Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

I was laying in bed and heard the rain start at about 5.30 this morning. I am writing this at 6.30pm and it has just stopped. I had my truck loaded and had planned to stay on the river after work and do some fly fishing as there are plenty of salmon and sea trout around. Sometimes it doesn’t always play out the way you hope and I had to make the call to Richard at 8am from the office and call off our day on the river. I am starting to feel sorry for Richard as it looks like the weather gods have decided that he isn’t going to catch a trout from the river on a dry fly just yet! We are re-planning and I am sure it is only a matter of time. This meant I was at work already and had plenty to catch up on so it wasn’t so bad but I’d rather have been on the river!

Mark was also teaching on the lake and was with 13 year old James. I had my video camera with me and so I popped down to see how they were getting on and to take a few pics. I have spent plenty of time teaching with Mark but it was a real pleasure to watch him in action and watching the video makes me proud to be part of such a great team. He was fantastic with James and was constantly passing on information and tips to him and I know James is hooked now!

Mark, James and Cethin, his grandfather, were due to have lunch down at the lake but the rain brought them up so Bob, Jax and myself joined them. It was good to all sit down and talk fishing!

Anyway, enough of me talking about it take a look at how well James did and when he caught his first fish. In between using the camcorder I kept it under my jacket which meant it steamed up when I took it out just as James hooked his first fish….sorry James!!  Click here to see James catch a few 

Bob,Jax,Mark,Cethin and James all tuck into lunch at SFFS HQ!

It is always really nice to see someone go off at the end of the day having learnt loads but having had a good time and be it an existing fisherman (or woman) who now has something that will now help get a few extra fish on the bank or a newcomer to fly fishing who has left enthused and ready to embark on a new pastime. We keep in touch with everybody and it is cool to hear how things have gone and if some of the things we have shown people are working…

Below is a message from Colin, who along with David, wanted to learn how to tackle their stretch of the Otter with a bit more confidence. I am so pleased it looks like it is working. Well done Colin!!

Hi Pete, thank you for the most enlightening morning for David and myself. Lots of people often have the skills, but few have a natural ability and  enthusiasm to teach their subject in an easy to understand way. You have  that ability along with an easy-going manner that puts people at ease  enabling them to learn and progress. Both David and I learnt and understood so much that we now both feel cap   able of casting in most circumstances. I still can't Double Haul but I have  to say that I haven't needed it on the Otter yet ! David says that it really was a morning well spent and I agree  wholeheartedly with him. So once again thanks for all you taught us and the manner with which you  did it, you have enhanced our ability, enjoyment and experience whilst  fishing. Kind regards Colin

If you haven’t seen this already it is a day Mark and I spent on the Dart, it is worth a view just for watching me doing an impression of a jaquzzi! click here 

Mark has put a new blog up and as ever is an interesting and amusing read!

Despite heavy rain the Devon County Show was really good fun and a worthwhile visit. It was great to meet up with friends old and new and have a bit of a cast as well as talk fishing of course!

Sunday was great fun as I met up with Luke Westaway after we had to cancel a fly fishing lesson previously due to snow! Being only 10 I was amazed at how quickly he picked up fly casting and how much knowledge he already has of our sport. He did himself proud and caught 3 fish and took one of them home for his tea. His father, Simon, is a very keen fisherman too and I think it will only be a matter of time before Luke is joing him on plenty more of his fishing trips. Really, really well done Luke we all look forward to hearing of your future fishing exploits!

I noticed we have 2 carp in our trout lake and with things warming up that they are moving around near the surface. I have set myself the challenge of staking one with a proper dry fly and will keep you in touch with how it goes…

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!

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?!

I managed to get back from a two day trip to California in one piece and despite a nasty case of jet lag I have to say it was really worth it. We have been extremely honoured to be asked to distribute Abel reels in the UK. Part of  the signing off process was to visit the factory and meet the guys in person. The really cool thing is that first of all they were a great bunch and we all hit it off really well but secondly they are all hard core fishermen. This means the guys who are building the product know and understand what they are building and actually use it out there; be it on the flats or on a trout stream. Any little tweeks that might be needed are understood from both an engineering perspective and more importantly from a fisherman’s view too!

They are fiercely proud of their product and it was wonderful to see everything is built in the factory even down to the screws and pawls, nothing is outsourced. This means no corners are cut as they build exactly what they want and need and to the exact specification. Like Scott, everything is built in the USA by fly fly fishermen for fly fishermen so you know you will be getting a product that has spent hours out on the water with a lot of knowledge and know-how behind it. 

On the 28th April at the annual dinner at the IGFA museum Abel are to be recognised as the world’s leading reel manufacturer. High praise indeed and well deserved. This speaks volumes about the quality and durability of their reels!

