Devon School of Fly Fishing Team blog

I don’t know if you are the same but, for me, getting ready for a fishing trip works in 2 stages. I like to know I have everything that I am going to need and then I get excited in the last few days before I go and then pack everything at the last minute and spend the trip to the airport worrying I haven’t got everything I need or perhaps, if I do, is it enough?

I am pretty sure I have everything and am generally pretty well prepared. I have decided I don’t need too many clothes which means I have more room for gear…just in case!

The really funny thing is flies. This is especially the case with bonefish. I have hundreds that I will be taking but all I actually use is 6 or so that sit in my shirt pocket along with some nippers and spare tippet but its a good feeling to have the others with you just in case , right?

I was told that a particular pattern is working really well on permit right now but you can’t buy it in the UK at all. I’ve looked and it isn’t available but you can bet I’d have had a dozen of them just to be on the safe side. I wonder if the fish know?

www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com  Fly Fishing Lessons, Tuition and Fly Fishing Guide in Devon

I wanted to sneak a fish in before the new year to sort of see out 2009 and to try out, or do I mean christen, a new rod?

The weather was against us, turning cold and wet and the splashes of water on the truck as I headed off to meet a buddy told me there been a fair bit of rain overnight. I never have a doubt in my mind though, if I’m going fishing, I’m going fishing no matter what.

I really enjoy the company on the way up there, it is a couple of hours but I always enjoy chewing the fat and talking fishing. It sort of stops me from having the loud music and my appalling singing that accompanies it. It is lucky I am not self conscious as it probably looks a little strange to other drivers seeing me singing and drumming on the steering wheel although I suspect a fair few of them probably do the same.

We had a unanimous vote not to pull over for a bacon sandwich and coffee in favour of fishing. The thought had crossed my mind as traffic was light and we had made good time.

When we got there we peered over the bridge and the water was a bit lower from the last visit but still pushing. Looked like it was still a case for the heavy stuff.

We fished hard and long and there were times when I couldn’t feel a thing in my hands but didn’t care. As long as I could cast and tie a fly on I was happy!

Darkness came and we left wet and cold but contented and we had a few too.

A very happy new year to everyone and the very best of fishing in 2010 to everyone.

www.devonschoolofflyfishing Fly Fishing Tuition and guiding in Devon

There is that funny feeling you get when you get a report of the river you are about to fish that says “it’s sort of fishable”  The next question is “what do you mean by sort of fishable?” the answer was along the lines that the the clarity was good but the height was bad. Not so bad that the river was over the banks but bad that most would probably give it a miss. I’m not one of those who won’t and nor are my fishing buddies.

When you picture a chalkstream you see an image picture of crystal clear water and a nice even flow with a rising fish every now and again to make it perfect.

When I got there this wasn’t exactly the case. After all the rain we have had there were still flooded fields and the springs had been filled to the maximum and were pumping water back out into the river as quick as they could. The river was up and really pushing. That having been said it was a day’s fishing and nothing was going to get in the way.

Four of us had arranged to fish and special guest was Jim. Jim lives and guides on The Coln in Wiltshire and I wanted to show him the bit of chalkstream I fish.  We jumped in and water that is usually shin deep that was now thigh deep. I hung with Jim for a bit and watched the maestro in action but decided, with some prompting, to grab my rod and have a go myself.  I worked the slacker margins with a couple of heavy bugs and managed to pick up a grayling as The Dude joined me in the river. He’d spotted a slack line the other side of the river and manfully waded across to try his luck. The water got too deep and strong for us to continue so I jumped out and Ray did some pretty cool climbing up a dead tree his side.

Lunch and a chance to warm up!

The fishing was pretty tough but we all did ourselves justice. I had a spell where I thought I was going to get into a sensible pod of fish but after a couple in as many casts and one off and then one landed that was it. The rest of the day I picked up odd one and twos but that was about it and think that was the story for everyone.

 I was hoping for a few more for Jim as he has been slamming them on The Coln this year and I really wanted to show him fishing  as good. The light was starting to go and we ‘d decided to end the day in the pub but Jim and I headed in search of just one more. Needless to say he came up trumps.

A bright pink bug in size 8 worked best for me and I think Toby too but Jim fished a more subtle pheasant tail in a 14 and I would have guessed The Dude did the same. It sort of reminded me of a time I was fishing there once and there was a nice lunchtime hatch and the guy I was fishing with and I had a long debate about whether to fish a 16 or 18 Para Adams  to the rising grayling. We bumped into another fisherman at the end of the day and told him how we found the fish didn’t want the 16 but hit the 18 happily. We asked him if he had found the same but he said the big shrimp pattern he’d used had worked just fine.

Darkness but time for just one more!

