Zander Bonanza

The past month has certainly been a hot one in many ways. Firstly, the weather, and secondly, the fishing!

After the exceptional afternoon Zander fishing we had on Grafham (mentioned in the last blog), we decided to go back and see if we could repeat it. Like our last outing, it could only be an afternoon trip because I had to take a GCSE maths exam earlier in the morning. We decided to try various spots including a couple of new areas before hitting the location where much of our success had come last time we fished. On my second cast of the day I was hooked in to a fish. It didn't seem that only an hour and a half previously I'd had my pen in hand, sitting in the exam hall - now, with my 9wt in my hand, I had a lively near 10lb Zed on the end of my line! What a start! The action continued with a few more fish to the boat, before we arrived at our final hotspot. To cut a long story short, we had an amazing last few hours fishing. I lost count of how many double hookups we had! By the time we had to pack up we'd landed 36 Zander plus 3 nice Perch. The fish averaged around 7lb and I caught a cracking new P.B weighing 13lb 12oz - it was huge!!

We also lost quite few too. We did return for a couple more trips about a week later, although not quite as prolific as before, we still managed to catch 31 Zeds, 1 Pike and a nice Perch. We worked out that over 3 full days fishing we caught over 700lbs of Zander in weight!

June 16th saw the start of the river season. To get some practice with dry flies before the Youth International, we had a couple of trips out on our local rivers using 5wt rods. Fishing dry flies has to be one of the most exciting ways to flyfish, no matter how big or small your catch. It's challenging fishing on a river at this time of year because of the high bankside vegetation and overhanging trees, but it all adds to the fun. We've managed to catch a good variety of species including Dace, Roach, Rudd, Chub, Perch, a Minnow(!), and even a couple of Brown Trout. Roaming along the bank stalking fish is a great way of spending time on a river.

To make the most of the hot weather, we made a couple of trips targeting Carp on the fly on a local syndicate water. Although the weather was really hot, and the conditions suited flyfishing for them, the fish weren't really going barmy on the surface, making it tricky fishing - we think they were getting ready to spawn again. Despite the tricky fishing we caught 4 up to 18lb, including a lovely Koi my Dad caught.

He also lost one that we think may have been 23lb+, right under the rod tip - as you can imagine he wasn't too pleased!

Next week I have a practice day and final meeting with the EYFA on Ravensthorpe, which should be good and it will be nice to see the team again. All our fishing from now on will be getting ready for the match that really counts - the International at Menteith!

The Highs and Lows of Fishing

Over the past 4 or 5 weeks I’ve had some great fishing (apart from one terrible day - but I’ll come to that later). Most of it has been practising for two matches - the Youth National (which I fished on Monday), and the Youth International which will be on the Lake of Menteith in Scotland on July 27th. Practice days on Ravensthorpe, Pitsford and Grafham have been brilliant, catching plenty of fish, and averaging about 9 on each trip. What’s made it even more fun is that I’ve been catching on a variety of methods - straight line nymphing, fishing under the bung, pulling and fishing the washing line on a slow glass. Some of the bites have been awesome and the trout have fought like crazy until I’ve had them safely in the net. The weather though has made fishing from a boat quite challenging, due to strong winds - all good practice though. I think I’ve only fished one day in the past few weeks where it hasn’t been blowing a bit.

Now, to my terrible day. I’ll get it over and done with first so I can save the best for last! For a good while now I’ve been really looking forward to fishing the Youth National Qualifier, a match which I won last year. Practising on Grafham had all gone really well right up to match day. Two days previously I'd caught ten on a variety of methods from a number of different areas, so I was quite confident - what with Grafham being one of my favourite places to fish too, I felt like I had a good chance of doing well. To cut a long story short, I returned to the harbour with just one fish. To say I was gutted was the understatement of the year. I’d fished as hard as I could right to the very last minute, but it didn’t happen for me - why? I don’t know - and why did it have to be on this day of all days? I had no excuses - even if I’d have been fishing 10 rods at the same time I don’t think it would have made any difference. It was just one of those nightmare days all anglers dread. There were some great performances though by others in the team - Ashley Gillies, Kieran Bonas, Adam Worker, Oscar Boatfield and Ryan Matthews (the winner) to name a few, so well done to them - top angling!

