Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

Saturday was great weather and I was lucky enough to be on the water in Wiltshire doing a demo and some fly casting tuition for members of a club I belong to. We covered lots and I hope that it went down well. The guys were all good anglers and just wanted a few tricks to make the day on the water a little easier. We covered presentation casts to ensure a good long drag free drift and also how to deal with the wind in different situations along with a few other casts.

Ray came and gave me a hand and it was really cool working with him, he did an awesome job!

So it gets to 5pm and its a long drive home, what do you do? Yup, go fishing! It is much nicer having the A303 to yourself so a later leaving time is much better. Ray has found a superb Chinese take away so we sat on the tail gate of my truck and munched a most excellent MSG free noodles and chicken and then hit the river.

We thought it would be nice to fish dries and we’d seen fish gulping LDO’s throughout the day and with the wind dropping we thought we were in with a chance. We did OK too and had some fish. When Ray and I fish together it is a case (if the fishing is good) of having one and the other person has a go. There was a short spell where Ray was re tying on a fly and I had moved upstream just enough that he could make a few casts and pick up a couple of fish I had left for him!!

The highlight was a fish that we couldn’t really work out. We had been fishing through a caddis hatch but this boy was on something different and despite throwing a few flies at him he didn’t want to take. I had foolishly left my phone on and Mark had called to see how we had got on. I was telling him about this fish and hadn’t noticed Ray sneak on a size 22 unweighted pheasant tail nymph. It did the job but as I said to Mark it must have been a hollow victory as he had broken our dry only rule for the night. Mark thought it was a bit like foul hooking a fish!!. I laughed but big respect to Ray for being flexible and sussing things out.

Apparently my pics of Natasha and Wendy didn’t show up so lets try again…

So it looks like the grand plan for a day on the river with dry flies and rising fish has been blown right out of the window! The rivers are up and in the fields and the colour of chocolate and it has been pouring this morning. The great thing about fly fishing in Devon is that we have so many other opportunities if the rivers are blown. I have been giving it some thought and reckon we will head for Colliford. Colliford is one of the 13 lakes that comes under South West Lakes Trusts management. It is also the biggest at 911 acres and a really cool place for travelling light with just a box of flies and a sandwich. It is a brown trout fishery and the tactic is to keep mobile and don’t worry about huge long casts. I usually fish there with a 5 or 6 wt rod. There is also a few very large carp that you might also encounter and with the water being clear a well presented bloodworm or buzzer might just give you a bit of a surprise!

Bob and Jax were out doing some stuff with the website yesterday leaving myself and Mark at HQ. Luckily there were a few burgers left over from Saturday so we thought it was only right we had a barbie. We did get a few funny comments from passing people as we were busily trying to keep the barbie upright in such high winds but they still tasted pretty good!

Rays VW is the orginal fly fishing mobile. I have fished with him a long time, the rods might have changed but the one constant is the fishing mobile.

What makes a good fly fishing mobile? Smell is important, it has to have odour of wet waders and perhaps a hint of fishing net too. Maps are a must that have to be shoved into the side pockets. The floor of the fishing mobile needs sweet wrappers from petrol station munchies and there needs to be a least 3 flies either stuck in the dashboard or in the cup holder if it doesn’t have already have an old coffee/water bottle there already.

My truck is getting there. I have had it 2 ½ years now and it has been on numerous fishing adventures. I have added a few little touches of my own. Firstly the back seats are a sort of all season wardrobe. I have 3 fleeces of varying thicknesses and 2 rain jackets. There are also 3 baseball caps and a beanie and my sunglasses are kept on the dashboard so I never forget them. I have the maps for both roads and OS for the moors and from Scott some furry dice that they say are for holding flies.

As all, I am very aware of the price of diesel and carbon footprints and keep thinking that I need a smaller car that is cheaper to run and won’t harm the environment but every time I come to do it I can’t pull the trigger. It starts every time, zooms up the A30 with no problems everyday and is just starting to get that fishing mobile smell.

The last few days of good weather has been a special treat and it has meant all of us at Scott Fly Fishing School HQ have been able to get outside for a quick dose of vitamin D. It might be a case of someone completing a job and wandering over to the rod rack, grabbing a rod, reel and line and going out front and having a cast. Yesterday there was Bob, Mark, Jaqui and myself at work. It was actually a pretty busy day but Bob grabbed a rod and headed outside to throw a couple of loops. Jaqui and I were doing something in the office and Mark was sorting out a wader delivery. As Bob grabbed the rod I counted down the seconds before someone joined him and I am pleased to report it only took Mark 9 seconds to step out with him. Needless to say it wasn’t long before we were all out there having a throw.

We often just play around with some casts and sometimes pop a plate or dog bowl down to aim at but it usually ends up that we try and curve a cast around the target rather than trying to hit it which is a bit more fun. We do have a new game though which involves us trying to cast as much fly line onto the roof of our building as possible which although childish ( I hold my hands up!) is hugely amusing. We have managed to get a whole line up there but the trajectory means that the back cast is thrown down onto the ground and then launched up at an equally acute angle. We have called this the “concrete haul” where I have a theory that the slightly rippled effect of the car park act as an anchor point for the back cast….well thats my excuse!

