Devon School of Fly Fishing Team blog

We’re now into the last month of the season and I have to say it is a time I really love. The weather might not always be with us but if we do get rain then there is a chance of a salmon taking a look at our fly. On that matter we had some rain at last but the Taw seemed to take it in its stride and came up a little and coloured a bit and by last Friday afternoon was back to normal. This meant the window for salmon was a small one but it sounds like the Exe had a lot more rain to bring both the levels and the fish up to anglers which is great news.

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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I love to head up on to Dartmoor and fish the many and varied small streams that are found up there. My preference is to head high and fish the smallest pieces of water I can find and to fish the small pockets that are formed between rocks as the stream takes a step down. It never ceases to amaze me that the smallest of these pockets are often home to a trout and sometimes one a little bigger than you might be expecting.

Looking downstream

The typical size of fish is in the 5 to 6 inch range but despite their size they know how to fight dirty and will give you a scrap way beyond their size.

Dartmoor brown trout

I was lucky enough to get up there recently with my good pal Toby. I had recently bought some tying gear from his Funky Fly Tying Range (www.funkyflytying.co.uk) and having tied up a few patterns thought it only right that we road tested them before I use them for my guests. There is nothing worse than lavishing time on a fly that you are convinced will work and then, when you tie it on when fishing, it fails to deliver. I think I have written in the blog before that I only have three criteria for my flies. Firstly, they are quick to tie, secondly they work and lastly that if they get hung up in a tree I don’t mourn their loss. I am sure part of this is still down to my “rustic” style of tying though!

Toby had not fished Dartmoor before and despite him being an excellent fisherman I wanted to take him to some of my favourite spots and then the plan was to just keep walking and see what we could find.

The day could not have been more perfect. Warm and overcast and not a hint of wind. It is often the case there is a firm downstream wind when I jump out of the truck but today could not have been more perfect. I’ll often use a 10ft 4wt rod to enable me to keep line off of the water and to almost dap my fly into a likely spot but it was just a fun day. With us not  being motivated by numbers of fish we thought it would be fun to fish lighter lines on short rods and see how we got on.

After a 1/2 hour walk I dropped Toby into a pool and stood back and watched. He expertly dropped his fly into the right spot and a fish liked his fly and Toby was off and running with his first Dartmoor trout. It is always great to be a part of a new landmark for a fisherman and although not a huge one in the grand scheme of things it was still cool to see it happen.

A Dartmoor first for Toby!

I watched for a bit longer and then thought I had better get fishing. I like fishing dry flies up there and had a size 20 klink tied in my scruffy style with loosely dubbed substitute grey seals fur. I don’t carry much by way of flies when I fish up there.  Small and black usually covers the bases.

I unstrung the 3 wt and stepped into a pool. I’d been on the river most days but it had been in a work capacity meaning I hadn’t held a rod to fish with in a little while. I know how fast these fish were and with Toby down stream of me I knew he’d let me know if my strike was a little slow!

I threw a cast into a slightly slower, deeper part of a pool and a fish was on the fly almost immediately. Thankfully my reflexes were up to the job and I was in. It was good to hear a cheer from Toby as he saw me bring the fish in. The great thing about fishing together on such small pools is that you can easily leapfrog each other as long as you stay well back from the pool your buddy is about to fish as these fish are as spooky as they get.

Toby heads up stream

It was really interesting seeing the different way we would both approach a pool. Toby likes to throw a slightly longer line whereas I’ll have a minimal amount out and quickly work a pool. We have spoken about this before and the really neat thing is that both methods work really well. I’m a huge believer that if it works, go for it! We talked about it some more when we had lunch and decided that it was about getting the fly into the right spot. If you did that  the take would be pretty much straight away, so as long as you are primed and set when the fly touches the water you are in business!

The lack of rain meant the water was low and even a well presented fly would be enough to send fish scattering for cover in the slower sections of pools. As the day progressed and there was more by way of hatches then the fish were more confident and our success improved.I concentrated on the slightly faster stretches and seams of pools where I thought the fish would have less time to analyse a fly.

Just a few nice little pools....

