Chris working down a pool

I managed to get out for a quick fish and managed to have a salmon pluck at the nasty big fly I had cast at it and then took to the air to show me just what might have been. I went back and Charlie joined me in the afternoon and the river was a different place and a lot lower. I cast through the pool hoping the fish was still obliging and felt the line go tight and lifted into a fish. It wasn’t the salmon but a sea trout was just as welcome!

I lost a couple of trout days due to the weather but did some casting with Carolynne and Patrick who are off to Montana today and yesterday I was guiding Chris. He was keen to learn everything he possibly could about fishing streams and everything that goes with it. We even had a go at a likely looking salmon pool and despite hooking a nice trout we didn’t get lucky….this time!

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The Pursuit of Wild Trout

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Wild-Trout-Mike-Weaver/dp/1873674007/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282823359&sr=8-1

It seems that fishing is in two halves at the moment. Black gnats are the main item on the menu in the morning and caddis in the afternoon. We have had great fun on the river skating caddis at both trout and sea trout and I was on the water with Peter the other day where we saw a nice sea trout move. I really like to get the fly moving to provoke an aggressive response and we managed to get one but not the hook up. We stuck with the large G & H sedge and cast it upstream and worked it back with short sharp strips. It was great to see that we managed to get responses for even the smallest of fish and if you are on the water give the stripped fly a go. It might just bring something up!

Peter had fished stillwaters here and further afield he had searched for salmon in Alaska and Canada but was a newcomer to small stream fishing for trout. He soon picked up that you don’t need to throw a long line and was catching fish on both dries and nymphs.

Peter and a Taw trout

It was great to have Mike back down again this year. Although it was a whistlestop visit with the family he managed to get out on to the water. As time was short we managed to hit a few pools and catch some fish too. I am ashamed of some of the things we threw into the deeper pools and I hope you’ll keep it our secret Mike!

Mike having cast one of my nasty flies!

Ian and his wife Mandy wanted to learn how to fish a river and so we were happy to oblige! Ian was a former Pro Golfer and it came as little surprise how quickly he picked up casting a fly rod.

Ian ready to strike

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Trefor ready to strike!

We sat by one of my favourite pools chatting whilst scanning the water as darkness fell. There wasn’t much going on despite it being a time when fish often show themselves on the Taw. We headed upstream a bit and I popped a few casts into another pool called Junction. It felt like I’d had a small pull but I wasn’t sure if it was from a trout or not.

Having fished it out we walked back down to my favourite pool and I popped a few casts out. There is a nice spot where a non fisher can watch everything happen and that is where Emma perched. I fished the pool and we saw a really good fish move and despite covering it I didn’t get a pull. Just as I was considering changing flies I heard a yell from Emma. I wasn’t sure what it was about but she’d seen one of the early meteors that the news said would be happening. It was almost perfect timing as the  clouds had lifted giving us a perfect view of the night sky.

I thought this is one of those chances not to miss, so with both of us laying on our backs watching what was just an amazing sight as we saw our first meteor shower. It was just one of those rare times where fish had to take a back seat but being next to the river with a rod strung up and ready I was well placed just in case anything did happen in my favourite pool!

Derrick on a 1/2 day casting course

The fish are still biting but the cooler temps have meant that early fishing has been not as productive. But as the sun climbs then it just switches on. The set up has generally been a small black klink early on and then caddis patterns as the afternoon gets under way. As we move into late afternoon and early evening time I have been switching to bigger stimulator patterms to try and tempt and early sea trout to slash at the fly!

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RFH and a nice Taw brown

As an aside, I often mention Richard as the troutslayer but I think we are changing the name as he fears that some might feel he may actually be slaying the trout and not putting them back. He loves them as much as me and each one is carefully returned to fight another day and so from this day on he will be known as Richard From Hampshire or RFH as Emma calls him.

A blowy day on Dartmoor with Mike

I had a day up on Dartmoor with Mike. Mike was down in March to try river fishing for the first time and loved every second of it. He likes to fish bamboo and it was good to christen his rod back then but this time we went for a slightly longer rod to make fishing the pools a little easier and to keep as much line as possible off of the water. Once more he did a great job in testing conditions and as ever the ride over there was great fun as Mike has a great view on life and a wit to match his fishing!

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Most of the people I have had out recently have been happy to sacrifice numbers of fish for the chance of bringing a big one up from the depths but I have been trying my best to assess each pool as we approach it and hit it with the appropriate fly which in some cases has been a size 24 midge pattern. It is fun tying on a big fly and seeing it work but it is equally as rewarding showing my guests that just because it is a small fly it doesn’t mean that it won’t work.