I’d tried a different brand of burger for lunch and although tasty I thought the meat to roll ratio was just slightly the wrong way round but they were pretty good. All in all it was good fishing, great food and excellent company.

Winter Beard Watch- Gave it a trim on Sunday and took a bit too much off although it is still hanging in there.

www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com Fly Fishing Tuition and Guiding

There is nothing more rewarding that sitting down and dressing a few flies. Being a full time fly fishing guide the winter is a good time to do this. During the downtime I have been getting plenty ready for next season and I’ve been busy restocking the fly boxes with home tied flies.

The ever-present flies are there but I have tweeked a few things and am going to try some new patterns just to see if they work. It is nymphs that I have been tying most. I had been thinking that the usual and most consistent patterns have been bead head pheasant tailed nymphs and copper Johns. This is probably because I have great confidence in them and that they actually work really well. I am sure confidence is a large part of it but when I show my guests the underside of rocks these look like the stone clingers and the free swimmers too so we are also matching the bugs effectively.

I’ve also paid a lot more attention to caddis and have played with some hydropsyche and rhyacophila patterns that I have added to the flies I already use.  I try and tie them as generically (is that a word?) as possible so that they suggest not just a single food source but perhaps a little wider range and put the odds in my favour a little bit more. I try and knock out either a half dozen or dozen flies and my brief is simple. Tie them as close as you can to perfect but don’t lavish too much love on them. I would hate to slave over one fly for hours and then a stray cast lands the fly on the far bank of a juicy run without it ever getting wet. As an aside I always say to my guests that it is much better to lose a fly going for that far bank rather than throwing it in the tree behind you. One of the first lessons I try to instill in my guests is to have a quick look behind you before you make the cast. Sounds obvious but on our small streams in Devon it will pay dividends and save you a whole bunch of flies.

I have, along with a lot of help from Emma, tidied the wreckage that is my fly tying area and it is looking almost respectable. I have a radio up there and listen to Radio 5 so that I can keep up with news and sport. I find that working in fly fishing means that it is always on your mind but not everyone wants to always talk fishing ( I do).

It has felt like the weather has lifted a little here. It has been nowhere as bad as Cumbria but we have had wind and rain for what feels like 2 1/2 weeks solid and we have had our first frost of the year today. I will be out casting  and will try some of the new caddis patterns out on some grayling on Thursday. They might even work!

Winter Beard Watch- Day 6- Is this itching going to stop soon?

www.devonschoolofflyfishing – Fly fishing guiding and tuition

The weather has been relentless of late meaning fly casting tuition has had to take a back seat until things calm down. I haven’t even been able to throw a line myself and I have missed it.

I was hoping to see my good friend Glyn in Cumbria next week to have a fish of  The Eden for grayling. He is a guy I really look up to and is a real gent and fantastic instructor and guide. The plan was to pick up Karl on the way and have a fish and meet up but as everyone knows they have had it pretty bad up there and when I spoke to Glyn yesterday to check that everything was OK he came back with “yup, it’s a bit damp up here” ! Needless to say we have pushed things back til Jan. It has been a difficult time for the people up there and listening to the radio and reports of the devastation I have nothing but the utmost respect for the people and the way that they have dealt with things in what has been an extremely difficult time.

I went fishing last week with Howard. He has been rushed off of his feet of late and needed a bit of a breather and fishing was the prescription. The Dude was meeting us too and I’d picked up the usual barbie lunch. The rain had brought the river up a bit which was exactly what it had needed. The grayling have spread, making it a bit more interesting from a fishing perspective. Previously they had been bunched and it didn’t feel right just hitting fish after fish. It would often be the case that we’d have a few and leave them alone but more water put the odds a bit more in the grayling’s favour.

 I couldn’t resist the photo above as it is more than unusual for Howard his wear a cap like this

I’ve noticed that I can barely remember the amount of fish I have caught on a day, whether it is a small amount or a few and it is probably a function of my ever worsening memory but also that it doesn’t really matter. I am so uncompetetive it is unbelievable and take as much pleasure in my buddys catching as myself. It is probably why guiding is such a great job for me as I live the day through my guests and it doesn’t bother me I’m not holding the rod.

We had a small hatch around lunchtime and caught some fish on dries. We fished til dark despite it cooling down and had a great time. We were lucky it was the one break in the weather we had and I just fished in a t shirt and fleece.

I popped down to Exeter to see The Rise film festival and met with a bunch of pals for some excellent noodles beforehand and then to see the films.  I had been thinking about another trip and watching great big steelhead taking Green Drakes kind of makes you feel a bit restless again!

My daughter, Charlie, has just taken her driving test and passed first time I am so proud of her. Yesterday she was just walking around with one of those stupid grins on her face. It sort of reminds me of when I passed my AAPGAI!

