Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

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!

I was supposed to be on the Taw today but alas the rain has meant that I have a day off. Mike popped in yesterday as he was interested in one of our rods (it turned out 2!) and it turned out during the phone conversation that we had met before and had done some fly casting together previously. He is really keen and asked me what time I get to work. When I said to him 7.30am he said he see me then! Thats the sort of talk I like and we were down on the lake chucking a few lines before even our trout in the lake had woken up!

Coming from Cornwall he is into throwing flies for salty stuff and as a result is very interested in distance casting. We messed around with different line and rod combos and had a really good time. Below is a shot of Mike throwing a long one!

Bob was teaching on the Dart yesterday on a piece of water he hadn’t seen before. He was rather taken by it!

He had a nice message from Sean who was one of the people on his course last Saturday and a really nice call from Ian who was also there..

Hi Bob

just to say thanks again for a great day on Saturday-learnt some new things and plenty of ideas to work on. Managed 3 sea trout after you left- biggest just over 2lb. Will definitely be down again!

Regards

Sean

Video links

Pete and Mark on the Dart

James fishing

Hope you enjoy!

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.

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.

Saturday was great weather and I was lucky enough to be on the water in Wiltshire doing a demo and some fly casting tuition for members of a club I belong to. We covered lots and I hope that it went down well. The guys were all good anglers and just wanted a few tricks to make the day on the water a little easier. We covered presentation casts to ensure a good long drag free drift and also how to deal with the wind in different situations along with a few other casts.

Ray came and gave me a hand and it was really cool working with him, he did an awesome job!

So it gets to 5pm and its a long drive home, what do you do? Yup, go fishing! It is much nicer having the A303 to yourself so a later leaving time is much better. Ray has found a superb Chinese take away so we sat on the tail gate of my truck and munched a most excellent MSG free noodles and chicken and then hit the river.

We thought it would be nice to fish dries and we’d seen fish gulping LDO’s throughout the day and with the wind dropping we thought we were in with a chance. We did OK too and had some fish. When Ray and I fish together it is a case (if the fishing is good) of having one and the other person has a go. There was a short spell where Ray was re tying on a fly and I had moved upstream just enough that he could make a few casts and pick up a couple of fish I had left for him!!

The highlight was a fish that we couldn’t really work out. We had been fishing through a caddis hatch but this boy was on something different and despite throwing a few flies at him he didn’t want to take. I had foolishly left my phone on and Mark had called to see how we had got on. I was telling him about this fish and hadn’t noticed Ray sneak on a size 22 unweighted pheasant tail nymph. It did the job but as I said to Mark it must have been a hollow victory as he had broken our dry only rule for the night. Mark thought it was a bit like foul hooking a fish!!. I laughed but big respect to Ray for being flexible and sussing things out.

Apparently my pics of Natasha and Wendy didn’t show up so lets try again…

Bob is away from today for a couple of weeks and not withstanding the thought of him sunning himself in his Speedos Mark and I had Sunday off as he did the teaching honours so we could do some fly fishing.

 We are building a few new river venues up as we think it is nice to offer different options rather than the same old same old, its not so much fun when you know the names of the fish! The little gem we have found flows into the Tamar but clears really quickly as it is high and straight off of the Moors and so is handy if we do have a wet one. It is a really pretty little stretch and one for the small stream fan and is just 10mins away from SFFS mission control. I might give it a shot Weds if the weather stays the same as I am out guiding.

Whilst on that it reminds me of a joke about a fishing guide who dies and wakes up on a riverbank with his client waiting to go fishing. He has a perfect day picking the right fly, spotting the fish and the client fishes perfectly and doesn’t miss a fish. The day ends with a very happy guide. Next morning the guide wakes up at the same beat, same client, same conditions. The client starts fishing and everything is exactly the same and at the end of the day everything has happened as the day before, even the conversation. The same happens for the next few days. Frustrated and at the end of the 12th day of exactly the same the guide turns to the client and says “hey, I thought this was supposed to be heaven” the client flashes him an evil smile and said “who said anything about heaven? welcome to eternity!”

When a little bit of sun creeps through and things warm up the Large Dark Olives are looking to hatch and we have also seen the odd hawthorn. If the winds are right look for places like Colliford and Roadford for spectacular brown trout fishing with hawthorn flies. There is nothing like seeing a fit 2lb wild brown hit your offering and head off for deep water!

I was due to teach Luke today but as I have not met him before and he is 11 I agreed with his dad, Simon, that we would play the weather by ear as we were both keen that Luke didn’t get cold. I got to SFFS Mission Control early as I had a load of emails to sift through but the signs were ominous. Driving down the A30 I had seen cars coming up covered in about an inch of snow. I was getting the rods ready to strap to the truck and the phone went. Simon had rightly decided to postpone til midweek. The snow was falling heavily and it was cold so it was the right thing to do. Mark was up at our Yak Shack at Roadford so I decided to pop in and see him have a cuppa. The watersports guys were having a snowball fight and you could barely see the water from the Shack. The snow was starting to settle but the showers were not long enough for it to get a hold. I hung with Mark for a bit and decided to head home. Now as any Trout Bum will tell you what do you do when you suddenly find you have a day off?  Thats right, head for the river!

