Tag Archives: rainbow trout

The River Loddon – Trout – 12 July 2016

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Thursday

On my next Thursday in London I was keen to get down to the River Loddon again to continue my fly fishing revision. It was turning in to a typical English summer – wet and fairly cold. At Wimbledon they had been playing make up matches on the Sunday because of the terrible and continuous rain.

As we set off to drive down to the river it was raining fairly hard. By the time we got there it had eased off to a light drizzle. If you can’t fish in the rain don’t go fishing in Europe. We pulled on our waterproofs and (appropriately named) Wellington boots and walked down to the river. The rain soon stopped.

Today we were fishing another beat on the Duke of Wellington’s estate – Strathfield Saye, so the terrain was a little different. The cool weather and rain mean’t I was unlikely to find the fish feeding on the surface so I by passed the dry flys and went straight for the brass headed sinking nymphs. I started with a grey wolf. This is a slightly hairier looking fly that sinks fairly slowly. The beat we were fishing had some deeper channels and I settled on a bend. I cast upstream at a corner where there was a fairly deep hole. I let the fly slowly waft down in the current with a couple of twitches as I stripped line (retrieved the fly). After a few repeats I was on. The rod took the strain and I let the fish run took. It headed for the reeds but I pulled it out and after a couple more pulls and runs I had it safely in the landing net. It was a 1.5 pound rainbow trout.

We put it too sleep with a whack on the head from a priest (a small metal ended club). Then it was time to look for a few more. The water was not terribly clear but despite all the rain, I could see more fish. I had better polarised sunglasses this week which probably helped. One group of three rainbow trout drove me mad. They were weaving in and out of the current under the shade of a large willow. At various times each one of the three, closely followed my sinking fly before turning away at the last moment. I swapped to a sinking black nymph and then to a pheasant tailed nymph but I could not interest them again. After about 50 casts, I reluctantly moved down the river to try elsewhere.

At another reed lined stretch of bank I hooked another good rainbow. This one put up a good fight with a couple of leaps clear of the water. I held onto it a steered it safely into the net. It was a little heavier than the first. The rain started again so we retired to the hut to open our thermos flask of tea and have a sandwich – all very civilised. I introduced my father to Doritos which were a new experience for him at 78 years old.

The rain stopped and we got back to work. After a few hours my father also had a couple of nice rainbow trout. We fished out the afternoon and both found two more to fill our bags. I dropped a bigger rainbow trout, perhaps 3 or 4 lbs. I was not ready for its power and held too tight to the leader until it snapped. I caught and landed two more 1.5 lb rainbows and my father caught a similair sized brown trout and finished the afternoon with a nice 3.5lb rainbow.

At about 3.00 pm we were all finished and the rain was heading our way again, so we gave up for the day. I had thoroughly enjoyed fishing at Strathfield Saye with all its magnificent history. I had even enjoyed getting reacquainted with the fly and may need a spell in Tasmania once I am back in the southern hemisphere.

The River Loddon – Trout – 5 July 2016

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Thursday

In early July I found myself in the UK and my father (a keen fly fisherman) invited me to join him for an afternoon of trout fishing on the River Loddon at Strathfield Saye  http://www.stratfield-saye.co.uk/  – the Duke of Wellington’s country estate. The estate was gifted to Wellington in 1817 to thank him for giving Napoleon a bloody nose at the Battle of Waterloo. More recently the cavalry scenes from the film Warhorse were filmed here.

The River Lodden is actually a tributary of the Thames that runs through Berkshire and Hampshire. It rises near Basingstoke and runs through a mixture of agricultural land and urban landscape before reaching the Strathfield Saye estate. In days gone by it supported a number of mills along its course. The river is carefully managed by a River Keeper and anglers pay an annual fee to fish it on dedicated days through the trout fishing season which runs from 1st of April to the 30th September. On the estate the river is stocked with both rainbows and browns but also contains a variety of coarse fish including carp, chub, tench and roach.

On the estate the river is divided into about 6 ‘beats’, each about a half a mile long. The anglers, who pay an annual subscription for a ‘rod’ typically have access to the river one afternoon per week and rotate through the beats. On Thursday we were fishing the Duke’s beat. Each beat has a small hut to shelter anglers from the highly variable English summer weather. The rules are clear; only up stream fly fishing with dry fly or nymph is permitted with a bag limit of four trout per angler/ day. All coarse fish must be returned. My GULPS would not be welcome here!

I have not fly fished for a while but it is like riding a bike. The challenge on a tight stream like this one is to avoid losing your flys in the foliage on the back cast. We were using a four pound breaking strain fluorocarbon leader and I started with a grey wolf fly. Consistent rain over the previous few days meant the water was not very clear. It was also fairly cold with the forecast high being about 15 degrees Celsius.

My father walked me the length of the beat pointing out the key features in the riverbed. The stream meanders through the estates fields and the banks are planted with a mixture of mature weeping willows and the odd majestic oak or ash. The river is carefully tended and the banks are dug out and replanted from time to time to ensure good water flow and the right mix of vegetation. Much of it was only about 50cm deep on the day we were fishing but at various bends there are metre plus deep holes to give the fish cover.

The stream is stocked before the season starts with a mixture of juvenile brown and rainbow trout. Most of the fish are removed over winter when there would not be adequate food to support the population. Some of the bigger fish avoid being stunned and removed at the end of the season and these veterans survive year round in the river. The typical fish is between two and four pounds in weight but there are a few monster eight pounders lurking in the shadows.

I got my casting technique sorted out on a fairly open stretch of river bank. It took about 30 minutes to remember that it is all in the wrist and timing is far more important than power. As I became more confident I found a good looking patch of shade over some slow moving water under a willow and cast up into the current. After a couple of tries the fly land where I wanted it and sure enough I saw a decent swirl as a trout came after it then turned away. I cast a few more times but it was not interested.

My father caught a nice two pound rainbow trout further down the beat. I decided to swap to a slightly heavier brass headed black nymph fly with a strand of blue in it. I found another patch of shaded slow moving water and put in a few casts. I was retrieving line fairly slowly when a fish swept in form the side and the line pulled tight. My first instinct was to wind and rely on the drag but when fly fishing you actually release line through your fingers and try to let the rod deal with the lunges. The fish was nicely hooked and my father appeared to provide some expert guidance:” No towing, keep the rod tip up……”. After a short fight I had it on the bank.

I carried on moving along the beat and hooked another fish about thirty minutes later. I was too eager and hurried it towards the net only for it to pull away and snap the leader. I tied on the only other fly I had in my pocket that happened to be a brass headed pheasant tailed nymph. I think this is the fly that almost everyone starts their fly fishing career with. It is a wet fly (sinking) traditionally made from the pheasant’s tail feathers and can be heavily or lightly weighted.

By now the sun had come out and it was a beautiful summer afternoon. I found another good spot beside some reeds and started casting. It did not take long to find another fish. This time it was a good sized brown trout that slammed into the fly on about my fifth cast. I played the fish carefully and patiently. I made sure it was tired out before I put the net beneath it.

We continued fish until about 2.00 pm by which time we had four good fish and gave up for the day.