Tuesday 15 January 2013

The soft touch


I really enjoy nymph fishing for grayling although it is very easy to forget how cold it is standing in the river at this time of year. Some sessions were planned over Christmas but the state of the rivers put paid to that so the chance came on Sunday to get a couple of hours in on the Dove. This was something to look forward to as Santa brought me a 10' #3 rod and I'd also wanted to try a new pattern. The soft touch shrimp is a fly from Glen Pointon and it aims to simulate the 'feel' of a real bug with the use of silicon sealant on the body. The fly has been enjoying some real success and I'd tied a few up over Xmas whilst dreaming of the rivers being fishable. It was a really tough morning on the fly with the sun breaking through the cloud cover. The Grayling Society were out on the neighbouring stretch and the chaps trotting were doing a lot better than the fly men, ie they were catching!
So after two hours freezing my nads off I tried a slower stretch of the beat and bingo, a fish! I did not see one other fish caught by a fly angler, perhaps they did not have the STS.
Nice one Glen!

Dove grayling taken on a pink STS

4 comments:

  1. Very nice Dave. It must bring an enormous sense of satisfaction to catch a fish on a self-tied fly. I will have a go one day.

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  2. absolutey cracking Dave!!
    it used to drive me mad seeing hundreds of them grayling society battering our river but you had the step ahead with the soft touch shrimp!!!
    And what a lovely grayling too!!
    nice one
    Glen

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  3. Nice blog, I'll be following from now on

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