Another day, another blank!

Chalked up another blank with Conor and Petsie on the River Lackagh yesterday. Water was at #7 on the marker and quite a good flow to be honest, probably too much. Conor nearly landed a sea trout which swam off at his feet and hit some small browns on a Rapala while myself and Petsie got nothing on the fly. I was using the Scandi heads and fairly dredged her the last run down. Onwards!

Here is a few from the Finn, 19/4/13. No joy that day either but I did enjoy using the Hover/inty scandi down the pools!

Guideline Scandi Shooting heads

I got sent some early prototype GL Scandi lines which were planned or designed to be used on smaller double handed rods and Switch rods, but since they were too similar to the already launched Compact heads the idea was scrapped. I just had to cut them up to the right length and weight. They are around 33 feet and 24 grams for my Lpxe Switch 7/8. I used Roman Moser trout loops for the loop connections, they are really light and hardly scrape through the rings at all. Finished them with some thread whipping and Aquasure.

 I gave them a cast this morning and they are as good as I expected, I have a Float/hover/inty and an Intermediate/Sink 1/Sink 2. The Sink1/Sink2 really is a super sink line and really got down quickly, I think this is going to be a common theme with these heads and the Hover/Inty got into that mid range fishing zone very quickly too.

The heads are quite easy to bring to the surface and a roll cast had them ready to go again, even the light switch could get them to the surface so I was happy with that one, sink lines can be difficult to manage on lighter rods but I could see myself getting very used to bringing these lines to the surface quickly and without much fuss.

I used a Guideline Tapered Shooting line for these heads and I have the 25lb, 0.28"/0.70mm. It has a lovely small loop and the light line really suits the switch, with the Roman Moser loops and the small TSL loop I found ring scrape to be at a minimum which made a nice change!

The TSL is nice and thin and did not retain much memory from being on the reel so tangles were a minimum and it shot through the rings. It is 30m long and takes up hardly any space on the reel so good for switch rods with smaller reels or even shooting heads for single handers. Hoping to get my hands on a Compact head, a DH 27gram to see how it casts on the Lpxe. Most of my lines are in and around 25grams but I have cast a 28 gram Rio steelhead scandi. The Rio head needed very little effort to get it out there but I still was mindful that I had a heavy shooting head on the rod. Sink lines around the 27 gram mark may get quite awkward and heavy for the switch but I will see how it goes!

Mourne and Lackagh 5/6th of April

Enjoyed my first trip out of the year and getting to grips with the Double-hand rod. I'm using a Guideline Le Cie 14'8 9/10 Medium/Fast rod with a DDC 13.5m shooting head at around 40grams. Results on the fish front were nil and on the casting front I flared up some tennis elbow that can occur from time to time. Its mainly down to a tight grip and being too rigid and tensed with my right arm, got it from laying blocks a few years back. But after a more thoughtful approach with some practice on Sunday I should not be troubling it anymore, mainly down to poor technique. It can be very easy to slip into a frame of mind where you start forcing your approach for distance and causing problems, which I did! But its a step in the right direction as I can assess my technique, also feel I would have benefitted with a polyleader as I just used a short length of fluoro as I put a sink 2/3 tip on the DDC and didn't want a long leader. Blew the anchor a lot with this setup so its a learning process but I am getting more confident and refined in my approach to these bigger rivers!

   So we fished the Mourne Friday and the Lackagh Saturday. Day tickets were £30 for the Mourne and €25 for the Lackagh. Expensive if you rack up a few days over the season but it depends if you think its worth it or not. I gladly pay it for the Mourne as the fly water is superb and hard to beat, plus it gets fish! Here is some snaps.

River development

Finally all the stars aligned and I got into a pool on the Fane at Knockbridge to clear away two Sally trees which were firmly lodged in the river and upsetting the flow of the pool. The river actually diverted completely from its original path and cut into the bank opposite the downed trees. Makes for a wide pool and a great throw now. The back of the run is very very deep and holds fish throughout the year when they are running. Sally trees are a type of willow tree, they are tolerable when they are along the bank as they do create lies and different current with their roots but when the land in the water its torture as they grow into the river bed and really break up currents and cause major obstacles. Delighted to get these two out as they have been residents for 10-15years!

A few before and afters.

Current has been decreased as it is not channelled anymore.

 

 

And the Beast that did the damage, great to see it throw the trunks around like twigs! Just a bit more clearing up of the smaller stuff that is left behind, really looking forward to fishing it more later in the year, its also a great seatrout pool in low water and salmon do push up this far given good tides and just a small rise in water. It is a deep holding pool.