Devon School of Fly Fishing Team blog

A good friend has a stretch of water that he has asked if I would like to fish with him. He has very kindly asked me for about 3 years and with the workload it has been a little tricky. I got close last year but this year when he asked I had one clear day and jumbled  tuition around so that I could spend two days.

I have promised to not give any details away and I will remain good to my word, all I will say is that I was not fly fishing in Devon!

I got there late on Wednesday night as I had been guiding Paul on the river and talked with my host for a bit and then went to bed. I don’t know if you are the same but the prospect of fishing a new water leaves me little time to sleep and I was awake at 5.30am and ready to go. I poked my head out of the window and saw that it was raining. Not heavy but it looked pretty set and looked like it was going to be a permanent fixture for the day. Needless to say my host wasn’t up and had been there for almost a week and had settled in to that nice relaxed camp routine and the last thing he’d want is an excited newcomer dragging him out to go fishing!

I decided to get my gear ready and had a brand new Scott S4 to try. It is an 8 1/2 ft 4wt and putting my obvious bias to Scott aside I have to say that I have a new best buddy. The rod has even knocked my beloved G2‘s into second place…it is a really, really nice fishing rod.

After some toast and coffee we headed down to the bottom of the river. My host graciously had left this section so that I was hitting it fresh. After a quick limber up I made the first few casts. As there were some slightly deeper pockets I wanted to cover both bases and so had a scruffy klink with a flashback pheasant tail nymph tied to the bend of the hook NZ style. We quickly saw a rise to my right and my first cast was a little short. I had feared that I had spooked the fish but cast again. This time I was on the money and a fish rose to my dry. I could feel this was a good fish and seeing it run upstream and against the current told me this was the case. I eventually got it under control and my host netted a fish. This was a monster. My new rod comes with markers on it for 12inches and 20 inches.I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the 20 inch marker until then. The fish was just a couple of millimeters below it…I couldn’t believe it!

My host had to pop into town so left me alone to fish. I worked up the next pool and saw a fish move. I covered him a couple of times but nothing. Third cast and the dry dipped. I struck and couldn’t believe it as it felt as though it was another hefty fish. I netted the brown trout and remember saying out loud “This is unbelievable”  This time it was an 18 incher!

I had to sit down for a bit and reflect, I had beaten my best ever UK wild trout and got close to it with my next fish.

The river also has some grayling too and I picked up a nine incher. I carried on and the rain had got a little heavier. As a whole we had been working the tails of pools and slower, slacker areas. I worked my way up a pool and the head reminded me of an area I have had a lot of success with when guiding on the Taw. I threw a couple of casts in and nothing. I thought I’d make one more and I was glad I did. The dry dipped again and another fish was on. In the words of John Wilson it was a clonker. I caught sight of the fish and knew it was another biggie. My host was watching and came up the pool and netted the fish. I measured it and it was even bigger than my first at 20 1/2 inches!

After releasing the fish and high fiving my host he headed down to the pool he was fishing, I threw in the hole again but thought that would be it. First cast the dry dipped again and I was in again and it was another nice fish! My host couldn’t believe it and neither could I. This one was 14 inches but again screamed right upstream when hooked. It really reminded me of both New Zealand fishing and New Zealand Fish. I was also really lucky to get a 16 incher and the amazing thing is that these are all wild fish, nothing stocked and we didn’t luck them when salmon fish, we were trout fishing.

I only fished for a few hours the second day but I netted a 14 inch grayling for my host and I hooked a couple of small ones just to prove they were there. It was just one of those days when the fishing gods smiled on me and one I won’t forget in a hurry but it was great fishing with good friends in a stunning setting.

I have promised not to mention where I was and I will remain good to my word, I’ll just call it mystery river X for now.

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!

I just love this time of year. Everything is coming to life including the fishing. The settled weather has meant that fly hatches have not just been confined to what the book says about lunchtime and the fish have been taking as late as 5 o’clock and beyond. I know this weather is probably going to break at some stage but it’s  just great to be out on the water as a fly fishing guide and as a fisherman too.

