Charters

Mike Weaver selects a dozen flies for trout on rivers and lakes

When the editor of Get Hooked asked me to come up with a dozen trout flies for all waters – both rivers and lakes – my reaction was something between incredulity and panic. A quick look at a couple of my fly boxes revealed dozen of patterns and I am sure that I could have produced a good reason for including every one of them. But a closer look revealed that a much smaller number showed the wear and tear of frequent use, while perhaps the majority were still in a relatively pristine state. So, perhaps the range of flies that catch most of my trout is rather narrower than the contents of the fly boxes would at first suggest.

Here then is a selection of 12 flies that season after season deliver the goods on all types of trout fisheries, starting with the rivers.

When the season opens, the streams are usually high and cold with little sign of rising trout, so it is necessary to get the fly down to the action area – and that means close to the riverbed.

Brian Marshall is the Chairman - Wessex Salmon and Rivers Trust The southern, lowland chalk streams of Wessex have a rich bio-diversity that has, for millennia, supported thriving populations of fish, flora, birds and invertebrates. Foremost among these is the famous River Hampshire Avon. Rising from the chalk aquifer of Salisbury Plain as the East and West Avon, it heads south for Salisbury where it is joined by the Rivers Bourne, Wylie, Nadder and Ebble, each offering individual characteristics and angling opportunities whilst hosting the catchment’s spawning salmon. These revered centres of trout fishing, and on the Nadder coarse angling as well, set the standard for the main river that runs from Britford through Hampshire to the sea at Christchurch in Dorset, briefly meeting with the River Stour, from the west.

The grayling, in the past often maligned as vermin on trout rivers, is at last being recognised as a truly sporting and wild fish.

The fact that their season continues after the close of trout fishing, and that they take a fly readily, reinforces their attraction to the thinking, sporting angler.
A surge of interest has taken place in recent years, starting slowly back in the 1970's with the publication of Reg Righyni's classic book `Grayling', and the formation of the Grayling Society, and continues to gather momentum today, as ever more fishermen pursue this most attractive and elegant fish.

Distribution in the South West
The Wessex region is home to some fine grayling, with the Wiltshire/Hampshire Avon system probably having the densest population in Britain. The Frome holds some very large fish, certainly in the 31b class, mostly downstream of Dorchester. I believe there are grayling in the Tone, then moving west into Devon and Cornwall we have two isolated but thriving populations in the Exe and Tamar systems. On the Exe they can be found all the way up from Exeter to the Barle junction and into the lowest pools on the Barle. On the Tamar they are well distributed throughout the main river and most of the tributaries, particularly the Inny, Lyd and Ottery. In was on the upper reaches of the Inny, on a cold, grey day in March 1967, that I saw my very first grayling, and I have been fascinated ever since by "The lady of the stream".

Tackle
A light, crisp actioned fly rod of around 9 feet, matched with a floating line no heavier than AFTM 5, is perfect for most waters. I prefer a double tapered line, it allows a more
delicate presentation and is more suited to roll casting, often essential on small streams. The reel should be a light nononsense job, well filled with line and backing, not for playing the fish but to minimise line coil and memory. I needle knot a 9ft knotless tapered leader (31b of 5x) and add 3 feet of 21b nylon as a tippett, attached with a three turn water knot. Waders are useful, with chest waders preferred. You will need all the other accessories you would normally carry when trouting, floatant, sinkant etc. Most essential though is a pair of long nosed forceps of similar to facilitate unhooking and returning your fish. Hooks should be barbless, I often catch salmon parr, unseasonable trout and even sea trout whilst fishing for grayling.

Tactics
First, find your fish! On the clear waters of the Wessex trout streams careful observation with polaroids will soon reveal the fish. Grey shadows on the river bed, ever on the move to intercept a drifting nymph or lumbering caddis. Rising fish are on obvious give away, but are they grayling? or perhaps brown trout or salmon parr. The rise of a grayling can be seen to be slightly different to other game fish, due to the grayling's unique habit of lying hard on the river bed and rising almost vertically to the surface to engulf it's prey, and returning at once to the gravel. This causes the fish to make an oily, kidney shaped whorl on the surface of the water, often accompanied by a bubble as it turns a sort of somersault on it's way back to the river bed. In clear water the fish can often be seen emerging from the depths like a missile a split second before breaking the surface. In the absence of fly hatches and rising fish the only way to find your grayling is to fish all the likely looking areas and, once a fish has been landed, cover the area thoroughly as grayling often shoal. As the trout season ends and the water temperature drops this shoaling behaviour becomes more apparent, with some parts of the river completely devoid of fish, so it pays to know the sort of water the grayling prefer. Local advice and information can be invaluable, but if none is available look for steady, even flowing water of between 18 inches and 6 feet in depth, the colder the water the deeper the fish will be.

