Size 12 & 14 Cascades for Friday

[splash]

macd said:

Similar to splash's suggestion- the silver shrimp

Aye MaCD - great minds do indeed think alike

cheers

Splash

[macd]

very nice splash - if you ever suffer from a surplus, ill take one or two off your hands

i got a couple of sea trout from the dee this evening......but as great minds think alike, fools seldom differ

they were going crazy for the collie dog- they were chasing it every cast.

Totally ignored our collective genius of the small, clerverly crafted silver stoat.
Bar stewards

i suppose that is what makes it fun.

atb

Ross

[flynnboy]

Hi everyone,

This has nothing to do with questions about flies but more about nostalgia and fishing the North Tyne.

It was hearing about the Tyne, Redeswood and the Riverdale that set me off, that's my old stomping ground from up to 2 years ago when we moved to France. I lived in the village of Wark up until then which you may know is just down the road from Bellingham and the Riverdale Hotel. I also used to play music in there on occasion, I am a Northumbrian Piper as well as a Salmon fisherman.

When we decided to move to France I had to have my fishing and so the choice of where we lived was determined by that. I searched the web and discovered that down here in the SW is the best Salmon fishing in France - God help the rest of them if this is the best

I think probably there used to be good fishing here, a long time ago, because the rivers are beautiful, the waters clear and the bottoms are perfect. However, with the netting in the estuary at Bayonne (apparently granted by Napoleon) and the popularity of fishing here I think the rivers are basically fished out. There definitely are fish being caught, I have seen photographs, constantly hear about them, (that's maybe fisherman's tales, or a tourist department plot) but to be honest, and this is one of the frustrating things, I have never so much as seen a fish move or jump since I've been here

I constantly wind up my French mate with this but he always tries to reassure me that there are fish and tells me that so and so lost a couple the other day, hmmmm I'll believe it when I see it, or better still when I catch one, fat chance methinks

Just lately I have been bemoaning my fate as a fisherman and getting very nostalgic about my old beat on the Tyne at Wark where I belonged to the local club - dead mens boots getting in there. However reading the mails above about the Tyne reminded me of one thing and took away the rose tint from my nostalgia, Kielder

I suddenly remembered that in fact yes there are fish up there but my God your fishing is almost totally dependent on releases from that Blxxxxdy reservoir I remembered that everyday through the season I was on the telephone first thing and several times through the day checking to see if there was going to be a release. I also remember that my last season before I left there was hardly any fishing to be had at all because there were just no releases to put any sort of water height, or flow, in the river and that I think may have been even more frustrating than my fishing here in France.

I vividly remember coming home regularly and spitting that it was like fishing in a puddle ! At least we do always have a good flow of water here and so at the very least I know I can practice my casting on a good body of water, is this really my consolation, 'casting' as opposed to 'fishing' sheesh.

Tight lines on the Tyne and I hope there was some water as well as fish.

flynnboy the frustrated.

[pond321]

Well, the trip, as predicted, did not result in any Salmon (or Sea Trout). However, we did have a succesful crack at the brownies, a long, lesuirely BBQ and boozy afternoon on thye beat in perfect sunshine, and several superb steaks (1 per night in my case) at the Riverdale Hall. These were obviously followed by a couple of pints.... :-)

So, no fish but a great weekend with friends and hopefully I will get a rod on the backend...

Cheers

Jon