Devon School of Fly Fishing Team blog

I met up with Toby today and he very kindly took me on to his local river, the Tone, to see if we could catch a grayling or two. I haven’t fished the Tone before and it is always nice to go and fish somewhere new. I met up with Tobe and we hopped into his car and headed off for a few of his favourite fly fishing holes. The day got off to a good start as I popped on my waders and felt something sharp on the bottom of my foot. It turned out to be a reel that  thought I had lost on the NZ trip. The reel means a lot to me and has a great deal of sentimental value and I was over the moon to find it. We wet waded a lot of the time we were in NZ so I didn’t wear my waders much but thought I’d left the reel by the car when Ray and I were supposed to be going to the airport but had found a nice river on the way. We just had to fish it and ended up being late so we got ready in a rush and I thought I’d left it behind.

 It was a really good start to the day!

We decided to just share a rod and chat and fish together. This is a really nice way to fish and being the gentleman he is Toby showed me down to where we were going to fish and thrust the rod in  my hand. We tied on my ever faithful scruffy klink and hung one of Tobys Gold Ribbed Hares Ear on with a 3 foot dropper. It didn’t take long to find a hungry fish and I struck and had my first ever fish from the Tone on the end of my line.

We found a few more from the hole and fished just a little further and jumped back into the car as Toby was keen to show me as much as possible of a river that he clearly loves. I think I have talked about it before on the blog but there is nothing nicer than showing a friend your “home” water. It is even nicer when it throws out a few fish too!

Just after lunch we headed to a new location and a favourite spot of Tobys.  The plan was to head down stream and work our way back up. I was due up next so had the rod and while I was planning my attack on the grayling Toby’s eagle eyes had spotted a lone rise. We decided it would be best to try and cover a riser as hatches at this time of the year will not last long. We hopped in downstream but before getting into position Toby suggested I threw a cast just a short distance in front of me. Do you know what? He was right. Actually it was more than once but it meant Toby was to cover the riser. It took one cast and the fish took the scruffy klink without hesitation. It turned out to be an out of season brownie which quickly went back. I was really pleased to see the grayling liked it too. I have also kept on to Tobe about it and I hope he has been convinced of its ability to tempt even the most wary of fish to come up and take a look at it.

 It was a great day and a really, really nice river. We both had plenty of fish and despite this I had one of those days where I felt I hadn’t fished very well, I’d caught and not missed many but it didn’t feel as though I was firing on all cylinders. I’m still nursing the lurgy I brought back from NZ and should probably have been in bed but laying in bed feeling sorry for yourself or spending a day on the river fly fishing with a mate isn’t really a tough one!

I had a great time last night with the Kennick Fly Fishing Club. I was invited along to give a talk and was made really welcome by a great bunch of guys. Nobody yawned or fell asleep so hopefully it went down well!

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I was talking to my good pal and fishing buddy Toby about a grayling trip on Friday and we got talking about opening day and what he would be doing. He has even jotted a few words down about his plans which I hope you’ll enjoy!

Over to you fella….

SPRINGTIME

I love this time of year. The cold days of winter are subsiding and the nights are getting 
shorter, Spring flowers are starting to peep through with snowdrops 
and daffodils dancing in the wind. Birds are becoming more active and daytime temperatures are starting 
to   rise but the main reason I love this time of year is the 
anticipation of the new fishing season.

Traditionally for me the start of my reservoir season happens on Chew 
Valley with a bunch of guys from the complete fisher forum meeting up 
very early on open day on the bank like excited school children 
talking about the day ahead.

Now for anyone who knows me I am a bit of a tackle tart and usually I 
have a new piece of tackle or two floating around to test out on open 
day.

This year is no different !

Yesterday I was playing around with my new toy; a Scott S4 9ft 6″ 7# 
and I must say what a nice rod it is.

Casting with a SA GPX 7# line the rod and line worked in great harmony 
and I can’t wait to give it a proper thrashing on the 16th March.

