with two million sales to its credit

In fact, all the coarse fish species can be caught on a fly. I had an instance last summer when I spotted a shoal of perch. But with no worms or spinners I thought all was lost in trying to catch those perch, then remembered that I did have a film canister in the waistcoat pocket which contained some nymphs. The end result was by fishing a Walker’s Mayfly nymph sink and draw I had a delightful afternoons fishing catching 20 perch between 12 ounces and a pound and a quarter. I suppose fly fishing for the coarse fish species has taken place for at least 300 years and many of the coarse fishing books published before the 1950’s usually had a section on fly fishing. Even the best ever selling angling book – with two million sales to its credit – Mr. Crabtree Goes Fishing had such a chapter. Some of our greatest writers and anglers from the past, Francis Francis, H.T. Sheringham, J.W.Martin known as Trent Otter, William Senior, John Bickerdyke, Colin Willock, Bernard Venables and Richard Walker would go in search of the coarse fish species with a fly when conditions were right.

If youíre already fishing for trout, you shouldn’t have any problems going after the coarse fish species. You will already have the tackle and skill needed for most of the fish. Pike being the exception – unless youíre fishing the canals where fish are averaging 4 to 61bs, then your 7/8 weight trout rod will be OK Fish over 101bs on bigger waters demand a 9/10 weight rod with some backbone to cast the big flies. Some of my flies are tied up on Partridge 5/0 hooks and are often 8″ to 10″ in length. Rods have to be built for the job, a couple of years ago I worked with the Greys of Alnwick engineers to get the best rod suitable for fly fishing for pike. A rod that had to be capable of casting big flies in to a strong wind, with power needed to set the hook and stop a big fish from reaching the safety of tree roots, branches or other obstructions. I feel I now have one of the better pike fly rods on the market with my 9 foot 4 piece ‘Esox’ but I can see where slight improvements can be made.

