Lechlade Preparations

Preparing to fish Lechlade.

After trying all last year for a day when my fishing buddy and I could arrange a trip to Lechlade we finally manged this January. A year late, work should not interfere so much, we have obviously got our priorities wrong. Lechlade is known for its big fish, many running to double figures, so it is one of these monsters we are both after. Not that bigger is necessarily better, it is just different, I have had double figure carp on the end of the line which fought like mad and I have caught double figure trout before; the trout was disappointing as it was more akin to try to land a bag of sand than a fighting fish, the real challenge came trying to net it with a small hand net. Anyway thats another story.

In preparation for out of season hogs I have been tying flies; Gold headed diawl bachs, Nomads, and Nymphs in black and green, and blobs on size 8 hooks. These were the suggested flies on Lechlades web page, so I figure that is a good starting point.

My Diawl Bachs are tied using dear hair for the tail and hackle, peacock hurl for the body ribbed with red holographic tinsel and a tungsten bead for the head. Really easy to tie. For the Nomads I used a black marabou feather for the tail, black antron wool wound half way up a long shanked hook, the wool body is tied off with a large tungstan bead pushed down to the middle, florescent green floss is then used to create a conical head. The nymphs were tired on a long shank hook weighted with lead. Tails were various shades of green and black as were the bodies, bodies again were made of antron wool. I find this wool fabulous it shimmers just enough when in the water and is hard wearing and easy to dub on. Thorax was more wool with dear hair for legs, the eyes were tied from a small amount of polythene foam, fixed on with a figure of eight. The Blobs were in Green and Orange and just consisted of a number eight hook with 'Vampire' material wound on. In competition blobs always account for more fish than any other method, but I still have some reservations about using them. It has to be said those reservations are soon put to one side if I am not catching by other means. The human mind has a wonderful capacity for thinking of good reasons for doing something it wants.

Above is a picture of the bad boys waiting to go with a few grubs to tempt the bottom feeders.