Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

The rain hit us pretty hard last night when we were having dinner and we had showers through the night. Being low down the system we were prepared for a change in height and clarity as the day went on.

When we got to the river though it wasn’t it too bad a shape and I had a nice short beat to myself. It gave me the chance to play a little with angles,flies and depths. I mixed flies, changed poly leaders and approached the run from a few different angles. sadly nothing connected but it wasn’t through trying and I really, really enjoyed myself. We all met up at lunch and I saw my first few moving fish of the day. This always fires you up a bit and Micheal and I were a little late for lunch as it was rude to leave the fish. I managed a good pull from one but that was it.

As the day went on the water crept up in height and carried more colour so the others got their spinning rods out. Liz managed a grilse of 4lb and had a good fish come off close in. I stuck with the fly and managed another pull but that was it. We finished a little earlier and will talk through tactics for tomorrow but sounds like weather will be OK.

As ever I am never worried about numbers of fish and enjoy the whole experience (not trying to paint a brighter picture…honest!) but the think that bothers me the most is the way I eased into eating a 3 course dinner every evening and a large fried breakfast every morning!

I got up to Aberdeen on Sunday lunchtime and Michael and I met up with my good pal Stuart for a bit of stillwater trout fishing . Stuart had sniffed out Dalgety trout fishery and we had a great time catching some really nice rainbows on dries and I was lucky enough to seem him christen his new rod!

Monday saw us on the river chasing salmon. There wasn’t a great deal going on as we started but as ever I take my barometer watch on this annual trip and it is really nice when you see it tick up while you are sitting watching one of the others fishing and shout out it has popped up a bit and lo and behold Gilbert hooked something. I was taking a breather so popped down to offer Gilbert a helping hand should he need it and just shout a bit of encouragement. He doesn’t really need it as he has caught more salmon on this fishery than most of us have had hot dinners but it is always nice to see the first fish of the trip come in. It fought hard and deep and it was a case of sitting out to a degree which is what he did and it swam off strongly when we popped it back. Michael also had a 6lber so things are starting to happen. As for me, I had a pull and a fish roll at a fly but that was it. I felt like I had covered the water and had mixed my flies so feel I couldn’t have done much more so I am pretty happy. I have a shortish beat to myself tomorrow so will give it a good go….we’ll see. Gilberts fish below…

I’m off tomorrow to go chase salmon in Scotland for a week. It would be cool if we get into some fish and hope weather is a little better than last year though. We lost three days to rain but the fish were really biting when the river got in a fishable state and if reports are to be believed the river is packed with fish right now. I plan on taking my laptop and will try and do a daily fishing report with a few photos as well.

 It means HQ will be in Mark’s capable hands as Bob is off to Denver for the tackle show to meet up with Scott, Abel, Nautilus and Clear Creek for starters!. This is probably the world’s largest event and will be where a lot of the companies will unveil new products for the 2009 season. I am sure, no, I hope, he’ll come back with some goodies for us!  Most of the movers and shakers from the tackle industry will be there and I know a lot of the big players in the UK market are heading out to take a look too. I am sure the evenings are going to be a quiet affair!!

My trip starts up in a very civilised manner when I meet up with my pal Stuart for a bit of stillwater trout fishing. We started the tradition last year and visited Mike Barrios’ excellent fishery but apparently he is fully booked so we are heading off somewhere new. Stuart is an excellent fly tyer and as I will not be taking trout gear it means I can “borrow” a few of his patterns…please remind me to give them back as the memory isn’t what it used to be!!

 I’ll report back Monday!

There is a small brook close to where I live that gives me a really good indicator as to how the Taw will be looking. I was off teaching yesterday morning and I had to pass over it. It was a raging torrent. It was the same when I went off to do an afternoon casting session. Yesterday was a ladies day. I spent the morning helping Kirsty and Helen touch up on their fly casting and we did some double hauling too. They are off bassing on Saturday and wanted to get a bit more distance. Kirsty kept us laughing with the little dance she did when getting the rhythm of hauling.