About 2 weeks before the national, Pitsford opened to predator fishing with lures. Unfortunately, on that day I had an RE exam to take, so my Dad asked a couple of his best mates if they’d be interested in taking my place. They all go back a long way, about 30 years - when they were on 'Bracken' - one of my Dad's favourite lakes. Over the years they’ve fished a lot together on many different carp venues and from the stories I’ve heard, have had some great fishing and good times doing so. Each of them have a nickname:

Nick Upton (above), known as 'Tall Nick', - doesn’t really need an explanation.

My Dad is known as RS Turbo because of the car he owned at the time when they first met.

...and Paul Henson (above), known as ‘The Ultimate’ because that is what he thinks he is! (actually they’re both exceptional anglers, especially at carp fishing). Apparently, I’m ‘The Ultimate 2’ until he hangs up his rods and I can take over his spot - the day I’m really looking forward to! haha!

The report I got when they dropped my Dad back off at our house was that there was more banter than fishing, and Paul had turned it in to a mini match. I wish I’d been there - it sounded like a good laugh. By the end of the day between them, they’d caught 16 pike - nothing big (2 doubles though) - Nick had the biggest at 11lb 6oz, but they hooked and lost a lot, apart from Paul who boasted as he landed every one of his fish! But, I was told to add by my Dad, that he just ‘edged it’ by catching 6 to Nick and Paul’s 5 each. Actually, considering Nick and Paul hardly ever go lure fishing, they’d done really well. My Dad had to make what he called a ‘major comeback’ to win, as he caught most of his fish later in the day. Paul reckons that he wasn't really trying!

Two days after the National, it was my turn to target the predators - but at Grafham instead, where flyfishing for them is only allowed at the moment. Due to trout fishing, it’s something I’ve done a little less of this year. It turned out to be a good way of getting over the blues of Monday’s match. Still tired from the weekend, we took an afternoon boat instead of a full day out. The weather looked perfect for what we had in mind. We spent about 3 hours targeting Pike in some of the bays with only one take, which Dad missed. We then decided to move to other areas in search of some Zander. It was already 4pm but after 5 minutes in the right place, we picked up a fish each, plus one more about 10 minutes later. Once this switched off, we moved onto a few more of our hotspots, where I picked up another four and Dad had two more, including a cracker of 10lb 3oz. After trying some different areas my Dad seemed keen to explore somewhere else. He had an inkling for an area quite close to the shore. I was sceptical at first as I’d only ever caught one zed from this spot before, and it was less than a pound in weight! Within seconds though of lowering the anchor Dad hooked up! He soon had a good Zander in the boat. 20 minutes on, he’d hooked and landed 4 Zeds! I soon hooked one aswell of a similar size - 8lb 3oz. As I played mine, Dad hooked up again! Once I’d unhooked my fish, I cast out again and BANG! It was our second double hookup in 5 minutes! The constant rod bending action continued right to the end until we had to pack up as the boats had to be in. We ended up with 19 Zander from this one spot in two hours. I was also lucky to catch 2 doubles in two casts - one of 11lb 3oz, and then another of 10lb. We’ve had some great days on Grafham but this was truly extraordinary fishing. In total we ended up with 28 Zander in 5 hours, 3 Doubles, and the average size around 7lb.

On Sunday 5th June, I was actually meant to be in a match again on Grafham - The Rib Valley Boat Pairs that my Dad and I were fishing together, but it was postponed due to 20mph NE winds. It’s a shame as we were really looking forward to it! On Saturday 4th June though, some of the England Youth team members fished in the Airflo International Midlands heat and came 2nd, securing themselves a place in the final at Rutland. Good going lads!

Anyway, I’m not quite sure where I’ll be fishing next but wherever it is I can’t wait!

Carp on the fly and trout matches

It's been a mad month since I last wrote on my blog - I think I've worn out my Dad travelling here and there practising for matches!

