Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

When I was writing yesterdays blog we had pretty good cloud cover and it wasn’t too cool. As the sun went down and we got ready to fish the clouds had lifted revealing the full moon and a nice little bit of mist to go with it. It didn’t bother us too much and we carried on despite the odds being against us.I only get to fish this stretch of the Taw on a Monday so we thought to hell with it and cracked on. It was a really fun evening and despite not catching any sea trout. Toby had a few nice browns but the most important thing was that we had a good time and had quite a few laughs as well. As ever it isn’t always about the fish but just being out there with buddies enjoying the experience.

We had some nice comments come in from happy clients yesterday which is always a nice start to the week.

Bob was a great guide. He’s an easy going guy and he taught me the rudiments of double handed casting very effectively.

Stuart

Pete-great day on the river you’re a top river guide.

Cheers

David

CLICK HERE to see Bob in action

CLICK HERE to see Pete in action

Bob was out yesterday with Mike who was brushing up his spey casting before going on a fishing trip!

I was due to do some guiding on a chalkstream with Paul. Paul is a regular client of ours and is one of the keenest fly fishermen I know! I thought it would be really cool for him to experience a chalkstream mayfly hatch. Although we get them here in Devon they aren’t of the sort of magnitude that they get a bit further up country. Paul is also a keen fly tyer too and was wanting to know what sort of patterns he should tie up. I talked him through a few and said tie them on size 10 and 8’s as they have them big up there!

So I packed the truck the night before having seen the weather forecast and it looked like the bad rain (the day was set for Tuesday) was going the skirt round the edge of where we were fishing. Next morning I set off and all was dry when I left. On the A303 I got a call from Toby who had got up really early to fly fish for some bass in Dorset. He’d had some but also had some persistent rain. Two minutes after putting the phone down I hit the rain. It wasn’t looking good. As ever I was a little early so grabbed a coffee and waited for Paul where we had arranged to meet. I walked down and had a look at the river, it had come up a bit and was carrying a little colour but was fishable. Paul wasn’t far behind and we set off starting on one of the carriers where he had an out of season grayling and we quickly moved on. I went for shallower stretches so that we were in with a chance. Paul picked up the odd fish but the rain did relent. We decided on a pub lunch to dry off and plan our next move.

The mayfly on this particular beat are still towards the top so we headed there and walked down to the bottom and got in. The rain had just about stopped but it was still overcast and temps upped a notch. Perfect! Perfect is one of the words I could use but what unfolded was truly magical. It was as if the planets had aligned and everything fell into place. We witnessed an epic hatch of mays that had fish slamming into the danicas as they tried to leave the water. Paul had a fantastic time and landed plenty of fish including a nice 15incher! (no stocked fish here, only wild!) and I was jumping up and down next to him with excitement. It ended up one of those perfect days and when we left the water it was after 8 o’clock!

I didn’t have the video for the hatch as it was deeper water and there was still plenty of rain about but I did take it later and there are a few fish that you can see caught by clicking here. As you’ll see the light wasn’t so good as it got later but hopefully will give you an idea!

Sometimes, I think part of the attraction of fly fishing is the equipment that you can buy; especially the gadgets. I list fly boxes in here and although not strictly a gadget I can spend many happy hours sorting through a fly box.

I sort my fly boxes between stillwater and river and within the stillwater box I keep them divided between barbed and debarbed and then subsections such as buzzers, lures etc. You can happily spend an hour or two sorting and arranging and priming them ready for service.

It is funny though as there must be some sort of comfort factor in knowing all the little slots are filled just in case you are caught short when fishing but when sorting out I do thin out a few patterns that I have either tied and don’t like the look of or just have never used them. This will leave me room to tie up a few extra flies and allow me to fill any gaps in the slots!

The flies I “relegate” live on a pile on my fly tying table perhaps waiting for the chance to be selected again. This does happen from time to time but they only last a season to be replaced again by the next cast offs.

Once the job is done it is satisfying to see the arranged flies in groups all lined up and ready for action. If I am teaching the next time out it doesn’t usually take long before the usual state of chaos is restored. Come to think of it most of the flies I use are stuck on my fly patch for most of the season so do I really need to sort the boxes?!

 No fly fishing lessons tomorrow for Mark and I so we are off and we are going fishing. I was going to go and fish with Ray but he has to shoot off a little early and part of the fun is staying as late as possible and enjoy the last few moments of the day before the long drive home so it is going to be down here somewhere. We’ll decide where to go tomorrow morning and let the day unfold as it happens.