Anyway, the purpose for this is to let you know that looking after your fly fishing tackle is really important and one of the often neglected pieces of equipment is the fly line. We often cast in the car park here and I am sure you can imagine the amount of muck that the line picks up and also the effect this has on the rod rings. By buying a line cleaning outfit and regular cleaning,  your fly line will give you a much longer service and will remain nice and slick which will give you a few more feet on your cast than if you just leave it sitting in the bag.

 Tim popped in this morning and had a good day on the Tamar yesterday. The water is high but clear and he managed a few on bugs. I have tomorrow off as I am on a chalkstream chasing grayling. Mark and Jaqui are off doing a magazine article and Bob is putting the finishing touches to the catalogue. There are lots of exciting pieces of news to tell you which I will hopefully be able to do next week.

Pete

My rod collection seems to be growing at an ever alarming rate and as I write this. I am sitting looking at the pile thinking if it had to be one which one would it be?

Well, if it had to be one to cover everything it would probably have to be a 9ft 5wt but if you limited me to one type of fishing for the rest of my life it would, without hesitation, be river fishing. So if this were the case all the 9ft and above rods would be dumped. I use an 8ft 8” 4wt on the bigger rivers and chalk streams but I love the little stuff and this rod would be a tad too big for some of the places I like to go. I have 1wts, 2wts and 3wts as well. The one weight is surprisingly usable in most situations even with a downstream wind and even with a nymph but no good if I were to fish a bigger stream so that goes into the reject pile. Do I do the same with the 2 wt? On the face of it yes but what about if I pop a 3wt line on it? The extra weight will bend the rod at short distances and will do just as well at longer range too but I can add a 2wt line if needs be. There isn’t a rule about how many lines you can use is there?

I always think it’s cool to fish light lines and have always enjoyed it. Don’t forget our fish are small so we don’t usually suffer the titanic battles that stillwater anglers sometimes face. As an aside though I have landed plenty of good sized carp of 4 and 5 wt rods in quick time and with no stress to the fish.

The length of my 2wt rod is 7ft 7 which is perfect for just about everywhere here and would cope on most rivers without too much of a problem. The only difficulty might be on some of the wider stretches of the chalk streams where you aren’t allowed to wade but that is part of the fun isn’t it?

Poking out from all the graphite is some bamboo. I love bamboo. I fish it regularly and enjoy it. Does that mean we have a new contender? It might just be. The pick of my pile is the South Creek 8ft 5wt built for me as a 40^th birthday present from Emma, my wife by Mike Clark in Lyons, Colorado. This is a wonderful rod and is called the Bray Special after the wonderful river Bray where I fish and guide.

This is going to be a tough decision and I’m torn but it has to be the Bray Special. The 5 wt might be a little heavy in some of the places I like to go but I can just lengthen my leader. I have fished this rod here and in the U.S. and will cast a size 20 midge to a size 8 wooly bugger with equal ease. Come to think of it I could use it on a lake as well.

If you are heading down to Devon to fly fish I reckon an 8ft 4wt will see you right for just about anything the West Country rivers have to throw at you. All you need is a tapered leader 2 and 3 ½ lb tippet and just a few flies…now don’t get me going on flies!!

Testing, one two, one two…the paint is still drying but we are excited to be broadcasting to the world, having opened the shutters of the Scott Fly Fishing School blog. My biggest fear is that readers will discover my legendary poor punctuation more than anything else but we hope to keep you up to date with what we are up to, fishing reports and a few tips thrown in for free!

We’ll have some input from Bob, Mark and Gary but also a few special guests too who have promised to impart a few words of wisdom. If you have visited us at the School expect to see yourself up here just to prove you did catch something in case no one believed you!

It looks as though 2008 is going to be a busy year out on the water; we are looking forward to bringing newcomers to the world of fly fishing. It is also good to see some old friends dropping by too.

We plan on stocking our new private trout lake at the end of Feb and so I have to apologise to those that have popped down already that there was a reason the fish weren’t biting…only kidding!  Those who have been down already have been fine tuning ready for the season and just brushing down a few cobwebs.

I am dying to try our new stretch of the Tamar. It is a private beat and the owner told me that he hooked a 3lb grayling whilst sea trouting. Now, I’m a guide and would never be prone to exaggeration, so 3lb could be 2lb in the real world but that is still a special fish. I managed to get down there at the back of the season to have a cast for salmon with Bob and it is an awesome place. I know where the big fella lives so if you ask me nicely…

It is pretty miserable right now so I have popped a photo of the Tamar beat to cheer you up and don’t forget to give me a shout if you are interested in some chalkstream grayling fishing or feel free to pop in for a coffee. It seems like Scott Fly School HQ has become a hang out for fishermen so we thought it only right to pop a couple of sofas in so that we can all sit down and talk fishing!

So, that’s the official opening “may God bless this blog and all who sail in her”.

Pete