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Discovery of the decade?

1/15/2015

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It’s strange to think that fly floatants have been in use for only about 100 years. Flies were dried by making multiple false casts.

Like many anglers today I used Ghink for a long time before changing to Loon Aquel which I felt was a better floatant. When I ran out of Aquel I went back to Ghink which I decided worked better in that my flies treated with it seemed to float for longer. But I then made the discovery certainly of the season if not the decade. Fly-Rite’s Dilly Wax.

The wonderfully-named Frog’s Fanny was a revelation when I first used it to dry and re-float wet CDC flies in particular and also as a floatant on dry flies. I still use it and would not want to be without it. It is a must-have product. Now we come to Dilly Wax. The way that this will float a fly is truly wondrous. I have used it on an Elk Hair Sedge which has stayed afloat for hours even after catching a fish or two. I wish that I had discovered it years ago. It is easy to apply to a fly as it melts on your fingers when squeezed from its tube. And you don’t need to use very much either. All fly floatants work better the less you use.

Dilly Wax can also be used to dress a leader to make it float and as a clean and fine dubbing wax when tying flies. As a dubbing wax I am not sure if it is quite sticky enough. I need to use it more frequently before making a final judgment.

For me the biggest disadvantage of Dilly Wax is that it is sold in a little plastic ointment tube with a separate screw cap. The cap will be easy to lose. It’s a shame that it is not supplied in a similar container as used for Ghink with a captive cap. Or even a similar ointment tube with a captive push-on cap. But Dilly Wax is so good that it easily over-comes this disadvantage.


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Are your flies too big?

12/17/2012

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For sometime now I have been thinking about the size of flies that I use. While I make no claims to fish micro flies – sizes 20, 22 or smaller – most of the time I use 14s, 16s and the odd size 18. The only time that I go bigger is during the Mayfly hatch when I will fish a size 12 Grey Wulff. But I have now come to the conclusion that I am fishing with over-large flies too much of the time. The silly thing is that this has been known about for at least 100 years, if not more. To some extent it is a question of degree because many of the flies used by Victorian anglers can best be described as monsters. And while we wouldn’t think of using such big flies today, many artificials are still too big.
            Sidney Buxton, M.P., had some interesting opinions for his day (the end of the nineteenth century), particularly on artificial Mayflies, many of which he thought were ‘simply grotesque.’ In his book Fishing and Shooting (John Murray, London, 1902), he wrote: ‘most of the patterns are still far too large, though, of late years, the standard size has considerably diminished. The small mayfly is easier and neater to cast, and dries quicker. It is more sporting to play and land a trout on a small hook, than to haul him out on a meat-jack. Then the fish is actually less likely to be hooked by the overgrown full-feathered fly; for often, when rising, his attempt to seize it only results in his knocking the feathers and hackle with his nose, and driving away the hook. And, finally, the fish like the little flies the best.’
            Dr. Tom Sanctuary was another angler who much preferred to fish with small Mayflies. Sanctuary was born in Dorset in 1852 and died in Scarborough in 1931. He was a friend of George Selwyn Marryat, and knew Hall and Halford. His optimum size was a fly never ‘longer than 5/8in.[15mm] from the eye to the bend of the hook’ and with the wings standing up about 3/4in.[19mm] from the body.’ His advice holds true to today. He felt that ‘Unless the fish can get the fly easily into his mouth at first attempt, it is of no use.’
            Although some anglers will fish with artificial mayflies tied on hooks as large as a 10, I have always felt that they were too big. Hence my choice of size 12s. But over the last two or three seasons I have decided that a size 12 can be bigger than many trout like. A size 14 can often be a more acceptable mouthful for a trout.
            Towards the end of the 2012 season I spent a couple of days fishing with a visitor from the South Island of New Zealand. While he was here we had a fly swap. His flies – both nymphs and dry flies - were tied on 16s and 18s. And we all know just how big New Zealand trout can be. And a local friend who fishes in New Zealand very now and then has also commented to me how the locals that he meets all use very small  flies.
            Fly tiers should tie small and fly buyers should buy small.

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October 19th, 2012

10/19/2012

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Caddis on nettle leaf
I had an enjoyable half-day on the Wensum yesterday with Simon Cooper of Fishing Breaks. I am pleased to say that Simon caught a very fine wild brown trout in its full spawning livery. It was a wonderfully coloured fish that I hope will go on to spawn successfully.
    During the morning there was a good mixed hatch of caddis, some blue-winged olives and other small, pale upwings and a number of fish feeding. I saw - I think for the first time - a caddis on the river with its wings folded over its back. It was very similar to the one in my photo of a caddis on a nettle leaf. All the others were in flight, their wings a blur. As it is, at least in my experience, so rare to see a non-flying caddis on the water, I have never understood why so many artificial caddis patterns have folded wings.
    Can someone please explain why this should be so?

