THAMES VALLEY

FLY DRESSERS

BRANCH OF FLY DRESSERS GUILD

Photo’s from Members 2018

                                             Mick Small

.I do expect to be back in your part of the world eventually  I am still currently based in Western Australia and have been concentrating on saltwater patterns and chasing everything from bill fish, bonefish, permit to the unusual catch last week of a coral trout.

The Bass Are In

Richard E

Leaving the dock at a very civilised 10am we made our way out through Chichester harbour. We left late to give the sun time to warm the water. The current water temperature is a bit low for full on sport. As we started to leave we noticed birds working on the bait. We hit a shoal of bass and quickly had a dozen small ones caught. Leaving the harbour, on the sandbar, we noticed another flock of birds feeding and went to investigate. The bass were really hitting the fry and we were into some more action.

Travelling east we found a couple more shoals and had plenty of sport. After the tide switched it became much tougher and we sieved up individual fish on the reefs. The weather then changed and I experienced my first thunderstorm at sea – very dramatic. Returning to the dock with 32 fish caught means the bass are really in.

Richard E

Fly fishing in France

Phil

Two days of beautiful weather in a region east of Limoges gave me an opportunity to develop techniques and experience on the Vienne fishing for grayling and brown trout. This is a beautiful freestone river but despite it being in perfect condition after recent heavy rain, I had no luck using a range of nymphs. However the fishing experience was a delight with many opportunities to fish pockets, riffles and pools while wading at knee depth.

A further session in a lake near Eymoutiers brought better luck with a catch of a different sort. The lake in question holds some rainbow trout as well as zander, rudd and carp. It was the carp that were seen to be most active during this hot afternoon; rummaging around in the margins for food. A yellow peeping stickman caddis was chosen, fished on my 5 weight Orvis Clearwater rod with 3x tippet. Persistent casting in these lakeside margins brought success at last and after a fight of approximately 30 minutes a fine 12.5 kg common carp was landed much to the surprise of the local fisherman who had been luckless with conventional ledgering techniques! My line was definitely very tight that afternoon!