation to tie on bits of coloured wool, it’s not necessary.
When making a nymph, try to achieve a nice humped thorax which simulates a nymph ready to hatch and don’t worry that the copper wire shows, all part of the attraction. A point that I’m a real stickler on is to keep the tail fibres very short which is just like the natural. Even with wire it’s still possible to make a neat whip finish but I don’t bother with varnish.
So Conor, that’s my suggestion for difficult days and I’ll be interested in your thoughts and results if you try it – we’re now in September so a good time to try it. The flies mentioned in this article can by seen with there dressing be clicking on the fly patterns Button or clicking HERE.

Tight lines !

Louis

Copyright © 2009 Louis Noble.

A different kind of leader…

We can have the best rod, reel & line that money can buy but if our leader isn’t efficient then catching fish can be harder than it could be.
Leaders are largely a misunderstood topic among many anglers and it’s a surprisingly deep subject if you investigate properly. I still see people using a level leader of only one strength which is probably the worst option and the most common choice is the typical knotless, tapered leader. There is nothing wrong with this leader but there are other choices which may suit your particular type of fishing better.
On streams such as the Alyn we are often only casting a few yards and the need to place the cast under an overhanging branch is commonplace. This can be pretty tricky even for really good casters but the normal type of knotless tapered leader can actually make it harder. They usually have a very thick butt section which is technically good but are often quite stiff and this makes it difficult with a short cast to achieve a tight loop. A short cast doesn’t have the same velocity as a longer one so the leader won’t kick over so well with the result that the fly is thrown higher and often into the snag.
I would like to bring to your attention a type of leader which is not widely known and which works exceptionally well in tight places. In truth, it was originally designed as a means of making it easier to cast into head winds so it has a double benefit.
I want to make it clear that it’s not my original idea but one which I’ve used for a long time and it’s made a huge difference to my sport. This style of leader which is called “convex”, or as I prefer, weight forward, was devised in the early 1980’s by an American engineer called Bernard Beegle and is easy to modify to your own requirements.
Consider again a standard type of tapered leader – the fly line tip is relatively thick which is connected to the heavy butt of the leader ( the leader should be approx 60% thickness of plastic line). There is then a long level section which seems to rapidly reduce, getting even thinner towards the tippet which is usually approx’ 2 feet long. As I’ve said earlier, this thick butt tends to form an open loop with reduced energy, often causing the tippet to fall in a poor shape.
A weight forward leader is as follows – a thin section attached to the fly line which then gets thicker in the same way that a weight forward fly line does – this then reduces back to the starting diameter and continues to the tippet. What happens during a cast is that the thinner starting section encourages the leader to lie much closer to the fly line obviously creating a tight loop – as the loop opens out at the finish of the cast the heavy middle section kicks the fly over and it presents much faster and therefore straighter.
To make this easier to understand, here is a taper which works very well for me but you can adjust it easily to suit your required tippet size.

12 inches x 7lb, 12 in x 10lb, 24 in x 15lb, 12in x 10lb, 12 in x 7lb, 18 in x 4lb & 24in x 3lb  

This is a total length of 9 ft 6 in but you can easily adjust for a shorter one. It’s important to note that the diameter/breaking strain rises by approx 50% and then reduces by the same – this gives an efficient turnover.
You can easily test its efficiency by making one and throwing it with your hand at home – you will see how well it kicks over.
So to return to the Alyn, you can now see how much easier it can be to get your cast into those attractive tight spots !

Softly, Softly Catchee!

…monkey is the usual subject but it applies equally to the Alyn trout & grayling, and something I have always felt strongly about.

We can have the best flies, rods etc but they’re useless if not combined with sound tactics and in my book, the soundest tactic is our actual approach to the prey.
Over many years of fishing and observing fellow fishers it never fails to amaze me on occasions what little thought people put into that first manoeuvre. It’s not simply the getting into position for the first cast but a general lack of sensitivity when approaching the chosen pool, run or whatever.

I don’t have to remind you how easy it is to scare fish, particularly in the shallows but I constantly see people walking say, downstream, bolt upright on the waters edge to the place they intend to fish. They enter the water, start to fish upstream and are surprised when they struggle to rise a fish – I’m not surprised as they’ve all taken refuge.

I shall never forget my early days spent coarse fishing on the Severn when shoals of chub were plentiful and fishing relatively easy. However, to make yourself visible as you approached the swim was guaranteed to result in the chub simply melting away into the shadows and you caught nothing. The same surely applies to fly fishing on streams like the Alyn with it’s high banks.

If you want to fish a certain place, it’s far better to walk inland and come up behind the chosen place. If crops make this difficult then go inwards as far as possible and then crouch as you walk. What particularly upsets me is when I’ve taken all possible precautions to get into position and someone comes marching down stream, above me, oblivious to the fact that someone may be fishing. Of course, the fish disappear leaving me pretty miffed. I believe that we owe it to each other in the club to try our hardest not to commit this crime – it’s really quite easy. If you see someone fishing then it’s imperative that you walk around them.

