Wessex

[robmason]

exerod said:

This season is shaping up better than last. We have escaped the worst of the rain until last weekend. Sunday the river went into a near bank high thick brown flood but this was the first unfishable day since March.

A few nice fish have come off in the last month (I don't know why they are so much later than the Avon fish). The sea trout seem to be on the up again, there could hardly have been many less than last year!

Success last Saturday



Andy

He's a chunky fella Andy, well done. See what you mean about the colour of the water.

[exerod]

Salmon still coming off in dribs and drabs, about as good as it gets here! No sign of grilse yet. The early promise with the sea trout has fizzled out a bit

Toby, who some of you will know of as WCB from the FF Forum, came over for his first attempt at salmon on Sunday. The poor sod only went and got one... so thats his life ruined now



I managed to land a 1.5lb pike

Andy

[robmason]

Well done to WCB> I know a good counsellor if he needs one.

[acw]

exerod said:

Salmon still coming off in dribs and drabs, about as good as it gets here! No sign of grilse yet. The early promise with the sea trout has fizzled out a bit

Toby, who some of you will know of as WCB from the FF Forum, came over for his first attempt at salmon on Sunday. The poor sod only went and got one... so thats his life ruined now



I managed to land a 1.5lb pike

Andy

Toby , salmon
just watch him start on buying the kit ,tackle dealers of the world rub your hands ;D

[acw]

Talking to Toby yesterday over a quick pint it seems there were a fair few fish about .
With the Wye fishing well at present is this a renaissance or just a flash in the pan ??

[easky]

or removal of Irish nets making an positive impact? ;)that was one of the arguments for the removal of the drift nets ie. it was a mixed fishery and so taking fish from other fisheries rather than just Irish stocks

[severnfisher]

Good to see you guys catching. Must admit I'm dead envious aboutthe water conditions down there. The Severn hasn't been fishable on the fly now for over 5 weeks.

[exerod]

easky said:

or removal of Irish nets making an positive impact? ;)that was one of the arguments for the removal of the drift nets ie. it was a mixed fishery and so taking fish from other fisheries rather than just Irish stocks

I think it's a bit early to say yet. From what I see and hear the catches on the Frome are about average, better than last year but then we have had better fishing weather. The grilse have still to arrive, they arrived about this time last year. There is a counter on the Frome so we will know after the season ends if numbers are up or not. I read somewhere that the expected increase in runs on the south coast rivers as a result of the closing of the Irish nets is around 10% for this year.

Andy

[easky]

I agree Andy its a bit early to draw conclustions but it does seem encouraging - certainly over here in Ireland we are seeing more bigger fish which we wouldn't normally have had. Hard to say though if this is just concidence or not, time will tell

[simmo]

Hi all,

Does anybody know if the Grilse have arrived in the Avon yet?
Thinking of a trip out this weekend.

I hear that the best method for them is using a weighted nymph. I am unsure what nymphs to try & what size/colour.

Cheers
Graeme

[hodge]

Hi
The JW nymphs (size 6) from Sportfish should suffice - they are fairly heavily weighted. Of course, the shrimp is also a good bet, if you are that way inclined.
I am hoping to have a go on Friday - hopefully the water will have dropped and, more importantly, cleared by then, so I can try and spot a few!

Hodge

[simmo]

Thanks Hodge,

Booked a rod for saturday. Good luck for Friday hope you leave some fish for me.

I checked out the JW nymphs & will tie up something similar now I get the general idea of what they look like.

Cheers
Graeme

[salmonking]

Couple of beauty's there, well done.

[exerod]

Cheers Col, we don't get many but when we do they are generally clean ones being just above the tide.

Any grilse seen on the Avon? I fished yesterday in blazing sunshine on the Frome and turned one good fresh salmon but still no sign of grilse. In one way it would be nice to think thet all shot through on the high water but then again it would be nice to get one or two! I ended up sitting in the only bit of shade I could find trotting for dace, I'll do anything to get a bend in the rod

Andy

[simmo]

Hi Andy,

I fished the Avon last Saturday. Spotted 1 small grilse & managed to spook it. The cast was fine but it didn't like my nymph & bolted. I was hoping it would return to its lie but it didn't. Didn't see anything else so ended up fishing for some mullet in a back eddy & ended up catching a couple of chub & a small trout.

It was a pleasant few hours out none the less.

Graeme

[exerod]

simmo said:

I fished the Avon last Saturday. Spotted 1 small grilse & managed to spook it.

Welcome to southern English salmon fishing, thats a successful day in my book!

Andy

[exerod]

But it does come right occasionally

A run of fish came in over the weekend, at one point I counted four fish in one pool

Got a salmon and a grilse early on Saturday morning and two grilse early on Sunday, all on spinner and once the sun was well up they would look at nothing. Spent over an hour trying the nymph on three fish with no responce at all.

The salmon and one of the grilse had slightly red vents but as you can see it was nothing like as bad as is being seen elsewhere.



Andy

[robmason]

Well done Andy, there's more to it than being there at the right time believe me!

My poor form continues- although I had a sea trout sunday night, on netting it, turns out it was foul hooked in the belly! No wonder he was cross!!

[exerod]

Well the salmon season ended on 31st August and it went out on a fairly quiet note. Two days after the end a small run of very fresh grilse went up, how do they know??? However it was a better season overall with some good fish about

The sea trout are still in season (how's that for an anomaly?) and when they are not showing any interest I have a go at the pike...

Sunday I got this on a pike fly. At over thirty inches it's my biggest sea trout so far, it would have been a cracker in May



Andy

[elwyman]

That's a clonker Andy - how heavy do you think, 10lb?