Tuesday 7th August

A mixed day today weather wise, down pours and strong winds, with it now sunny and remaining breezy, however the wind has dropped significantly within the last 30minutes, to around 12+mph, Westerly.
Top Angler today so far, Young Oliver Avis the fly fishing ace! With 7 fish to his net.
Mr Allington landing 4 bows and one blue to a Green tadpole.

Another Short blog review kindly emailed to me by Oliver Avis, regarding his most recent visit.


I arrived at Curley's and was greeted with a gentle breeze and patchy clouds sometimes covering the bright sun. I set up a leader of over 20ft of 8lb g3 sightfree fluorocarbon with a Cats whisker on the point followed by a cormorant on the middle and a midget gem on the top dropper. My first line of choice was a fast intermediate. I made around five casts before the sun came out obviously putting the fish down. I prefer not to dwell on decisions and switched to a fast sink line straight away. I cast out and slowly figure of eight my flies back this is met with solid resistance and I'm into my first fish on my first cast with the fast sink the fish took a cats whisker. What a change a line makes! I make several more casts before I'm into my second fish of the day a solid rainbow of roughly 3lbs on the midget gem this time again to the figure of eight retrieve. With this fish I felt a tug on the line once I felt this I increased the speed of my retrieve and the line went solid. I fish away chopping and changing retrieves but to no avail. I move up to the dam wall about 6 pegs from the roadside. I see a fish swirl and my flies are cast immediately towards it, two long pulls and I see the wake of a fish chasing after my fly it follows all the way in and as I hang my flies my leader twitches and I strike firmly into a solid bow. This time on the cormorant on the middle dropper proving all my flies work. The HANG is extremely important I see many anglers become frustrated as fish swirl at there flies as they lift off to recast and completely ignore the hang. By hanging your flies you increase your catch rate and convert follows into takes. The sun shines brightly on a flat calm curleys now and a switch to nymphs on a long leader and a midge tip line. I move to the roadside pontoons. I cast my nymphs out and give two long pulls to straighten everything before I commence my slow figure of eight retrieve with nymphing you want to retrieve as little or as slow as possible just so you eliminate slack line to improve take detection. It's not long before I have the rod almost wrenched from my hand as my line shoots away towards the centre of the lake. After several storming runs a curleys resident bow is in the net of about 2 1/2 pounds. This fish took a flashback diawl bach on the top dropper. I continue to fish this method and as I hang my flies a fish charges from the depths and nails my flashback diawl Bach on the top dropper unfortunately I lose this fish but that's fishing. No more than ten minutes later and I have another fish in the net this time on a black buzzer. I move up a couple of pontoons towards the dam and see fish rising immediately I cast to a rising fish and give two pulls and the line tightens I land the fish and it appears to have taken a cruncher on the dropper. I soon change to the trusty fast sink and the same cast as before, a midget gem, cormorant and cats whisker. The heavens open and all other anglers run of the pontoons to shelter under the trees I count my flies down to 20 seconds and commence my "fta" retrieve "fool them about" this retrieve involves figure of eight slow pulls fast pulls etc. To provoke a take I figure of eight them two fast pulls and I'm into a fish it heads for deep water and feels absolutely solid. After a very intense fight in the pouring rain the fish lays in my net. A solid resident on the cats whisker. I move to the boat dock pontoon as the sun comes out I cast out figure of eight back and the line locks up this fish also heads for deeper water and stays deep always a sign you've got something special. The fish stays strong but I eventually get him to the net a perfect resident of around 3 1/2 pounds on the cats whisker. I continue to fish and get a double hook up on perch one on a blob and one on a cruncher! I switched to dries for the last 10 mins and miss two fish before the thunder starts and ends my days fishing.

Thanks for reading Oliver.

Tightlines,
Nathan
nath_bailiff@hotmail.co.uk
Curleys Youtube Channel