After fishing the Bob Church Open, my Dad was raring to get out on the water, so we returned to Grafham a couple of days afterwards. We started off targeting Perch, my Dad lost one, but by 11am we hadn't caught any more so switched to trout fishing. We soon got on the fish and a mini match began between the two of us - catching and releasing! We went on to land 83 trout, by far the most we've ever had from Grafham in a day - I had 42 and Dad had 41! It was fantastic sport and we think that we could have caught 100 if we'd have started earlier.

Every year we always have a few trips flyfishing for carp once the weather starts to warm up. Last year we did very well over a few short trips on some local gravel pits catching 34 carp in just a few trips and landing 7 twenties to 24lbs 5oz. This year we decided to go to our local lake, Rib Valley as the weather warmed up and try our luck there. We found some fish a couple feet under the surface but they still looked a little lethargic as the water temperature was only just starting to climb. After spending some time teasing them up with chum mixers, the odd fish gradually became interested in taking - mainly the bigger fish out of the shoal. Using one of his homemade flies that imitates a mixer, my Dad finally hooked in to and landed a nice 17lb 7oz Common. Half an hour later I lost a good fish too. My Dad has been fishing for Carp most of his life but really hooked on to targeting them with flies about 15 years ago. His experience paid off as he went on to bank another 5 up to 20lb 1oz. Not to be outdone, I also landed two more but lost another two, the biggest being 14lb 4oz - brilliant fun on an 8wt fly rod!

Since then, it's been all match fishing for trout. I fished in the Thames Water Shield match on Farmoor Reservoir on the 30th April. Many of the EYFA members fished in the match too, as all the money raised goes towards the team's fundings. It was a bank match so location was a key factor. As we had not fished it before, my Dad and I had travelled there four days earlier for an afternoon's fishing and found plenty of fish on the west bank, so that was where we headed. Unfortunately, it was much more windy than when we had fished it four days previously. The rest of the anglers had decided to fish where they had caught the year before and had done well, but we didn't know that. Dad had one on his second cast, but within the first hour the wind really blew up and we'd heard that the others were catching well on the opposite side, so we decided to move around. It was a bright day, so getting the fly out as far as you could in to deeper water was quite crucial. I fished a single booby for most of the day keeping it close to the bottom where the fish were. It was a tough day and the fishing wasn't easy, so you had to keep moving and finding fresh shoals of fish, and thankfully, I managed to bag up with just 20 minutes to go! I think I came about 10th place out of about 45 in the standings, as I only had an 8oz time bonus for bagging late-on. The winner was Kieran Bonas and the Youth Match winner was Adam Worker, both England Youth Internationals. Well done lads!

Afterwards there was nice buffet and Bernard Cribbins was there to present trophies. He did a great job making people laugh and also drew the raffle and hosted the auction after the match. He very kindly let my Dad take a picture of me with him...

Just 3 days later I'd planned to fish Rutland for half a day with Phil Longstaff, to practice for the Bob Church Classic on Wednesday 4th May. It had been fishing rock hard but with Phil's expertise of Rutland on-hand in the boat, I felt confident we'd bump in to one or two fish. We had to work hard to find them though, exploring most of the reservoir with just a couple of takes. We reached an area that Phil said he'd done well in in the past, and sure enough trout were there! In just two drifts we hooked 5 fish, so we left early that evening brimming with confidence and excitement that we'd found a good head of fish to help us out in the match on the day.

Sure enough, the fishing was no easier than the day before and many anglers struggled to catch fish. It turned out to be the worst rod average in the competition's 24 year history of 2.2. My boat partner and I headed to where Phil and I had caught our fish the day before, so as the gun to mark the start was fired we zoomed over there along with Phil and his boat partner who were quite near to us. I had one on my second drift but it soon switched off, and after a couple of hours it became apparent that it wasn't going to switch on like the previous day as we were hoping, so we decided to move. After trying many areas, methods and flies through the North arm I went 7 hours without a bite! For the last hour we returned to the area I'd caught from in the morning and managed to snatch one more on one of my last drifts on the hang, before it was time to go in. I ended up with 2 earning me 54th place out of 118 - not a great result but a brilliant experience and a match I'd love to fish again! The only person to bag up with 8 fish was Paul Shaw, who also won the match.