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Keeping boot and sole together

9/18/2012

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Earlier this season I had a pair of wading boots with very good studded rubber soles but the uppers were about to give up. I also had another pair of boots with reasonably good uppers but one had lost the felt from the combination felt and rubber soles. I decided that it should be possible to make one good pair of boots out of the two. The challenge would be to find a suitable adhesive to glue the rubber soles to the uppers.
    I spent some time Googling adhesives to see what I could find. I was looking for a seriously heavy-duty and waterproof adhesive. Most of my searches pointed to various American products used on kayaks, inflatables of one sort or another and they were all quite expensive. I then started looking at various UK websites and those of UK adhesive manufacturers. I ended up on the Evo-Stik website where I discovered the somewhat inelegantly name Sticks Like Sh*t all-weather adhesive. It look as though it might be the answer. It is inexpensive, comes in a 290ml cartridge and is readily available.
    Before attempting to bond the soles, I stuffed the boots with newspaper so that I could bind the sole to the upper by wrapping it with string to apply some pressure while the adhesive cured. I decided that it would probably be easier to glues the soles in two goes. I made sure that the two parts to be joined together were clean and dry (apparently Sticks Like Sh*t will bond in the wet), applied the adhesive (with a caulking gun) to the sole and instep only and then brought the two together. I wrapped the boots tightly with string and left them overnight. The next day I fixed the rest of the sole. You can always add one or two stainless steel self-tapping screws, if the recipient boots have thick sole, just to make sure. If the soles are a bit bigger than those of the boots, it is a simple job to trim-off any surplus with a sharp Stanley or craft knife.
    Since then I have used the boots for a regular monthly kick-sampling session which is very hard on wading boots and the soles are still “hanging on” well. The uppers are now looking pretty second-hand and as soon as I find another pair of wading boots, probably with felt soles, I will use the rubber soles to replace them. Sticks Like Sh*t has, so far, worked far better than I could have hoped.

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Scientific research in the Wensum

5/24/2011

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I went to the second annual Conference of the rather inelegantly-named River Wensum Demonstration Test Catchment Project at the University of East Anglia last week. The Wensum is one of three similar projects in England, of the other two one is on the Avon in Hampshire and the third on the Eden in Cumbria. The Demonstration Test Catchments is a joint Defra, Environment Agency (EA) and Welsh Assembly Government project.
            The overall objective of the project has been described as ‘to provide evidence to test the hypothesis that it is possible to cost effectively reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse water pollution on ecological function while maintaining food security through the implementation of multiple on-farm measures across whole river catchments using local expertise to solve local problems.’ Long winded?
            The theme of the conference was Progress and next steps in the Wensum Catchment. Everyone who attended was encouraged by the amount of progress that has been made. Unfortunately there was – as at last year’s inaugural conference – only one farmer present and not one single owner of land in the Wensum valley, so the conference was a bit of a student/academic/scientist’s mutual admiration session.
            Two high-spec monitoring kiosks are on-site in the headwaters of the river Blackwater, a tributary of the Wensum, which sample and transmit data every half hour to the UEA. These state-of-the-art measuring devices will be used for long-term monitoring to both identify and record pollutants and to evaluate the effectiveness of measures to reduce them. Students make site visits twice a week to check and service equipment as necessary. One problem is that as water levels drop and silt builds up, the water flow meters function less efficiently, or if there is enough silt, stop working altogether.
            It was interesting to see a map showing all the field drains on a significant area of land – there were hundreds! It is little wonder that silt getting into the Wensum is one of the major problems to be dealt with. While buffer strips alongside ditches, field drains and streams help reduce silt inputs, these strips need managing. The project hopes to develop methods of slowing surface water flows to allow sediments to drop-out and settle in areas where they can be prevented from entering the water course. Part of the study will aim to improve understanding of how to predict and control diffuse pollution from agriculture.
            We were also shown how data can be analysed to show farmers how much of their expensive fertilisers they spread on fields draining into the Blackwater is literally going down the drain. Reducing this wastage has obvious cost implications for farmers as well as helping to improve the local habitat.
            To find out more go to http://www.wensumalliance.org.uk/index.html