Gift Vouchers for Fly Fishing tuition and Guiding

www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I love my job more than I could probably write down but as my life revolves entirely around fly fishing I somtimes wonder if when I meet people for the first time (outside of fly fishing) that I worry I am going to bore them within a few minutes talking about fishing. John Gierach said that a good fly fisherman can turn any conversation to fly fishing but I often find that when you are asked what you do for a living it is often enough to get the conversation going on a fishy basis.

In the grand scheme of things it probably strikes most as a pretty uninteresting job ( to those that don’t fish) and compared to “real” jobs it doesn’t really rank that highly on the important scale.  I guess it is no different from teaching people to ride or even drive a car. That having been said I have always wanted to be just a little different (not too much) from the norm and being a fishing guide is just about “out there” and you know what? I like it just that way and man, do I love my job!

Grayling have been the target species of late and Faure was back to try his hand. I’ve a new name for Faure it is the “Inducinator” We found that by finding a pod of grayling that just a gentle lift was enough to make the difference between just a couple and picking off a fair few. We managed a few on dries too and saw a bunch of late mayfly. The fishing was pretty consistent throughout the day but as the afternoon turns to early evening and the sun is covered it just switches off. Sometimes you need these moments to get you off the river and on your way home at a vaguely sensible time compared to when it is summer.

It looked like there were a few other anglers on their way for some grayling and I hope they had a few too!

I got a text from Dave from Portland the other day asking what I was going to be doing now the river season was shut. Thankfully there is plenty to keep me occupied with fly fishing guiding after other species and tuition too but I also get a little bit more time for some fishing myself. I’d told him I was going grayling fishing with some pals and he said he wanted a photo. So Dave this is for you!

The 2 pals I fished with yesterday and I were talking  over lunch yesterday about what fly fishing meant to us and we sort of came to the conclusion that it was everything!

Now, there are probably quite a few other people who could say the same, which is great, but there are also some who enjoy it now and again. I try to fish as much as I can when I have the time and both Emma and my daughter Charlie have become really nice fly casters. When I get new rods I will often ask them to cast them as I get some really good, unbiased feedback. When it comes to the fishing itself I would love it if both of them fished and loved fishing like I do but I have to accept that you can’t just force a passion on someone. That having been said I do use Fathers Day as just a tiny bit of leverage to get Charlie on to the river with me and although she couldn’t make the day itself this year I didn’t forget and she agreed to join me on the river for an afternoon. Usually it sort of ends up as a nature ramble but I took Charlie where there was a chance of catching a few and she duly did the honours. I also wanted her to road test a Helios for me and she gave it a thumbs up!

Charlie is 18 next year and I suspect our time on the river will become even less but I think I can just about remember every fish she has caught and despite my worsening memory I don’t think I will forget either!

Off to Wales now!

Although the river season is over on the River Taw our fly fishing school  still has it’s doors widely open. I met up with Keith yesterday who has never really held a fly rod before, bar a short stint on a river in Germany over 20 years ago, so he was pretty much coming at it as a newcomer.

He was keen to learn to fly cast and how to approach river, lake, pike and bass fishing. This was a really interesting proposition for me as with these forms of fishing listed there is a need to be able to cast at short and long ranges and to be able to land your fly accurately,overcome drag and to be able to turn over heavy flies. I was also keen that Keith went home with not only a good understanding of how the casts worked but also how to put them right if they didn’t go to plan.

I love this sort of stuff and was really looking forward to meeting up with Keith and to get him going. As ever, I was early knowing that Keith had booked himself in for one of the Fox and Hound’s ”Full Devon” breakfasts. I met him as he tucked in and I sipped a coffee!

We headed off with a chat about safety and how the tackle works and I got him roll casting. Within a few casts I could see he was a natural. He immeadiately understood the use of a controlled wrist and letting the rod do the work. This was going to be fun!

One of the things that I notice as a fly fishing instructor is that people try and hang on to everything that you are explaining and can quite often suffer from information overload so I make sure that I explain everything as simply as possible and break things down into digestable chunks. It is easy to “get all technical” but I really believe that keeping it simple is best and as long as my guest has a good understanding then they will hopefully enjoy many hours on the water!

With Keith I wanted to make sure that as we were going to cover so much  I didn’t give him too much to analyse as he was a natural caster. As a result when he picked up the concept and mechanics of the overhead cast I tilted the casting plane over to the side to let him see what was going on with the line and rod. This often allows the guest to visualise how everything is working making the overhead cast a whole lot easier and also gets the caster “false casting” really quickly and naturally without me having to explain until after they have learnt it. It also helps with timing, rhythm and casting planes although I try and introduce this during the roll cast as it shows there is nowhere you can’t get your fly to.

Needless to say Keith was a star and we covered just about everything including how to cast a tailing loop, slack line casts, drift, creep and he was double hauling with no problems at all. The fish better watch out!!