I had to pop in to pick up waders and said hi to the girls. Emma said she has seen swallows…perhaps they have been a little previous?!

I headed for my beloved Taw. I belong to a couple of clubs that have fishing there and headed for one of my favourite stretches. It was a little chilly but I rigged up my 2wt with the ever present black klinkie that had worked so well for Jim on Friday and I also tied on a green tungsten bead head nymph NZ style about 3 ft from the dry. I am sure heavy stuff hi sticked through the deeper pools might have been an option but the upper reaches of the Taw are pretty small and confined and bar a few holes the water is pretty shallow. Hi sticking is great in a lot of circumstances but when I have a day off I like to cast my flies rather than lob them!

I know it was cold when I started as I lost feeling in my left hand pretty quickly but carried on. I had a few small fish and decided to carry on up the river. There is a really nice bend that for some reason I don’t have the sort of success that such a fishy looking hole should offer but I threw my rig in there and missed a fish, cursed and then stepped up again. Early season is great as the over hanging branches are thin and not as heavy as summer time so its perfect for those tight in, right up against the bank casts. Well, I guess I was lucky this time and my dry dipped under and I felt a nice fish on. It was a good fish, my rod has measuring marks on it (to keep me honest!) and a quick check showed 12 inches. I was really pleased.

 I carried on up and had a few more fish, I had been fishing an hour and a half and the thought of a cup of tea became appealing. I went back to my truck and still in my waders hopped in a headed out the back way. A few minutes later I came out by Taw bridge which has a parking spot for the other club I belong to. I couldn’t see the parking space but decided if it were clear and no one else was fishing there it was a sign and I should have a fish.

It was empty so I parked up and decided to go upstream of the bridge with the same set up (I hadn’t broken my rod down)  I started at a pool that is reasonably deep but nice and slow and I have had some nice fish from in the past. Third cast and a plucky little 7 incher took the nymph. I carried on around the corner and up to the next corner. The weather had got worse and the temperature had dropped a little. The snow had got pretty heavy and I was thinking of what it must be like being a steelhead fisherman. These guys are often out in horrific conditions chasing sea run rainbows. It is often said steelheading is more of a religion than a pastime. It sort of reminds me of sea trout fishing and some of the guys who live nocturnal lives when the fishing is hot.

So, I’m standing there casting and thinking about the weather and something really nice has a go at my dry. I’m not sure who jumped the most but I missed it.I think I was just surprised something came for the dry in such awful conditions. Why is it that as fishermen, I see this a lot when guiding, that when we miss or lose a fish that we straight away fire a cast to the area where we just lost the fish. I did just the same, perhaps it is a vain hope that the escaping fish will give us another chance to catch him?!

The snow eased and although the fishing didn’t improve for a bit things warmed up. There were some small trickle hatches, I saw one LDO and some really small stuff and on the last bend it was a treat to see a few rising fish. I managed one of them and it spooked the other so I cut my flies off and headed home.

I was guiding Jim yesterday. Jim is from just up the M5 and has fly fished rivers just a couple of times but has done a fair bit of stillwater stuff and wants to tackle rivers more seriously this year. We spent some time on river fly fishing casts and then it was off to put it into practice.

 The day before had been glorious. We had our first barbie of the season at home (plenty already at Scott Fly fishing School HQ or as we now call it the Command Module!) and it felt pretty good to be working outside. Tomorrow is always another day but yesterday was  infact a lot different. There was light rain, cloud and it was certainly a lot cooler.

The river though was pretty low and crystal clear but there was no sign of any hatch when we got into the river. The setup was the ever faithful black klinkie and a small nymph tied on NZ style. I set the dropper at a couple of feet and we kicked off. It was cool to see on the 2nd cast the dry dip under and a fish on. A small fish of about 5 inches but welcome none the less. We carried on upstream but things were quieter. We concentrated on the tails of pools and slightly slacker water as early season these tend to be good holding areas but as the season progresses and things warm up then it is the heads and faster runs of pools that I like to spend more time on. This strategy didn’t appear to work but a half hearted strike at the dry got me thinking that perhaps with the water low and clear that if we made it worthwhile for a fish to have a look at our dry then we might have a plan. I will usually use a size 16 or 18 klinkie but I tied on a 14, tied on lightweight shrimp hook, still black, and Jim threw it out. I wouldn’t say the fishing was electric but we did pretty well and caught more than our fair share (nicest fish of 9 inches) and the dry outfished the nymph easily when the textbook might say something else. There is something special about seeing a fish taking a fly off of the surface and encapsulates for me what fly fishing is all about- the art of deception. We ended up staying until after 7 as the fish really came on and as I said to Jim “do you want to leave biting fish?”!!

 After yesterdays blog my copy of Total Flyfisher came through and the fish off between Mark and Jax is in there. It is a good read and very amusing.

 I’m hoping the weather stays as it is today (fingers crossed) as I am teaching 11 year old Luke who sounds like he is a mad keen fly fisher in the making. We’ll be on our lake and hopefully the fish will be biting!

More settled weather and the rivers will be coming to life. Don’t forget we have a variety of private river beats of trout fishing throughout Devon and Cornwall that are lightly fished and are full of hungry wild trout. So if you fancy something a little different drop us a line but be quick, the diaries are getting full!!