The afternoon I met up with Madeleine who is learning to spey cast. She is off to Scotland next week chasing salmon for the first time. She starts at university shortly and is a smart cookie. She quickly picked up the concept of why and when we use the different spey casts and I was soon quizing her as to what cast she might use given what bank she was on and what direction the wind is blowing in. “So, we’re on the left bank with an upstream wind what cast would you use?” straight away “single spey, right hand up…or a snap T or C!” It was seriously impressive!

Anyway, I passed over the brook on my way to taking Charlie to school. She was happy to be driven in as I had to go to Exeter to see Vodafone about my mobile. I got this new phone in April and the battery life is shocking. I don’t really use any of the applications and I get 3 days of use out of it and I turn it off at night. Now, the thing that gets me is that when I chose the phone I went for the one with the longest battery life. This one was quoted as 540 hours. Seemed perfect at the time. It has been back once and they have given me a new battery. Today I was told that although these hours are quoted the real life is infact 2 to 3 days. Apparently it is something to do with the new batteries they use. I took her over to where they displayed my model and showed her 540 hours. “well that is at optimal setting, with no phone calls and perfect signal”!

Getting back to fishing, we passed over the brook and it didn’t look too bad. Not stunning but almost fishable. When I got back I had a quick lunch and decided to have a look at the Taw. I only live a few minutes away and usually get into my waders and drive down but I didn’t fancy my chances too much but on parking, jumping out of the truck and peering over the bridge it would give me a better idea. The river was up and carrying some colour but was just about fishable. As I was there it was rude not to.

I threw on the ever present scruffy klink and stepped in. The river was carrying some colour and was up 8 to 10 inches. Throwing a fly into the main current would have been pointless so it was a case of getting into any slacker, shallower areas to see if anyone was at home. It was the case and I managed a few, nothing of any size but it was great to fish when I thought I wouldn’t be. I saw a couple of kingfishers and was a little saddened to see the first signs of trees starting to shed their leaves. For me this means that the end of the season is nearing.

One thing I have noticed this season is how often I have used just a dry when guiding and fishing myself. The last few seasons I have confidently tied on a nymph below the dry and have felt I was fishing the nymph more of the time on this set up but this year the dry has done a great job and lets face it there isn’t much more of an exciting site than seeing a fish dart from his lie to hit your fly!

Having just mentioned that autumn is on its way it was nice to see this months Total Flyfisher and an article our good friend Tim wrote about a trip we all made up to Colliford earlier in the year. It was a great afternoon/evening and I remember Mark trying to drag me off of the water when it was dark but as ever I just can’t leave rising fish!

Rivers are shot and so guiding has had to be postponed so Mark and I did some work on our lake. We have had a touch of broad leaf in there and the first signs of Canadian pondweed getting a hold so we thought we would do a little bit about it. Now, I hope you don’t expect us to do any thing remotely normal or by the book and I am pleased to inform you that this wasn’t the case!

We thought we would try to harness the super human strength that both of us pocess and keep our carbon footprint as small as possible.  We gave it some thought and decided that the best method would be to use one of our 2 man kayaks with Mark at the back and me at the front with a scythe! I had Mark constantly chirping on at me about being either Old Father Time, or worse still, the Grim Reaper. I found the best way was to sit with my legs over the side and work the scythe as close to the bottom of the lake as possible one handed which I think made Mark’s life rather difficult to control our kayak. I would have thought it looked rather comical to see me shouting ”left a bit, NO left” as Mark rolled his eyes trying to control quite an unstable platform. We managed to stay dry but I am not sure what the fish must have made of it!  We were really pleased with how it looks and rewarded ourselves with a quick casting session. 

I had a go with the scythe on the bankside vegetation too as we have a group of 12 coming up the weekend after next and I wanted to cut a  few more casting spots. It’s a lot easier on dry land! We felt very pleased with ourselves and quickly hugged a tree and felt very green!

Mark had Jim down for some fly casting tuition on Weds and it looked like he was hitting some seriously nice loops and I think Mark has infected him with the world of casting!   I am hoping to be doing some guided river fly fishing with him next week too….please stop raining!

I got a mail from Jo who seems to be nailing salmon on the Exe this year and I spoke to my friend Michael the other night who used to live right on the Torridge. The guy who bought his house is a dead keen salmon fisherman and hadn’t touched one all season until last Saturday where he had 5 and lost one he reckoned was in the high teens. It is really nice when all those hours of hard work pay off.