I checked my computer this morning and recieved a message from Keith

Hi Pete

 

What a great day.  I reallly enjoyed it and I came home confident that your tuition has given me the confidence to perform on the water.

 

Your relaxed style of teaching was great.  You answered my questions and explained the mechanics of casting so well that I understood it and you also gave me lots of prompts to remind me of how and what is going wrong and also what it feels and looks like when I get it right and how to analise if things get out of synch.  Great.  I will certainly be keeping in contact and would not hesitate to recommend you to anyone who wanted to learn to cast and enjoy it.

 

Thanks

Keith

 

I wanted to wish every single fisherman on the Devon rivers that has an extension good luck. Sadly we don’t have it on the Taw but I took my video down to the river after the rain we had on Tuesday. There wasn’t quite enough water but it didn’t stop the fish from wanting to move on. 

Click HERE to see a few Taw salmon.

No, not really!  I sort of mean the end of the season. Sadly the Taw doesn’t have the extension to the season a lot of the other rivers of the South West enjoy but sometimes that’s the way it goes. I am sure things will change in time but we’ll see.

I always keep the 30th September to myself as I like to mark the open and close with some time on the river. It isn’t about numbers or even catching a fish but just about being there. As I advance in my years I have found that I have changed as an angler and become more relaxed. In Scotland recently I spent more time with a good buddy cheering him on as he hadn’t connected with a fish and was happy to watch from the sidelines and enjoyed watching him execute yet another beautiful spey cast.

Ray (The Dude) was down at the weekend and we talked about some of the fishing trips we had been on and we both agreed that eating comes much higher up the list of things that we need to do during a fishing day. We also discussed about the ultimate fishing mobile which I think I might just have found but that one will keep for the time being.

Anyway I was going to hit the Bray but decided to hit the Hotel water instead and bumped into some anglers that were staying there so I spoke to them for a while and then headed down to the river. The water was pretty low and I decided to find something just a little bit quicker to put the odds in my favour a bit. I picked up a small one just below the bridge (always a good spot!) and admired him for a bit and slid him back.

I walked a little further to a spot I like to take people to and popped a cast into the tail of the pool and worked my way up. It isn’t a big pool and I worked tight into the bank where the water had worn away a nice little hidey hole for a good fish but there was no one interested. As a result of the current hitting the bank there is also a small back eddy and although I thought a few well aimed casts might bring someone to have a look, it wasn’t to be.  At the head of the pool I decided to throw to the seam first and I struck as my dry dipped.

It turned out to be a nice fish. He knew the drill and I really had to give him some side strain to keep him out of the tree roots and there were a few moments where I thought he was going to win out. While playing the fish I managed to get out my camera, turn it on and hold it between my teeth while I played the fish in. I managed to lift him, take a quick shot and off he went.

Now it would be great to say that was the switch being turned to the “on” position and everything happened. It might have done but I wouldn’t have known as it seemed a really nice place to end things. I’d got everything (and more) that I wanted from the day and it just seemed right. So I snipped off and walked up to make sure the guys I had spoke to at breakfast were having a good time.

I had some time in Scotland chasing a few salmon and even managed to catch a couple. The river had borne the brunt of the floods that had ravaged Scotland and there were still signs of the damage that had been caused by a very angry Mother Nature.  I even managed to pack a trout rod which was great fun and I was amazed how hard the fish fought. I guess it must be the strength of the water that helps make them super tough. I was a week later this year but brought along a couple of good pals and our group was added to by Karl who was fishing 20 miles up the road. We made sure we left a few fish for him but I’m not sure that they got to him as the water was pretty low.

I was back Sunday night and had Faure on Monday who was back for some more fly fishing in Devon. Again he had got the overnight train and was at the station bright and early ready t0 tackle the small streams of Dartmoor. I was determined to show him as much as possible and I think we managed that. It was pretty cool up there but the fish were still keeping an eye upward and it was great to see Faure adjust to the lightening fast takes.  We walked a lot and covered a lot of water and having only had a few hours sleep Faure had a quick power nap on the way back to the station!

Well done dude!

Tuesday was with Richard. I have guided Richard a couple of times earlier in the year and he was back for some more fishing adventures. We decided to hit the Taw and again a cooler start meant it took a little time to get going. It was a case of hatches happening in small pulses and taking advantage of these when they occurred. As the water was low, rather than hanging a nymph under the caddis I hung a spider and you know what? It worked!

It is great when a little plan plays off and makes it great fun for me as the guide too! I had Richard in some pretty overgrown spots and he adapted his technique to meet each challenge. Sometimes fly fishing isn’t about elegant casts, it’s about getting your fly as efficiently to the fish as possible. I always say that if I have you making the nasty casts you must be doing well!