Now anyone who fishes Chew will know that there are quite a few pike 
in the lake and when fishing deep as you often have to on open day, you 
invariably hook a pike or two on your trout flies.
Well I have a cunning plan.
I will also have set up a pike fly fishing outfit ready to out smart 
out toothy friend.

For fishing off the bank this season I will be using a St Croix Legend 
Elite rod  in a 8# matched with a very special reel a Abel Super 8 in 
Pike graphic.

The great thing with the rod is its got so much power to play the pike 
quickly but its so smooth and really helps cast the big flies you need 
to use for catching our toothy friends.

So roll on 16th of march I’m ready and waiting.

In between now and then I plan to get out on the rivers a couple of 
times after grayling before the season closes for them and am looking 
forward to going out Friday on my local river, The Tone.

I helped bank clearing last weekend on one of my favourite beats of 
the Taunton Fly Fishing Club waters and the river should be in fine fettle for Friday so I 
can’t wait.

Edit – me neither and by the way,yes, you are a tackle tart!- Pete

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

If you are a dedicated fly fisher, it is closed season and you have tied up all the flies that you need then the next best thing is to sit down with a book and read about someone else going fly fishing. I own plenty of “how to” books but personally I find reading about other peoples fly fishing experiences the next best thing to being there myself. I went and had a look at the large collection of books I own and thought which ones would I take with me if I had to spend a long time away from fishing and couldn’t go myself. They are in no particular order and are a few that if you haven’t already read might be of interest.

Wisdom of the Guides- Paul Arnold talks to a number guides based out in the Rocky Mountains about how they approach fly fishing.

Knee Deep In Montana’s Trout Streams- John Holt takes us to some of his favourite fly fishing holes in Montana. V witty.

Hooked- Fly Fishing Through Russia- Fen Montaigne travels Russia with a fly rod. Not just about fishing but also how tough life can be out there.

Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict- Nick Lyons in his usual amusing style covers many fly fishing topics including fishing chalkstreams.

Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis- Howell Raines uses fly fishing as a metaphor for his life and growing older.

The Earth is Enough-  12 year old Harry Middleton moves in with his grandfather and uncle and learns about life and fly fishing.

Chalkstream Chronicle- Neil Patterson uproots from London and moves to his dream house on a chalkstream.

Splitting Cane- Ed Engle speaks to 16 bamboo rod makers about the hows and whys of rod making.

Cast Again- Jennifer Olsson, Montana guide, recounts days on the river. Shes a college buddy of The Dude too.

Pursuit of Wild Trout- Mike Weaver covers fly fishing in Devon along with a few of his favourite destinantions.

Trout Bum- The first book by John Gierach and his best.

Hope you enjoy!

Pete Tyjas

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I met up with Mark, a pal from Plymouth for a bit of a pre season warm up. We just played around with some different line and rod combos and tinkered with some speys and as ever talked fishing. We were right beside the river and it was really nice just seeing everything come to life. After the lone large dark olive of yesterday it was nice to see a really healthy hatch get going. I wonder if the guy from yesterday managed to hang in there for todays action!

Try as we might though we didn’t see a lot of interest from the fish despite having a good walk along the river. We were walking downstream and I suspect this didn’t help our chances a great deal  although this is the first settled, slightly warmer weather we have had of late and it will probably take a little more of this to get them thinking about looking up a bit more. On the chalkstreams hatches of LDO’s have been a feature since Jan and the grayling and a few out of season browns have been paying more attention. I have to admit to having caught a few out of season browns but it has not been a function of targetting them just that they have put spawning behind them and are right back on the food again. All of them have been in great shape and have been fighting fit.

