Spanish Pyrenees

Just a quick post this evening to share a video with you all. I was immensely surprised when I saw this earlier today on the Orvis Fly Fishing Film Festival, which i'm sure you've all heard of. I have to admit, I was never aware of such an amazing fishery existing in the Spanish Pyrenees, I feel like I have a lot of research to do to get myself up to speed with this beautiful and amazing place! The footage in here is incredible! The dry fly takes are enough to get any angler excited and the prospect of one of those intensely coloured Brookies has seriously made me consider taking a trip there at some point. The scenery looks amazing, the wildlife abundant and the fishing? Just take a look for yourself!


O2NATOS Fly Fishing in SPAIN | THE PYRENEES ᴴᴰ from o2natos on Vimeo.

I'll catch up with you all soon, got some exciting stuff on the go!

Fashions in fly fishing

Its an interesting topic, and one that you probably haven’t considered before, but it came to my attention throughout the summer when working at Hart Fly Shop. I spend a lot of time watching fishing videos, footage from across the world and different anglers and their styles, the idea of fly fishing having ‘fashions’ has played on my mind for a while. Here in the UK, most people like their welly boots, waterproofs and quite frankly anything in a green/olive colour. In contrast, look at the Americans. Loud t-shirts with big logos and designs on them, along with technical and innovative jackets and baseball caps. Then nip over to Scandinavia, Vision seems to be an incredibly popular brand over there. I’ve used their products before and I really think that it is under rated in England and I’d love to see more people wearing it - but is that because the English don’t like the style of colourful wading jackets and loud t shirt designs?

I recently had a large order from Costa Del Mar come in. I received performance shirts, a new cap and sunglasses – stuff that most English anglers wouldn’t be seen dead in. I’m trying hard not to stereotype, but I’d much rather be riding round on an American skiff in Costa clothes and a ultra colourful Buff than stood by a lake in wellies and a olive green rain coat. My best example of illustrating this point is the guys from GEOBASS, an awesome series that goes around the world search for “The ultimate bass slam”. Just look at these guys! This is my idea of looking good whilst fishing.

GEOBASS. Cap, Sunglasses, colourful Buff.
 No copyright intended on images.

Or is this your more your kind of scene?
 No Copyright intended on images. 

Could it be that our styles are actually just suited to the type of fishing we do? The colourful performance shirts and caps suited to the hot and sunny days out in open water across the flats of America, and the heavy waterproofs for our notoriously wet seasons. Perhaps it’s just my perspective because of my age, being a young angler I want to be wearing the best and most technical clothing I can get hold of whereas others might just be happy with practicality, wearing the same fishing clothes that they have had for years. 

Would you wear this on the water?

It’s not only about clothing but also your whole fishing style, are you all about big streamers and bugs? Or the traditional cane rod and dry fly? Perhaps you’re into swinging Salmon flies? I love fishing streamers, poppers and even Chernobyl ants, but they don’t seem to be the most popular tactics in the UK.  

Poppers, streamers, clousers. My kind of scene.

This article has no intention of disrespecting anyone’s fishing style, it’s just an interesting point that I’ve had on my mind. I want to know what you think causes the differences in tastes across the globe, and also, what are your clothing choices in fishing? Take the time to comment, lets get some discussion going!

Cinema Sunday!

It's Sunday, so you should either be out on the water or relaxing at home. Either way, this post will make your Sunday even better. Heres a selection of my favourite videos from across the internet for you all to enjoy. I love watching fishing videos, I could spend hours just staring at my computer and wishing I was in one of these dream locations. But lets be real, one day I might be lucky enough to sling a fly at a Golden Dorado, or perhaps even a Redfish, but for now lets just soak in the atmosphere and watch some people landing amazing fish in even better locations. Get yourself a cup of tea, or a beer, whatever you want, and just kick back for a bit.

Touching down in the UK, heres some footage of Pike fishing in flooded chalk streams. What do you think of when you here the words 'chalk stream'? Clear, clean gravel with Mayflies and pristine brownies? Think again my friends.
The River Keeper from Matt Dunkinson Photography on Vimeo.

Now some saltwater stuff from the UK. I love this video, it really highlights the quality of our saltwater fishing. It's so underrated.
AGAINST THE TIDE from Matt Dunkinson Photography on Vimeo.


I think this video has a very important message within it. I'll let the guys in the video do the talking.