Wet and Dry Fly
Small wet trout flies, fished either up or downstream will take grayling in summer and early autumn, but are indiscriminate and far less efficient than dry fly or nymph.
A hatch of naturals, in any month of the year will bring grayling to the surface and provide superlative sport on a dry fly. The grayling is a fussy feeder and any untidy presentation will result in the fly being refused. From it's position on the river bed the grayling has a wide field of view, so the fly should land without disturbing the water and drift for several feet without dragging, in order to deceive her ladyship.

Fly patterns are less important than presentation, though if the insect on the water can be identified and matched by a suitable artificial, so much the better. Grayling will often feed on tiny flies and your box should contain a selection from size 12 down to 18 or 20. Despite taking tiny flies it is not unusual to catch grayling while spinning for salmon with a small Mepps and my biggest grayling, a two pounder, took a large lure at night while I was after sea trout! Many of the traditional grayling flies are still highly successful today. Fancy patterns such as Red Tag, Treacle Parkin and Bradshaw's Fancy are excellent. The modern range of cul-de-canard flies, with their highly imitative properties, are very hard to beat. The flies visibility to the angler is also very important, particularly in the fading light of and October or November afternoon. I like parachute style flies with a highly visible wing post of white calf tail or synthetic wool, the American elk hair caddis is also highly visible and can be very effective, even when caddis flies are absent. Grayling take a fly very quickly and your strike must be equally rapid if you are to hook your fish.

Nymph Fishing
There will, of course, be times when there are no naturals hatching and the surface of the river slides past unbroken by the rings of rising fish. Now is the time for the nymph, without doubt the most effective way of catching grayling. The late Frank Sawyer, river keeper on the officer's club water on the Wiltshire Avon at Netheravon, invented his famous killer bug purely as a way of catching and removing unwanted grayling from a trout fishery. On the chalk streams where the clear water allows fish to be stalked and targeted, cast your weighted nymph upstream of the fish and allow it to drift downstream, keeping an eagle eye on the point where your leader penetrates the surface film. It pays to grease the leader down to the tippet knot and sink the tippet with fullers earth. When the fish takes the knot will twitch or be pulled under and your strike must be instantaneous. If a fish keeps refusing your fly try the `induced take' by lifting the rod just before the nymph reaches the fish. This lifts the nymph enticingly just in front of the fish's nose and few grayling can resist it.

When the fish are not visible I use an indicator on the leader, either a tuft of wool treated with floatant or a pea-sized lump of Float-do or similar material. The position of the indicator determines the depth at which the nymph will fish and, crucially, indicates the take. Obviously a heavy nymph is needed to fish deep water and I am a great fan of the bead headed types. Gold and copper heads work well on most patterns such as hare's ear, pheasant tail and even the original killer bug.

Caution and Conservation
Grayling share their habitat with trout and salmon which spawn during the autumn months. CHECK with the owners of the fishery to see whether fishing for grayling is allowed after the close of the salmon and trout seasons. More importantly, if you can fish, DO NOT WADE anywhere near the pool tails between October and March. Fertile trout and salmon eggs will be buried in the gravel shallows and walking on them will damage our fish stocks for future years.

I would like to close with a word on conservation. At one time grayling were ruthlessly culled from trout streams by any means possible. This has been proven an ineffective as a way of reducing numbers and just reduces the average size of fish. Today most fisheries value the presence of grayling, they are an excellent indication of good water quality and happily co-exist with other game fish. In early autumn, when in their prime, grayling make excellent eating, but only take what you need (they are protected by law through the coarse fish close season, 16 March to 15 June inclusive and other bylaws may apply).

All out truly wild fish stocks are under threat these days and it would be nice to see anglers actively caring for the grayling and the rivers they inhabit.

Dr. Stewart Owen

You may hear anglers speak of triploid fish, especially at trout fisheries. Triploids are in fact sterile fish, but why do we need them and where do they come from? Read on and fish biologist Dr Stewart Owen will answer these questions and give an insight into a fascinating aspect of fisheries management.

Why do we need sterile fish?