My last match, last Sunday, was a floating line challenge a bit closer to home - back at Rib Valley's Trout Lake with the Rib Valley Flyfishers. The rules were that we could only use 5 flies, which were all given to us in small packs, tied by Jeff Wilkinson of Razor Sharp Flies - and we could use only one dry of our own choice. This seemed to be the most popular of the flies as the trout were rising for mayflies. It was quite a difficult day, I caught 2 and came 8th out of 20 with a bag weight of 3lb 10oz. Dave Franklin, who also fished in the Bob Church Classic, won the match with 4 fish - well done Dave.

For much of the next 3 weeks I will continue trout fishing in preparation for more competitions that are coming up such as the National Championship and the Youth International, which I'm really looking forward to.

Until next time, Tightlines! - Sam

Reservoir Competition Fishing for Trout

The reservoir trout fishing season is now well underway. Many matches have already taken place and I’ve taken part in some of these too. Although I love targeting big fish on flies and lures, in particular predators, I’ve become quite addicted to another side of the sport, and that’s match fishing. Being part of the EYFA has allowed me, over the past couple of weeks, to be lucky enough to have been partnered in the boat with some great anglers such as Leigh Pond, Carl Nixon and Phil Longstaff. Fishing alongside these top anglers has really helped increase my confidence and knowledge of flyfishing large trout competitions, and I’d recommend anybody who’s interested in taking up flyfishing under the age of 18 to join the EYFA.

My first match this season was an EYFA team event where we fished against the Prison Service Team on Grafham. I’d had a couple of trips on there since it opened and done well fishing blobs and boobies deep down - and had a nice fish of 4lb 9oz, shown below . The fishing had remained this way but the sport had slowed up a lot since then, as the fish had seen so many different flies, they’d begun to wise up to certain patterns. We had a practice match the day before the real thing, and I’d drawn Leigh Pond as my boat partner. We fished hard but the fishing was quite tough - the fish were finicky so we had to to keep changing. I had one Brownie outside the harbour in the morning but it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the practice match that we hooked up again. We hit a shoal of fish around G Buoy - Leigh had one and I had three in 3 consecutive casts! Unfortunately, as soon as we’d arrived it was literally a case of packing up! Still, I had a good idea of where fish were to be found.

The next day saw a change in weather conditions - it was warmer and a bright, near cloudless day looked in store. My boat partner was Carl Nixon, the England u18 team coach and an England International. We set sail with floating lines/midge tips on the ready, armed with a team of buzzers. Carl really is a brilliant nymph fisherman! However the fishing was even tougher than the day before - Carl caught 2 fish and I blanked altogether. The good thing was my team had done well and made up for my poor performance - well done EYFA 1 Team!

A few days later I fished in the Alan West Memorial Match held on Rutland. It was my first time out on Rutland and I was really hoping I’d have a boat partner who’d know the water well. When I went to sign in, to my surprise, I’d been partnered with England u18 team manager Phil Longstaff, who is an expert at fishing Rutland, so I knew I was in good hands!

He soon had us on the fish and it didn’t take long before I’d caught 7, including a cracker of 3lb 11oz. After leaving the flies on the hang for a few seconds I had a huge whack and this turned out to be 2 fish! So I chose to keep the bigger one on the top dropper! By 11.30am I’d bagged up - five of which were caught on the hang. Not long after, Phil bagged up, we then moved up the north arm where we had another 8 or so each on the bung, fishing buzzers. We returned to the harbour for the weigh in, and my bag of fish totalled 19lbs, which gave me 5th spot out of around 70 - my prize was an Orvis fly box. It had been a brilliant and enjoyable days fishing - thanks Phil!

On Sunday 10th April it was the Bob Church Open at Grafham. My boat partner was a member of Rib Valley Flyfishers, like me. I got off to a bad start as, when the match begun, all the boats raced out of the harbour. I tried to dodge a boat but ended up banging in to the pontoon instead - not good! After getting out we headed to Valley Creek where it had recently been stocked. I started off with blobs and boobies but saw people catching on floating lines, so after a couple of hours I decided to change, and teamed up with buzzers and diawl bachs. I caught my 8 fish but didn’t really come anywhere as I caught my 8th at 5.15pm, giving me only a 1 and a half pound time bonus. Many people finished earlier, and that is how the match was won. Afterwards there was a dinner in the restaurant and prizes were given out. I didn’t realise there was prize for the top youth so I was surprised when my name was called! I won Bob Church’s autobiography, ‘This Fishing Life’, handed to me by the man himself. Thanks Bob! He also signed it for me.

