Wales (not Whales) :)

A summer holiday to Mid-South Wales was a perfect opportunity to try a spot of fishing. I was expecting to do mostly fly fishing and had bought a new rod/reel/line from a recent trip 'up north' to Ted Carter's, incidentally where I had bought my first fishing rod many years ago. The chap there was extremely helpful and recommended a relatively inexpensive fly rod and tackle. The holiday house we had booked was on the river Towy (near Llandovery) and had fishing rights so it was a big draw and promised much fun at the bank. It was tricky finding local tackle shops, everything in Wales seemed to be 40mins away by car from where we were staying. I did find a couple of places that gave some helpful advice on flies to use although it was very inconsistent. They all seemed universal in the advice that I should try spinning on the Towy. So I tried several spoons and mepps Droppen 6g spinners but with no luck. I also tried trotting prawns down stream under a float along with a range of flies. The nearest I came to a bite on the Towy was when I ventured out after dark, headlamp strapped to my head and got a possible take on a double dropper fly tackle to a white feathery lure. It is hard to say if this was a take or not as the river bed was quite shallow and it was easy to snag. Still there was something spookily fun about fishing a river after dark, under cover of the stars and a full moon with the fly.

Having exhausted my range of options on the Towy, I tried a couple of other options. First I made two trips to Spring Water Lakes, which is a caravan park with fishing lakes between Pumsaint and Lampeter. This place was recommended to me by a couple of the tackle shops. The owners were very friendly and helpful in their suggestion of tactics and flies. I purchase a couple of sinking lures and a dry daddy long legs fly. I spent two enjoyable sessions there with a couple of follows from trout and one take from a small silver fish but sadly did not bank any fish. I got some great advice from the owner on fly casting and on his suggestion switched to using my heavier hardy dry fly line (no 6) on my new fly rod which helped my casting no end. The weight of the line was now pulling the line out on the forward cast. I'm surprised this was such hard work with the new kit I had bought as I expected this to have been matched quite carefully. My suspicion is my lack of practice at casting was more likely the culprit than poor kit!

Not disheartened by the lack of success, I was recommended to try the Usk reservoir by the owner of the holiday let. This was not cheap as the day ticket was £17 but this included an adult and child permit for up to 6 fish (should you catch them!). The reservoir allowed fly fishing, worm (under float) and spinning. I made two trips there and had considerable success on worm the first time. My catch reports are here:

Usk Reservoir, worm under bubble float for Trout

"Tuesday 27 August, 2013

Beat: Usk Reservoir (Booking Office), Fishing Type: Adult & Child 6 Fish Permit, No. Anglers: 1

Blustery to dead still, lots of fish porpoising/showing when still. Overcast to broken cloud - warm water temperature. Fished 11am - 3:30pm. Nothing on the fly rod but 5 Rainbow trout (1-2lbs in weight) on multiple garden worms (on a size 10 hook) 5 foot under orange bubble float, 12lbs main line to 30cm 4lbs hook link. Lots of additional bites and nibbles, fishing 5-10m out from bank. Returned 3 fish. Kids thoroughly enjoyed safe and easy fishing near fishing permit booth/car park end of reservoir.

"

A brace of 1.5-2lbs Rainbow Trout from the Usk Reservoir - taken on worm (not fly)

... and the second time when I blanked:

"Friday 30 August, 2013

Beat: Usk Reservoir (Booking Office), Fishing Type: Adult & Child 6 Fish Permit, No. Anglers: 1

Warm but very blustery and overcast with driving rain most of the time between 12.30pm - 4.15pm. A couple of bites on bubble float/worm near ticket booth but none caught. Too windy for fly casting. Nothing on spinner."

Overall, despite only catching on one day and failing to catch with the fly, it was an enjoyable holiday fishing adventure. I certainly improved my fly fishing technique. Sadly there is not a great deal of fly fishing in Cambridge but I shall certainly explore options. There are some crazy notions of catching carp on the fly!

Revenge of the gardener or how slugs catch carp

After a few trips to Bordeaux pit catching small silver fish and perch, I thought I'd target some of the carp with a few free lined slugs from the garden. There is nothing more satisfying than getting one back at the resident slug population in the garden than offering them to the fish. Now, I had used slugs as bait before many years ago, mainly targeting river chub but never to any success. The approach this time was to offer a 'free lined' slug on a size 12 barbless hook, straight through to 8lbs mono. In this case, I clipped a "pond chucker" self cocking float on as a bit indicator. After a couple of hours with no luck, the slug just sinking after hitting the water down to the 2 foot depth I had set below the float, I got a sudden splash/commotion as the slug hit the water. I was confused as to what had happened but decided to strike as I had seen carp swimming around. The line tightened and a big fish was on, taking off for the opposite side of the small pit. I was pretty certain this was a carp and I adjusted the clutch to allow some line to play off which was a good move as when I wound in, the fish took off for the marginal weeds, pulling line from the reel. Applying plenty of side strain, I was able to get the fish out of the weeds and up to the surface where we could see that it was a carp. It took a couple of gulps of air and seemed to be slightly shocked and not diving back down so we took the opportunity to get the net quickly under it. It was a small net, just big enough for this fish and deftly landed by my 5 year old helper :). The result a pristine 8lbs 10oz common.

8lbs 10oz Common Carp taken on free lined slug

We were in shock at catching this fish, my new personal best and a stonker of a carp. We pretty much packed up the gear after that, got a passer by to take a photo and slipped the fish back in carefully. Almost a year later, we were back at the same venue trying the same tactics and had an almost identical take/fight with another nice common. It looked bigger than the first but was in fact only 7lbs 5oz. This time around, the take was easier to analyse. The slug had landed half a foot away from a fish which had turned and sucked up the bait then shot off across the pit when it felt the hook. It pretty much hooked itself on the bolt. A slightly larger landing net this time made my 6 year old helper's life easier :).

7lbs 5oz Common Carp also taken on garden slug

I now understand why people get so hooked on carp fishing. Explosive takes and hard fights. I could get used to this :).