Devon School of Fly Fishing Team blog

Fly Fishing in Devon is starting to get going. Cooler temps in both air and water has meant things have sometimes been a little slower than normal to get going but if you work at it there are fish to be caught!

Ian has been a great supporter of our fly fishing school and was down just a few days after the season started to try his luck. We covered some water and I showed him a few spots he had fished before plus a few new ones. First day (weds) was a little slow to get going but he managed to connect with a few fish but the next day, Thursday, has been the pick of the days we have had so far this season and we even had a few look at the dry which was great to see.

First fish from our new water

Large Dark Olive hatches have been pretty light so far but my hope is that more settled weather will see an improvement and more fish starting to look upward.

As is always the case this time of year, lunchtime is a good time to be on the water but so far a lot of fish have been caught between 4pm and 4.30pm so it is worth hanging on just in case!

www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com – Fly Fishing in Devon- Fly Fishing Guide, Tuition and fly fishing lessons

Heinz and Daniel joined us for a day’s fly fishing down here in Devon. They were over from Austria and the first thing I noticed was that Daniel, at 14, spoke perfect English. I was pleased as my Austrian is a little rusty!

Heinz is a very keen fly fisher who likes to fish small streams at home and after talking for just a short time over a coffee I could see we were in for a good day. Daniel had an aim, which he was hoping to make come true, that he would catch a trout on a fly. I was going to do my best to try and make this happen.

Daniel had not really cast a fly rod before but was a natural and was soon casting a nice loop. Clearly taking after his Dad he was keen to hit the river and that was just what we did. I showed him how to wade safely and a few of my favourite river casts and we started.

Sometimes putting a newcomer in front of moving water can be a little intimidating and I had given this some thought. A week previously my good friend Karl had been down for a couple of days where we had fished long and hard for trout and sea trout. Karl is an amazing fisherman and can tempt fish where you think they won’t be or shouldn’t be! He fishes the Welsh Dee a fair bit and likes to fish spider patterns a fair bit. I have played with them a bit and sat and watched him fish a few pools and picked up some great tips. He is also one of the best tyers around and kindly sent me way too many of his favourite patterns. I happened to have some with me so tied them on for Daniel and explained how we would fish the pool in front of us.

It didn’t take long for Daniel’s dream to come true and a small brownie was on the end of the line. We continued fishing this way with Heinz fishing a dry and nymph upstream. I happened to pop downstream to see him as he was playing a lively 11 incher. I offered to take a photo of the fish for him but he cares a lot for them and wanted to get it back quickly. I like that!

The pattern of picking up fish continued and although it wasn’t a fish a cast it was pretty consistent. As we had moved further up to a new pool I changed Heinz’ rig a little making the dropper a little longer and the flash back pheasant tail a little heavier. The reason for this was that the day before I had been guiding Nick over from NZ and we had picked up a small sea trout on a dry and moved a nicer fish on a nymph.

He expertly made a cast into the right spot and moved a fish straight away but sadly missed it. We waited a bit and made another cast and this time the dry dipped and Heinz was attached to an acrobatic sea trout of around 3lb. He had him on for a while but the fish managed to wrap him around a rock and was gone. It was fun though!

Daniel had been going great guns and picked up another few fish and was really liking this fly fishing thing. Looks like I’ll be using spiders a whole lot more!!

The rivers are shot today and I was due to be out with Dave from Portland, a regular at the school, but sadly it wasn’t to be. I was out guiding Mike for some guided sea trout fishing last night and we had to head back at midnight as the river started to rise and colour up. It means I have been able to see a little bit of the Ashes but I’d rather be on the river!

I’ve been playing with a few new parachute patterns now that we are getting blue winged olive and light olive hatches and even the odd sea trout seem to approve.

Lots happening and keep an eye on the Latest News  page of the main website for an update.

I was guiding Richard yesterday. Richard is an excellent caster and fisherman and had just come back from a very succesful trip to the U.S. He was after some guiding so to try and match up I decided on a two centre trip. We hit the Bray in the moring and the Taw in the afternoon. We had a few in the morning and headed back to the hotel for lunch. Lunch involved the usual ribbing from the guys who work there about what I was having for lunch as most days I have the prawn cocktail sandwich. I thought I’d shock them and ordered a ham sandwich. This clearly threw the kitchen into disarray but the ham matched the prawn for quality. The thing I do like is that when the chefs know it is me they don’t bother with coleslaw or salad it is nicely piled high with crisps. Perfect food for a hungry fisherman!

So there we have one example of going outside the box, the next was after lunch and the weather had closed in and cooled off a fair bit. Richard had picked up a few fish on the nymph but things looked to be slowing.  I wanted to make it worthwhile for the fish to have a look at our dry so I went big and brassy and tied on a size 10 stimulator. Richard looked at me and laughed as we had been fishing size 16’s and 20’s earlier but was amazed to see it worked pretty well and fish were hitting it greedily. We even saw a fish that made the 12 incher he caught earlier look small as we watched it follow the fly down stream and have a go. This was despite the river carrying some colour so I guess it must have been a good one.

As is always the case, the fish don’t read the books and if you make it worthwhile sometimes that long shot does pay off!

Richard with a Taw brownie

Neil's first river fish!

Trevor's first river brownie!

Well, we have had some rain, the river is up a bit and a 6 1/2 lb salmon has come out just down stream from us. It feels like fly fishing in Devon is getting even more exciting!

I was guiding on Sunday and the Taw was the most alive I have seen so far this season. The grannom hatches are easing right back now but they have been replaced with gnats, caddis, olives and I even saw a lone mayfly who was just a little bit early. Up until Sunday the fishing had been in bursts of activity but it really felt that the bugs have felt all is good and are ready to rumble.

I am hoping that the rise in water will also bring some sea trout up to us as well.

We have been flat out introducing newcomers to fly fishing and also showing regular fishers the River Taw and also a few early season surprises too!

 Here is Mike with his first wild brown trout, he is a delightful caster and lands the fly just perfectly. We were really pleased with his casting and fishing and more improtantly so did the fish!

Graham, was a newcomer to fly fishing and spent the day with us after recieving a gift voucher from his son. We showed him how to fly cast and then we did some fly fishing for the rainbows in our lake. The fish weren’t obliging at first but a damsel fly came up with the goods.

 Nick was really keen to try and catch a bass. We first worked on fly casting and how to double haul. We then headed off to see if we could find a bass or two. Some might say we were a tad too early but we always believe that if your fly is in the water you are in with a chance. Nick proved the point perfectly!

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

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