Whilst out practising for the matches we’ve also caught some good Perch on Trout flies. Over 2 trips we caught 8 Perch, 7 over 3lb, the biggest being 3lb 12oz. My Dad also caught a nice Bream of 10lb 1oz which gave up a good fight!

I’ve really enjoyed fishing over the past couple of weeks. I’ve met some great fishermen and I’ve learnt a great deal too. I have many more matches coming up soon and I’m really looking forward to fishing these.

End of season Pike and Perch

I've finally got round to updating my blog, as lately, homework, revision - and fishing - have taken up all of my time. The river season has now ended, and although I will miss my river fishing over the next 3 months, there's still a lot to look forward to. For the past month we've been continuing our quest for Perch on our local rivers, mostly with lures. The last few weeks of the river season can sometimes be some of the best, but this hasn't been the case this time round. So to keep the bites coming, we've been experimenting with Drop Shotting and trying out some new lures we bought about a month ago.

The last couple of weeks has only just started to be light enough to fit in a couple of hours after school to jig our local river. One warm but cloudy day seemed to tick all the boxes for great Perching conditions. After recently trying out Drop Shots and Wacky Style Worm fishing on the River Ivel with some success, we were keen to try it on the Lea too. I lip hooked a 3" dull, split tail shad on to the hook, tied via a palomar knot about a foot above the end of the line. To this I attached a 1/4oz drop shot weight. By presenting soft baits in this way, you can fish them very slowly - and by lip hooking the bait - whether this be a curltail or shad, you can twitch them enticingly, very much like an injured silverfish, and this can prove irresistible to lethargic predators. It's also amazing how such small fish can engulf such a large bait - not long after starting, a Perch fell for my Drop Shotting tactics - only a fish of around 10oz, but it still managed to completely engulf the 3" split tail shad! Hopeful there may be others in the swim, I cast out again. Hardly moving the rod tip, I twitched my bait delicately along the bottom, and soon found myself playing a larger fish at over 2lbs.

20 yards further down the river I found myself hooked up again to another good fish. Seeing the Perch as it approached the net, it looked and felt bigger than the previous fish, so I played it carefully in the hope that it wouldn't come off. The fish soon tired and I netted a lovely Perch at 3lb 1oz, which again fell to the Drop Shot. I managed to land another small one, but it wasn't long before our couple of hours fishing was over, as it was now pitch black. Unfortunately for Dad, who had persevered fishing our normal jigging method (which normally works very well), had blanked - so it just goes to show how a change of approach can sometimes make a difference.

In the last few weeks of the season we caught some nice fish on drop shots up to 3lbs 8oz. It's also proved a great method for catching Pike, Chub, and even Brown Trout that live in the river too. We also fished the River Thames on the last weekend of the season in our boat - the fishing was tough but we still managed to catch nearly 30 Perch to just over 2lbs, I also caught a 12lb Pike fishing a Wacky Style Worm intended for Chub!

Talking of a change of approach, my Dad had really been wanting to try some quivertipping but as usual, we'd got carried away with lure fishing But this time he was determined to try it, so after an evening collecting lobworms from our local football field, we were ready to give it a bash. Arriving around midday, we set up in an area where we thought we'd have a chance of catching Chub and Roach. We fished using bread and maggots, but after 3 or 4 hours without a bite, we opted for the lobworm in the hope of a last minute Perch. We sat back patiently, waiting eagerly for that magic moment - when the tip swings round. With time running out, I suddenly heard the sound of a drag of a reel. I looked round and my Dad was playing a fish. I walked over to give him a hand with the netting - he said it felt a good fish, but until it graced the net we didn't realise how 'good' it really was!

