I published #2 of Eat, Sleep, Fish today. I think it looks pretty good and have been bowled over by the help I’ve received and the sheer numbers that have read it. We have all been amazed and really pleased. We’re not trying to be clever or smart, just share our love of fly fishing with other anglers.

A special thanks to Jim for your skills and enthusiasm.

I hope you enjoy it!       Eat, Sleep, Fish

Fly Fishing Devon with the Devon School of Fly fishing -  Fly Fishing Tuition, Guiding and Fly Fishing Lessons in Devon

It is often the time of year when some talk about refilling their fly boxes but there are grayling and pike to be caught, along with the small stillwaters that offer a good winter fix of fly fishing.

I have tied a few flies but can’t seem to get into the same groove as this time last year but suspect it has something to do with the lack of snow! Those I’ve tied have been mayflies and a few variations on nymph patterns that worked well last year.

It was good to be out teaching today and to meet up with brothers Alan and Brian. They both like to fish small stillwaters although Alan lives right on the banks of the Teign. He is also off to New Zealand in a few weeks time. Although his trip is business related he has managed to get a few day’s fishing on the North Island.

They are both self taught and wanted some help with their casting. They had done a really good job and it was just a case of refining a few things. This meant we could play with casts for different fishing situations whilst showing them loop control and getting the most from their rods and lines. We also played with some different fly lines so they could see the differences between short headed and long headed lines and how to get the best from them.

We also hopped down to the river to get an idea of what the differences between still and moving water fishing are.

Man, I hate my job!

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We stayed over and next day I met up with my good friends Jim Williams and Ian May to catch a few grayling, take a few pics and talk about Eat, Sleep Fish. They have both been instrumental in it from the beginning and we thought we should have a meet up and chat things through since we unleashed Issue 1 on the world.

They are both excellent fishermen and photographers too and Ian came armed with just his camera gear as the weather was so good. Jim and I caught some fish and even a few on dries, which was fun. We talked, laughed a lot and have some great things planned for the future. Issue 2 will see the start of this and I promise it will be worth it!

I am going to release #2 at the end of the month and there is some great stuff in it, not just from the U.K., but around the world too and it’s looking really, really good.

Fly Fishing in Devon – The Devon School of Fly Fishing Fly Fishing Lessons, Tuition and Guiding in Devon

Toby and a grayling

The night before was a shocker down in Devon with nasty winds and heavy rain and part of me thought that we might not be seeing the river at its best but that still didn’t stop me leaping out of the bed at stupid o’clock and jumping in the truck.

I picked up Toby and we decided a coffee and breakfast were the way ahead and as both of us were early (mainly my fault as I am always early and Toby knows it)  we had time for a pit stop.

Vince brings one in

Meeting Vince at the river we tackled up, walked downstream and got going. Toby and I fished together for a bit and had a few fish pretty quickly. He fished a 10ft rod with a duo of heavy nymphs under a yard indicator and I with a french nymph rig. Both worked and after a bit I jumped out and did my host bit to make sure Vince was OK.

No need to worry as he was playing a fish when I turned up and after getting in the river just below had a few myself and everytime I looked up Vince was playing a fish. With the water low it looked like he had got onto a good pod of fish that were bunched up.

Vince was fishing a duo of klink and nymph and he had a few come to the dry too.

I lit the barbie for lunch and after it taking a bit too long to get warm Vince got out his gas powered stove to finish the burgers off.

Tailgate burgers

After lunch the fishing just continued in the same vein and we caught plenty. Vince had them to 13 inches and a good few more on dries while Toby had a 15 incher.

We packed up as the weather closed in, having had our fill. We all fished different methods but they all worked. I am sure there is a lesson in there somewhere about flexibility…

Lunchtime chironomid hatch

I have been working on Issue 2 of Eat, Sleep, Fish and have just got off of the phone with Jim and I can’t wait to see his next article. It sounds like it is going to be perfect for us grayling fishers!

Fly Fishing in Devon  The Devon School of Fly Fishing – Fly Fishing Tuition, Guiding and Fly Fishing Lessons

I have been overwhelmed by the messages I have received saying how much people have enjoyed our ezine. The amount of visitors we have had has exceeded what I  even dreamt of and we have had messages from as far as New Zealand via Australia, South Africa, U.S. and through Eastern Europe and of course the U.K.                                                       Eat, Sleep, Fish

As I have mentioned before, we are not looking to make a penny from this, just to spread our love of fly fishing so if you have enjoyed the first issue please pass on to your fly fishing friends and help us spread the word.

I can’t believe how mild it is and plan to hit the river between Christmas and new year and we might just try a few dries too.

In the meantime many thanks for the support we have had in 2011 and we look froward to seeing you on the river in 2012!

