Guest post by Tim Pottage
Fly fishing for Coarse Fish, Winter streams
As we move into winter for many who river fish our thoughts turn to grayling. However not all of us, particularly those of us living in lowland regions live near to reliable grayling fishing. Nevertheless, lowland areas, particularly in England often have easily accessible brooks, streams and small rivers teeming with coarse fish. Find a good bit of water, use the right method and you can be rewarded with very productive fishing right through the winter, including in flood conditions that most fly anglers would consider unfishable.
Venues
Typically smaller shallow waters offer you the best chance to get close to fish, although most lowland rivers have coarse species, being able to wade close will really help. Also knowing the river before fishing really fast tracks winter fishing as you will be familiar with where fish populations are located and know the locations of the deeper holes.
By ‘deeper hole’ we’re referring to anything with far more depth than the surrounding water, so if your stream is a tiny ankle deep affair for most of its length anything knee deep will likely hold fish. Both clear and coloured water are viable, although the latter will prove easier as the fish will be far less likely to spot you.
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Method, kit and flies
As we move into colder weather schooling coarse fish begin to group up and seek deeper water. For some reason casting upstream as you would in summer or with salmonid species becomes less effective, this is when downstream takes over and is super effective.
Contrary to popular convention, a longer rod in the 10-11ft class such as a 10ft 2wt Orvis Clearwater becomes essential. With the downstream method you hold you flies in the current, preferably in the sweet spot where you can get deep enough so your flies are where the fish are but with enough current so your flies aren’t static on the bottom and are being animated by the current.
Flies will be a bespoke affair, this is a novel way of fishing therefore most of the flies commercially available will be too large for the small mouths of coarse species. Small flies tied with red marabou or squirmy patterns tied using fine squirmy material found in some kid’s toys really seem to work. A tub of small split shot is also key to help your flies sink, which you can fine tune by adding or removing as needed.
This method was pioneered by multi species fly fishing legend Skateboard Dave (aka Dee Egginton) and demonstrated in two videos I filmed, one with Dee himself on a small Leicestershire river the other with a friend on a minuscule suburban London brook.
Flood conditions/very coloured water
When most anglers have hung their rods up and waiting for levels to drop you can find Skateboard Dave fishing in conditions many would consider unfishable. Dave notes that in order to catch in severely blown out and coloured water being familiar with your river is essential for safety but also knowing where fish populations reside. Here we seek slack areas in pools where we know fish to be resident. Using slightly gaudier flies helps, but keep them size appropriate to the fish you’ll be catching.
Occasionally breaking the rod into two and using the top two sections to get more control over where the flies fish and to get closer to the slack areas can really help and with the water being coloured fish will be far less likely to spook.
In summary
If you live near to a small stream with coarse fish why not experiment? It will extend your fishing season, give you something to target when your grayling river is too high to fish and can be a lot of fun. Furthermore, many of these brooks can throw up all kinds of surprises such as the odd carp and in most cases are free to fish or available to fish at a very low cost!
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