The fish are really getting locked onto the grannom on the River Taw and it has been good to see; not to mention exciting!  Already this season I have seen 3 otters, one of which was a cub that sat on a rock and watched us.  He then showed us how he would swim down stream, jump out and show us how clever he was again. This took place just a few feet away and was a real treat. Nick the owner of the hotel was gutted as he hasn’t seen one yet this season!

Walking along the banks of the river you’ll see the primroses and the smell of wild garlic is everywhere. It’s just all these sorts of things that make being on the river such a special place to be.

I saw the first signs of hawthorn fly on Thursday so I’ll be keeping my eyes open for this to get going too.

Below is a photo from a river course we did Sunday, I popped it up as I feel sure there should be a suitable caption for it!

Many thanks to Nick and Tara for looking after 20 hungry fishermen so well.

I was popping up to Kennick yesterday and hopped into my truck and went to start it up and not a lot happened. It seems like I have a flat battery and I’m not sure what caused it. I say that, I think one of two things might have caused it. I popped on the river with Toby on Friday and he had left his stuff on the back seat of my truck. The only downside of this was that he took a while to set up and my truck, as much as I love it, has this annoying little habit of resetting the alarm when it feels like it. This means that if you are poking around inside with the door open and it decides to rearm you will probably set off the alarm. As I said Toby took a little while to set up his gear and I kept having to reset the alarm…perhaps this did it? Or Emma got me a device that you plug into the cigarette lighter which you then plug you IPod into and it selects a clear radio channel allowing you to play your IPod music through your car stereo. It is really cool but I was thinking that leaving it plugged in the whole time might be draining the battery, the device also charges the Ipod so perhaps this has something to do with it too. Either way it meant I had to jump into Emma’s car and try and remember my waterproof stuff along with hat and glasses. Thankfully I did. I am charging the truck battery now so hopefully it will work…I hope it isn’t anything more serious.

I got a sniff of a fresh salmon being caught a little further downstream from us on the Taw. This means they are starting to head our way. I’ll be waiting for them and will hopefully get a shot at one or two. Toby thought he had a pull Friday but it is always hard to know and he would probably prefer I didn’t say that as he much prefers the black or white approach. You either had a fish or you didn’t. I think he is right but early season it does lift your spirits a bit to see or at least think that something might have been paying your offering some attention. In this case it was a Flying C.

The trout season is less than a week away. If the weather is up to it I’ll be hitting the Taw but most likely the Bray. If not I’ll be heading to Colliford for some brown trout fly fishing on Bodmin Moor. I’ll be stringing up the rod with an intermediate line and the ever faithful black tadpole. Small short, jerky strips usually work and we’ll see if this is the case this year.

Paul sent me an email yesterday telling me that fly tying can be potentially bad for your health…more from Paul below.

Fly tying is dangerous! A cautionary tale.

I have great little study. It has windows facing south and east and therefore catches the morning sun.

The L-shaped desk has one arm along the south facing windowsill with computer, filing etc above and below it.

The other arm sits along the west wall of the room and has all my fly-tying equipment permanently out and ready to go. A captain’s chair swivels conveniently between the two.

A few mornings ago- the first decent day in ages- I was happy sitting at the computer part of the desk browsing the internet and Pete’s new website and blog.

Suddenly, my wife cried out in considerable alarm that something was on fire in the house.

I was out of my study like a shot, nose twitching like a rabbit scenting lettuce. I, too, caught a strong whiff of something burning!

Strangely, it seemed to be coming from behind me! I returned to my study to find flames licking up the white card I place behind my vice to improve my view of work in progress!  Having doused the flames, it was clear a 2” hole had been burnt in the card.

The culprit was the magnifier mounted in front of the vice- a perfect combination of a sunny morning and the distance between magnifier and card perfect for focusing the sun on the card.

Happily no serious damage done- but I hate to think what might have happened had we been out or elsewhere in the house with the study door closed.

Thanks Paul!

