Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

I’m back from a couple of weeks in Tanzania. Now, I love my fishing holidays (I have a few booked for later in the year to offset the lack of fishing on this one!) but this was truely amazing.

Being just 6 feet away from a pride of lions is something I will never forget or seeing a pack of hyenas leaving for an evenings hunt was a magical sight. The tents we stayed in were not fenced off so it was not unusual to be awoken by a munching sound just outside . We would creep out of bed and see a huge eye of an elephant, hipo or giraffe just a few feet away from where we stood. The highlight for me was the walking drive where we saw plenty of animals but also the tracks  of animals and signs of a hunt. This was the only time our guide carried a gun and I assumed it was incase of an angry lion, leopard or hipo but it was in fact for water buffalo. Apparently they are the most unpredictable of anything you are likely to encounter. I have some photos and will pop them up shortly but some of the things we saw I will never forget.

So what does this have to do with fly fishing in Devon? I guess not a lot but I have to say how impressed I was with the guides and how they worked as a team. Although there were not many lodges near us when someone had spotted something they would pass on the information and I thought this was pretty neat. They also had a few tricks up their sleeves that made the day even more special and I have to admit I nicked a couple!

There was some beach holiday too and luckily I packed an 8wt and some clousers and spent some fun time catching jacks and small cuda. It was fun figuring out the fish and where they were and I was a little surprised to see that they didn’t want a frantic retrieve but a nice steady pull. Like everyone in Tanzania they seem to be pretty relaxed!

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’m not trying to get all mushy or sentimental here but there are moments when you look back that are milestones or landmarks that somehow shape your life and help point you in the direction that your heart is telling you to go.

In this case it is books. Usually I am out on the water in some way but I do like to sit down and read a book. Hardly surprisingly they are usually fishing related. I do own a fair few fishing books but most are “about” fly fishing rather than “how to” fly fish. There is never substitution for being out there and learning!

The first is Trout Bum by John Gierach. The stories are fantastic and are not about how many caught but about enjoying the company of friends and life in general. I love the speed and pace of John’s life and especially reading about the trips and characters that he spends time on the water with. I have tried to apply a little of his philosophies to my life and they fit in pretty well. I have also been lucky to fish on quite a few of the rivers that he has fished including his home water the St Vrain in Lyons. Even luckier I have met and fished with some of his buddies from the books and although he was out of town when I was over I got a good feel of what the place was about. One of the highlights for me was having breakfast in Lyons where I have read he likes to eat. The waitress on hearing a strange accent got talking to Ray and I and we told her we were over for the fishing. She said had we met “John the fisherman”? We said we heard he was out of town but I kind of liked it as I am known as Pete the fisherman in my little village!

 The other book is the Pursuit of Wild Trout by Mike Weaver. I remember this book turning up from Coch Y Bondhu books and as ever it was beautifully packaged in brown paper. I devoured the book from cover to cover and I knew Devon was where I wanted to head due to the wealth of wild trout fishing that is available down here. I am not sure that I have ever admitted this to Emma but I did have maps out when we were house hunting looking for the best spot that would allow easy access to rivers from both of the Moors! I have also had the pleasure of fishing with Mike and was out with him on the Taw on Thursday and always enjoy watching the maestro in action.

I never tire of both of these books and have read both on many occassions and always pick up a new nugget that helps my fishing or just life in general.

Pic below of Mark and David who is a newcomer to fly fishing but will no doubt be doing a whole lot more in the future!

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!

Now, it is admission time, I’m not too bad with a fly rod but a video camera is another matter! Mark and I popped up to the Moors last week and did a spot of fly fishing with 2 and 3 wt rods and small dry flies. The fishing was good and we did our best to capture it on video so click here for a peek. It is a bit rough and ready but I sort of like it that way rather than a polished Ridley Scott version…perhaps that’s just an excuse. Hope you enjoy it and as ever we are trying to be a little bit different….hope you enjoy!

 Bob hosted his salmon course and it went down really well which was also aided by a 12lber! He promised he took his camera so hopefully some pics up soon. The team seem to be doing really well on the bit we guide on the Tamar with Champo having a customer returning a good 14lber and a few 2 1/2lb sea trout last week. I am guiding on there with Richard for trout on Weds weather permitting…

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.