With a welcome change in both weather and forecast it is perhaps a smile and a warm glow that adorns anglers keen to put behind them some ‘topsy turvy’ conditions that have either made or ruined an otherwise good days fishing.

Today good friend Keith Passant joined us for his first visit to a stretch of the Wylye… with lush green foliage but yet still high water we looked forward to something… anything… that would show interest to some of our meagre offerings.

Whilst I spent the best part of an hour dithering with my recent leader/indicator innovation, Warren and Keith made haste with their setups and went on to wet a line…

Paying particular attention to a fly Keith tied and decided to fish (I daren’t show you its scale)

Needles to say a good fish rose to the far bank opposite Keith. Now this fish is significant in that since April, Warren, Richard and I have tempted this particular fish to the fly but never quite nailed it… Keith had all but two well placed casts with said fly and…

well… nailed it he did… a stunning fish falling to a fly that did nothing other than command surprise.

Before even wetting a line myself for having dithered so long, it was time to play chef… bacon baps for lunch. Not sure if Warren’s enjoying my efforts or is about to ‘chunder’

Desperate to make amends for not having yet fished, it’s to the one handed bacon butty technique

Post lunch of baps, crisps, mars bars and tea… then more tea, we soon got down to the more serious business of fishing.

Warren below in the weir (testing) pool at the bottom of our beat with the new indicator

There’s the take right there…

I wish I could say he nailed the fish but fly fishers don’t lie.. @#&$!

With exacting setups we both focus hard and look for any micro movement… easily seen they are too

Unlike Warren I’m nailing mine… (It’s my blog and I can write what I want so ner ner)

Keith trying all manner of his excellent flies at the top of our stretch

With light fading we fish both dry and nymph to tempt some of the more regular incumbents. Given the weather we were quite surprised there was so little surface activity…

…even though a good mixture of fly were regularly active throughout the early to late afternoon: Cased and free swimming caddis, long horn sedge and a healthy number of mayfly

Let’s hope this vein of weathers continues… enjoy your fishing ~ Jim

On an otherwise perfect day betwixt downpours yesterday and potentially more tomorrow, Warren and I took the opportunity to get out on the Wylye.

Today was to be a good day… no, actually a great day, trying out 3 new cameras but more importantly an indicator I’d played with earlier this week [Previous post]

Nothing other than expected, still teetering on the edge but slowly regressing from the banks

All anglers will know of the required rules of engagement… kettle, cover & the barby.

I strike a ‘it’s nowt to do wiv me mate’ pose whilst arsonist Warren napalms some charcoal.

Rosemary and marinade… flamed with a dose of diesel… now cook ya buggers!

Day-glo set up on the trusty 10ft #2

Suitably sustenanced and having fathomed out how head cam, sky cam and new underwater tough cam worked we set upon our rod, reels and lines.

I introduced Warren to a more modified version of the indicator setup I’d tinkered with earlier. Hi-viz, multi coloured and ultra thin with a sexy turnover taper.

Discussing some pros and cons we were making some intricate but meaningful alterations as we went. Having not quite mastered the line connection as yet I looked to a temporary loop to loop set up that wouldn’t compromise or at least minimise the loss of any energy transfer.

Applying nothing more than a 5ft straight tippet I knot on an Olive cdc and make a few prelim casts with a yearning to see how it performs up top.

Ta dah… as one can see it attracts only the bigger specimens… ‘Today I will mainly be really chuffed’

Now to let Warren at it, we set up his #2 with the indicator on a 140 grain Cortland Nymphing Line. His choice of ‘arrow’ was a lovely olive quill fly with a ‘blingy’ bead to add sparkle to murky waters.

In this section there’s insufficient opportunity for anything other than a free drifting or towing approach with the leader hovering on the surface. Doing nothing more than blind casting and searching with zero visibility, Warren relies upon nothing but the slightest of movements…

To our surprise the versatility of my previous favoured option [Bristle Art] had been surpassed. Inline with the leader setup it cast beautifully, hovered high and even when gradually submerging using heavy nymphs it was easily visible at given intersections due to its length, the alternating colours also acted as depth markers.

The most appealing aspect was the sensitivity, partly due to it’s lightness, construction and degree of stretch within. I’ve never seen Warren so dumb struck…

Here he tries some high sticking & Czech nymphing at the weir in the lower reaches, yet again with tremendous results.

Dalek like Warren’s also trialling my new super dooper head cam, an awesome and ultra light POV.

A wriggling specimen not wishing to be photographed any time soon.

The original leader below now tweaked and superseded… a 10ft & 15ft version now in production

I’ve some stunning footage from 3 cameras of the indicator(s) to digest and edit, as well as plenty of expletives and secret bits to dub so hopefully something to share soon.

I also worked on an almost invisible weight like system to sink stubborn tippet and perhaps add weight to flies as an alternative to shot all be it at a lighter level… what I tried yesterday worked a treat, I just need to smarten up the application. Again I may post something up here once I’m convinced with a few more tests.

No time to rest even though the weathers poor ~ innovation mode very much engaged at the moment and some weird and wonderful stuff coming to fruition ~ enjoy your fishing!