Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

I’m ill. I’m convinced it is the flu but it is probably a cold or a virus of some sort. I have been sitting feeling sorry for myself and haven’t been out fishing or casting. I am hoping it clears before the weekend as we have the CLA Game Fair looming large. We are all really excited about it and and have a large team going and have arranged some big nights with lots of friends who will also be sharing the team W & S tent with us. Mark said to me today that we are a bunch who seem to attract the fly fishing waifs and strays and I kind of like that. It is the sort of company I like and it is the sort of company I keep. We’re mainly there supporting our dealers and so our stand will be a relaxed, casual sort of affair where you will be most welcome to pop in and see us and have a drink or two, talk about fishing and perhaps a cast as well.

Before my horrific illness I mentioned a bit about Saturday and will rewind a bit more to Friday. I was lucky enough to be on the river with Bob as we took David and Caroline out for their first salmon fishing trip with double handed rods. They have both done plenty of trout stuff and picked up the double handed rods with ease aided with Bobs excellent tuition. The beat we fished is stunning and we were able to drive along it, fish the pools and then jump in the truck off to the next pool. With 2 miles of water to choose from we were able to cover some water.

We saw a few salmon moving but sadly didn’t connect. Caroline had a really good pull late on and David had a sea trout come off and landed a rather nice 3 lber. It was a great day and thoroughly enjoyable.

 I am on the river with Richard tomorrow. He is a stillwater angler looking to become a river fly fisherman.

I can’t believe where this week has gone, it seems to have gone in a flash much like this year!

Sunday I was fishing with my good friend and fellow instructor at SFFS Gary Champion. He was up doing some stuff on a very exclusive beat of the Test and we had arranged a days fishing on the chalkstream I fish the day before. We hit the river like excited school boys and were soon into some fish. It was a really nice way to fish as we pretty much shared a rod and took it in turns to have a go at the trout and also a few grayling. There were still quite a few mayfly about but not enough to interest the fish. It amazes me that they get so locked on to a food item but then lose interest as the hatches lessen despite the food source still being available in plentiful numbers. I have been there in the past and seen the odd mayfly around in November!

We really covered some water and did a pretty good job. We managed lunch at 2.30 and then fished until 7.30 where Champo got out his stove, put it on the tailgate of my truck and cooked some venison steak rolls. This set us up really well for the evening and what an evening it was! About 8 we saw the start of what turned out to be the mother of all Blue Winged Olive hatches. Champo said he had never seen anything like it and compared it to a swarm of midges. It didn’t take long for the fish to zero in on the flies and the river came alive. I wish I had a photo but the fishing was just too good! The interesting thing was that Champo is an amazing fly tyer and had what looked like a perfect copy of a BWO. We saw a few refusals to it but nothing hit. As we were taking it in turns Champo offered me a chance to have a throw. I had a fly on that I have used a fair bit this year. It is basically a really roughed up klinkhammer and the name we gave it I can’t print but the name fits the way it looks! I cast my fly and it was hit straight off. I quickly had another and gave Champo one. We didn’t look back and lasted until 10.30 where we pretty much had to feel our way back to my truck. It was awesome!

Next day I was out with Graham and again the fishing was good but not quite as spectacular. He managed some really nice fish and although we had an alfresco Chinese on the riverbank the evening didn’t really come to anything. I think the evening before the sun had just broken through and kept the evening just that little bit warmer.

Wednesday I was doing some casting with Mary from Bristol. She pops over to Ireland for some fishing and is really into her Speycasting. She is the queen of the snap T! In the evening I met up with Alison and we went onto the Taw. I have to be honest and say the fishing sucked but the company more than made up for it. We had a real laugh and she is a real star. When we got there, there were a few sedge on the water but it never really got going. The breeze cooled things off just a bit too much. It did stop us finishing at 10 though…I don’t ever want to hear anyone say women aren’t as hard core as men when it comes to fly fishing!

Today I have been doing some casting with Paul. He is making his first bone fishing trip this year and wanted to throw some 8 and 9 wt rods. He had bought a 9wt from Howard and we strung it up. The thing just flew and we were trying various combinations of rods and lines. It was the best I have ever seen Paul cast and the bones better watch out! He was hitting some nice distance but in a controlled and smooth fashion. I really liked the way he was using drift to cushion the tip on his back cast and to lengthen his stroke. This was with him nursing a nasty cold and a bad back I hate to think how well he’ll do when he is feeling 100%.

On Friday Bob and I are guiding for salmon. Given the conditions and a bit of luck you never know! I love it when I get to work with Bob. I learn so much from him. He has been guiding and teaching here for 18 years and knows just about every spot and habit of the river and the fish in there. Its worth it just to watch him casting! 

I am out on Saturday with Greg to fishing who sounds like he is keen to learn as much as possible about stillwater fly fishing so I am really looking forward to it. I am going to head for somewhere he will learn lots and enjoy the scenery. I’ll get some pics and put them up on Monday.

We have had some nice comments from happy customers…

Bob, you gave me a top lesson a few weeks ago. The phrase “old dog, new tricks” was never far from my mind. However, having just returned from the Spey I’m delighted to tell you that I managed to get the line to sing out rather nicely. The score was 2 sea trout and 1 salmon (8 1/2 lbs) so I must have been doing something right- testament to your excellent tuition.

M Cooper

Pete, I’d just like to say what a magnificent day I had in the company of Mark. He obviously has the patience of a saint. I certainly gained so much in confidence that I am out every other night practicing the various casts on the lawn.

A fabulous day, good weather, good company and good fishing.

D Coeshall

The snap T queen in action!

As I think I mentioned the other day we have a busy week with fly fishing tuition and Mark and I were just putting some finishing touches to our lake yesterday. We cut a little of the banks and took some weed out. Its funny though as we were chatting away like a pair of old women about fishing. I happened to mention that I had my rod in the back of the truck and I hadn’t tried the new line I had for it. That was like red rag to a bull to Mark. We had worked hard for a couple of hours and he was itching for a cast. We quickly finished up and got the rod out of my truck. Just as we were setting up Bob pulled up. It must have been one of the priceless moments as it must have looked as if we had been there “playing” for ages instead of toiling!

Bob hopped out of his truck and walked over “is that the new line?” he asks “yup” “lets have a cast then” and off we went. It was supposed to be a quick throw before we went home but we ended up casting and catching a few fish too. I was amazed to see how well some of the browns are doing. There is a real healthy larder for them and it looks like they are taking advantage of it.

 Its still a bit over cast and we had some heavy showers last night but the weather isn’t as omminous as it has looked of late so fingers crossed. The Tamar is still nasty height wise but is starting to lose some of its colour. We could be game on next week for some migratory fishing. I spoke to Karl last night and he is itching to come down and catch a few.

I have tomorrow off and I am heading up to fish some chalk with Champo. The river we are fishing does tend to rise and get some colour but appears to be in good shape so we have decided to start with a dry fly only and see how it goes. I’m told there are some odd mays around so I have tied some up to see if I can drag a few up to have a look. I’m really looking forward to it and will post some photos if we are lucky. We plan to fish hard and late and we’ll have the ever popular tailgate chinese afterwards.

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.