Main website for Devon School of Fly Fishing is www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I have various photos of grip and grin shots and of fishing buddies I have met and have fished with over the years. I like to look at them and remind myself of what was a good day or sometimes wasn’t such a good one but turned out well for some  reason other than fishing. I think it was John Gierach who said when asked how the fishing had been “the fishing was good but the catching poor” This sums it all up really nicely on so many levels and shows why we all love it so much. It isn’t about numbers it’s about the whole big picture.

Talking of which I, as ever, seem to have gone off topic a bit and in a bid to get back again I was thinking about all of my fishing photos both on the computer and the actual hard copies I have. Computers are great in that you can have files and files of pics to look through and it is nice to quickly scoot through them but there is something nice about having pile of photos in your hand that you can flick through.

I’m never going to give any serious photographer a run for his money sadly; I don’t have the “eye”, but there are some really good ones about and the internet is a great medium for us to be transported to far away places that we might only ever get to dream about. Sometimes a photo can say more than a guy on TV or DVD can possibly do and it lets us form our own idea of what the place might be like and if we aren’t ever going to be there then that’s a nice thought to have. I remember a website that had a picture of a trout about to take an anglers fly. It really was a cool picture and I found myself imagining it was a spring creek somewhere in Montana despite having no idea where it actually was.

Looking at the old “hard copy” pics the little mistakes that we have made are there for ever and we’ll not be able to change them, not that I’d want to as it all adds to the character-well thats my excuse.

Looks like I have wandered off topic again and what I keep meaning to ask is do you have a fishing picture that means a lot to you? If there were a fire and you could save one fishing pic what would it be?

The pic below is one that means a lot to me for a lot of reasons. Firstly as it was taken in Colorado in 2006 at Mike Clark’s place in Lyons. I had just been there to pick up a bamboo rod he had built for me for my 40th birthday. Emma had saved up for the rod for 3 years, ordered it and only told me when it came to how the rod was going to be finished. This was quite a shock!

From the left: AK Best, The Dude, some scruffy urchin and Mike Clark

The other reason this picture means a lot is that Emma told me about the rod then said as my Christmas present I should go out there and pick it up with The Dude coming along too. This was a memorable trip for so many reasons but the trip to Lyons was pretty special. It was so cool meeting up with AK and looking at his flies and to just to talk fishing with him. I think we covered everything from downstream dry fly presentations to bonefishing and just about everything inbetween!

Mike then shut the shop early and we fished the St Vrain just at the top of the High Street. I will never forget this as Mike was guiding me and Kathy who works with Mike was following me. I fished the holes like we would at home and I covered the water quickly whereas Kathy worked a hole methodically and kept catching fish. I soon cottoned on to the fact and got into the groove…well it was our first day!

One of the other reasons this picture makes me smile is that we had arrived the night before and The Dude had driven us from Denver Airport. I remember asking him (he is American by birth) how easy it was to slip back into driving on the other side of the road to the UK. “It seems to be pretty easy” was his reply. It was about this time he realised we were driving down Lyons High Street on the wrong side of the road. I’ll tell you about our other “off road” adventure we had on this trip another time.

I did try and load a photo of all four of us smiling. As you can see Mike isn’t really showing his teeth but he doesn’t really like his photo being taken and I have about 10 different shots and the expression is the same…I’ll try another time.

Needless to say the rod is everything I hoped for and more, and the attention to detail and skill gone into it is amazing.  There is now a 5 year wait for one of his rods. It fishes pretty well too! I often use it on the first day of the trout season where I usually like to fish the Bray. After all the rod is called the Bray Special so it seems only right.

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I was talking to my good pal and fishing buddy Toby about a grayling trip on Friday and we got talking about opening day and what he would be doing. He has even jotted a few words down about his plans which I hope you’ll enjoy!

Over to you fella….

SPRINGTIME

I love this time of year. The cold days of winter are subsiding and the nights are getting 
shorter, Spring flowers are starting to peep through with snowdrops 
and daffodils dancing in the wind. Birds are becoming more active and daytime temperatures are starting 
to   rise but the main reason I love this time of year is the 
anticipation of the new fishing season.

