You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Anyone ever successfully tickled a trout?
I'm parked up on the banks of a mountain river in Bavaria. There are quite a few decent sized fish in a pool. Area isn't frequented that often and the GF isn't here to stop me. Might give it a go tomorrow.
Anyone tried this and care to share their wisdom?
Sounds like a euphemism to me, especially with the GF away.
Wahey!
But sadly no.... You're not the only one to be disappointed with that fact.
Yes, I have as a teenager.
IIRC:
- you have to be so patient, until your hand is frozen.
- you don't so much tickle (that seemed to just have them dash off), so much as fling it up in the air and out the pool.
- one small trout between three of us was not enough for a meal.
It was called guddling here. Central Scotland.
Technique in a shallow Stony river was to walk upstream checking under stones until you found a trout. Thereafter the easy or hard part depended on the shape of the space under the stone.
From experience as a teenager, a landing net can work quite well if you catch one unawares.
Have you got access to firearms?
Look for areas with undercuts of the bank, hands under water nice and still until they freeze off and then when you feel one slide over your palms quickly flick it out of the water.
Pray you don't poke your hand into a signal crayfish hole
I have vague recollections of trout tickling as a kid, in Wales or maybe on Exmoor. It required more patience than a 10 year old could muster, so was never very productive, but we may have succeeded once or twice.
My dad tried to teach me in the river in the valley below the cottage where he was born. Same river, the Bybrook, that runs through Castle Combe, which is upstream. As FFJA says, you’re looking for where the bank overhangs. Also:
– you have to be so patient, until your hand is frozen.
– you don’t so much tickle (that seemed to just have them dash off), so much as fling it up in the air and out the pool.
I was probably about seven or eight, and the river, being a trout stream, is clear, and mostly under tree cover, so bloody cold, as a result, my hands were so cold, I couldn’t feel my fingers, let alone any possibility of there being a fish around.
Pray you don’t poke your hand into a signal crayfish hole
They tend to hide under rocks, buggers are everywhere in the Bybrook. Trout, on the other hand, don’t lurk under rocks, they prefer to sit in shaded areas keeping stationary in the flow, letting their food drift down to them. They’re not stupid, they don’t put in any more work than they have to, especially when the water is bringing the food straight to them. There’s a couple of places where the water’s a bit deeper in the centre of Castle Combe, and you can just stand and watch them doing virtually nothing except wait for food.
Hmm... Well I've also got a bit of line and some hooks plus a lure. Might be easier if a little more risky.
On a similar note, an old country lad once told me how to catch a Pheasant / Grouse etc. When you spot it sat in a field or a moor etc start walking around it in a very large ever decreasing circle. It won’t take its eyes off you all the time you are doing this and by the time you reach it it will have wrung it’s own neck.