Cornish Mayhem..

Spent a lovely week in Cornwall. Fished a West Country Passport beat I have not been back to in a while and picked up some beautiful miniature trout in the mossy wilderness on the dry fly. Stream was low with no sign yet of the regular Sea Trout. Spent a few lucky moments metres away from a Stoat which hugged the bank like an Otter.

 

Hmmm how do I get that cast in?

Sea fished from my new Caper kayak off the Roseland using some Snowbee Snakebite weighted jig heads. They worked wonders on the Pollack picking out the larger fish and unbelievably caught a nice 5lb Cod just a few 100 metres from the beach. It was coloured up like the kelp and fought like stink on my spinning rod. No Mackerel in attendance although I did see a large Seal playing with a big Bass just offshore at one of the beaches.

Surf small and unruley although managed some cleaner moments at Watergate and Perranporth.

Teifi trout..

A few shots from weekend of fishing in Wales on the Teifi with Dave and Red. No Salmon or Sewin but some nice wild Brownies.

River Marden on the fly...

After walking through the main street of Calne some years back and seeing a lovely wild Brownie standing station between the high walls I had always had a yearning to try and fish the upper parts of the River Marden on the fly. Chancing upon the Calne Angling Association website I noticed they had short window for fly fishing for trout between April and 16 June at just £5 for a day ticket. The waters were just downstream of Calne where the river could only be classed as a stream. Walking the bank I was pleasantly surprised with riffles, runs and deeper slow sections. There was lots of cover but it was not unmanageable. I made my way about mile downstream of where I had parked and worked my way back up. I spooked a number of good sized fish whilst walking the bank so hopes were high. Within minutes of fishing I was into my first fish - a palm sized gem took the nymph.

A typically confined run holding fish but difficult to present the fly

 

 As I moved upstream it was difficult to stop spooking fish as the water was clear and casting was restricted to not much more than a rod length.  The middle section had what appeared to be a derelict mill with large pools and wooded riffles. In my limited time I did not fish them hard but could see they had potential to harbour some big trout. Large Dark Olives were hatching in profusion and I failed to tempt some large rising fish. Eventually I hooked a couple of good sized wild fish on the nymph which gave good accounts of themselves in the fast flow.

 

 

As the day wore on I probably netted about half a dozen fish and lost a couple a more. It was a good wild trout fishery and I saw plenty of bigger fish than those I caught. Fishing from the bank was difficult so wading was required and it is not for the faint hearted with clay in places coaxing you into the deeper holes. 

A nice open section that held some fish.

  

Well pleased with a good few hours on a new stretch of river