Sunday 25 September 2016

Late September - a time of change


Apologies to our regular blog readers for lack of material recently. This has been due in part to a busy period teaching beginners, often in less than favourable water, and to lack of material! The past seven weeks have been rainless and rather devoid of great excitement. The closing days of the trout and sea trout season are now looking very unsettled, and we look forward to some back-end sport with the salmon.

Waiting for the 'green to go out of the grass' before starting sea trout fishing up on Beat 3 of the River Lyd

Full moon and mist in the Lyd valley


How to ruin your night vision ( by not using a red light when changing flies).

A typical September 'harvest peal'.




Would you like to play a little game of skill? How many sea trout can you count in this photo? Bear in mind that they are well known as the 'grey ghosts'.



Did you get all 21? If so, well done!




This video shows a shoal of sea trout on the Lyd, doing what sea trout do best in the day, which is not much at all. Note the fish in the top left corner rubbing its side as it scootles around the pool (new word for the English language) showing its silver flanks. Sometimes this flashing is the first thing one sees when scanning the pools to find a shoal of peal. Watch fullscreen in HD for the best viewing.

Hartley weir, River Lyd, dead low water, Friday 23rd. September

Just over one inch of rain overnight. Sunday 25th. September. Not actually very high, at this level trout fishing would be fine if the water was less coloured. No salmon or sea trout were seen running at the weir, but more rain predicted soon will certainly get them on the move. This first rise of water after almost two months of  no rain is too little and too soon for the fish to respond in any numbers - watch this space!