The scales read 4lb 1oz - my Dad's first four from the Lea, and our 3rd from the river in total! We stared at it in awe, and after taking pictures and much excitement, we released it back to it's watery home. We were soon back fishing though, as we knew that although he'd caught our 2nd biggest from the Lea ever, there was still a chance of another decent fish. It wasn't long before I had some interest showing on my quivertip, and I struck in to a fish - not to be outdone by my Dad! I soon had the fish in the net and this weighed 3lb 3oz - another cracking fish, not a beast like Dad's, but it had made my day. However it wasn't over yet. Not long after casting out again, the tip swung round and I landed another of 2lb 6oz too.

Chopping and changing techniques has certainly paid off over the past difficult weeks - sometimes when fishing gets harder it can be a good thing as it forces you to try new things. It's always sad to see the season over, but now I'm really looking forward to flyfishing reservoirs.

Lea Perch and Rib Valley Trout

A couple of days after returning from holiday I was really keen to get back on our local river in search of some nice perch. I was also eager to get a couple of trips in before I went back to school after the Christmas holidays. My Dad was still feeling really jet lagged, but after lots of ear bending he finally gave in to a trip on the Lea. I'm glad we did as, on New Years Eve, I banked two lovely perch caught on jigs; 3lb 7oz and 3lb 3oz. My Dad had no perch but caught two pike.

Over the next week we managed to get in a couple more afternoon trips and had some great sport catching more stripeys. The biggest one was caught by my Dad, weighing 3lb 14oz. It must have been feasting on all the mince pies over Christmas as it was really fat!

Because of a reported large perch being caught on the Lea, Angling Times emailed and asked if I could write an article as they know we fish the river. It was published in the magazine on 25th January. As soon as I receive the pdf from AT I will post it on here.

The Lea was also mentioned on Keith Arthur's 'Tightlines' on Sky Sports in the Fishery Focus.

Unfortunately, our jigging on the river was then put on hold as heavy, consistent rain set in over the country and most waterways became chocolate in colour - only in the past few days has it begun to clear. Because of this we fished a local gravel pit, which had only just thawed out. The freezing cold water made the fishing really tough but thankfully, we still managed to bag half a dozen pike to 8lb and 2 nice perch to 2lb 6oz - mostly on jigs.

Every year, our club, Rib Valley Flyfishers have their annual Fur and Feather match. It had been postponed from it's original date before Christmas because of the freezing cold weather that hit the country. We wouldn't have been able to fish anyway as we were in Cuba at the time, but luckily there was one spare spot left for me on the new date. After a hearty breakfast at the Three Lakes Restaurant, 23 keen anglers set off down to the lake to tackle up and find out their peg settings. Peter Edwards, RVFF competition secretary sounded the horn - and the match began. It was the first time since October that I'd fly fished for trout, and I wasn't sure how I'd get on.

35 minutes in to the match and I finally hooked a fish - but it wasn't on for long as seconds later it came off. However, I felt confident of another take as fellow anglers were landing the occasional trout. The horn sounded after 45 minutes of the match starting and I moved 3 pegs along. On my first cast I had a sharp 'nip', and then the second cast I hooked up - it took a small black and green lure fished on an intermediate line, with a short, 'twitching' retrieve. With a nice rainbow now in the bag my confidence began to grow.

The next swim hadn't produced fish for other anglers, so I was a little concerned, but before long I was hooked up again using the same fly, again to another rainbow. I then went on to land another, and lost a good fish too. All I needed was one more trout to bag up.

My last swim was a good spot where I felt confident I could catch my last fish. I fished hard but the fishing had got tougher for everybody as, literally nothing was being caught. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I could get that last fish and the final horn sounded bringing the match to an end. I felt gutted, but so did quite a few others. After the weigh in it was back to the fishing lodge for the presentation, where there was coffee, sausage rolls and scones - and lots of banter! First place went to Bart Farmer, who had just qualified for the England Stillwater Team - well done Bart. I finished in 7th place with 3 fish for 2.63kg. Everyone takes in a prize and everyone goes home with a prize, and I came home with a new Sixth Sense floating line, which I'll be spooling up soon!

The fishing had been pretty tough but everyone had enjoyed the day.