Urban Lines: Fish Where You Are (Trailer) from TwoFisted Heart Productions on Vimeo.

The Golden Dorado is undoubtedly an amazing fish. And the folks at Castaway Films have definitely conveyed that in this video.
"Devil's Gold" - Fly Fishing for Golden Dorado in Bolivia from Castaway Films on Vimeo.

Finally, Niklaus Bauer shows you how to fly fish for Pike, big Pike. The Fly TV series is one of my favourites. Theres a great episode on fly fishing for big Perch. Something that I think should be more popular the in the UK. Go and check it out!


Hope you've all had a great weekend, be it on the water, tying or completely un-related to fishing! Be sure to look out for my posts in the next week or so, got some exciting stuff!

Chasing Teeth

As promised in my previous post, tonight I am writing about my attempt to land a prehistoric predator this summer. I’m talking about Britain’s biggest game fish, the elusive and simply fascinating Northern Pike (Esox Lucius). Fly fishing for these amazing creatures is nothing new, but a lot more people have been taking up the challenge in recent years.

I’ve always been drawn to Pike, I lure fished a lot for them in my early teens. There is no denying the fact that they are just awesome! I began by splashing out on a new outfit. After a lot of research I went for one of Redington’s new Vapen Red rods. The chosen model was a 9ft 9wt, and I coupled it up with a Sage 2200, the 2210 (9-10wt) in black and blaze to be more specific. For lines, I went for the best I could afford and purchased a pair of Rio’s pike and musky lines. The intermediate and a floating line, both 9wts to balance the outfit. I’ll be reviewing this gear in a later post, there’s so much to say about them!

 

Money well spent. A perfect outfit.

I fished a handle of venues throughout the summer, but most of all I gave the river Parrett a real good thrashing. I fished dawn, day and last knockings. All of it was in vain, with no sign of fish. But are there any fish there anymore? The Parrett has been under a hell of a lot of pressure lately and the fish stocks are definitely suffering from it. Annual flooding will have undoubtedly displaced the fish, and now that the flooding is over the Parrett along with one of its tributaries, the Tone, is being dredged. So there is a lot of disturbance, but on this particular day, as I step onto the banks just up stream of Oath Lock on the Langport Angling Association beat, my hopes were high and there are fish everywhere. Small silver fish rising to a hatch of black gnats, perch following my pike flies and the occasional crash heard in the over hanging trees, there have to be Pike here? Surely? Never the kind of person to be discouraged, I began fishing. I started by using a large Fulling Mill Perch pattern, heavily dressed with EP fibres. This pattern pushes a lot of water, has a good silhouette and a little flash, so I always use it as a seeking pattern and if I get any other clues as to where the fish are then I’ll switch to more specific patterns. Searching the depths I moved onto a floating line. Perhaps the fish needed waking up? Poppers were popped, streamers were stripped and even clousers were whipped out! I fished hard, covering every likely looking spot. With the lack of action, it gave me time to think about the outfit. I was hucking some big flies, 20cm at times and my wrist never tired, the handle never rubbed and the blank never failed me. I was chucking 20 yards of line off one or two false casts.  Just a stones throw from the Parrett is the Sowey River, a man-made flood relief channel for the Parrett. This piece of water always looks in immaculate condition. Deep, slow, clear and loads of reed beds. Unfortunately I’ve never had the pleasure of fishing it. An age-old problem of access to land and fishing rights, oh how it bores me. I’m yet to find out who owns that piece of water, but I bet there are some cracking fish in there!

Where the Tone meets the Parrett, the flooding in 2014.
 (Image sourced from www.westerndailypress.co.uk)

I wish... (Image sourced from Instagram).

I also targeted pike on the river Culm, a tributary of the Exe. There is a free section where I like to fish for coarse fish on the fly and is very popular with pike anglers. I fished the large stuff as usual, but spent more time using small salt-water flies. My search for pike was painfully drawing to a close, and after a few little Perch had chewed on my white and chartreuse clouser minnow something much heavier ate my fly, a dead weight followed by a quick head shake and the dream was over. I’ll never know what that fish was, a large Perch? A Chub? The Pike that had eluded me for so long? But isn’t that one of the best bits of fishing? It’s these moments that keep us on the water!