Sounds like the mayflies are a little later than normal this year on the chalkstreams but Toby called last night and said there were a few about on a river down here before he went sea trouting. I haven’t heard from him today so not sure how he got on but he promised me a call if he connected with something.

Dear Peter,
Just wanted to thank you for a very enjoyable and instructive day last Saturday. I had a lovely time on the river a lot of which was due to your advice, great enthusiasm and patience!! Definitely want to do it again!
best wishes
Gavin

I had the pleasure of guiding Gavin on Saturday on the Bray. He has done a fair bit on the chalkstreams but only a little bit down here and so with a river in good shape and pretty good weather we set off. We started at the bottom of the beat and although we rose a few fish we noticed a lot were refusing or following the fly without taking. We decided to hop out and move upstream a bit where the water moves through a little quicker and the fish didn’t have so long to think about whether to hit the fly or not. This seemed to work pretty well and Gavin was soon getting into fish. He realised that the fish take a whole lot quicker down here than those on the chalkstreams but as is often the case once you have hooked and landed one you never look back!

Gavin was also keen to learn some watercraft and where and how to locate likely areas. After talking him through a few pools I asked him to talk me through how he would fish the next pool and he did so and it was an A* moment! We also looked at rise forms and how to interpret them and select your fly accordingly.

He fished like a star and had some nice fish in the 10,11 and 12 inch range and even hooked and played a sea trout for a few moments but sadly came off. It was really exciting to see it leave its hidey hole and come out and hit us!

The downside is that I had some nice photos of Gavin but sadly I seem to have lost or misplaced my camera that was given to me as a birthday present just a few weeks ago. Jax thinks I have had a senior moment for which I have thanked her greatly! I only realised when Bob took Tony and his 3 friends for some two handed casting yesterday and I asked him to take some photos…nightmare!

I was teaching Colin and David today and managed to dig out an old camera so normal service is resumed.

I had a really good day on the river guiding Jo today, the conditions were spot on and the fish were poppin! We started off hanging a nymph under our dry but seeing risers had me cutting it off pretty quickly. The stretch of the Culm we were on is a long one with lush weed growth and plenty of insect life. We had a wealth of hatches today with various caddis, light and dark olives, hawthorns and we even spotted a lone mayfly!

 We covered rising fish and Jo did a great job hitting just about every fish that took a liking to our offering. The interesting thing was that we had great success with sighted fish but casting blind into likely looking holes didn’t work as well as we might have hoped. It seemed the fish in the pools were either on or off and no inbetween. Thankfully there were plenty who were “on”!

I am on another river again with Gavin tomorrow and hope it will be as good!

Our good friend from AAPGAI, Lee, has just come in from a very successful trip on Coniston chasing pike…well done mate!

I have just spent a really enjoyable couple of days with Paul and Sean who came down to see us from the Midlands. They were keen to fly fish the rivers but the weather was against us on the first day so we headed in search of pike. Below is a shot of Pauls first pike on a fly…somehow I don’t think it will be the last!

The guys did a great job and also mastered the near bank approach where savage takes can take place right by you feet. They are really exciting and can take you by surprise…right guys?!

We then popped down to our lake for a spot of casting and some lake fishing for a couple of hours catching rainbows on dries and then for fun we put on some nasty stuff I’d tied just to see if it would work!

We were hoping to head to the Tamar with some trout and possibly some fishing for salmon. The beat is beautiful and we are able to drive along it so the plan was to strap salmon gear along with trout gear onto the truck and then fish the pools accordingly. An early call was not encouraging and high and like chocolate was Williams  reply to my question about fishing possibilities. We decided to head a little higher and fish a carrier of the Tamar on the basis it might be a little clearer. We were happy campers when we peered over the bridge and quickly popped on our waders and got going. The Lyd was still a little high and the fish were not making life easy for the guys but they fished out of their skins and did fantastically well given the conditions. We even found some rising fish just after lunch and it was good to see the fish take our offerings.

Sean into a fish!

Mark has made the long drive up to Scotland to the Tweed Fair where he along with Karl and Illtyd are supporting one of our dealers and catching up and swapping stories with some of the guys from AAPGAI. I spoke to Mark this morning and he was a little tired having been out casting in the darkness at 2am with the guys!!

With Mark away and Bob still sunning himself and me out and further guiding also booked for last Thurs and Fri a good friend of SFFS helped us out and did two days on the Bray and Taw with Marc and his brother over from NZ. Sounds like they had a blast…good work fella!

I’ve been at our YakShack at Roadford today and there were plenty of Hawthorn around. Apparently there was a 3lber caught there on Saturday. I have a day off tomorrow so if the rivers are not on I think I might give it a go!