You need a good size reel capable of holding 100 yards of 201b backing with a good quality line. I use the Scientific Anglers 9 or 10 weight forward pike taper floating line, which I rate as the best available. I purchased my first Scientific Anglers line several years ago in Winnipeg. Between fly line and tippet you need 9 foot of 151b to 201b line to which I attach 12″ of 201b wire with an Albright knot. I use this knot for sharks, marlin, sailfish etc. Pike pose no problems. I have recently got hold of the Masterline Toothy Critter pike taper fly line but haven’t used it enough to give an honest opinion as yet. The weather this summer has been perfect for hunting the pike with a fly rod and my best pattern this summer has been a red tailed rat. Itís accounted for dozens of fish from rivers, canal and lakes. The tying for the red tailed rat is as follows: Tail – Red buck, red crystal hair Body – Black deer hair muddler (wedge shaped)silk-black Remarks – Plastic bead eyes may be added to give a mouse like animal effectFor chub, rudd and dace I use a dry fly most of the time, though they can be caught on nymphs. A good chub will easily engulf a 5/0 pike fly. Chub love a big mouthful so choose a fly tied up on a size 6 or 8 hook with plenty of dressing with a leader of 61b bs. Big sedge pattern or muddler’s are my favourite fished at dusk and into the darkness, and the takes can often be very savage. Dace are the toughest fish I know to take on a fly. If you hook two in ten takes, youíre doing well. These little guys are like greased lightning. Hook size 14 and 16’s are about right. A well greased Black and Peacock spider is a good all round pattern. This pattern is also good for rudd but use them on hook size 10’s and 12’s. When in search of chub and dace I usually use a nine foot leader but for rudd itís often a 12 foot leader.Carp will take wet and dry fly patterns on hook sizes 6’s 8’s and 10’s. One good pattern is a black or white leech fished on or under the surface, depending on the conditions prevailing at the time. Damsel, Dragon and May fly nymphs are deadly but you must fish them very slow for success. You should move the nymph about half an inch a minute. A good way to induce a take is slowly move the nymph off the bottom in very slow lifts of about an inch. The carp cannot resist a big nymph moving slowly to the surface. Chumming with bits of crust and fishing an imitation is another good way of taking carp. You will also excite tench in wanting to grab hold of nymphs. Tench can also be taken on imitation bread flake or maggot. At one time it was possible to buy plastic maggots but I haven’t seen them around for a long time.If there is one fish designed for the nymph fisherman it has to be the barbel. The great thing about barbel is they often live in beautiful English rivers, where the water flows over clean gravel with plenty of water weeds such as water-crowfoot (Ranunculus) with its white daisy like flower. We also have that delightfu1 water weed Starwort in a delightful shade of green that will often harbour a crayfish. Chub love to lay under it popping out to grab an item of food that passes by. Some other plants are Mare’s tail, Water-mil foil and in the slow stretches you will find Potamogetan. A river rich in plant life is rich in animal life that fish eat naturally, and a weedy river is a river that usually holds some good fish.The banks of my favourite rivers will often have a profusion of wild flowers and plants. Adding a touch of gold to the riverside scene in the cold month of March will be the Marsh-marigold, usually one of our first colourful flowers to brighten a cold day. Then we have the Yellow and Purple-loose strife, Red campion, the various parsley’s, Cow, Hog weed, Sweet Cicely and Hemlock to name a few. You will often see that delicate flower the common forget-me-not. I believe itís this flower that circles the clock on Norwich Cathedral.Today you can sometimes see Foxgloves at the waterside and of course you will see the Himalayan balsam growing in profusion. Youíre now probably asking what have water weeds, plants and wild flowers have to do with barbel. Itís because these are often the conditions on my barbel rivers. Barbel are a fish that have had my attention over the past few years. In the past couple of years or so, I along with several other anglers, have said barbel were a fish that could be taken on a nymph. Is not the barbel a bottom feeding fish for most of its life? Then surely its main diet will consist of various nymphs and caddis crawling around on the bottom of our rivers, or under the fine sand gravel or silt. If they are daft enough to eat meatballs and luncheon meat why not an artificial nymph which is far more natural.At a recent Barbel Society Conferences I was talking to Mike Burdon, the Research and Conservation panel Chairman, who told me he had caught 5 barbel from the river Windrush on a pheasant tail nymph when trout fishing. Had not that excellent writer and angler John Bailey talked about seeing anglers in Eastern Europe catch barbel on a nymph? All this information made me even more confident. Catching a barbel on an artificial fly had become a big challenge though I knew it wouldn’t be easy. The conditions I wanted would be a low clear river where I could see and stalk the barbel.Casting to fish I could see would make the chances of success greater, I would also be able to see the reaction of the fish to the artificial fly. My first success happened on a Monday morning in early summer on a low clear river Teme in Worcestershire, Conditions were near perfect, cloudy sky, warm and close weather with a light westerly wind. A few mayflies were coming off which was even more encouraging. Seeing the mayflies made me choose the mayfly nymph as probably the most natural offering at that time. Even the finely tied nymphs that I showed to Tony Farquharson of Southport looked like the real thing. I thought today’s is my best chance yet of successIn some 2 foot of water I spotted a group of six barbel avidly feeding on nymphs I could see them sometimes come up to mid water to grab another food item. I went off to collect my tackle saying to myself “Itís now or never” I chose a 9 foot seven weight rod, floating line, 12 foot fluorocarbon leader with a tippet of 61b breaking strain then attached a size 8 leaded Mayfly nymph. Creeping back to where I had seen the feeding barbel I noticed that the half a dozen had increased to eight. Kneeling down, I pulled off some line, made one false cast and shot some forty feet of line dropping the nymph some twenty feet ahead of the feeding fish. I allowed the nymph to bump its way down stream retrieving line in my left hand within three or four feet of the feeding fish. I allowed the nymph to sit on the bottom then noticed a fish move across the stream towards the artificial. I lifted the rod very slowly making the nymph rise. As I did so, the fish moved upstream towards my artificial. Lowering the rod tip I let the nymph sit once more. After a second or so, I moved the nymph slowly then let it come to rest again. The leading fish moved over the fly as I very, very slowly dragged the fly along the bottom. It disappeared from my sight – the barbel had just and ate it with confidence. I tightened. My first barbel was hooked. After a brief struggle this, my first ever barbel on a fly, was netted. I punched the air and said “Yes”That first barbel really wanted to eat that nymph, as it was way down its throat. It weighed in at 4lb 11ozs. A couple of quick pictures were taken by Tony and the fish was released. In the next hour I had 2 other barbel 4-1-0 and 4-2-0. Not the biggest barbel to be caught on a fly but to the best of my knowledge, the first caught by design. These were not big fish but it goes to show all species of fish can be caught on an artificial. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, a big barbel will be seen rooting in the bottom and it will take my artificial. I have had several more fish since those first three with the best at 61b 14 ounces.There are two methods of fishing, upstream and downstream both work. I have noticed no difference in my hooking rate when fishing up or downstream. The secret is find your barbel, then present the nymph on the bottom about two feet ahead of the fish. As it approaches I lift the rod tip causing the nymph to rise from the river bed. The barbel grab hold with relish, in fact they are very aggressive when chasing and feeding on nymphs. All my barbel have been hooked well back in the mouth, these fish are really determined to eat your nymph. With trout fishing costing on average £15-00 a day and most anglers practising catch and release, why not go out and fish for the coarse fish species? I feel pike are designed for the fly rodder on canals and still waters, with barbel on the rivers. There are a lot more wild fish that eat flies other than the stocked rainbow trout. Why not go out and give it a try?

Next month I take an in-depth look at the grayling, once despised but now a favourite among many game and coarse fishers. Ron Broughton, author of Grayling published by Crowood Press sums up this delightful fish very nicely with the subtitle of his book, The Fourth Game Fish.