October Newsletter 2010

To all those caught by the fly…..

As I speak, water temperatures are just above 13 degrees but the fish on the inshore fishery have left or are leaving which is a little early as in previous years it’s been when the water temps dump to under 10 degrees which acts as the catalyst for the mackerel and garfish to move offshore and with them go the Bass. However, the Bass did arrive a couple of weeks early this season as I remember on the 8th May seeing thousands of fish in the 2 - 3lbs range move into the Chichester entrance and again on the 11th June.

This season has definitely been more difficult whilst wading and areas we have targeted and rotated over the seasons have not been as consistent, whilst the drifting has been the opposite, with good numbers of Bass averaging 2-3lbs, with many in the 3-4lbs range up to 8lbs.
                                                           
This season we experimented with a lot of different patterns and colours but by far the most consistent were brown, red and white and black hackles – whether the darker colours act more as a contrast under a very bright sky maybe the reason why they were more successful than the lighter hackles as I remember the early and mid part of the season being highly clement with very little cloud cover. These conditions make dredging a heavy line and large fly almost imperative as the Bass would be reluctant to target their quarry on a high gradient due to the effect of light coming through the water column – fish don’t have eye-lids and would therefore prefer to keep lower whilst the light was refracted aggressively through the upper layers making a deeper fly presentation necessary.

An interesting fly which they have been using in CT USA for many years is the “Flat-Wing” and we started using this on the West Sussex coast whilst incorporating a small dropper. This method took fish up to 5lbs, but saw much larger fish interested in the fly unwilling to fully commit to strike but consistently knocking the jungle cock whilst tracking it – next season we’ll hope to refine this presentation for a more positive result.

“Steve Edmonds’ success down deep"  

In terms of the most successful pattern, it has to be a “Cockroach” in the traditional hackle designed by Lefty kreh, but also a number of clients offered variations in Olive, Orange and red and white – the main thing here is that the pattern was accountable for over 700 Bass this season which is a record but more importantly it isolated better than average fish. From what I can gather it’s the grizzle hackle on the rear of the fly which is the common denominator – try it and let me know.

Squid patterns also saw good results and will be another fly we’ll work on for 2011 as it maybe worth trying this fly early season during the Cuttlefish spawning period on deep lines retrieved on a fluid but unhurried tempo.

“Connecticut USA”

Connecticut this season was at the end of September and early October and was windy to say the least. Fishing for the False Albacore yielded specimens to 13 lbs and Andy Farage had Bass to 25lbs – congratulations. A lot of fish were taken on poppers which was extremely visual and often violent! and the Blue fish were averaging double figures with many to 14 lbs which were top sport when the Bass were being fickle.  The 2011 dates are being set now and will probably be from Monday 26th September through until Sunday 2nd October – depending on the enquiries will depend on whether I do another early summer trip (mid June) for the larger Striped Bass, so please let me know if you’d like to join me.

Well it’s been a pleasure to guide you all and the boats will be coming out the water in the next few weeks for essential maintenance for next season. You maybe interested also that I am having an “END OF SEASON SALE” of old, new and hardly used rods, reels and lines which I have acquired over the 8 seasons since I’ve guided full time, so if you are interested just call me to arrange a visit to view.

“New Website layout for 2011”
The new website is being launched in December which will offer the Saltwater Fly rodder all sorts of kit which has been designed and manufactured specifically for the job I do, top quality guiding merchandise, built to be robust, no fuss and at a fair price.

For now, I wish you all a good run up to Christmas and I look forward to seeing you again next season with lines pre-stretched and flies at the ready.