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For me Ffestiniog was one such an occasion. In the first six casts from the rocks just below where water coming down the mountain entered the lake, I took five fish on a silver mepps spinner from a peg, which while it was chosen at random, couldn't have been better suited to finding early season diploid fish which running water always seems to attract. Not exactly the most auspicious start to what would evolve into quite an avid fly fishing career, but a launching pad none the less that would soon have me learning to cast, studying freshwater invertebrate biology, and travelling the country to fish many trout fisheries both large and small. This included all the big midland reservoirs, plus the gin clear chalk stream fed fisheries of Hampshire such as Dever Springs and Avington with Graeme Pullen to shoot a couple of trout fishing video's for YouTube, where I was introduced to the art of selectively stalking individual big fish. My intention here is not to explore the various facets and techniques generally of fly fishing for rainbow trout. There are many excellent books and video's out there done by real experts that will make a far better job of it than I could ever hope to do. That's not what this book is all about. My mission here is to recount specific experiences, observations, and personal opinions on a take them or leave them basis, offered as an unapologetic bout of self-indulgence, and as such, my next piece of recall involves an encounter with Birmingham angler/tackle dealer Terry Eustace, followed by an angling visit to Esthwaite near Hawkshead in Cumbria. Terry was doing a promotional talk pushing Berkley tackle which he was importing from the USA at the time. Amongst a wide variety of Berkley products handed out at the end of the presentation, I remember in particular being given two items. One was a floating fly line, which I have to say, having owned and tried pretty much all the big name brands up to that time, was the best I have ever used. You could screw it up in your hand and immediately it went straight again like soft string. It had absolutely no memory at all. Perfect for keeping a tight line rather than having a series of kinks across the water surface as is so often the case when using a figure eight retrieve. In complete contrast, the other handout goodie was a small jar of synthetically produced bright orange 'plasticine' like dough called Power Bait, which Terry made me promise I would use and report back on, otherwise I wasn't going to be allowed to take it away. Not so much with Power Bait in mind as just fancying an easy day trout fishing on the tail end of a long, cold, hard winter's cod fishing, Dave Devine and I decided to take a run up to Esthwaite, which at that time was an any method fishery where we could just laze about on a small headland next to the car, bait fishing with our little cooker producing hot brews and bacon butties. A nice relaxing day out. We were legering worm tipped off with sweetcorn popped up just off the bottom in conjunction with monkey-climber bite indicators, and very quickly, we each had our limit and were at the stage of putting fish back, when I came across the Berkley Power Bait in the bottom of my bag. Despite my earlier promises to Terry Eustace, subconsciously I think, I'd been avoiding using it. It looked ridiculous, it was artificial, and to my mind it was never going to catch fish. But, a promise is a promise. So I buried Phill Williams, nocturnal Rainbows 358
the hook inside a small ball of the stuff and out it went, then immediately found myself struggling to get the bite indicator set-up on the line wondering why it wouldn't settle down, little realising that a trout had picked up the bait within seconds of it going in. So I wound in for another cast, only to find that I was into a fish. A pattern that was to go on and on and on all day. So hectic was it in fact that other anglers were coming over to see what I was doing so right in light of their meagre efforts, which resulted in me handing out blobs of the stuff, and instantly they were into fish too. It was ridiculous. Shortly afterwards I was out on an assignment with a very famous and very capable fly angler doing a feature for Still Water Trout Magazine. It was a freezing cold bright sunny day up in the hills somewhere, where for £1 million, you honestly could not have bought a bite. Finally, in sheer desperation, we took a smear of Power Bait and rubbed it onto the fly. Not so you could see it, but enough to give it 'flavour', and had three rainbow trout out in front of the camera in no time at all. So, gob smacked by those two preliminary results, I went back up to Esthwaite to try it again, only to find that the other lads I'd given samples to had been out bought some, cleaned up, and it was now banned. Back to the fly fishing. As you might have guessed, I've tried pretty much everything there is to try on that score, which is good in the sense that it affords you the privilege of being able to objectively make mental comparisons and form firm opinions regarding favoured techniques. Phill Williams, Power