Fishing Tips from Carruthers…
Carruthers is our in-house fishing tip sage at Meon Springs. He wrote the, now famous, Getting Started Series of emails, which you can sign up for to the right and he also writes a weekly fishing tip that we send out with an update of current conditions and what’s happening at Meon Springs.
If you want to take regular advantage of the Carruthers Fishing Tips, please leave your details to the right.
The latest fishing tips
Fishing Tip – 18th August 2010
Assessing the Depth of Fish….
On a health and safety note, the first point to remember is never to test the depth of water with both feet.
In reality however, to get to the right depth to fish, simply put on a weighted fly and let it drift down until you see a reaction.
The problem lies when they are deep because you cannot see the fly.
To counteract this use a brightly coloured heavy weight fly and count it down – then you can change to your working fly, with the same sink rate, and count the same.
Fishing tip – 27th July 2010
Knots in Leaders.
I happened to be putting a fly on for an angler and noticed that there were four or five wind knots in his leader. This is not a good thing as even a simple overhand knot in 8Lbs nylon leader will break with a sharp tug (the kind of tug you want to make when hooking a fish).
Fishing tip – 22nd June 2010 – Keeping your line clean
Just a small tip. During the course of my day at work, I pick hold of a lot of fly lines that desperately need a clean. As you can imagine, most fly lines spend an awful lot of time on the ground, with the result that they get very dirty. My tip for this week is strip off your fly line into a bowl of warm soapy water, give it a wash and dry it off. Before you put it back on your reel get a proprietary silicon dressing and give it a good rub in, allow it to dry for ten minutes and then polish. Then wind it back on your reel and you will gain another five to six feet on your cast.
Fishing tip – 18th June 2010 -Choosing right for the conditions
At this time of year, it is a job to call whether the fishing is going to be really easy or downright impossible.
Fishing Tip – 10th June 2010 Putting Floatant on Dry Flies
As you all know, floatants are many and various, from liquid to powder. I have seen great dobs of floatant put onto a fly without pulling any off of the hackle and tail and body, with the result that your fly often looks like a great lump of vaseline.Fishing tip 27th May 2010 – Don’t be afraid to ask…..
Fly fishing is always a learning experience and very often it is the small specific details that make a huge difference, such as having a correct length of leader, with the appropriate breaking strain. For example don’t try and catch fish on the dry with a leader of breaking strain above 4Lbs, simply because your dry fly will drown!!
My point is, there are a huge number of details such as these that you need to know to become an expert angler – don’t be afraid to ask.
Fishing tip 21st May 2010 – Dry fly fishing in the sunshine
It appears that Summer is now upon us in earnest and with a hot bright weekend coming up, you’ll have to change your tactics if you want to entice your quarry to the dry….
The last thing you want to do on a bright sunny day is have the sun at your back. Because trout don’t have eyelids, they will not be looking into the sun…
Look for shady spots and shadows. Fish on the bank away from the sun, which at Meon Springs, is the bank opposite the lodge,which spends most of it’s day in the shade.
You will only need a reasonable roll cast to get yourself into the fish. (If you can’t roll cast, come and see me or Roger and we will teach you).
Fishing tip - 14th May 2010 – Fishing the Dry (again)
It is DRY FLY time again. Dust off your dry fly boxes, dig out your favourite patterns and enjoy some top of the water sport that currently is un-surpassed.
Last week I told you about fishing the dry, which is without doubt my favourite way of catching fish.
To see a good trout come to a dry and take it has no equal. Currently we are enjoying some good hatches of upwinged olives (kites imperial) and hawthorns (hopper, hawthorn and bibio.) Also there are quite a number of crane-flies (daddies) landing on the water.
Fishing tip – 29th April 2010 – Fishing the Dry
Now is the time of year to dust off those dry fly boxes BECAUSE IT’S DRY FLY TIME. This weather (settled and warm) is encouraging hatches in abundance.
Some of the best fishing is to be had with the dry, try sedges, grey wulfe, white wulfe kites imperial, greenwells glory.
Don’t forget, longish leaders will present your fly better than a short line. Cast to your fish and see what occurs. Please don’t forget to gink up your flies.
Fishing tip - 24th April 2010: The stages of learning to fish.
When you start to fish, it is likely that you will follow an emotionally driven path that goes something like this.
1) You’ll have a great desire to catch a fish.
Having spent a morning on the bank in a tangle and casted your rod as if you were beating the dog, your greatest desire will be to land your first fish. You may achieve this per chance or with a bit of help from your friends (or a friendly instructor). No matter the achievement is the same.
2) You’ll have a great desire to catch lots of fish.
