Well now the coarse season is upon us I thought I would try a bit of Carp on the fly

Nice afternoon with a bit of a breeze saw me trying to tempt some wily old Common Carp on the fly. A little bag of mixers, a couple of spun deer hair flies and 8' 8lb fluro leader on a 8/9 wt is all you need. My tactics are to find some active fish and cast directly in front of their nose. Two or more usually sees a bit of competition with less dominant fish allowing the bigger ones to come through and have first dibs. Occasionally I provide a few offerings but if you bisect their course quite often you'll get some interest without baiting. Now spawning is subsiding I notice they are more positive on the take and keeping low against the bank helps avoid suspicion. I rarely strike but just let the fish turn on the fly. Be prepared to give line quickly as even an 8lb leader can give on the take especially on a heavily weighted rod. I have found increasing the line strength during the afternoon will ensure you won't get a take but may pay dividends later in the evening where you targeting in the immediate vicinity of lilies. Be patient in the fight as even amongst the lilies the fish can be eased out. First fish a 5-6lb'er and second a near double figure fish that must of made an initial 40 yrd run down the lake stripping line enough to burn my thumb as an impromptu drag.

Late Spring on the rivers around Bristol...

I have been fishing for wild Brownies at numerous locations during the late spring sunshine. Evenings or later in the afternoon have been the most productive. Although I have encountered the odd Mayfly hatch I really missed the main event on my local streams the Chew and Wellow. Nevertheless the fishing has been good with plentiful fish on both streams of fish up to a 1lb. I have to say though the larger fish have been a bit elusive - perhaps it has just been my timing. The Chew is now like a jungle and unfishable or inaccessible on my favourite stretches. The Wellow is not so extreme in terms of effort getting to the river but casting is severely restricted. Both streams are about as vibrant as they are all year with Damsels, flowering Water Crowfoot and plenty of young bird life.

A trip to the Culm a few weeks back proved tough with clear sunny skies but no obvious hatches left three of us scratching our heads on where the fish were. We managed a few on deeply fished nymphs but the Champerhaies beat was disappointing with very few rises or signs of trout in fairly cloudy low flowing water.

My local, local however just less than a mile from my door splitting the urban belt of North Bristol has really produced the goods with plenty of good size fish coming to the net all on the dry. Perhaps it is the timing as I fish this on evenings after work just before dusk. Amazingly saw some little wild Brownies rising in my Bradley Brook recently just a few hundred metres from house - I knew they would make it upstream but just how far I was never quite sure.