We headed for one of my most favourite spots, where the river drops more steeply and there was more pocket water to fish. Toby went to work and picked up a fish and I jumped upstream of him to a spot I liked the look of. It was not a big pool but had a nice deep section with the current running right up against some really big rocks. I flipped my fly in and it was taken straight away. I am not sure who was the more surprised but the the fish certainly reacted more quickly and headed up the pool and in to a crevice where we were parted. Toby had seen what had happened and we both knew it was a good fish but I am from the “better to have loved and lost” school than letting a lost fish get to me.

Toby gets ready for action!

I’m not sure how many fish we had but it didn’t really matter. We’d had a great time and made the long walk back to my truck. The great thing about Dartmoor is the sheer expanse of water to fish. We didn’t see another fisherman and managed to fish miles and miles of water.

It was one of those days you just want to eek the most out of so over a coffee at a service station we decided to hit the Taw for some more trout, have a bite to eat and then hit the river for the off chance of some sea trout. We threw in the towel at midnight and had covered plenty of miles and caught plenty of fish. Did we get lucky with the sea trout?That will keep for another story!

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Fly fishing in devon has really been pretty good. Despite some ups and downs with the weather the fish have been pretty happy to give a well presented fly the time of day. Dries are still working really well although a nymph hung below the dry in the deeper pools has picked up an extra fish or two.

The mayfly hatch is now just a small trickle towards the end of the day but you’ll still see me tie on a grey Wulff at the slightest sign of a slashy take at the surface. This has been the case as late as the Sunday just gone and I have still used them to try and drag a sea trout up to take a look.

I had 3 days with Steve last week and it was his first season on moving water. The really nice thing was having plenty of time to go through the casts and approaches to maximise success for him and it was great to net his first wild brown trout. It is great to be a part of landmarks in someone’s fishing career and something I will never tire of!

Steves first wild brown trout

We fished all sorts of places to give him a good chance to experience everything a river could throw at him and to show him how far he had progressed. It is great standing next to someone and see them fire a cast straight into the right spot and a fish leaps on to it and think to your self “my work is done”!!

Fly hits its target first shot

Steve rose to every challenge thrown at him and the trout of Wales and wherever else he ventures better look out!

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Richard from Hampshire, or Richard The Trout Slayer as I like to call him, made his first trip down to Devon to cast a fly at a few fish. As I have written in previous posts the season has been a little more testing than the previous few but I have, in a perverse sort of way, enjoyed it.

It has made me really have to think about fly selections and tactics to maximise success for my guests. I guess it might be an easy job when you suggest a cast to a likely spot and a fish takes, which is always nice, but I think a fly fishing guide earns his fee when he can pull a few fish out of the bag on a tough day. I know it isn’t all about numbers but when it’s tough it’s nice for an angler to see that it isn’t them that is doing something wrong,  the fish just sometimes aren’t on. I hope I can help in some small way to  put the odds in their favour a bit more.

The trout slayer!

Having said all this, Richard had plenty of fish and a number coming to the dry too. Generally we are still finding them in slacker, slower stretches of water and just about on the edges of the seams of faster water. It was really nice seeing Richard catching fish on flies he had learnt to tie over the winter and even on a spider pattern from a bird he had shot himself. Excellent work fella!

I met up with Chris who had received a gift voucher from his parents for Christmas. He had not held a fly rod before but took to it with amazing ease. We covered so much in the day and for the second time in the week a novice was double hauling by the end of the day. We also did plenty of fishing and used techniques for approaching a small still water which all worked really well. It was hugely exciting to see one of our rainbows hit a twitched hopper pattern.

First trout for Chris!

Julian has been fishing for a number of years and is an expert sea trout fisherman but wanted to learn to spey cast with a single handed rod. We were happy to help and he now has a number of tricks in his bag. It also gave me a chance to quiz him on a few approaches that he uses. One of the great things about fly fishing is that you never stop learning!

Julian nails another spey!

Josh wanted to catch a trout on a fly so we taught him to cast and he did the rest!

Josh and his first trout

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We’re through the Grannom and most of the Large Dark Olives for the time being but other hatches are starting to occur now but these are just getting going and are more of a trickle right now. From day one of the season there have been plenty of midges on the water but I have not seen signs of fish showing interest in them right now. Last year the fish only seemed to care for them once mayfly were out of the way. It will be interesting to see if this is the case again this season.