Over the last year or so I have been working on expanding this a bit further into something a little bigger. As I see it the world wide web is such a great tool for connecting with people and for sharing news, views and gossip.

I was lucky enough to be fishing in Montana with Ray (The Dude) and it struck me, whilst sitting on a rock in a wonderful stream called Rock Creek, to come up with the idea for an ezine where people could share with others their love of fly fishing. The idea grew and a few months later I was talking to some good friends about the concept to see if it had legs or not. The feedback I got back was yes and so Eat, Sleep, Fish started to come to life.

I spoke to my most excellent web and design dudes who built the site and designed a logo and I managed to teach myself a little about how to put things together.

The main thing about ESF is that it will be a non profit venture and that anyone can contribute, if they want to. There are so many people out there who are great fishermen, whom we can learn from and let’s face it, we all love hearing about someone’s day on the water and so I hope that ESF will be a tool that will enable people to share their passion.

So here it is, Eat, Sleep, Fish. I hope you enjoy it and get what we are trying to do.  As ever feedback is welcomed!

www.eat-sleep-fish.co.uk

I have been out on a few trips recently that I’ve written about and I was getting some gear rigged up for my next days fishing. This time of year I really enjoy fishing nymphs and where I am fishing the water is low and clear and it lends itself really well to french nymphing. I was getting the leader on my reel and felt a tugging at the end. Despite fighting the urge to strike I saw that one of our cats was having some fun with the long leader as I got it rigged up. What I didn’t realise was how much fun she had and had bitten rather a lot of it and it was one of those sickening moments when you can see the marks on the leader and when you give it a gentle tug it parts. Sadly there were quite a few of these and I had to bin it. She has this butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth looks and so I couldn’t get angry plus she had been well trained with my chop stick and string casting routine which meant she had gotten pretty good at catching the line when I tried to curve it around her.

The Leader Muncher

The other thing I like to do is tie flies when it means I can’t go fishing. It is one of those things that I have to be in the mood for and I’ll sit and tie a bunch of flies or I have been thinking about the season just gone and have thought ” I wonder if I tie it like this it might work better ” Today has been one of those days and I have had a few “brainwaves” I have come up with a few ideas that I’ll try soon for a quicker sinking nymph (not just extra weight), a new sort of mayfly emerger and a fly that I think is a whole lot better for using as part of a duo or trio set up. It is easy to tie and I have just tweaked the early prototypes I used last week. I find it more fun to try and tie something to fit the purpose rather than hearalding the latest fly from a fly company as the latest and greatest. It is also good to show the people you are guiding why you are tying on the fly and why you have tied it rather than just tying on a parachute adams ( great fly though) and hoping for the best.

It is a nice feeling when sometimes the flies you have thought about during the winter layoff actually work in a real life situation. Not always the case though and I have had what I thought were perfect for the role flies hidden away in the crevices of my fly box!

Fly Fishing in Devon – Fly Fishing Tuition, Lessons and Guiding

Last year we got snowed out but this year it was mild and after some excellent turkey and pumpkin pie we headed out on Sunday to go to a Christmas fair at a nice place that was an old monestary with a mill which meant there had to be a river nearby.

Dude and Al with a NZ fish

The girls headed off to learn how to make a few Christmas decorations and Dude and I headed off to a hall area where they were serving coffee. We sat talking and noticed that the hall started to fill and they had wheeled out a piano. It turned out that there was going to be a few carols being sung. We thought it might be nice to hear but we both slightly panicked when they started handing out song sheets. This didn’t look good. There is no way I would inflict my singing voice on anyone. I remember when I was at school and the music teacher thought I was singing out of tune on purpose. Since then I do my best Cheryl Cole impression and move my lips to the music.

Just to make things worse though the words were in Danish. The lady at the front started to show everyone the warming up excersises before launching into the first song with great enthusiasm. The assembled crowd were loving it as Dude and I just looked at each other. I have never heard Dude sing but knowing he is now fluent in Danish made me think his vocal talents were similar to mine as I didn’t hear a note come from his lips either.

Now, I pride myself on my manners and I wouldn’t dream of walking out after one song as it would have been rude but how long are you supposed to wait? 40 minutes later I saw the leading lady walk behind the piano to grab something and thought that was our window to escape. We made our exit.

Checking on the girls, they were still doing their decorations so I suggested to Dude that we head outside to look at the stream. It was pretty small and clear but I saw a large splash. The light wasn’t great and I had no sunglasses to see what it was. As the sun was in our faces we headed to the other bank through a mass of trees so we might get a better look. We couldn’t see anything but walking upstream a bit Ray saw one big sea trout then another. I’d missed them but was dying to get my first glimpse of a Danish fish. To do this I did something I haven’t done in a while and that was climb a tree. Some of the magic was still there and I managed to get up high enough to give me a better view of the river and I saw a few fish. They were big.