Below Jim Evans on Weds.

I’ve been away at the weekend. My daughter Charlie and I went and saw R.E.M at Twickenham. When we got there I wanted to show her that the old man has still got it so we headed right down the front and managed to get four rows from the front in what I believe is called the mosh pit. We had a great view of the support bands and as I looked around it appeared that there wasn’t a whole lot of people around. Twickenham is a huge venue and it looked like the headliners wouldn’t be playing to a full house. Needless to say this wasn’t the case and when R.E.M took to the stage the atmosphere was unbelieveable! They really know how to put on a show and we had a great time!

I know this doesn’t have much to do with fishing but bear with me. We took the train from Wimbledon to Twickenham and we passed over the river Wandle. I’m sure many of you know about the Wandle but in case you don’t it runs for 9 miles from the Croydon area to Wandsworth where it joins the Thames. Until the end of the 19th century it was considered one of the finest chalkstreams but with London ever expanding the river was used more and more as a dumping ground. The last recorded trout was caught in 1936 and the river was considered a sewer in the 1960’s.

In 2000 the Jet Set club was formed and the cleanup operation began with monthly cleanups which has continued and has gradually started to bring the river back to life. The work they have done is amazing and fish are starting to come back and have been caught. They have also gone into local schools and shown pupils what they are doing and what is living in their local river. As I mentioned we passed over the river and it looked it really nice and fishy. Just one day I might get up and have a good close look….

 Mark was busy looking after Joergen, Nick and Robin who were new to fly fishing. They learnt how to cast on Saturday and did some fishing on the lake and then headed off to the river on Sunday. A special mention to Graham a ,member of our team, who came down to help Mark all the way from Hertfordshire. You might think this was a selfless act of kindness, I did, until I found he was off fishing on Monday!

We’ve a busy one this week so should have lots of photos of smiling anglers!

I was due to have another day with Max today on the Teign. I passed and the river looked just peachy. I quickly bought a dat ticket and waited to meet Max. Having swapped emails I knew how keen he was to wet a line again and when he was 15 minutes late I gave him a shout. It sadly turned out that he had a minor accident in Moretonhampstead and was frantically trying to sort things out so he could still go fishing. Sadly it wasn’t the case and we have arranged to meet up in the future.

This left me at a loose end and without a rod I decided to head home, grab a rod and pop into a stretch of the Crediton Club  waters that I hadn’t really fished before but had seen the past winter when helping do some club bank work. I say help, I managed to “break” the chainsaw three times!

There wasn’t much going on but I popped on a dry and threw it in to some likely looking holes and had a few fish. Things warmed up a bit and there was a mix of stuff hatching including a couple of late mayflies.

It turned out that the river fished well and I had a phone conversation with my  pal Alison who is getting the river fly fishing bug. I had a quick sandwich and arranged to meet her on another stretch of the club’s water to see if we could catch a few. As I mentioned she is new to the river and was looking to get her name on the score board. We had been out the other evening and despite her rising a few, none stuck; including something that hit really hard and was a really, really nice fish!

The great thing about the rivers down here is the variation…well, usually it is. I had left a river that was on fire and we had started on one that was the opposite! There was little by way of hatch and very little surface activity. This didn’t dampen our spirits and as ever we had a really good laugh. Having fished small stillwaters I was so impressed with the way she has got to grips with the different challenges moving water gives us including all the nasty holes I try and get her to get the fly in!

The 3pm caddis hatch I hoped for was more of a whimper than a roar and it didn’t really get the fish going. Despite everything Alison came up with the goods….excellent work and here’s to lots, lots more!

We are just back from Amsterdam and I have a confession. We sold out, well, for the first day anyway. Doing a show we are strictly jeans and T shirt guys and if the weather is good enough it will be shorts. On this occassion we had the president of Abel coming over and we thought it best to smarten up a little bit for him. It was one of those classic moments where we met up and Don had assumed we’d be in our normal attire and so dressed in jeans and T shirt himself and came over to say “hi” Thankfully we reverted pretty quickly and the normal balance was restored!

