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NEWS
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Wilderness Flyfishing News
The new trout season: Eden has fished remarkably well this spring, even though many days have been cold and the river low through lack of rain. It was a very dry April. Fish have been highly localised, which is typical of such conditions, but when we find conditions right, there is always a hatch and the trout are there, snatching the olives down. We have found midge feeders too, and occasional grannom on the upper river, though I hear these early sedge hatches have been spectacular lower down river. The large dark olives were good this year, and have now given over to olive uprights. We had fantastic sport on March Browns, for short periods (typically an hour a day). These were positively identified in order to avoid confusion with the false March Brown species - I sent one to Stuart Crofts, who identified it specifically as a female MB. We have been warned that the summer is likely to be hot and dry, which is not great news for our rivers. Eden already suffers from the severe drainage of the catchment - for agricultural purposes - and we need the rain to maintain stable flows. |
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England teams for 2009: The loch-style team, of which I am a member this year, has already been practising on Chew Valley Lake. we enjoyed some excellent buzzer fishing. This water is really second to none among the large English reservoirs for spring buzzers. It compares with Grafham through the 1970s and 1980s, though buzzers on Grafham are now nothing like they used to be. The international is on May 15th and I'll be reporting on the event and the results shortly after that. The World Championships in Scotland follows shortly after the Spring international, and again I will pass on relevant news when I have it. England are strong favourites for this one, being largely loch-style based (four sessions) and one river venue, and an outstanding team of John Horsey, Simon Robinson, Howard Croston, Dave Parker and Iain Barr, all former team-mates of mine and I can't really see any other team matching up to these hardened competitors. No pressure, boys! The competition season is already well underway, with bank fishing discipline qualifiers (CEFF-Airflo) being fished all over the country, as well as loch-style events. I fished in both the individual and team bank qualifiers earlier this month and now am looking forward to the finals at Elinor in October, along with my team mates Stuart Minnikin and John Tyzack. Nice to have the bank fishing discipline better represented now in England. It has always been the poor brother in terms of status (compared with loch-style and river) so far as selection to England teams is concerned. Now, with a formal bank fishing England team being planned to represent the country in this discipline next year, it might receive more of the standing that it deserves.
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Contact Us: Jeremy & Jennie Lucas Tel: 01768 352995 email: jjbrlucas@btopenworld.com Copyright © Wilderness Flyfishing, 2009. All rights reserved. |
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San River, Poland, and Pioneer Flyfishing:
Remarkably, in these terrible times of economic chaos, almost every week has
been booked on the lovely San River. The lodge by the river-side is
finished now, designed for fishermen and in a perfect location on the edge
of a quiet village and with fabulous fishing for trout, grayling, chub and
dace literally from the end of the garden. There are a few slots still
available for ones and twos, during prime fishing periods. If you
would like a short break and an introduction to the San, please have a look
at our Pioneer Flyfishing website or contact me directly (email below).
I am hosting a few groups this year, including a special Fish & Fly group
and there are one or two places left.
From the tarn
and wild becks: We know an
otter, or even a family of otters (though we think it is a lone animal) has
been feeding up at the tarn - and we are happy about this, so long as some of the
bigger brown trout survive. On a few milder days, and even some rather
cold days, I have fished for a very short period. I have mostly been
slowly nymphing with buzzers on a stealth line, or occasionally with black
tadpoles. Yesterday, I fished a single buzzer underneath a
semi-sacrificial dry fly (duo style) , and caught an over-wintered rainbow
trout on each fly. We have seen a few small trout in the beck,
particularly in the low clear water throughout April, and one solitary big
fish. We are embarking on a conservation project for our length of
beck, with help from the EA and the Eden Rivers Trust - restoring just 300
metres of upland beck to the pristine trout habitat it should be among the
agricultural 'effect' of most of the rest of the Eden Valley.