When there is a risk of introducing a new species to a fishery or catchment area, fisheries officers and managers apply the precautionary principle. There must be the 'least risk' of introduced fish affecting those already present. Where a species is non-native such as rainbow trout, fisheries managers do their utmost to prevent a viable population establishing and so reduce the theoretical risk to the natural populations of other species already present. In some cases such as with our native brown trout, the genetic diversity between river systems has recently been realised. Stocking fish of one particular blood-line in a river system containing fish of a different genetic history is now increasingly restricted. To allow some fisheries to function it is necessary to stock with either fish from a particular compatible source (such as those spawned from resident fish) or stock with sterile fish.

In the UK climate rainbow trout spawn in late winter (Jan-March) and as used to be the normal situation before fish were sterilised, the female fish swell with eggs during this period. A female invests all of her energy into producing the best eggs she can. This means that she mobilises her own muscle protein and fat from her body and sends this energy to the eggs. When you catch a fish 'in egg' her flesh quality will be poor compared to when she is not producing eggs. If a triploid fish is not able to produce eggs, then the benefit for the angler is that the flesh quality remains throughout the year.

How do fish become sterile?

There are several methods used to sterilise fish. If the fish already exist then they can be prevented from maturing using chemicals or hormonal treatments. This is effective, but very expensive and time consuming. But a method is commonly used to produce fish that are sterile from birth. This is called triploidy.

Like us, fish are made up from genetic information gained from both parents. Half of the genes come from the father, and half from the mother. Genes are the instructions to a cell of how to build proteins. They are stored in long strings of DNA that are tightly coiled into units called chromosomes. Different species have a different number of chromosomes containing different numbers of genes. A single set of genes from a parent is called a haploid set. At fertilisation, the egg and sperm come together and pair their haploid sets so the resultant baby has two complementary sets of genetic information and is referred to as being Diploid. That is it has two haploid sets. A diploid fish goes on to develop into a normal fish and will mature and reproduce when the time is right.

If the egg is physically shocked shortly after fertilisation occurs, then it is possible to produce a fish with three sets of chromosomes, a triploid fish. The egg does not in fact manufacture an extra set for itself. The extra genetic information actually comes from the female parent and is present before fertilisation. Under normal unshocked fertilisation this information is lost from the egg as it is fertilised. But a shock, such as an increase in temperature, physical shaking or an increase in environmental pressure prevents this information leaving the fertilised cell. There is no genetic modification. Genes have not been changed or manufactured. The number of chromosomes are increased because a set are not lost on fertilisation. The fertilised egg is left with three copies of genetic information rather than two. Two from the mother, and one from the father. Triploid fish grow and develop as normal. After all they have the same information within them as diploid fish. But when it comes to producing eggs for themselves, the three sets of information do not divide conveniently and so no viable eggs are produced by hen fish. Triploid males do not produce viable sperm.

This is actually a simplified account of the process. Many fish naturally have many sets of identical chromosomes. Some species are naturally tetraploid (four sets), hexaploid (six) or even heptaploid (seven). The term given to more than diploid is polyploid. Wild trout are not in fact diploid to start with. Native wild trout swimming in the rivers of Britain are polyploid naturally. So as a trout embryo is made triploid, the fish could actually contain 18 sets of genetic information.

How do fish farmers produce triploids?

To make fish triploid the newly fertilised eggs are physically shocked. In practice this means the eggs are placed in a special pressure vessel and subjected to a very high pressure. The timing after fertilisation and the actual pressure are critical to the process. If the farmer times this wrong then mistakes can be made. The balance is a fine one. Too little and it does not cause triploidy whilst too much pressure kills the eggs. It is difficult to judge the success until the fish can be sampled and examined under the microscope, or mature as adults. The triploid eggs go on to hatch and grow normally into adult fish. However it must be remembered that the process is a biological one and as such triploidisation is rarely 100% effective. Some fish of each batch seem to escape the process and mature as normal fish. We expect our suppliers to provide fry that are normally much better than 90% triploid. That is we generally expect that one fish in ten from a batch of triploids will develop eggs in maturity. It is therefore important that the farmer grades the fish to remove any hen fish before these fish are stocked into critical waters. This is a point often overlooked and a batch of triploids may still contain a small number of fertile fish.

Where do our fish actually come from?

In order to supply trout all year round for the UK markets, eggs are sourced from around the world as different geographic regions provide spawning at different times of the year. Of course some producers spawn fish artificially all year around, but UK fish are typically British, Danish and South African in origin. Eggs also come from America, Canada, Iceland, Faeroes, France, Chile and Australia. This is a tightly regulated industry with government ministry regulation and inspection that insures full trace-ability with veterinary health checks. Once the eggs have passed through the hatcheries they are 'grown-on' at one of the many restocking farms throughout the UK from where they are traded until they reach the anglers hook.