Once you’ve landed the first one – you’ll be hooked and want to catch more and more. The freezer will get full and your partner will wonder why trout is now the only thing on the menu (that’s if you’re getting home to see them). Now the freezer is full. All you’ll want to do is catch a big one. These are the ones to talk about down the pub and to enter into a troutmaster competition. “No exageration here – it really was that big…..”
3) You’ll want to catch a big one…
4) You’ll be after a challenging one…
Finally, when you’ve been fishing for a while – it is likely that you’ll relax a bit and spend more of your efforts targeting the fish you want and finding ways to make the sport more challenging. It is likely at this stage that you want to spend more time on a catch and release, playing with dry flies and nymphs rather than the large lures that lurk in the bottom of your fly box. At Meon Springs, with the Experience Day tuition, the troutmaster entries and the more challenging catch and release beats, you can have a great day – whatever your level of skill.
Fishing tip: 2nd April 2010 – Fishing Catch & Release
You may or may not know that Meon Springs has an extensive Catch and Release Beat, stocked mainly with Brown Trout. And this weeks fishing tip is about how to fish it successfully.
You need to remember that these fish are to be returned to the deep and therefore the least amount of stress they endure the better. Bring them into the bank quickly, use barbless hooks and handle them carefully.
The fish, having been caught before are often wary. To be successful, you must present your fly properly. No thrashing about on the water – they’ve seen it all before….
These fish have been fortunate enough to live in the natural world much longer than those on a catch and keep lake. They are streetwise – chuck a lure at them and they’ll dive under the nearest shelter for the rest of the day.
Be subtle – use a small fly and out wit them.
It is much more challenging than catch and keep but a great deal of fun as your skill improves.
Fishing tip – 26th March 2010 – Fishing the Buzzer
This time of year, between lures and dry flies is a good time to get the Buzzer box out. My personal choice of buzzers this early in the season would be fairly small and lightly dressed. Colours red, olive, and a mixture of both with black.
Fish the buzzer with an indicator, such as a bit of sheeps wool or a ready bought one. And allow just about 2ft of leader to drop beneath the surface.
All you then have to do then is move the indicator up and down the line until you find the fish.
A real buzzer moves really slowly and erratically. To mimic this, your retrieve should be really slow to give your fly life…
Sport should be fast and furious. Do give this method time and patience. Believe me it works.
Fishing tip – 19th March 2010 – Muddy water fishing
Big dark lures are the order of the day, more for profile than exact copies of fly. My personal choice would be a 6 wt rod, a longish leader and the biggest lure I could manage to cast. The ideal leader length should be about the length of the rod you are using. Cast and Count your fly down until you find the depth the fish are at. Use a fairly fast retrieve and let the fun begin.
13th March 2010 – Fishing the nymph mid-water
Not too heavy a fly. A standard unweighted PTN or GRHE should be good enough to get you down far enough but not too deep to where fish are feeding currently. Let’s think about leader length. I would recommend somewhere in the region of 12 feet. Now, we don’t want this fly to sink to the bottom, so count your fly down to 5 and then start a slow figure of eight retrieve.
Fishing tip – 26th February 2010 – Casting into wind
Windward casting is challenging for even the best anglers and to achieve success you need to move the angle of delivery much further forward.
So instead of releasing your line at 10 o Clock you bring it down to 8 o Clock, with a slightly heavier push to cut your line through the wind. Please don’t expect huge distances and always remember there is another side to the lake…
Fishing tip – 19th February 2010 - Mini lures
Mini lures on a leader about 1.5 times the length of your rod. Used as a stalking bug, will generally turn a fish quicker than a shrimp, However part of the fun of fishing these flies is using your eyes to spot your fish first, so remember, on arrival, to take a good walk around the lakes,
spot your quarry and then choose your fishing spot.
Fishing tip – 12th February 2010 – The Shrimp
What an excellent late Winter fly.
It will normally take fish deep and on the drop. However, my preferred method is to cast it to cruising fish. Once again a reasonable degree of accuracy would be a great idea. You will need to practice casting accuracy and, for practise, I generally tell people to use a newspaper on the ground and cast to it. Give me a call if you would like to have a Casting Analysis session – 01730 823134
How I have done it for years is to put a small amount on the back of my hand, rub it on my finger and thumb and just pull it through the hackle and tail. You will need to do this often and your fly will look much more inviting to a trout.
A good angler will make the right choice of fly for the conditions. For instance if the trout are having suicidal tendancies, when presented with your large lure or nymph. Simply change to a dry fly for some excellent sport.
The solution – Check your leader every couple of casts – take the knots out and catch the fish.
Fishing tip – 9th July 2010
Retrieving flies from trees.
We all know what it’s like. You’re making your back cast and the forward cast stops dead. Because your fly has gotten stuck in a tree.
