April Trout On The Nymph

This was a first visit, of the new trout season, to this delightful little Shropshire river. Not having fished it as early as April before, i was not sure if the river was
ready to give up its slippery treasures.

The best way to fish these small tree lined waterways, is to use a 6 ft to 7 ft, rod with either a dry fly or the so called 'klink & dink'. On this occasion the later was chosen as no rising fish were seen during my walk down stream.

It turned out to be a very fruitful afternoon, with some very nice trout taking the size 14 pheasant tail nymph, not one fish rising to the Klinkhammer. Although a warm day, with a few olives hatching, no trout were seen rising to these natural flies.

A lot of the fish were wearing the slightly silvery washed out look, commonly seen at this time of the year, but some showed beautiful markings and colours that are a feature of this and other rivers in Shropshire.

The faster water seemed to contain the most feeding fish, some riffles yielding three to five good trout. In late May/early June , it is the slow deep pools that

reveal big hungry trout sipping struggling mayflies off the surface.

By regularly fly fishing the smaller river, there is no doubt that a p/t nymph fished under an emerger type pattern, is by far the most reliable method of catching wily, wild trout. However the ultimate is to cast to rising fish using a dry fly and this is an event we fly fishers look forward to.

I will long remember this particular afternoons fly fishing, that's for sure!

Wood Anemones carpet the wooded, mossy covered sandstone slopes.

Turtle Ramps

When this pond was first dug out, many years ago, it was designed to hold fish such as carp & orfe. The sides are quite steep, which is fine for fish, but not so
good for turtles.
In the summer this might not be a problem, but in the cooler months, it may cause some turtles to drown. Species such as the European Pond Turtle Emys orbicularis, which are not great swimmers, can struggle to reach the surface for air.



So to convert this pond for turtle use, i needed to fit in ramps leading from the shelves to the basking areas. Fencing mesh was used to make these, which is easily shaped to suit the application, the mesh was then covered in coir sheeting.



The coir offers good footing for the turtles to climb and is eco friendly. When cutting the mesh to size, a pocket can be added to take suitable stone(s) to hold the ramp to the pool floor.



The top can then be bent to suit and tucked under edging stones, giving turtles direct access to basking spots and possible nesting sites.



I will make another ramp or two which will go from the pool bottom to the shelving zones.
Hopefully the coir will not break down too quickly, otherwise a different covering will be sought out such as pond liner underlay.

Building Underground Hibernacula

Today i decided to re-furbish one of my outdoor vivaria for when the weather warms......when ever that will be.This particular viv has dimensions of 2m long x 2m high x 1m deep and is of an aluminium frame fixed to a gravel board base.
The viv is glazed with acrylic on sides and roof, but the front is 50/50 acrylic and mesh, which gives the reptiles good access to natural sunlight and allows good airflow.

These greenhouse type structures can get very hot in Summer and cold in Winter, so underground chambers need to be built in to give the reps refuges/hibernacula.

One chamber is made from bricks with a paving slab on top which should keep cool in the Summer months. The other is a poly box which will keep at a fairly constant temperature throughout the year.

A tunnel is then attached to the polybox, which the lizards can access from the surface.

The poly box is then covered with wood or a slab to protect it from damage and the whole area is covered with a 75-100mm of a sand/soil mix.
Then various logs and stones can be placed on top for effect and basking/climbing spots for the reptiles.

I then added some large upright logs for access to the upper reaches of the vivarium, climbing plants will be grown up these. Other plants will be added over the coming weeks and maybe a few more logs/rocks.

Where Have Alder Trees Gone ??

What a surprise i had when turning up for a few hours trout fishing on a favourite small, Shropshire river. The fields adjacent to the car park were full of recently cut down trees and across the river even the local rook community seemed to be shouting about the destruction.


When fishing this particular stretch of river last year, i was sure the reason it was so prolific, even in low river conditions, was because of it being tree lined. This giving the trout plenty of cover and allowing them to feed with confidence.

In fact when fishing many small rivers along the welsh border counties it becomes obvious that the best fish holding areas usually have trees on both banks. Often more open rivers, such as the Ithon, are only worth the trip when their flows are normal or even slightly up with a tinge of colour.

The problem with letting someone loose with a chain saw to create this type of habitat vandalism is that it cannot be repaired.....trees grow very slowly!
What i fail to understand is why every tree was cut down to the base, thus opening up the water to predation from goosander and even cormorants.

By felling trees like this it can do permanent damage to the ecology of the river, as they support a community of invertebrates and therefore food and nesting sites for many species of bird.

Rant over !

I fished the river for four hours and caught plenty of trout with two beautiful out of season roach. Fishing conditions were difficult with a blustery downstream wind blowing and a bit of colour to the water. All the fish were caught on a size 16 tungsten headed pt/nymph but with no fish coming from pools where the trees had been hacked down!
Some of these pools, last year, produced some very nice fish and i hope that they will recover later in the season.

Lizards Emerge From Long Hibernation

After a particularly cold winter in Worcestershire, it was a relief to see my lizards emerge from their five months of hibernation. The P. muralis were very active today searching for food after basking in the warm spring sunlight.


When they first emerge the colour of the male L. viridis is very dull, being a pale green with a greyish head. How different he will look in a few weeks time, being bright green with black stippling and a beautiful blue throat.


The outdoor vivarium is two metres square with 4mm glass walls on a breeze block base. When it was first constructed underground chambers were built in to act as frost free hibernaculi, the lizards tend to use these both for hibernating and for chilling out in very hot weather.
At the back there is a log pile on one side and a stack of boulders on the other, it then slopes down to the front where there is a sandy area with more logs and a small, shallow pool. The vivarium is planted up with various plants to attract flying insects and is home to woodlice and ants, on which the lizards feed.

The back metre of the viv is covered with glass to provide a permanent dry area over the hibernaculi which are under the log/rock piles.
Today the garden pools were awash with over fifty mating frogs which croaked loudly all day!

The Bleating Of The Lambs

Fishing in March can be an uplifting time after a long cold winter. With the bleating of lambs, Snowdrops and the calls of courting Ravens overhead

a feeling of change is in the air.

The fishing though is often frustrating with the Grayling season ending and the Trout not ready to start feeding with any purpose.

Fishing the Clun on Saturday this proved to be the case, from the first pool i caught five Grayling, on a red-tag tungsten nymph. However the next four hours or so only produced another three fish with a couple lost.

All the fish were Grayling......with a couple of decent ones, its now time to look forward to warmer weather when hard fighting wild Trout will be caught from the prolific rivers of the Marches.

Chilly Willy

A late post about my first trip this year on the Lugg, a couple of weekends ago. In fact it was my first flyfishing sortie for about ten weeks, due to the persistent high river levels.

Mick has already covered the day on his blog, so just a few photo's to show you....it was cold!