Bewl Thursday 31st March 2005

 

The word going around right now indicates that Bewl is fishing its socks off, so Colin and I set off to see if we could do better than our usual 2 fish maximum.

 

Conditions were very misty on the water and quite cold too. We were a little under-dressed for the morning, but were OK as long as we were casting.

  Misty Morning               A line of shore anglers

We anchored up in Hook Straight, close to Bramble Bay and around 50 metres out.

There was a light hatch of black midges and an occasional rise on the surface. I had intended fishing with buzzers, but was advised to try the cormorant fly as it was deadly at the time. I’d tied up a half dozen the night before in different sizes and with varying coloured heads.

 

Bewl is not noted as an easy fishery, so I decided to try a long leader, just in excess of 20ft (6.20m). Normally I just tie 6lb leader to the line, but this time I tied on 5ft of 15ft section to 5ft of 10lb and then 12ft of 8lb. I tied in two droppers approximately 5ft apart and then the point fly, some 8ft from the bottom dropper.

 

I was fishing with one of Carl’s #8 saltwater Corporate Fly Rods and a Cortland 444  #7 camo intermediate line. The rod is immensely powerful and handled the long leader with ease. I kept a cormorant fly on the point and a variety of attractors on the droppers, including orange fritz and sparklers. Around the 10th cast I saw a rise to my right and as I retrieved my flies on a slow figure of eight retrieve, had a good take, but the fish got off almost immediately.

 

It went quiet after that for almost an hour, before we saw another rise close by. This time I cast a couple of metres ahead of the rise and retrieved with the same slow figure of eight. There was a heavy tug and then very little resistance. Retrieving line quickly, I found the fish was still on, but swimming towards the boat. Soon there was no more line outside of the rings, but it still kept coming and I had to stand up to keep in contact.

 

For some reason this fish was reluctant to fight until it saw me and then things livened up. It took over 5 minutes to get it into the net as it kept diving whenever it neared the boat.

First fish

 

The next fish came shortly after and was a lot livelier from the start. This looked like an over-wintered fish, but was only around 1.5lb.

 

Another fish took soon after, but came off a few seconds later. All the fish so far were taken on the cormorant fly.

The tying for this is relatively simple and there are dozens of variations. The hook can be wrapped in lead foil or not as desired, then covered in green tinsel and then pearl lurex tinsel. The wing is tied with black marabou. A short tag of fluorescent green or yellow is useful and a head of red or green floss completes the tying. Some advocate using junglecock eyes or you can try gold dumbbell eyes.

 

Colin was getting the odd touch, but nothing would take. I had a look at his setup and could see he was going to have problems. His rod was also a CFF, but it was weighted #6, but he was using a #9 line. Because of the mismatch he was having difficulty casting and had shortened his leader to 8ft (2.44m). With two flies barely 3ft apart, I think the fish were being put off. I urged him to tie on a longer leader, but he was reluctant to do so, so we moved over to the cages to see if he would fare better there.

  Never a dull moment

After tying up at a buoy, we settled down to fish slow and deep. A few minutes later we heard a tapping on the boat hull. Turning around, we saw a pair of duck looking up expectantly at Colin. The cheeky beggars were expecting him to feed them. You have to give them credit for intelligence; firstly for tapping on the hull with their beaks to get our attention and also for selecting Colin. After all, he is not called the fat plumber for nothing and it would be logical to surmise his nosebag would be bigger than mine.

  Too busy feeding ducks to catch fish.

I had to grab the camera and take a photo of him feeding the cheeky pair. My line was still out and a couple of seconds after I started retrieving again, there was a fierce tug on it. I remember hearing someone saying “You dirty bugger.” This was a fat fish of 2lb13oz, and it had taken the sparkler fly on the top dropper. Colin was none too impressed for some reason.

  Bewl moods   Colin punching that line out

After lunch we thought we would try a drift back towards Bramble Bay. Barely 100 metres from the shore I managed a good 30 yard cast and felt a knock and then another as a fish took a fly just under the surface. I was very surprised it stayed on as it was hooked so far out. It was a lively fish and put up a good fight. When I netted it, I noticed the middle dropper was missing. That might account for the earlier knock and it is possible I had a double hookup with one fish breaking off.

 

Back on anchor we had a long wait for a shoal to pass and we saw someone anchored nearby just off the boat jetty take a couple of fish. I had a fish on for a few seconds, but lost it. After an hour, we saw a couple of rises and then I had another hit. This fish jumped non-stop until it ran out of steam.

Colin had had enough by then and so we motored back to the jetty and on to a curry.

The best fish I had was 2lb 14oz, but another angler came in with a number of good over-wintered fish up to 3lb 8oz, all taken on black buzzers.

 

I could have changed tactics, but why bother if you are catching. All my fish, apart from one were taken on the cormorant fly.