Amsterdam is an interesting city and I think Mark would have passed out with excitement at all the canals and the pike that must live in them. We had a good time there and met up with some instructors from Europe and had a cast with a few even some from Russia. We met up with some really good contacts and generally had a blast.

We at least have some sun today which is encouraging and I hope we have more as my daughter Charlie is off to the V festival this weekend. Apparently the look is dresses and wellies if you are interested! I think Muse are headlining but it is clearly way too cool for me. Apparently anyone over 30 is too old for this sort of thing….there still life in this old dog though!

I was talking to Alison this morning and said that I had been in the office yesterday and today instead of guiding Brian on Tues and Dave today. She said that I must be sitting there with a big sullen bottom lip. She’s about right.

It seems we have really been hit hard the last few days even compared to just a bit up the line. I was hoping both days to be on the lower Tamar doing some river guiding for trout and grayling but it is still flushing through and being a bigger river will be just a bit too lively. I spoke to Dave last night and he knew it was coming and we are going to try something next week (weather permitting!) he wasn’t keen on lake fishing. I have guided him a few months back and know he is a hard core river fly fisher.

Mark takes up the tuition with Ollie on Thurs, a group on Fri and Richard and Kate on Saturday while Bob and I are away in Amsterdam at a show. It should be real fun and it is a big moment for our little company and if it comes off will be really exciting!

I had a fish with Toby on the Taw Monday night and it wasn’t as good as the weekend but he managed an 11inch brown which gave him a really good pull. We shared a rod and took it in turns while we chewed the fat and talked about everything and nothing. Thats what it is all about!

We had a nice message from David and Caroline who spent a day with Bob and I.

Dear Bob,

 we both wanted to let you and Pete know how much we enjoyed our time on the Tamar with you. Thankyou both very much for your time and patience with two novice salmon fishermen. We really loved it. We are both very keen to come back again and would like to try and book a day with you again this season if possible and to also do some river trout fishing with Pete.

With all very best wishes to you and Pete

 David and Caroline

The CLA was awesome. Good weather, good friends and good fun. It was great to see so many people drop in and see us and see friends both old and new. We were blown away by the support for what we are trying to do in fly fishing and people really liked that we are trying to be different rather than following the crowd with brands X,Y and Z. We were paid a really nice compliment by a guy who works for Microsoft and said that what we are doing reminded him of the early days of the company. I guess instead of being computer nerds we are fishing geeks!

We also had some of our new Pro Staff drop by and it was great to have a cast with them and to hang out for some drinks and food at the end of the day. We were so rushed off of our feet on Saturday that Jim and Bob even gave us a hand. It’s sort of like that here, we all muck in. Thanks fellas!

The evenings were real fun as we broke out the rods and talked fishing and had a cast. It was cool that all of the AAPGAI guys met up and had a cast. No one hid away and as all became quiet at the show we all drifted down to the casting area to throw some loops. I am so proud to be part of this organisation and the people in it are such top guys. Mark as ever was out throwing until the early hours but was still up and ready to go after a couple of hours sleep.

It was the first time we camped at the show and it worked really well. Bob’s wife Mel looked after us way beyond the call of duty and the barbie was nearly always lit but she even managed a spag bol for dinner on Sat night. We had a tent parked out back that had a couple of bedrooms. Bob and Mel had one room and Illtyd had the other with me in the cooking area. In our main tent we had Mark, Jax, Karl and Lee with Jim and Tony pitched next to our tent.

The thing that made be laugh the most was that Illtyd would disappear to the Fishing Wales tent to have a few drinks and to converse in his native tongue and then come back in the early hours a little the worse for wear. He managed to do all of this without making a sound or tripping up. I put this down to the fact that he is probably one of the finest sea trouters around and as a result spends most of this time of year in the dark and so has no problems seeing in the dark. Seriously though we are all light weight sea trouters when it comes down to Illtyd! He is coming down for our sea trout course and I am helping and can’t wait to learn from the maestro to see how a professional like him does it!

Mark has thrown up a new blog about some fishing at Chew and some interesting and as ever amusing insights into fly fishing for pike.

I have popped a pic below of some of the lads (Jim,Mark,Jim,Paul,Bob,Brett,Clive) at the end of the day ahead of some serious casting. For me it just sums it all up…a great bunch of blokes!