Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

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!!

I am exepcting a “no photos or autographs” form Mark this morning as he turns up today before he is out teaching. This is because he featured on the local TV news the other night and was shown teaching a lady how to roll cast for the cameras for the very worthy Casting for Recovery weekend that has just taken place.

Mark has written a blog about the day which will go up shortly but I know he and Jax thoroughly enjoyed it. Casting For Recovery is a charity for women recovering from breast cancer where they have the opportunity to meet others who have been through the same as themselves. Part of the weekend, among many other things, is the opportunity to learn to fly fish. The reson for this is that  the gentle excersise of casting is perfect for joint and soft tissue mobility during the recovery process. It sounds as though the weekend was a great success and as ever the ladies showed that you don’t need muscle to propel your fly to the horizon!

It was great to get calls from fellow anglers yesterday saying they were catching off of the top yesterday which hopefully is a good sign but lets hope the weather holds.

Well that has been a busy week but not busy enough that Mark and I managed to sneak off for a quick afternoons fishing on Tuesday. There is a great atmosphere down here at the moment helped even more by the fly fishing waifs and strays (meant endearingly guys!) who have popped in for a cuppa and a hob nob this week. Although it has been a manically busy we love that it is becoming a hang out for fishermen where we can have a breather and swap fishing stories with friends.  Paul popped in yesterday and I love our chats. He is so enthusiastic about fishing all the oppurtunities it can bring. He is now a river convert and is also relishing the challenges of the bigger waters and putting them into practice with great effect. It is great seeing anglers make a new step on the angling ladder and I suspect Paul has a few more that he wants reach!

Double handers are the new black if this week is anything to go by. I have been taking rather a lot of bookings for double handed tuition and so Bob has a busy spell coming up! This has left me holding the fort and Mark taking a chunk of the single handed stuff and thankfully despite the wind our lake is in a sheltered position so that casting is always possible.

We were really excited to see that Devon Life published an article about a day they spent with us. The really cool thing was that they got what we were all about and really enjoyed our approach to life and fishing. It is the current April edition and hopefully you will find it interesting reading. I have scanned a copy and will try to post up but due to my lack of computer skills it might take some time but if you can’t wait mail me and I’ll send a copy!

Above is a pic of Mark from earlier in the week with George…note Marks fancy footwork!!

I don’t know if you are the same but when the weather has been iffy you sort of sit there and think shall I or shan’t I go, decide not to and then pace around for a bit and think sod it I’ll give it a go. There is no worse a feeling than getting to the river and seeing it worse than you thought but  also no better feeling when you peer over the bridge and it looks much better than you expected. It is often days like that when I fish out of my skin and have one of those real special days.

I am lucky that I have a brook a few minutes away from me that is us that is a really good indicator of the state of the main river and my beloved river Taw is just 5 minutes drive away. I find this the fastest clearing of the nearby rivers so I always head here if the weather has been unsettled. If I am guiding and the weather has been poor I often will drive down for a look the day before just to give me an idea of how things will look.I know everyone doesn’t have a nearby river so if you are heading down here for some fishing and you’re a little unsure of how the rivers are then take a look at this link as it will give you a little clue. It is a webcam on the Exe that gives you clarity and height shots.Enjoy!

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.

So it looks like the grand plan for a day on the river with dry flies and rising fish has been blown right out of the window! The rivers are up and in the fields and the colour of chocolate and it has been pouring this morning. The great thing about fly fishing in Devon is that we have so many other opportunities if the rivers are blown. I have been giving it some thought and reckon we will head for Colliford. Colliford is one of the 13 lakes that comes under South West Lakes Trusts management. It is also the biggest at 911 acres and a really cool place for travelling light with just a box of flies and a sandwich. It is a brown trout fishery and the tactic is to keep mobile and don’t worry about huge long casts. I usually fish there with a 5 or 6 wt rod. There is also a few very large carp that you might also encounter and with the water being clear a well presented bloodworm or buzzer might just give you a bit of a surprise!

Bob and Jax were out doing some stuff with the website yesterday leaving myself and Mark at HQ. Luckily there were a few burgers left over from Saturday so we thought it was only right we had a barbie. We did get a few funny comments from passing people as we were busily trying to keep the barbie upright in such high winds but they still tasted pretty good!