Talking of mayfly I was on the river on Sunday and thought I saw a lone one come off. I mentioned this to Dave who was guiding further upstream and he’d seen one too. Looks like these boys are bit early and given that everything seems to be a couple of weeks behind schedule they were jumping the gun by a long way.

We ran our first course of the season over the weekend which, I think, went really well. Having two days meant that we were able to cover everything in depth, from the set ups, casting and approaches to moving water. It was great fun with everyone catching fish in what were  tricky conditions. Hopefully it showed the topics we covered in the course worked in some small way!

The team!

Ira was new to fly fishing and her friends thought she wasn’t going to catch anything. A day and a half with us proved them wrong on both our lake and on the river too!!

First fish for Ira!

I had the pleasure of teaching David and Rachel for the day. They had never held a fly rod before but I was amazed and during the day we covered all aspects of fishing and casting. They were even double hauling at the end of the day which is highly unusual for two novices on a day course. Well done guys!!

Superstars in the making- Rachel and David

If you would like guided fly fishing on private beats or fly fishing tuition on a private trout lake feel free to contact us, we’d be happy to help!

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We’re just over a month into the fly fishing season in Devon now and it feels as though after the long hard winter the fish are really starting to wake up a bit. I had a great day guiding James yesterday who was a newcomer to fishing our rivers and after going through a few casts on our lake we hopped down to the river to try things out.

James into the first of the day

We’d had a heavy frost and I had worked on the basis it would take a bit of time to warm up and so we did a bit of walking to a few of my favourite spots a little further downstream.  He’d fished the famous chalkstreams a couple of times and I think he liked the more rough and ready look of our wild streams especially when I had him limboing under barbed wire to get to a pool I liked the look of!

The hatches are getting more steady and the river is fishing through to about 4.30pm or so but there just isn’t quite enough warmth later in the day yet. One highlight yesterday was seeing fish rise a little more consistently than the one off affairs of late and seeing fish take an aggressive swipe at a dry is always a great sight.

I had the pleasure of guiding Paul on Monday. It is always a great time we have on the water and after a long lay up and shoulder operation he was rearing to go. We started with a casting tune up and worked on fine tuning hauling and then some single handed spey casting. He wanted to fish some new water so I obliged. As he has a insatiable thirst for knowledge I showed him how to fish spider patterns down and across which was great fun.

Paul strikes!

Our first real big hatch has been grannom and although popular theory is that the fish prefer the ascending pupae than the adult I was fishing the Wye in Wales for a couple of days last week with Ray (The Dude) courtesy of my wonderful wife (thanks Em! X). Anyway, he shouted form the other side of the river that they were taking grannom off the top. There were a few Large Dark Olives around too but not in the same numbers but I thought it might have been these they were taking but trusting his judgement I tied on a balloon caddis and picked up fish. It is funny when you see this but you get back and think about it for a bit and ask yourself a few questions (well, I do!)  The main one was the fish were in or on the edge of pretty fast water making the detection time pretty short for them and so would they have hit a Parachute Adams anyway?. You can sort of go round in circles and end up over analysing and at the end of the day the fish needs to eat and if you can get the fly to him effectively and efficiently then you are in with a chance but most of all it is about enjoying the time on the water!

I get lucky every now and again!

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I’m sitting here writing this having been washed off of the river. It is a shame as it felt as though things were just starting to get going in a very modest way. I was at last starting to see a few more large dark olives and a few more march browns that got me thinking that there might just be enough to get the fish into feeding positions and a little more on the look out.

The weekend was best on Saturday and thankfully the weather held for Sunday. Saturday was a morning casting session with Andy who is really starting to throw some micro loops and put his new rod through it’s paces.

I met up with Ed after lunch and we headed a little further up the river in search of fish. We found some too and even had one take a dry which was a pleasant shock. We focused on the edges or seams of faster water and slacker areas in general. It seemed to work pretty well.

Ed puts a cast into just the right spot

Sunday and we met with the Crediton Fly Fishing Club for our 4th annual casting morning. We held it at the hotel and rather than just rehashing what we did the years before we have tried to constantly evolve things so that it is hopefully interesting and with plenty of content for the members.  On the food front we did the same as last year and included a carvery in the price which is a great time for members to get to know each other and to swap fishing stories over some excellent food.