Bait haul Top of my list for small waters is without doubt buzzer fishing on a nice warm overcast early summer morning or evening when the trout are mopping them up for fun. Days when you can see ripples and bulges all over the surface, then placing your buzzer smack in the middle of it all and waiting for that sudden swishing noise as the line suddenly tightens sending water droplets into the air. From confident anticipation to adrenalin pumping action in less than the blink of an eye. Amazing stuff. On the larger waters however, it has to be boat fishing doing one of three things. First off there is the general water coverage approach of drifting with the drogue out loch style fishing down the wind onto a lee shore with a team of flies, using whatever line is required on the day, actively looking for fish. An excellent none specific approach which my fishing buddy and avid competition angling friend Ian Gaskell taught me. This is closely followed by fry feeding time on Draycote with sunken fry patterns, and finally, fishing some of the calmer bays on Rutland, also at fry feeding time using a suspender minkie, again with Ian Gaskell, out in the boat. Floating minkie fishing is a bit like up-rated suspender buzzer fishing, where quiet patient anticipation again turns instantly into heart thumping action with visible takes at the surface. Finally, despite having put a lot of time, money, and effort into rainbow trout fishing, I have to ask the question, should they be here at all. I say that not as someone who would like to see them go, but rather, 359
1
THE ACTUAL BUCKET LIST 100 species
Colin Penny: skipper of the Weymout
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page The Actual B
Long Rough Dab 153 Turbot 154 Brill
Introduction to the Gobies 251 Blac
Bitterling 322 Gudgeon 323 Bleak 32
Spain 479 Thailand 479 Tunisia 484
As always, with any sort of ambitio
Working in conjunction with these i
viviparous reproduction, and the me
possible, use a landing net, and th
Only when a world record claim was
pectorals, with the second dorsal d
The harbour itself completely dries
Nor can weights be estimated by usi
shark and porbeagle exploits, all o
Mincing also makes demands on the m
Plymouth and some of the surroundin
That however isn't the entire story
Mark Ward, 71 pound Norfolk Tope I
off around Shell Wharf to the south
Network (SSACN), and it was on thes
COMMON SMOOTHHOUND Mustelus mustelu
But you would be wrong. Because exp
There are lots of good smoothhound
But it was a long hard fought campa
The object of the exercise was to c
LESSER SPOTTED DOGFISH Scyliorhinus
One of the few occasions when I can
When they were more numerous than t
With its recent history, can there
Getting back to the history of thos
Ross Johnson, skate from the shore
From the shore, obviously, it won't
I remember one particular fish that
have a lot to do with numbers, dist
That said, I have on occasion been
I once took a bucket full of live m
With fast tides, a profusion of ban
igger than ten pounds, then it's a
Spotted Rays also lack rough prickl
A strikingly beautiful fish which e
An occasional specimen might even t
Most of the time we spent fishing i
Another of those at best rarely rep
A much smaller fish of more souther
As with all species, and for a rang
Our first trips didn't exactly ligh
etween Christmas and the last big t
The Fylde would fish best after a b
Muppets too began to appear in a ra
own boat over there to fish the rou
Colouration and lateral line are tw
Deep diving plugs too, providing th
pollack have a protruding lower jaw
The upper flanks and back have been
From my own experience, certainly f
photograph of a whiting he'd caught
s monofilament to help eliminate se
fishermen, presented as a flapper,
mouth is noticeably dark. There can
LING Molva molva Bucket List status
Mac McAllister, Whitby Ling Now, th
GREATER FORKBEARD Phycis blennoides
In common with all the rocklings, t
SHORE ROCKLING Gaidropsarus mediter
I used to tag along to collect dise
As with the more familiar flounder
fish, little realising that they we
Though it was still very early in t
A fish with a distribution potentia
aits, and a tiny sliver of squid or
e enough to push them right out wit
Hooks obviously can be bigger where
He also uses this description for t
I spent some time chatting to Paul
fin extending right around to the h
Whatever the reason, it did actuall
From the shore it's slightly differ
161 And if you are not holding your
MEGRIM Lepidorhombus whiffiagonis B
Colouration is brown with some dark
Dan Burrows, Fleetwood Because of m
Where there are still a few bass le
ecruitment in the face of imminent
As ever, there was always the dange
The EU is relying on existing enfor
The total reduction in fishing mort
south, as it is a common enough fis
A fish with a large mouth and power
weaning these otherwise algae graze
spots, and put in the time both swi
Ollie Stenning, 8.7.4 Thin Lip reco
Despite living nearby in Hampshire,
Simply fold the pectoral fin forwar
Otherwise, a family of fishes of vi
epeated off the Yorkshire coast. Ye
were forced to remove their fightin
So far as I can ascertain, this is