Traditionally for me the start of my reservoir season happens on Chew 
Valley with a bunch of guys from the complete fisher forum meeting up 
very early on open day on the bank like excited school children 
talking about the day ahead.

Now for anyone who knows me I am a bit of a tackle tart and usually I 
have a new piece of tackle or two floating around to test out on open 
day.

This year is no different !

Yesterday I was playing around with my new toy; a Scott S4 9ft 6″ 7# 
and I must say what a nice rod it is.

Casting with a SA GPX 7# line the rod and line worked in great harmony 
and I can’t wait to give it a proper thrashing on the 16th March.

Now anyone who fishes Chew will know that there are quite a few pike 
in the lake and when fishing deep as you often have to on open day, you 
invariably hook a pike or two on your trout flies.
Well I have a cunning plan.
I will also have set up a pike fly fishing outfit ready to out smart 
out toothy friend.

For fishing off the bank this season I will be using a St Croix Legend 
Elite rod  in a 8# matched with a very special reel a Abel Super 8 in 
Pike graphic.

The great thing with the rod is its got so much power to play the pike 
quickly but its so smooth and really helps cast the big flies you need 
to use for catching our toothy friends.

So roll on 16th of march I’m ready and waiting.

In between now and then I plan to get out on the rivers a couple of 
times after grayling before the season closes for them and am looking 
forward to going out Friday on my local river, The Tone.

I helped bank clearing last weekend on one of my favourite beats of 
the Taunton Fly Fishing Club waters and the river should be in fine fettle for Friday so I 
can’t wait.

Edit – me neither and by the way,yes, you are a tackle tart!- Pete

Main website address: www.devonschoolofflyfishing.com

I met up with Mark, a pal from Plymouth for a bit of a pre season warm up. We just played around with some different line and rod combos and tinkered with some speys and as ever talked fishing. We were right beside the river and it was really nice just seeing everything come to life. After the lone large dark olive of yesterday it was nice to see a really healthy hatch get going. I wonder if the guy from yesterday managed to hang in there for todays action!

Try as we might though we didn’t see a lot of interest from the fish despite having a good walk along the river. We were walking downstream and I suspect this didn’t help our chances a great deal  although this is the first settled, slightly warmer weather we have had of late and it will probably take a little more of this to get them thinking about looking up a bit more. On the chalkstreams hatches of LDO’s have been a feature since Jan and the grayling and a few out of season browns have been paying more attention. I have to admit to having caught a few out of season browns but it has not been a function of targetting them just that they have put spawning behind them and are right back on the food again. All of them have been in great shape and have been fighting fit.

  As you can see from the photo on the left  it looked a wonderful spring day and while I am sitting writing this I can  feel just a tinge of where the sun has caught my face or perhaps this is wishful thinking. It certainly makes you feel a lot better! On this subject it reminded me of a corporate day Mark and I did in January this year. It was for a large company and the idea was that they would split into 3 teams, some of them would do indoor tasks and the others would do outdoor tasks. The outdoor ones consisted of sailing, rafting and fly fishing. As there was a competitive element to things I thought it would be an idea to teach the basic overhead cast with a shoot of line and then have time period to hit selected targets. As I had a load of caps we placed them down and gave each team a set time to hit as many as possible. It seemed to go down pretty well and we got some great feedback from people who had previously thought fly fishing was boring. Anyway we did the day on the 15th of Jan and I can assure you it wasn’t a nice day. There was that nasty persistent  rain and a bit of a breeze too. Thankfully we were wrapped up well but I can say the same for the guy trying rafting who placed one foot on the raft and the other on the pontoon and stood there as the raft drifted away. I didn’t get to see this happen but I did see a completely drenched soul who asked if this was the place for fly fishing. Depsite me assuring him he would get more than just a bit cold he was determined to start but there was no way I was going to teach him in that state! Ieventually took him inside as he at last realised it probably wasn’t a good idea.

It was great to see Mark and as ever he was a gentleman and turned up with my first packet of Hob Nobs for the season!