  As you can see from the photo on the left  it looked a wonderful spring day and while I am sitting writing this I can  feel just a tinge of where the sun has caught my face or perhaps this is wishful thinking. It certainly makes you feel a lot better! On this subject it reminded me of a corporate day Mark and I did in January this year. It was for a large company and the idea was that they would split into 3 teams, some of them would do indoor tasks and the others would do outdoor tasks. The outdoor ones consisted of sailing, rafting and fly fishing. As there was a competitive element to things I thought it would be an idea to teach the basic overhead cast with a shoot of line and then have time period to hit selected targets. As I had a load of caps we placed them down and gave each team a set time to hit as many as possible. It seemed to go down pretty well and we got some great feedback from people who had previously thought fly fishing was boring. Anyway we did the day on the 15th of Jan and I can assure you it wasn’t a nice day. There was that nasty persistent  rain and a bit of a breeze too. Thankfully we were wrapped up well but I can say the same for the guy trying rafting who placed one foot on the raft and the other on the pontoon and stood there as the raft drifted away. I didn’t get to see this happen but I did see a completely drenched soul who asked if this was the place for fly fishing. Depsite me assuring him he would get more than just a bit cold he was determined to start but there was no way I was going to teach him in that state! Ieventually took him inside as he at last realised it probably wasn’t a good idea.

It was great to see Mark and as ever he was a gentleman and turned up with my first packet of Hob Nobs for the season!

I have, in the past, written a blog about the sort of food you need for a good fishing trip. It is easy to make up a story giving you an impression about how we live our lives and the sorts of people we are but sadly I have nowhere to hide with this one!   Ray (The Dude) has written it as it is and how we survived in NZ, I know if my wife, Emma, is reading it could mean a week of salads…man, I’m not sure I’ll cope with that and if I were the Dude I’d be hiding this from his girlfriend too!

Over to you Dude…

  Whenever Pete and I go fishing together, we eat bad food.  We rationalize that taking lunch and dinner with us to the river maximizes fishing time – which it does – but most of the stuff we eat is pretty bad.

Well, the season isn’t that far off now, can you feel the anticipation? I can. I was walking the dog down by the river today and it looked really peachy. I even saw, what looked like from a distance, a Large Dark Olive take to the sky. He looked like he was alone and as I stood and watched for a few minutes it looked like it was the case. I have been on rivers in Novemeber fishing for grayling and seen a solitary mayfly take off. What does he do when he realises the timing is off by more than a little bit, have a Homer Simpson D’oh moment?! I think I’d better stop this train of thought a bit sharpish or you might just accuse me of giving fish names or worse still, suggest that fish feel pain….

I watched the water carefully hoping that perhaps the LDO did have some buddies out there making their way up the water coloumn and just maybe there was enough to make the trout take notice. Sadly this wasn’t the case but I noticed that I was quietly saying to myself ” where are you?” whilst looking for a tell tail rise. I often find I do this when I am fishing alone and if I have been lucky enough to connect with a fish as I quickly bring it in I’ll be quietly berating it for be so silly and tell it that I hope it has learnt its lesson before sending it on its way. Sounds like I should be on a couch confessing this to a shrink but I think it is probably something to do with concentrating on something so intently that you ignore everything else. I suspect sportsmen call it being in the zone.I just call it fly fishing. It is one of those times when you know you are going to cover the fish perfectly, he’s going to take the fly and you are going to land him too and everything plays out just like that. The other thing you realise is that quick hour you promised yourself has turned into 3 hours and you have no idea where the time has gone. So perhaps I am barking mad but I don’t mind too much if I get my fair share of those moments.

Anyway, I was going to promise a tip. It isn’t showbizzy or razzmatazzy just something really simple that seems to work pretty well and something I always show when I am guiding. So, you are out on the river and hook a fish, you have played him in quickly and you either want to admire him very quickly or take a photo. I find that they don’t enjoy this a great deal and the easiest way to get them to calm down is to wet the hands and hold the fish upside down for a few seconds. This disorientates them and they almost immeadiately settle down.  There, I told you it wasn’t earth shattering.  A couple of things to remember is to always use wet hands when handling a fish, keep it out of the water for as little time as possible and if you are taking a photo get everything ready with the fish in the net and then go from there. A popular shot for the lone angler at the moment is to hold the fish in the palm of your hand and take a snap from there with the arm outstretched. If it is a nice fish the hand gives a good idea of scale.