Here is a nice Rib Valley fish that I caught in 2010 as we didn't take any pictures on the day as the weather was pretty rubbish:

Bonefish for Christmas

Fly fishing for bonefish at Christmas isn’t the ideal time to target them, not in Cuba anyway, but December was the only convenient time we could take a family holiday and Cuba is where we wanted to go. So on 8th December, my Mum, Dad and I flew to Havana. We stayed there for one night and then took a second flight to Cayo Coco, Jardines del Rey. Cayo Coco is one of a string of islands that shelters Cuba’s North coast. As we arrived at our hotel, before even checking in, we were greeted by our fishing guide, Tito, with a cold beer for my Dad and a Pina Colada for my mum and me - a very warm welcome - and we were soon discussing our fishing plans in the little Spanish I know and the little English the guide knew. Reading between the lines it sounded as if we’d probably arrived at the worst time, as a cold front had shown itself in the previous few days and it didn’t look like it was going to improve over our five fishing days we had booked.

The area we were to fish is called Paredon Grande, a beautiful nature reserve area of mangroves, flats, islands and channels, an hours drive from the hotel by taxi and renowned to hold some very large bonefish. Despite the weather, we were still hopeful of landing some nice Bones and a few other exotic species.

On our first day we spent wading the flats. As predicted there was a chilly northerly wind making the water choppy and hard to see fish. We only saw four or five bonefish but Dad managed to catch the first one he encountered - a lovely fish of around 4lb 8oz. We couldn’t believe how cold the water temperature was, and after a tough day we returned to the hotel. Dad was shivering and we also discovered he’d caught a cold and it really came out in the evening. He said he thought he had felt one coming on the day before - not a brilliant start to our trip, one fish and a cold, but I did find a large Starfish.

On our second day fishing, the weather looked slightly better, but the water was still cool as it hadn’t had the chance to warm up. We checked out the flats in the morning but there were no fish there, so we decided to head for some deeper channels and do some fun fishing with bucktail jigs, plugs and flies. For most of the day we did this and we caught a good variety of fish - mostly Mutton, Cubera, Gray Snapper and small Jacks. We also caught Schoolmasters and Blue Runner. We saw a shoal of about eight Tarpon swim past but they took little interest in a popper or jig. Mid-afternoon we headed back to check out the flats again in the hope that they’d warmed up a bit and some bonefish had moved onto them. We spent the last hour poling the flats and spotted one nice Permit but it was on a mission, not stopping for anybody. Minutes later, we came across a small shoal of bonefish and I managed to catch my first Cuban bonefish - my biggest on the fly.



The following day, the conditions were much, much better - low wind speeds, a low tide and a bright, hot, cloudless day - perfect. The flats were alive, at last, with the odd Stingray, Trunkfish, and more importantly, Bonefish. We spotted a big one, not difficult as it was feeding hungrily with its whole tail waving clear out of the inch-deep flats. Dad made a cast and it landed perfectly. As the bonefish finished feeding in the sand Dad stripped the fly a couple of times and the bonefish nailed it. What a fight! It tore off into the distance, ripping off lots of backing. Eventually he got it safely to the boat. He’d caught it on one of his rubber legged, Crazy Charlie flies. The guide estimated it around 8-9lbs, we don’t think it was that big but it was still Dad’s P.B Bonefish on a fly.

Minutes after, we confronted a large shoal of fish that I cast to. I was soon hooked up and holding the second bone of the day. This was all in about an hour and a half. We had a couple more chances but we messed up and for some reason they suddenly didn’t seem interested anymore. A thick band of cloud then began to loom over, coupled with an increasingly strong wind. The fish soon disappeared so we headed into the mangroves for some more fun fishing with flies, plugs and jigs. We caught a variety of species on flies including Dog Snapper, Bar Jack and more Cubera and Gray Snapper. I also had a few Barracuda on plugs, and a couple on the fly.

This string of cloud was the start of another bad cold front which was to last for another 3 days. Tito decided to postpone our next two fishing days as he thought it would be too rough and would be a waste of time. This wasn't a bad thing, as it gave my Dad time to get over his cold as he was quite rough.


