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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On that front I was talking to a good friend who is off to NZ in a few days time. I sent him a few local patterns that I had including cicadas, willow grubs and some of Stu Tripneys excellent foam patterns. He asked what I had used most and it turned out it was a klinkhammer. Not because I always tie one one (in fairness it is pretty much at the top of the list) The really interesting part is that I didn’t tie it on due to force of habit. It was for a couple of reasons. Firstly having watched the fish they looked to be on emergers and secondly I thought “I wonder if they have seen this fly much?” I hadn’t read or heard much about them down there and it seemed to work pretty well for me. The other time this happened was in Colorado and it was a similar case. Is it a fly that hasn’t had a lot of exposure away from Europe? I’d be interested to know.

I went out yesterday for a practice and wanted to play with some spey casting. It was a bright morning and I fancied some music and a drive too, so I headed over to Kennick. Kennick is a 50 acre lake right in the middle of Dartmoor and is one of the prettiest places you could fish. It is well managed, has a great club and some nice guys who fish there. I don’t get to go there as often as I should but I always enjoy it. A few friends teach there and it isn’t a bad place to catch your first fish!

Anyway, the lake was almost frozen over but I found a little section of  clear water and played for a bit. I loved it and pretty much had the place to myself .

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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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