The famous J. R. Hartley wrote, “patience expects to be rewarded”, how very true that is. We are all guilty of feeling like this at times, I really did feel that I deserved myself at least one or two Pike for my efforts, but that isn’t how it works, we all know that. Although I wish I had locked into Mr Esox, I am far from discouraged by my experimental outings for Pike, and I’ll continue chasing them come rain or shine. Lets just put it down to youthful enthusiasm and impatience, but in the long run my angling skills and mentality will have only benefitted from my first season chasing Pike.

Summer Is Never Long Enough

In this post, I’ll be talking about how well my season went. I use the term ‘season’ loosely, because to be perfectly honest, I fish all year. Even now that I am back at uni I’m still chasing saltwater fish on the fly. I’m hardly a purist, far from it. The stereotype of fly fisherman spending all day in a small stream casting dries at wild brownies drives me mad, I’m not saying I dislike this style of fishing, I love it just as much as any other style of fishing. What I’m trying to get at, is the fact that if it swims, ill pitch a fly to it, and I enjoy catching carp on the surface just as much as fingerling brownies on tiny CDC’s.

Opinions aside, lets talk fishing. Early in the summer I took a trip to Exe Valley Fishery, nestled just outside of Exmoor National Park, this beautiful complex is stuffed with cracking brownies and rainbows. A compulsory visit to Hart Fly Shop (the tackle shop on the complex) meant that I bumped into Nick Hart - the fishery owner. One thing led to another and by the end of the day I left with two cracking Rainbows and a Job! Excited was an understatement, and I eagerly awaited my first day. Over the summer I spent many hours working for Nick. I was responsible for managing the lakes and looking after the shop whilst Nick was out guiding. I quickly realised I was the luckiest teenager in the world, and over the summer I got to know Nick well. He’s a fantastic angler and has an even better personality. I’m counting down the days for when I return to Exe Valley in the Christmas Holidays.

I managed to get a lot of fishing done this summer; I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from Nick - One of the many benefits of working for a skilled and knowledgeable guide. I’ll start by talking Carp. One of my fishing buddies Ellis has access to a private lake (location X for the purpose of this article). Location X is a coarse fishery, which has been closed for over 30 years; it’s rammed with big carp. The fish are spooky, the fishing is hard, but the rewards are massive. We fished it with a classic old school carping technique – The ever-faithful floating crust. But remember, we’re fly anglers, so Deer hair bread flies were the order of the day. We’ve had some cracking days there, fishing by day and beers round the fire by night. Camping out by the water ready to do it all again at first light – nothing better!

One of the lakes smaller residents, but a six weight and 6lb
 leader made the fight more sporting.

This year I set myself a challenge, to fish many more wild waters and test my angling ability. The West Country Angling Passport - http://westcountryangling.com - Provided the perfect kick-start into wild fishing and one water in particular took my fancy. The Upper Culm, reaching a meter wide at most, and never more that half a meter deep, but holding 14 inch wild brown trout?! It was only ten minutes from my door, and I had to give it a crack. On my first session I fished late into the evening, when the summer months allowed for you to just see your flies until around 10:30pm. Using a classic technique, a big, large profile dry fly in low light conditions. Two takes, two misses, I was gutted, but it kept me going back. I fished the Upper Culm many more times that summer. I’m ashamed to say I never hooked up there, but it sure is an amazing piece of water.

Beautiful, the Upper Culm.

Continuing on the subject of wild fishing, I was very lucky to have a session after work with my boss, Nick. We were fishing a private stretch of the Exe. The beat had only really been fished for Salmon, but it was packed with beautiful, good sized wild Brownies. It was an evening session, and the go-to fly was a retirer sedge, one of my favorite dries for rivers. We landed some stunning fish that evening and saw some monsters, I will have to return next season to try and knock into some of those hogs.

I also took up the challenge of fly fishing for Pike this summer, but I want to spend a lot more time on this so I’ll save it for another day. All in all, I’d say I got well and truly humbled this season. I learnt a hell of a lot, but I made so many mistakes on the water, which really did cost me. Hey-ho! Its how us anglers learn, and to me a day of fresh air by the water is perfect anyway, its always great to land fish, but I’m always thankful for time spent by the water just watching the world go by. I’ll be sharing my mistakes and lessons learnt in a new series of blog posts to come. The whole idea of this blog was for it to be a learning curve, to document my progression into the fly fishing world and for my readers to learn with me.

I’ll sign off with the classic phrase ‘tight lines’. Feel free to leave comments, ask questions or raise discussion points!