When we fished again with our guide for the last 2 days of our booked fishing, the flats were still very cold but we did manage to catch a few more bones on the right tide, but they were few and far between. It was very windy too, so most of the time, we fished the deeper channels or mangroves. On the last day, between us, we caught about 70 Mutton, Cubera and Lane Snapper, some of which were over 5lbs. They were great fun on the fly rod - a fish over 5lbs really puts up a fight! I caught a big one of around 7 - 8lbs too. We took one of these Snappers back to the hotel to eat and had it grilled with garlic, lemon and lime - mmmmmmm! On the same day Dad caught a Scamp (a small species of Grouper) on the fly.

Our guided fishing had come to an end so we decided to do some exploring of our own. We hopped on the local bus and tried some of the bridges on the way to Pilar beach, Ernest Hemingway’s favourite beach. Around these bridges we caught Black Grouper, Stoplight Parrotfish, Snappers, a couple of Barracudas and a tiny Goldspot Goby which took the smallest fly I took out with me!

We also bumped into a Canadian fisherman at a hotel - a Pro Staff guide who worked for Ross Reels - Claude Bosquets. He very kindly gave us advice on where to do some DIY flats fishing as he knew the area extemely well. These areas were on Cayo Coco and possibly the best flats we’ve ever walked on. I did get stung by a Jellyfish though on these flats, which was quite painful!

Here, Dad nearly caught a bonefish but it refused his fly at the last minute. We only spotted about 4 the whole 3 afternoons we fished it, but we did catch Trunkfish on the fly, Bluestriped Grunt, Bar Jack, Snapper and one afternoon I had 3 Barracuda in the space of about half an hour, all around 8lbs. They took a Yo Zuri Crystal minnow as the tide was coming in. Claude explained to us how the locals had caught many of the bones in large nets, which they eat.



At our hotel we made good friends with the staff and one recommended to go out fishing with his best mate. So, as the weather had improved, we took him up on his invitation and went out with him one afternoon on his boat. Again, we caught a variety of fish on flies but the biggest shock was catching an 100lb Eagle Ray on a piece of plastic binliner! The guy wanted to catch one as he wanted to take it home for his family and friends to eat, he said they taste very good, so he tied a piece of red plastic binliner on to a large treble hook and told me to cast to one! Astonishingly, as it fell through the water, the huge fish turned on to its side and engulfed it! I was amazed it took it! It was one of the strongest fights I’ve ever had with a fish, especially on Dad’s small spinning reel, and after half an hour of battling with it, we had it to the boat. I was pleased to find out he’d decided not to kill it as he thought it was too small!!! He didn’t give up though - Dad hooked one minutes later about 350lbs, but it was so powerful it just stripped the reel of braid so we had to motor after it. After about three quarters of an hour the guy tightened the drag up a little too much on Dad’s reel whilst he was playing it. You couldn't pull the braid off with your hands - this fish just ripped it off with ease. It went on another long run and the 50lb braid snapped. In a way, I think this was probably a good thing as one, it was getting dark and two, the fish got to live another day - it would have been a shame to kill such a magnificent creature.

We also had 3 hours fishing on Laguna La Redonda, a lake on mainland Cuba which my mum joined us on, one day, and really enjoyed. The lake is on the way to the town of Moron and you have to go over a huge causeway that links Cayo Coco to the mainland. On the causeway we saw a massive flock of flamingoes making a pink line on the horizon - a fantastic sight. On the lake we fished for African Sharptooth Catfish, an invasive species indigenous to the River Nile. We caught two, the biggest being about 12lbs, which took strips of freelined carp! It was great fun casting our baits into the mangrove roots for the catfish. It was a beautiful place too.

Overall, on our trip, we managed to catch 13 Bonefish and 16 new species of fish - 8 on the fly. Despite the weather and Dad’s cold, we had a really good time, even though it’s not the best time to visit for fishing. The hotel was great and we met some lovely people there - including a teacher from my school! - would you believe it? it’s small world - I’m sure they were checking up on me! You can see why Jardines del Rey (Gardens of the King) was one of Ernest Hemingway’s favourite fishing spots - the flats there are fantastic and we would love to go back there again one day. A big 'thank you' to Alexander Kennedy of Castaway Flyfishing for arranging such a smooth trip for us.