I went fishing myself in the afternoon with Ray (The Dude) as he was down to have a quick fish on Sunday and Monday. He is moving abroad in the summer and so we have a sort of a leaving the UK tour which means we have to fish as many venues as we can in the UK before he goes and we are just putting the finishing touches to the overseas one too which I am hugely excited about. Anyway, this is the first leg of the tour and to be honest it wasn’t the easiest of conditions but Ray had a few fish including a small sea trout which was great fun. Next leg is Wales in a months time!

One for the Dude!

Before we left to pick up the Chinese I took Ray to one of our new beats as I wanted him to fish a couple of pools that I thought might hold a fish or two. As it is a new beat I have learnt it over the winter but only from walking from the bottom to the top and only in the water. The two pools I wanted to take him to were at the very top and so it involved some off road walking to the pools. Having got to the right spot I led the way and sort of slid down a high bank where I was hoping to land on a large log that was poking out of the water. The only downside of this was the part I wanted to land on was a bit rotten and gave way as I landed on it. I lost balance and it felt like I was going to go head first into the river. I had sort of resigned myself to the fact of a soaking but grabbed hold of a branch of the log that was actually not rotten and stayed dry. I heard shouts from Ray who I think was probably a little saddened I didn’t immerse myself but having not taken a dunking for 3 years I am just about due one!

I had a long chat with my good pal Jim Williams yesterday which I always enjoy. He is a great guy and an excellent instructor and guide and the other string to his bow is web design. He has just completed our new AAPGAI website which is most excellent. Good work fella!

New water....

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March 1st marks the start of salmon fishing on the river Taw. I plan to have a couple of casts and to also prune a few branches as well. Mo gave me a hand last week on one of my favourite trout beats and we were really pleased with the progress. There were a few branches that had more than their fair share of flies in them and so the path to a likely looking spot is now a little clearer. I am one who believes in making it a little easier but not too easy!

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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Fly fishing in Devon is not far off from the start now. Salmon starts on 1st March with trout fishing not far behind on the 15th. I always like to keep opening and closing days to myself to have a fish and mark the occassion by just being in the water casting at a few fish. Sometimes it might feel like you are going through the motions but after a long miserable winter I don’t care. I can’t wait and we are on the final leg of the countdown!

After writing this blog I plan to try and trim a few trees and start getting ready for the season. I was on the river yesterday with a great fishing club I belong to. As always there was a good turnout and a chance to catch up with, or meet, members you might not get to see through the season. It is also a good to re-aquaint yourself with the river and see a spot you might have struggled with during the previous season become just that bit more accessible after some careful pruning.

Saturday was a case of from the fire straight to the freezer. I’d left behind tailing permit (photos to follow) and 92 degree heat for snow and low lying rainbows. Not that I am complaining, I’d enjoyed both immensely and it was great to help a newcomer, Kevin, on the road to becoming a trout fisher. He had done plenty of sea fishing and wanted to try his hand with a fly rod. Once he had mastered the idea of a climbing backcast the world was his oyster and he was up and running.

We are lucky being located with a lake and river so that we could cover all aspects of approaches to both still and moving water but I have a sneaking suspicion that he’ll be heading to a river some time soon. The trout better watch out!

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I was going to write this and suggest a list of things that would be cool to accomplish in 2010. There are certainly lots of things I really would like to do and to experience and will hopefully get the chance in some cases but is it always good to set yourself targets? I guess sometimes this is the case and can be rewarding to tick things off as they happen but I want to enjoy the ride and whatever is thrown at me. It can sometimes be the little things like that drag free drift to THAT trout that you would never have thought of listing but all the little things add up along with the big things too.

Sometimes it all comes together, a UK fish to remember….

I think that is why I like being a fly fishing guide. No two days are ever the same and all the fun and challenges that go with it are always different.

I think someone once said that “it’s an adventure” and I’m going to make sure I enjoy every moment I get on the water be it working, fishing alone or in the company of good friends.

Have a great festive period and I hope a fish filled 2010!

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