Scotland

Hi

Over the last week I have been staying in the caravan with the family. Fortunately the caravan site sits right on the banks of the River Brann. This is a fantastic river that was full of Trout and Grayling. The river it's self flows into the River Tay at Dunkeld , but the river is still a fair size with plenty of holding pools for the Salmon.

On arrival the river was high but still fishable. So I set to work digging all of the gear out of the van only to find that I had left the fishing rods at home!! This lead to a very interesting conversation with the parents, and its was decided that we would make the journey to Glasgow the next day to Glasgow Angling Centre. This was a thrilling experience, the shop is big and holds lots of high quality fishing equipment. First job was rod searching.  After having a quick browse, we asked a member of staff for some advice on a decent rod but that was not to expensive. To cut a long story short we came to find a Fulling Mill Gold Xt 10ft 3wt. After a few more hours searching for some new accessories I had purchase a new chest pack, a selection of fly tying materials, a C and F fly box and a Greys Platinum fly line, not cheap but all well worth it.



As soon as we got back to the site I had to try out the new rod. Immediately I was very impressed with it's quality. It is light weight and casts a French leader very well, it also a soft tip which is ideal for playing out big fish on light lines but it still has plenty of back bone for French netting the fish. I combined the rod with my French leader and 2 of my favourite nymphs. It didn't take long to get into some fish which kept me interested all day. As the holiday progressed I got up early every morning to go fishing before we went out. As I fished every day a pattern soon emerged that the fish were happy to take nymphs but I hadn't seen 1 fish rise, I tried dries but to no avail. The nymphs also had to plain with no bright colours, however flash in the fly added extra appeal. Over the week I put this into practice and my catch rate just went up and up. I also managed a nice Grayling around a pound and a half and Trout to two pounds all on plain nymphs. I leant a lot over the week and also got a lot more confidence in new patterns. The main point that stands out to me and to use more in future is to fish all of the shallow water before entering the water and then go back and fish the deeper water after then to follow it up keep changing flies till a pattern emerges then you can focus on flies that all work.



We got back on Sunday night and I had a call from a good friend Tom Gott. We arranged to fish Raygill trout fishery the next day. On arrival we could see fish all over the surface but there was obviously fish deeper to. I set up on a DI 5 Sweep with a Minkie and a blob while Tom went for a DI3 and Apps Bloodworms. We fished from the boat so we could fish fresh water and it didn't take long for us both to get into fish. There was no set pattern to the day but it became obvious that it was crucial to keep changing flies and search all depths to keep catching. We just searched the depths and caught fish at all depths but the stand out flies were the apps worms in all colours. The day progressed and we caught consistently all day, we got to around 30 fish each and decided to try something different and fish the top lake for pike as there is a fish in there that is the British record!! Unfortunately no luck on the Pike front but it was worth a go. The day had been a success and I am sure the experience will stand me in good stead for the England Bank Qualifier in October.





This is an example of the Pike in the lake, unfortunately they were not biting.

I Have the rivers national Final this weekend where I will be attempting to become the national champion. I will write about it next week to let you know how I get on.

James

Twitter

Hi

I have now taken a new step and joined Twitter. So if you would like to see more about what I am doing, and what new adventures I am undertaking then go onto twitter and follow me at 'James Troutpro'.

James

Last Few Months

Hi

As you can see it has been a while since I updated this page. So I though I had better get back on top of it.

So far this year has been fantastic. I have had lots of successful competitions at youth and senior levels. I have also had my biggest ever Brown Trout of 9 pounds from a river, and my biggest Grayling. Then to top all of that I have had lots of amazing practice days, where I have honed my skills.

As I have done so much this year, I think it would be best to just summarise some of my activities.

First of all I fished my first competition in early may. It was at local water Bank House Fly Fishery. I had never previously fished the lake but it looked good. It was the newly formed Iain Barr Airflo bank masters competition. To cut a long story short the weather was awful with high winds and heavy rain, but the fishing was good, I managed 14 fish which was enough to win the match and take me through to the final. The best method on the day was an intermediate line with a sparse Pitsford Pea on the point and an Amber Apps bloodworm on the dropper.

A few weeks later, it was time for a trip to Elinor and Grafham Reservoir. This was to fish in the Aiflo individual Final and also the Final of the Iain Barr Bank Masters. First came Practice, Elinor was out first port of call and it did not disappoint. Practice went really well with several fish coming to the net on several meathods, and things looked good for match day. Then over to Grafham, it was a similar story here with a cat booby and pink and yellow blob on a Di7 being the best tactic. I also managed a 6 pound rainbow on a Pearl Nemo. Match day at Grafham greeted us with similar conditions to practice. Unfortunately it was not my day and lots of lost fish meant a poor performance from me and 20th place with 6 fish. Next day was the Bank Masters at Elinor, I was hopeful for a top 10 finish after a bad day the day before. It soon became clear that the fishing was nothing like practice with 150 anglers on the lake the fishing became hard. I worked hard and caught 4 fish on 4 pegs which got me 11th place and top junior.

Now the big one the world championships. This year it was in France. The rivers were small and the fish extremely spooky. 4 days of practice later and hundreds of flies tied it was match day. The start was good when I had the first session win for England in 3 years with 11 fish all on nymphs. Unfortunately the second session was not as good with a bad beat draw a blank took me from 2nd individually to 18th. Things look a bot better in the third session with a nice beat. Until I asked my controller how many fish had been caught on the section and he replied 'Zero'!!. I managed 1 fish which kept me in contention. The final day saw me fishing the lake perhaps my best session. I managed 11 fish which was the most but the American angler beat me on fish points, but a 2nd place not the less. I was 11th going into the last session, but on the hardest river where 1 fish could win the session. Unfortunately another blank and a 21st place finish. I was later to find out that 1 fish could have got me 7th place. It was a fantastic experience, I learned a massive amount in new flies and leader set ups. The best lesson for me was a new presentation cast that presents a dry to a fish before the leader every time. I also met lots of new people who I hope I can keep in contact with in the future.

The last big competition I fished in was the loch style international. This year it would be my final year in the team due to age. We went for 2 days of practice were we identified areas and flies. It was decided that the method was a slow or fast intermediate with a Green Peter Stimulator on the top dropper a Claret Dabbler on the middle and a Black and Silver Dabbler on the point. Match day saw huge waves, perfect for fishing wets. I managed 7 fish which was top individual rod making me International champion. The whole England team had fished well with not 1 blank. This meant that we had 38 fish, 10 more than the Irish. So team and Individual gold. What a weekend!!

So that is a brief overview of some of my competitions this year. I will keep updating  this blog with practice days and more competition as they come. If you have any questions please get in touch

James Atkinson