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The beaming faces at the last night of the winter fly-tying group said it all Ñ now for Season 1997!
Their fly-boxes are full of well-tied flies of all shapes and hues, and these erstwhile beginners are now well equipped to look after themselves in what I hope will be long and happy fishing careers. For those who are beginners at the gentle art of flyfishing, ring me at 703248 once the weather improves and the front lawn is dry enough to cut for the ten-minute no-failures so-far casting lesson. It's not just the youthful who rejoice at this time. Even ancient anglers like myself have a new spring to our steps. As Wordsworth, himself a keen fisher, put it in quite another context and unconscious of the awful pun: "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive/ But to be young was very heaven.".
Among my fishing friends there has been a mighty scurry of preparations Ñ for the well-organised a mere final check on gear and flies after the winter maintenance programme; for the happily disorganised a frantic search for essentials and a last-minute descent on Sportsworld. Now for a try-out of the latest-tied fly, the new angling technique or the winter-purchased rod, reel or line. Despite what the weather will fling at us - and February was exceptionally coarse - the usual fanatics will be out on Saturday, 15 March, especially at the smaller, shallower, weedier lochs often near the sea which warm up more quickly than others (and often, in consequence, become impossible to fish by June because of weed growth.)
Given sun and wind, common in early season, I shall certainly have the old Alexandra as tail fly, the best general representation of a stickleback or tiny fish I know of, with the great March Brown as mid-dropper (all things to all fish), and a Zulu, Black or Blue on the bob. This, at least is what I usually start with, but if the wind drops I shall find room for that most anorexic of flies, the Skinny Midge (black tying thread body, very thin slip of white feather as wing, and two turns at most of a soft black hen hackle in front of the wing -all on a 14 hook or smaller) which ought to interest chironomid-feeding trout. Of course we will all use our own favourites but will remember that this is not high season and thus choose our flies accordingly. John M, of course, will put on that great early-season fly (fly!) the Ombudsman, especially when fishing in a good wave across the wind near a lee shore, and I shall probably follow his example if I catch nothing.
As usual, we shall try to fish deep and slow, but as suggested in an earlier article, I always find this difficult, and this season I shall try out the recently purchased Airflo Polyleaders in Intermediate and Slow-sinking modes attached to an intermediate line, the one I use for almost all my fishing these days. I hope one of these combinations will allow me to get the flies down more quickly without resorting to the awful sinking line, and at the same time allow me to move enough to keep the circulation going.
In late February and still, alas, in the close season I was in North Uist for a Western Isles Fisheries Trust meeting, carefully arranged during a two-day window in the storms, and the sun and scenery were paradisal. It was my first trip on the new car ferry between Leverburgh and Otternish, made doubly pleasant by the efficient, friendly and always helpful crew and the anticipation of a possible fishing visit during the season with temporary membership of the excellent North Uist Angling Club. This service, long-awaited and at one time declared to be an impossible dream, will certainly encourage two-way visits by anglers from north and south and a spreading of angling experience to the benefit of us all.
The latest issue of Fly-Fishing and Fly-tying is about the best yet with some first-class articles, especially the one by Alastair Gowans, inventor of the hugely successful Ally's Shrimp, in which he gives the dressings for the seven variations he has developed. The good news is that they are all easy to tie, unlike some of the otherwise excellent Irish shrimp flies (I can never get the middle hackle just right ) featured in this month's Trout & Salmon in a thoroughly authoritative article by the ever-reliable Peter O'Reilly.
Sadly, FF and FT contains the sad news of the passing of Ian MacGregor Christie of Portree, inventor of four truly first-class flies Ñ Wee Peter, the Solicitor, Holy Willie and Charlie Maclean, the first two of which are usually on my high-summer trout leaders. I never was lucky enough to meet Mr Christie, though I heard many good things about him, and be able to thank him personally for giving me so many enjoyable trouting days. These days when we are bombarded each month in the angling press with new wonder flies, it is a joy to find such splendid flies recommended almost entirely by word of mouth by anglers who have proved their worth where it matters. Do try them this season.
Original article Stornoway Gazette Mar 19 1997.
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