We walked further upstream. By now my shoes and jeans were caked in mud but we saw a guy standing in the water by a small footbridge. We saw a few more people and some were holding nets. We then saw what was going on.

It turns out they had been electro fishing the river for sea trout and then milking them for eggs. They fertilise them and bring them on in their own little hatchery. It was a great little operation and we got to see some real big sea trout up close. The guys belong to a fishing club which, when we got back to Dude’s, we looked up. The great thing is that the club is based right by where Dude lives so I am hopeful he will have some guys to go fishing with.

Just back from some grayling fishing and yesterday was the first day it felt cold. There were just the slightest hint of a small hatch every time the wind dropped and Toby and I even had a few fish take a look at the dry.

Fly Fishing in Devon Fly Fishing School,Fly Fishing Lessons and Fly Fishing Guides

I’m not really a drinker and can take it or leave it but I do like to sit down with Emma and have a glass of wine at the weekends which has become a neat little tradition.

I woke up on Tuesday with a slightly wooly head and as it was clear and bright a few hours fishing would be the perfect cure.

On the way to the river my truck started to misbehave and seemed to lose power. I got to the motorway and thought do I head to the garage or go fishing?

Not exactly a hard one and after pulling over and restarting the truck it was fine (ish) so I decided to hit the river.

I’m glad I did. The water was in good shape, despite the rain, and for the first time in a while I didn’t need my fishing jacket.

A simple dark hare’s ear tied on to shrimp hook and a pink tungsten bead was my first choice and the fish didn’t seem to mind it too much. The first couple of pools brought a couple of small fish.

Just up from this there is this really nice corner that screams fish. I know there are always loads we encounter but this one is just about perfect. I bumped a fish and then hit one soon after. It was nice grayling.

That is how the fishing went and I continued working up the river catching the odd fish. I even saw a fish rise just the once.

I decided to get out and walk back to my truck which, thankfully, was fine. That was until I got to the hill just by my house and it started to play up again. Apparently it is called limp home mode which is where the computer takes over and cuts power right back so that you have enough to get you home. It is fixed now and was just a blocked pipe of some sort.

We were fed some of the nicest pork I have ever eaten by Jan and Keith last night. Jan is the terror of Kennick and there are not many people who know it better. Keith doesn’t fish but can hold his own in any fishing conversation and is probably the perfect example of learning something by osmosis! Any pork left Jan?

Fly Fishing in Devon Fly Fishing School – Fly Fishing Tuition, Lessons and Guiding

I always try and look for the best in people but I can’t for the life of me understand what motivates people to feel they are entitled to take other people’s property. They were probably opportunist thieves and possibly had little idea of what they had taken. I know a couple of the rods that were taken had sentimental value and I am sure people who steal don’t think about things like this, or even care. I think that if these sorts of people are caught they should be made to confront their victims just to see what effect their actions have had. It is easy to steal something when you can’t see the rightful owner but how would they feel when they have to look their victims in the eye?

I was half way to the river and didn’t think I’d be of any help to Toby so I went on ahead. It was the first time I had fished this river without him and it felt a little strange.

The weather was a bit murky and the river had a very slight tinge of colour to it but it was perfectly fishable. I rigged up and tied on a dry and nymph duo style and cracked on. I had a couple of small fish nudge the dry pretty quickly but things went quiet for a bit. I worked my way up the river, focussing on the slacker areas of water and the slightly slower flows. The water wasn’t clear enough to stalk the fish so I worked on instinct and the fish started to come.

I picked up fish as I worked my way upstream. I didn’t knock the cover off of the ball or anything but picked up fish here and there. I spoke to Toby to see how things were going and he had found some of his gear down an alleyway so there was even some good news. He even talked about popping along if he could make his old waders waterproof in time.

It was past lunch and I fished up to where I normally get out but thought I’d try for one more and head back, working on the basis that if Toby did turn up it would be a shorter walk for him. I managed to get caught up in a tree in a really overgrown bit so hopped out and got in further upstream. There was a nice gentle curve in the river and I cast my fly upstream.

The dry dipped and I set the hook. I thought I had hooked a big out of season trout that first headed upstream and then down. There wasn’t much I could do with the fish but managed to keep it out of a couple of nasty snags and netted a beautiful grayling. I managed a couple of pics and slipped the fish back.

The weather was on the turn and any fish I caught after this one wouldn’t have done it justice so I snipped my flies off and headed home. I only wish Toby was there to have seen the fish.

Fly Fishing in Devon Fly Fishing School – Fly Fishing Lessons, Guiding and Fly Fishing Tuition