Fishing can be a very solitary pastime which I personally really don’t mind at  times.  I use this time as my kind off Tai Chi.  Unless you take yourself off and plonk yourself in the middle of nowhere invariably one often gets chatting and swapping notes with fellow anglers or people you’ve never met before just curious about the area and so on.  As I tend to stick to my fly fishing on the Adur estuary I get a bit stuck for conversation or advice when it comes to  bait fishing,  spinning and the tactic that go with it.  I did meet a guy on the river the other week  he turned out to be angling guide called Robin or “Fishy Rob”  who happened to be out with a couple of clients that day.  I must admit I have heard of this guy and his reputation and passion for the sport and deals with the likes of bait, spinning , shore fishing and the knowledge that I lack so it was great to bump into him and exchange contacts plus hopefully get together and wet a line with him one day. Check him out  at    www.fishyrob.com    or    Robin@fishyrob.co.uk

Tight lines Howie

A lovely warm, calm evening.  A short tide and a nice bright, half moon. Perfect conditions to fly-fish for Mullet. There are snaking chanels here that have been cut into the mud by years off water run off. The fish seem to like here. Maybe there is more food to be     had?

By wading as opposed to standing high on a bank you can get much closer to the fish.  Mullet don’t like a fly line dropping over them and so I use a 12′ tapered leader with  a 3′ tippet so as to keep the fly line well away. I tried my home tied fresh water shrimp patterns and got takes strait away. I lost several fish before taking this Golden Mullet of about 2lb. There where shoals of 1 oz mullet fry around too. A good sign of how they are thriving here.   Tight lines  Howie

27.06.2011  This Bass finally took my sand eel pattern on the third cast.  I’ve got to admit I thought I’d snagged the bottom and proceeded to pull and curse for about ten seconds. Then the bottom began to move and so did the rod and line as it tore off across the river. I finally got it under control and bought it to hand. It weighed in at 2.5lbs. The next 5 casts produced another two fish of 1lb and 1.5lb. An hour later I lost another good Bass right at the end of the ebb tide. I hope this is the start of a better season on the River Adur?

Tight lines Howie

Hi fellow anglers.
Wishing you all a happy new year and tight lines for 2011. April is back round again and temperatures are starting to rise at last. Hopefully if this keeps up it may trigger fish to leave the the warmer ocean depths off shore and over the next few weeks,we may start to get a few Bass and Mullet entering the Adur estuary and river system in search of alternative food. I’ll be keeping an eye on the river during my weekly walks for signs of any action on the water. Let’s hope we don’t get a repeat of last April’s snow and cold snap which spoiled the fishing somewhat. It certainly made the Bass fly fishing very difficult up stream. In spite of putting in more time and exploring new fishing places with different flies the returns were poor. If the Bass aren’t there you won’t catch ’em (bleeding obvious I hear you say). This season I’ll be upping the odds of a catch by targeting the Grey Mullet more frequently. From May on they are nearly always around and what’s even more exciting is that you can see them and if you conect with one you are in for a scrap. I’ll be trying out a new set of flies that I’ve tied specifically for these bottom feeders and let you know how I get on.
Ok bye for now Howie