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The slacker water between the large wood debris - a complete alder tree - and the bank is ideal habitat for juvenile brown trout.
The river Wensum is proving a popular site for scientific research into various aspects of river management and ecology with other universities. Murray Thompson, who is with the Entomology Department of the Natural History Museum, London, is researching for a PhD. studying the effects of river management on invertebrate populations and the wider in-stream community, concentrating on the input and removal of large woody debris (LWD). While there is a mass of anecdotal evidence, there is a lack of scientific data, hampering the development of restoration techniques and allowing for the continued belief within some groups that LWD is a problem that needs to be removed, rather than a potential benefit to the riverine environment.
            This project developed into a study of LWD restoration, a technique that has received mixed publicity but which presents a method for increasing biodiversity, increasing habitat for both inverts and fish whilst reinstating natural processes that are sustainable. It has been shown that well-placed and secured LWD can avoid problems of flooding, benefit fishing and present a quick, inexpensive and ‘natural’ method for the restoration of the hydrology and ecology of modified river channels.

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The site on the true right-hand bank where Murray Thompson is doing his regular sampling of invertebrates and fish.
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Post Title.

5/17/2011

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Adult pond dipping
Pond dipping for grown-ups! Dave Pitchers, left, and programme co-ordinator Mark Rylands sorting and classifying our finds.

On Saturday fellow club member Dave Pitchers and I carried out our second Riverfly Life survey in the river Wensum. We are part of the Wensum Riverfly Recording programme which is being co-ordinated by Mark Rylands who came and helped us on Saturday. A month after our first survey and with an extra pair of eyes, we increased our score index by just over 50 per cent.
    In our second survey we found more species - BWOs, flatbodied upwings and olives - as well as increases in numbers of insects found in April. The only indicator species that we have yet to find is a stonefly. I am pretty sure that I saw an adult stonefly recently but stonefly nymphs are still conspicuous by their absence.
    The kick sampling process doesn't take long but sorting out everything produced by the kicking certainly does. It is amazing how tiny some of the nymphs are and little bits of twig suddenly start moving and you realise that it is a cased caddis. And is that little nymph an olive or a small Mayfly?
    It's all good fun and very rewarding as well as building a database of scientific knowledge of the invertegrat
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First Post!

4/30/2011

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 I got back from a day on the river that reminded me of those days that you get at the start of the Mayfly – when fish rush at your fly and miss, or come short. Are they frightened of the big flies on the surface of the river? Or are they not sure what they are? Anyway, today’s day did not concern Mayflies. But more of that in a minute.
            Last season I had a day on the river Bure as the guest of a friend and when we left the river I had risen nearly 20 fish, all of which had missed my fly. An extraordinary number. But I had caught fish as well. But why is that so many fish were missing my fly? Little wild brown trout will often fling themselves at flies that are probably too big for them, and other fish seem determined to drown Mayflies by swatting them with their tail. But whatever the cause, the result of all these missed fish is very frustrating.
            But back to Saturday on the Wensum. Over the years I have fished when the air has been full of Hawthorns – drifting in the air legs dangling – but I have only on about one occasion seen fish feeding on them. The late Oliver Kite was someone who always caught a lot of fish on Hawthorns. But the last week or so the fish have been gorging themselves on Hawthorn and I saw my first fish caught on an artificial Hawthorn – by my elder son! We have had a strong north or north-east wind, blowing downstream, which has made live difficult for anglers but has had the benefit of blowing the Hawthorns onto the river. But only in certain areas it would seem. And in those areas fish were rising with real enthusiasm.
            Anyway, I started the day with a nice fish caught on a nymph which I managed to lose just as I was about to net it. The next two hours were nothing but frustration. Fish after fish threw itself at my Hawthorn artificial. And missed!  Others rose and had a jolly good look. One, I am sure, touched my fly with its nose before turning away in disgust. But nothing hooked. I tried various Hawthorn artificials, some small black sedges and even a big brown one. Nothing. I then tried a black gnat artificial, with white wings. More a pair of mating gnats which are much loved by grayling in Swedish Lapland. At last I hooked a fish. And there were more to come.
            I decided that the trigger the fish was looking for were the translucent wings that were quite distinctive as Hawthorns floated past me.
            This must have been the best April on the Wensum for many a year. We haven’t had a drop of rain, we have had some very hot days and for the last week or so, strong winds. But an extraordinary number of fish – both wild and stock – have been caught. And to crown everything, the first Mayfly were seen on the Royal Wedding day.

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    Author

    Terry Lawton is a writer, author and a dedicated fly fisherman. He is secretary of the Bintry Mill Trout Fishery on the river Wensum in Norfolk, where, when not fishing, he can often be found up to his waist in the river.

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