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

Heavy Sky

Part of any good fishing trip is the fun you have when you are not actually fishing. On our recent NZ trip Ray (Dude) and I would try and go into any normal shop or restaurant in full fishing gear. I say full fishing gear as a lot of the time we wet waded but I certainly wore thermal Long Johns under my shorts which, dependent where you were standing could look either more weird or just strange. We weren’t allowed to take wading boots off so with studs on, entry points were crucial so as not to draw any more unwanted attention than was already needed. It seemed to work pretty well and highlights were standing in an orderly queue in a Chinese Takeaway located in a busy town on a Saturday evening before we went back fishing, doing grocery shopping in a large supermarket 2 minutes off of the river and ordering a takeaway (Chinese again, the Dude loves Chinese) in a packed restaurant. The diners sort of looked up, saw we were fishermen and tucked back in again. The trip to the supermarket was amusing as we had just left the river and the boots were still wet. The staff in the supermarket couldn’t work out where the water came from…

I say this is a new game I have also walked into a restaurant and ordered lunch in Basalt, Colorado and enjoyed an excellent fish sandwich sat at a table dressed in waders without one comment. Basalt is a proper fishing town and understands that fishing time is precious so why waste it taking off waders?!

New Zealand is similar in that the guy behind the bar or the girl at the checkout will notice your t shirt or cap and ask how the fishing has been. The really nice thing is that they are really interested.

I have managed full wader wear over here too. An easy start is to have a beer and sandwich on the Teign. There is a fishing pub right on the banks, that come to think of it, are interested in how you are doing too. Another time I walked down Okehampton Hight Street in full waders and did get a few odd glances but thats Okey for you!

Anyway, I’ve popped a few shots of fish and rivers below and I hope you enjoy them.

This was the first rainbow of the trip for me on the second day. The first day was stunning but as the picture above shows things can change pretty quickly. We were fishing in one of the areas where Lord Of The Rings was shot, needless to say the back drop was amazing. He is a little rugby ball shaped fellow who was busily hoovering duns and headed off downstream like a fish possessed when I hooked him.

  Another day and another river. We came across a nice rise and the ever faithful “scruffy klink” does the business. One of the hardest parts is trying not to strike when a fish takes your fly. I spend most of my time down here screamimg “strike” when a fish hits but there you have to hold your breath, let him take it and then lift. I can’t tell you how this gets the pulse racing when that big head comes up around your fly. The fish will often follow the fly for some distance as well before deciding to hit it.

This one is of the Dude tying on a new fly. We fished this well known salmon river partly because nobody tends to fish the salmon rivers for trout and secondly we thought perhaps it was a bit of a smoke screen to keep a little hidden gem secret. It might have been the latter but who knows? All I know is that there were trout in there and they were biting! We had to find slack areas up against banks and land our dries in to get a good long drift.

I’ll posts a few of the big boys up shortly…

Main website: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

Ray is my fishing buddy and is so relaxed I call him the “Dude” after the character of the same name in the Cohen Brothers film The Big Lebowski. He has written a few words about a day we had on a salmon river  in NZ.  It was one of those things where you read about a river and it says no one really fishes it for trout as it is known for salmon.  But it sort of gets you thinking that firstly is that because no one actually does bother fishing it for trout or is it the details you have in front of you like this to keep you for fishing for trout? We probably looked into this too deeply but when it comes to fishing I think you have to…anyway, over to you Dude…

 Pete and I were told by locals that the Rangitata “was more of a salmon river”.  When we arrived at the upper gorge section upriver of Peel Forest, it was easy to understand why:  it was a big, fast water interrupted by long, deep pools.  the water was brilliant torquoise, almost artificial in colour, because of the light reflecting off the volcanic silt collected from its headwaters.

The Dude

 Unfortunately, the strong Northwesterly wind was blowing whitecaps in the pools and we quickly decided that we wouldn’t be able to turn over even our seven weight lines.  disappointed, we got back in the car and drove back downriver hoping to find more trout friendly water and shelter from the wind.