Paul had done something a little different with an elk hair caddis we used on the Culm last week when I was guiding him and has written a little bit about it below. Hope you enjoy!

Had another great day out with Pete on Wednesday, helping me come to grips with our stretch of the Culm which has consistently defeated me both in terms of wadeability and catching fish. The demons have now been exorcised!During the day there was an excellent rise to caddis- in fact the fly of the day was an emerging caddis of Pete’s that caught the whole afternoon. However, on looking in my box, Pete was quite taken with some of the caddis that I’d tied. He hadn’t seen one like it before; I’m sure there’s any number of people that have tied it, written it up and claimed it as their own, but I’d just developed it myself as a solution to my own fly-tying inadequacy.

Natasha and Wendy spent a day learning to fly fish with Mark and below are  a few words from them…

We just wanted to write to thank Mark for a fabulous introdution to fly fishing -

we had a lovely day on the lake and hopefully this will be a great start

to many years of enjoyment by the water.

 Alan Stevens into a fish!

Alan has also made a return to fly fishing after a break but under Marks expert guidance he was casting a beautiful line in no time!

Its been a busy week so far both in the office and out on the water. Mark was out with Alan Stevens on Tues and is out again today with Natasha and her friend. I have been down to see how they are doing this morning and looks as ever as if the ladies are taking to fly casting like ducks to water. As mentioned before Bob is away sunning himself but I was out guiding Paul yesterday. We were on a stretch of water that Paul has fished before but wanted a little bit of help with. I was very happy to oblige and he did himself proud! It was a really long beat and we covered some water and as ever I find it hard to leave rising fish so lunch ended up at 2.45 rather than the 1pm we had planned. It was worth it though!

The fish, as a whole, are still looking to hold in the middle and tails of pools although we did find a few smaller ones in the heads but not many. The fly of choice was a balloon caddis which by the end of the day was a little the worse for wear and we decided to retire it to the hall of fame for all of its sterling work. Funnily enough I have had this fly in my box for quite a while now but haven’t needed to use it until yesterday. The reason being that we had an awesome hatch of grannom throughout the day. Grannom are a member of the sedge family and the first hatch of sedges that we see in the year. Paul had been on the same stretch of river the day before and hadn’t seen a fish rise although the hatch was starting and despite hooking a fish on a dry first cast it took a couple of hours before the fish got truely locked on to them. When they did though we witnessed some pretty savage takes and some great fishing. It is pretty neat hitting everything as it comes together. Hopefully Paul left with a few more tricks in his bag and even mastered the skated downstream sedge…right Paul?!

Part of a good fishing trip is having the right music to go with the travelling part. If it is a long trip I’ll have a good selection of discs carefully selected and put together by my daughter Charlie. At 16 she is fully aware of what is hot and what isn’t and puts together an appropriate compilation. I don’t remember at her age having such eclectic tastes and I am sure your finger leaves the musical pulse when you get to 30 and it is only a short time before “Dad dancing” starts.

She manages to make the Beach Boys sit comfortably with The Chili Peppers via Soft Cell. I must admit there was a time last year when Mark and I were off bassing and drove through the middle of Barnstaple with “tainted love” blaring out of the CD player and open windows…strange lot us fly fishers!

On the outwood part of the trip I prefer faster music and it might be The Foo Fighters (a big SFFS team fave) or The Who but on the way back when there is plenty of conversation about the day something a little more mellow is required. A fave this year that has gone down well with clients is Sea Sick Steve. He churns out some high quality blues. I first saw him on Jools Holland’s Later program on BBC2. He stole the show and if you are unsure about whether to commit to an album of blues he appears on the Later Live album so that you can get a flavour.

Two albums that are a permanent feature are from the Live Lounge series. The cool thing about these are that you have well known acts covering other peoples songs. You have artists like Lemar covering The Darkness (it works!) or Keane covering U2. It is great to see other bands paying the ultimate compliment by copying another artists work. I know I for one would be take it as a compliment that my work were taken seriously and being acknowledged.

Bob has left for sunnier shores for a couple of weeks so I am at the helm for a bit whilst juggling tuition/guiding in between. It is fun being so busy but where does the day go to?

I left the office and popped down to the lake to let someone who had popped in cast a couple of rods and was surprised to see Mark teaching in a T shirt. I know they breed em tough in the midlands but perhaps the weather is on the turn. He took a camera and I hope he’ll have a shot or two.

I am on the river tomorrow with Paul and am really looking forward to it!