Day of the Black Gnats

The water temp has cooled down from the last few days, first thing this morning the top foot of water was reading at 7-8degrees, now its reading nearer ten. With the water warming up that little bit, is starting to bring on quite a few hatches.

Few fish caught, mainly to suspender buzzers, both black and olive. Within the top foot of water. A couple of fish caught to bloodworm patterns fished to roughly 6ft.

Plenty of Small black Gnat out in numbers today. Just in the last 30minutes the fish have started to switch on to these insects. Near Heron bay (see water map) there must be dozens on the surface being slurped down by hungry bows.

Pictured above are various immitations.

Temperature touching 10 degrees still so its looks promising for the anglers out on the water for a good rise or two over the day.

Tightlines, Nath.

Saturday morning

The weather is perfect for trout fishing, overcast, slight breeze creating that perfect ripple. The fish seem to be rising all over the lake first thing, still quite a few hatches about, however with this cooler weather there wont be as many as there has been over the last week.

The wind is easterly so in theory most of the feeding fish will be sat in "buzzer falls" see water map (top right damn wall if looking from the fishery office). The damn wall will also be a wise spot to fish, the tail end of the wind.
A few weeks ago with similar conditions two anglers did very well in this spot, landing at least 25 trout a piece, to buzzers.

Hope to see plenty out on the water today given the current conditions, although it will be more than likely a case of when the water warms up that little bit more that the fish will switch on to hatches.
Tightlines,
Nath

Friday 30th

Well that's summer over with - back to normal spring like conditions. Might be better fishing prospects with less bright sunlight but as with all things the fish will have to adjust to these new conditions.
Overall looking good for today and the weekend. Quite a bit cooler than of late, bring your fleeces!!!

Curley's DVD

Look here to watch a short DVD from the recent open weekend.
THe film was shot by my mate Phil Williams and has been loaded onto his interesting website Fishing films and facts. Great info website about all types of fishing not just fly fishing.

Have a look at the DVD and see if you can see yourself if you came to the open weekend!

Click here to watch on U Tube

Wednesday 28th

The weather has not changed over the last few days - sunshine, light breezes and warm if not very hot!!
Earlier this morning the fish were rising but I guess this will slow down as the sun peaks in the sky.

Buzzers and particuarly Blood Worm still working as good as anything. A few sedges have been coming off the water a little ealier in the year than normal because of these warm conditions.
Keep a eye out for Hawthorn and Heather Flies being blown off the moors, if the fish get turned onto these it can be explosive fishing.
These flies look like big blue bottles but with long trailing legs and will be in a swarm not ones and twos. Heather flies are very similar but with red legs.
Hoppers are a pretty good fly to use in black and claret.

Hawthorn Fly

 

tuesdays prospects!

If the weather is as good as promised the fish will be feeding as the water warms up from early morning. Sunny and very warm.


I am fishing curleys myself on tuesday, starting with a floating line and a team of buzzers, covering all eventualities from a midge hatch to the bloodworm stage on my leader (3 fly set up). Bloodworm is the most persistant aquatic chronomid to inhabit curleys fisheries.

My point fly will be sitting at roughly 6-7 foot of water which is where most the fish have been caught over the last few days, to cover the hatching midge larvae.
Middle dropper will be either a comorant or a red ribbed diawl bach, as alot of fish have been produced on a fly similar to this over the last week. Finally my top dropper will be either a emerging midge pattern or a sunken sedge pattern (alot of these present over, when the temp warms up).

There is alot of empty shells of the midge pupae floatin on the surface, indicating that the fish are feeding on the stage, lower down in the surface layer.

If no fish are caught just subsurface, or on the surface. An intermediate line and a couple of buzzer patterns, with a booby on the point is doing the business. (the washing line method).

Tightlines, and i look forward to seeing plenty of you out on the water on tuesday to catch the midge hatches in action.

Nathan

Monday 26th March

Another very sunny day as it has been for the last 2 or 3 days. Prospects are reasonable but you may want to bring along your intermediate line to add some versatility to your fly presentation and to add a bit of depth. Nathan had the most fish yesterday and was using this set up.

Intermediate lines vary in quality just like all other lines but all should sink at a rate of 1.0 to 2.0 inches per second. I really like the Greys Platinum clear intermediates or slime lines as they are called. They sink uniformly along the length you have cast which is very important to eliminate slack so you don't miss takes

I went up to Hardy/Greys HQ last Friday to test all the rod and reel ranges now available - for a full report look at my other blog Fly Fishing Instructor. You will be able to read which rods I have chosen and will using for all my lessons and guiding this year.