We finished the tour and meeting and it was really nice to pop down to a local bar for a quick drink before the flight home.

Abel are famous for their anodised reels and you can really go to town and have a custom pattern for just about every occassion. Your local Abel dealer will have a selection for you to have a drool over! We have some exciting plans for these reels in the UK.

It was a real pleasure to meet the guys and to see a company that puts quality, passion and pride into the product they are making…here’s to you guys!

 I had an email from Jim who has just popped his Permit cherry…good work fella!, hopefully I’ll be getting a crack in December!

Next week is a really busy one for the school, I’ll be busy guiding and Mark is on our lake with plenty of newcomers including a couple of ladies. Looks like my new camera is going to be busy…shame about the operator of it!!

I have taken the day off today as it is my birthday. On days like these it is a perfect for a little spot of fishing. Emma and Charlie joined me and we headed to the Teign for a couple of hours of fishing and then lunch in the pub by the river. The other reason was that I was lucky enough to recieve a new bamboo rod as a present. This one is made by Luke Bannister down in Cornwall. Luke is a great guy and fellow fishing bum. We met last year and found we both had a love of bamboo rods. The difference is that Luke is pretty dam good at building them! I went for a 7ft 3 wt which fits the bill perfectly for fishing here and the space in the bamboo rod line up. I strung the rod up with a standard SA 3wt WF line and it really sings.

The water was low and clear so I stuck with the usual set up of klinkie and small tungsten bead head and managed a few fish. Nothing of real note but nice all the same. The girls took our dog, Enzo, for a stroll and we met up and had lunch and got back before the weather broke.

The rod is awesome and managed everything with ease even when a downstreamer picked up. I think it will be perfect for up on the Moors too.

 Bob was teaching on the Tamar on Tues and his client did a bit of fishing at the end and had a good pull and they saw a salmon roll. Sounds like there might be a few tourists in town.

I am off for a few days to the U.S on business. Who says fly fishing isn’t glamorous?!!

Looks like Graham is really starting to get this casting bug thing. He tells us more about it below…

Last week I helped Pete, Bob and Mark. on their stand at the Spring Fly Fishing Show
and it became apparent how sadly addicted they are to casting! I was
introduced to Karl for the first time and he kindly gave me a lesson in the
car park despite it blowing a gale. Again no surprise in that Karl joins
the ranks of all the AAPGAI geeks in that he is a sublime caster and
excellent tutor to boot despite the occassional “what was that ?” refering
to what I believed to be a smart spey cast! I had to chuckle with all of
them for every hour or so one would quip “fancy a cast?” met with a
unanimous “yup” led to the stand being vacated with muggins here left to
hold up the fort! Towards the end of the first day I dawdled over to the
indoor pool that they had somewhat commandeered and realised they were
trying to arielise a full line that had become somewhat detached from its
backing. Each in turn would double haul and let fly diving to catch the
line before it shot out of the rings. Strange creatures these addicts!
Anyhow back home and down to my local canal to put in some more hours
finessing some of the tips I stole  off them. There is a nice wide bend
where I go and don’t get bothered with wise cracks, however, this time I
caught up.  The barges need all the bend to get round and as I was watching
one manouvering my backcast caught the front edge of one that was waiting
to come the other way! And despite using only a piece of wool seemed to
hook up! Fortunately the owner didn’t notice my predicament and to avoid
any embarassment I snapped off and slinked off home as I had no spare
material with me! Rather humbling end.

I’m off today and as the weather has been bright (although still windy) and I’ve used it to tie a few flies for my own use this season. I’m one for small stuff and don’t usually go bigger than a size 16 and enjoy tying and then fishing 20’s. Most of last season I fished with just a black klinkhammer and it worked pretty well for me and although I like the Partridge Klinkhammer Extreme hooks I find them a little large even in size 20. I was in Crediton recently and managed to bum a cup of coffee from Howard and we got talking hooks. He happened to have a new lot in from Varivas and on closer inspection I found their 2200 range. These look as they they are perfect for klinks and I took a pack of #20’s to tie a few up. They certainly look the part and don’t appear brittle despite being so fine. I will put them to the test once the weather settles.

 On that front it doesn’t look like the rivers will be in their best state on Saturday (opening day of the river fly fishing season) and there are more showers forcast. It looks like we’ll give Colliford a go and despite being very open the wind looks like a friendly 12mph compared to what we have right now!

A few flies from earlier below, the larger ones have a larger post as I tend to use them for NZ style fishing and the wee ones are on the new hooks. I describe my flies as “rustic” but they are functional and pretty quick to tie!