I’m on dangerous ground when I now suggest that the biggest offenders are often those who are new to rivers, ie, still water anglers who’ve moved over and I’m not only talking about the Alyn – it’s commonplace. Still water trout often cruise past anglers as if they don’t exist and those new to running water generally aren’t aware of the difference and it’s probably the first thing that the Club should point out to new members.

Ok, so this is my view of damage done en route to the chosen place but it is still only too easy to scare fish once in position. Success only comes if the fly is presented without scaring the fish and I feel we can damage this in at least three ways, showing ourselves, indelicate casting and careless wading – let’s discuss these.

In the main, Alyn pools are small and the runs short and narrow. As you know, the approaches can be very shallow water so our bodily outline is high if we don’t do something about it. As well as the fact that we can easily reveal ourselves, height when casting can result in a clumsy downward presentation so the correct position in my opinion, is by kneeling. Kneel on the waters edge or actually in the water, it doesn’t matter but you’ve now gone a long way to making a good presentation. We’ve all seen the diagrams I’m sure of the fishes “cone of vision” together with the angles of refracted light and by keeping low, we can stay hidden.

I have to say though that as we get older and more infirm, constant kneeling on gravel can be pretty damn painful, let alone the damage we might do to waders so can I suggest the use of at least one knee pad, preferably two. I’ve used them for years and they’re an absolute boon – you can buy them from builders’ merchants and are used by tiling contractors etc.

Sitting in the river is another option for keeping low and often necessary when approaching shallow runs – not as daft as it seems.

I believe that a major reason for scared fish is careless and often un-necessary wading with the users of chest waders being the main offenders. This may be a bit controversial but in my experience on many rivers, the person who insists on wading up and down the middle or constantly zig - zagging from bank to bank is a menace who spoils the sport for others, let alone costing himself fish. Do we really need to exploit every single pool – the Alyn has many deep stretches I know which, without deep wading are difficult or impossible to fish but so what, let’s leave some water relatively undisturbed.

I would advocate a greater use of thigh waders which on many stretches are more than adequate. Even on fairly deep stretches you can get into position to allow casting and they’re much more comfortable on a warm day. I would say however that the choice of good thigh waders through the trade is limited, often too thin, too short and without substantial soles. The Alyn isn’t rocky I know but flexible soles can be pretty uncomfortable – I’d like to see good stocking foot versions which can be worn with wading boots. I have some discontinued Snowbee ones and it’s a pleasure to wear them. Extra length would be good for the taller guys.

With regards to casting, this can obviously make all the difference and I’d like to make some observations. The Alyn has many twists and turns as you know and therein lies much of it’s attraction but without a good repertoire of casts, some places will be very difficult to fish. This in turn can lead to much “un-necessary wading” to get into position. A good knowledge of slack line casts is essential together with curved, tucks and similar which are not hard to learn, once seen. The need to place a fly around or behind foliage is commonplace and a normal cast just won’t do.

Many years of brook fishing in Shropshire has shown me that perhaps the toughest situation you’ll meet is when you need to cast from thin , rapid water up into a slow moving pool and the Alyn has many such places. You can’t get too close for fear of showing yourself and a cast from the fast water immediately drags the fly across the quiet pool – what do you do ?. Firstly, keep low, preferably kneeling and most importantly use the “wiggle” slack line cast. Done properly, this can introduce a series of curves, or wiggles distributed evenly along the line, at the far end or near to you and it’s the latter that will get you out of trouble in the above scenario. You don’t want slack line on the quiet pool but well placed wiggles on the fast run will hopefully take enough time to straighten for the trout to take the fly before drag starts.

A word or two on lines as this can affect your success. The trend is towards lighter lines with some rods rated as low as #2 & 3. On long casts this can be an advantage but when can you make a long cast on the Alyn, it’s more likely to be only a few yards. Whether it’s a #2,3,4 or 5 weight line the first few feet are very similar in diameter and that’s the section that lands on the water. I’m probably telling you something that you already know but the line rating for a rod is based on 30 feet, or 10 yards of airborne line. Now, if you have say, a 4 weight rod and you can only cast say,5 yards then the rod won’t be correctly loaded and casting will be hard work – you will need to use a 5 weight line or maybe even a 6 to load that rod. The fish won’t mind because they shouldn’t see it anyway !. I mention this situation only because a line that is “too light” will result in more false casting than is strictly required and this all causes more unwanted movement and rod flash.

In conclusion, I know that much of the above will be like teaching Granny to suck eggs but we’re all capable of learning ,irrespective of experience and I hope it will be a little thought provoking.

Tight lines and I’m looking forward to my first Alyn trip for thirty years – it’s certainly changed a lot. I look forward to meeting some of you on the bank !

Louis ,   August 1st.2009

Copyright © 2009 Louis Noble.