I had met Wilfred and Anne-Ruth a few years back and they had managed to track me down to show how they had progressed as fly fishers. They live in Holland which might not be thought about as a fly fishing hot spot but there is a large and loyal bunch who will cast a fly at just about anything and these two guys are in that category.

They had booked a days guiding and we headed off to a small stream. Anne-Ruth was soon catching fish and I took Wilfred upstream to try his luck.

Low, slow water was working but you needed nerves of steel to not strike when you saw a fish come for the dry so after a few we headed up to some faster water where the fish would have less time to inspect the fly and would make a more positive take.

Anne-Ruth works up a pool

I dropped Anne-Ruth off and wanted to take Wilfred up at least 4 pools to try his luck. On the way up though I saw a few fish rising and as ever I find it too hard to leave them so despite a tricky climb into the pool we were in a great position to target the fish.

It looked to us as though the fish were taking ascending nymphs just subsurface so I quickly tied on a pheasant tailed nymph and we were in business.

Wilfred with a beautiful Taw brown

It was a great day and the guys did a great job, Wilfred ended the day with 2 13inch trout which was some achievement!

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Mayfly have been coming off for just over a week but the fish are only just starting to take notice of them and seeing and hearing fish taking to the air or making an angry slash at a newly emerged dun is pretty exciting stuff. The other good thing is that fish are starting to feed later into the day now rather than a swift 5 o’clock finish.

There is just a sniff of a few of the larger sea trout on the hotel water which is great news and now the evenings are warmer it is a great time to be on the water!

A well earned Hob Nob break during a casting session for Chris

Mikes first ever fish

Pauls first Taw brownie!

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I met with Andy on Saturday for some fly casting tuition. We covered plenty and he was throwing a really, really nice line by the time we had finished. As he is a reservoir angler he was looking to add a few yards to his cast which he was doing with ease. The fish better watch out!

The weather has started fine here this morning and my hope is that we have some settled weather, it has been a long winter and I can’t wait to be out on the river again.

I got a nice message from Kevin who I had taught last week…he was slammed by a fish first cast he made with a fly on and I am not sure who was more surprised!

Kevin

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As a result I have been casting and playing with a few things. It is great to go out and throw a few loops and can be good fun to do so with a buddy too. The only downside of this is that all the good intentions tend to go out of the window and the tape measure comes out and and bit of good banter as you take it in turns to see what you are made of!

The tape measure can be sobering for the first-time distance caster as throwing a full line and a 10ft leader doesn’t actually equate to 100ft. It is quite a long way from it. I don’t tend to do this much of late as I find the body doesn’t enjoy it as much as it used to and lets face it there are few, if any, situations you are going to want to see the backing flying out of the tip ring.

I always thought this would be the case when it came to bonefishing but I have been amazed over the last few years how short a distance a bone can be caught. If anything I’d say a well presented 40 to 50ft cast will always put you in with a shout.

Up against the tape- photo by Lee Cummings

This is where the practice comes in, not just for winter trips somewhere exotic but getting you ready for the new season whatever you like chasing with a fly rod.

For me 15 to 20 minutes of good casts pays better dividends than going out for 2 hours and trying too hard to get it right. When I practice I’ll tilt my casting plane over to the side and have a look at my timing and loop control both hauled and unhauled. By throwing everything over to the side it becomes much more visual and allows you to see everything that is going on. I’ll then make a basic overhead cast in the normal casting plane. It is the foundations of all overhead casts and is easily overlooked. It is then I’ll play with a few Roll Casts and Speys. There are now loads of Spey Casts to play with but I’ll work on the ones that are most practical for fishing situations we encounter on the streams in Devon and the ones I teach most. I’ll then add a few mends, hooks and curves and see how it looks and see how it feels from there. If there has been something that has niggled then I’ll go back and give it a bit of work.

At our fly fishing school I’ll teach repetition (with plenty of breaks) as this helps to encourage muscle memory and when my student tries it out for the first time alone their body says “Hey, I remember this”

At the end of the day though the fish decide whether it was a good cast or not and this is what it is all about. It is nice to throw a nice loop in the field but throw in a rising fish in a tricky spot and try telling me that isn’t more exciting.

I’m not advocating to go out for everyday in the months before the seasons start. Life is just too short, but try it now again and you might be surprised the difference it makes and it is really, really good fun!

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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.

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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.

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