different scales starting at the gi
everywhere as was once the case. Wi
Quite an unusual visitor to our pat
Four of us we were drift fishing a
Physically, the almaco is a slightl
Already we are seeing that, not onl
the end of the trip, still with no
I've had it happen to me on more th
What clinched that line of thinking
much stronger sharper hooks, and bu
Mike Thrussell, Gilthead Bream I ha
BOGUE Boops boops Bucket List statu
AXILLARY BREAM Pagellus acarne Buck
Caught out, instead of reversing th
The biggest of the four was put at
So there I am winding in, certain I
CUCKOO WRASSE Labrus mixtus Bucket
For deliberately targeting them, th
The scientific wisdom suggests it t
As is the trend with most of the gu
In this particular case however, re
Although I've never caught one myse
So you can expect to see them in mo
The knock on effect would also sign
Phill Williams, Shad on fly Unusual
THE GOBIES Potentially quite a larg
Colouration varies between reddish
TOMPOT BLENNY Parablennius gattorug
BLACK FACED BLENNY Tripterygion del
A very dark blue-grey fish over its
If it's a conger, the eye will be l
Yes, conger can be a handful. Dange
to make a short flowing 10/0 hook t
Anyway, a good hour went by without
More recently, that trend has given
A fish well capable of weights well
eam covered in a mosaic of heavy sc
Trigger fish are not overly demandi
Distribution extends throughout all
exaggerated long filaments stretchi
sometimes lighter vertical bars on
GREATER WEEVER Trachinus draco Buck
SHORT SPINED SEA SCORPION Myoxoceph
The anal fin follows a similar patt
Colouration is sandy brown with a s
By far the biggest numbers I have e
RED BAND FISH Cepola rubescens Buck
FIFTEEN SPINED STICKLEBACK Spinchia
After spawning, the adults drop bac
So not a likely repeat prospect for
As for mirrors, commons, leathers a
That was it. We would film a demons
Granted, Richard Walker was from a
cameras, this went into a rucksack
The fishing itself was straight for
ottom. It was all bait fishing with
Smaller asp on the other hand tend
also run this river in their millio
Surprisingly, for the size of these
Eventually it appeared within reach
On one occasion, as soon as I touch
shark, which, along with a fish I h
fixed spool reels. Fortunately we h
As it would turn out, this was the
A stretch of land separated from th
The food was very nice. Fresh lobst
What you needed to do was cast as f
He in turn blamed the local lads on
against the concrete above us and h
The one remaining option was to go
More important still, so too were t
Our problem was catching the necess
Unfortunately, everything seemed to
was emptied, carried to us by scant
me there from Calangute where I was
In less than half an hour it was mi
said, as I'm not one for aimlessly
This happened a couple more times b
inside edge of the reef. As the sto
limited time, we were satisfied, an
Phill Williams, Puerto Vallarta Jac
Some days he would even walk into t
Were it not for the many bite-offs,
Gurnards very similar to our tub gu
Cod though were always the number o
up into the jungle. So late in fact
As was often the case, the chat wen
things turned out, it was nothing o
SPAIN I've only ever been to mainla
These eventually turned out to be f
In terms of approach, we used a ver
PART THREE INDIVIDUAL TARGETS THE C
Dove-tailing very nicely into this
I suggested in my representations,
Fortunately, most of the recorded s
not mentioned in this section of th
Opportunities to realistically and
Hamish Currie is the only home wate
through holes in bushes, around sub
to adjust the working depth, depend
One of the recorded audio interview
Wels Catfish - now excluded from th
Okay, so you can access much of it
With this mind we motored off down
As a sort of prediction as well as
Phill Williams & Johan Burger with
Let's look at the pro's and con's o
It may surprise some people here wh
kayaks tied up to some of the buoys
Because of the geography involved,
I even tried bottom fishing with sm
PART FOUR OTHER STUFF PERIFERAL & H
magnetometer behind the boat as the
Luckily, Pete had installed a bilge
But endless pages of print unfortun
And now here we are with the bucket
with no relevant qualifications, I
Deformed surviving Tope Most other
you dip the sampling can in at the
acteria feeding on it, or other inp
separate bucket for reintroduction
RESIDS 0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 2 3
An asteroid impact 66 million years
As a point of balance, I should als
a vested financial interest in mopp
Podcast Interview 8: Graeme Pullen,
Podcast Interview 33: Zyg Gregorek,
Podcast Interview 55: Dave Beecham,
Podcast Interview 74: Justin Anwyl
Podcast Interview 95: Sven Hille, B
shore, and a 1000 pound fish from a
Podcast Interview 134: Mike Heylin,
Podcast Interview 155: Ally Gowans,
Podcast Interview 176: Terry Mosele
his job had to fish with many of th
Smoothhound at surface: Photo Phill
Dave Devine Haddock trio: Photo Phi
Gibraltar harbour: Photo Phill Will
Anchovy: Photo Phill Williams. Phil
Grass Carp: Photo Bill Rushmer. Vir
Char in breeding livery: Photo Phil
Danny Cove 200 pound Stingray: Phot
My angling hero & mentor, Davy Agne
The Lesser Spotted curse: Photo Phi