RH Fly Fishing

    The balmy, bright spring morning was punctuated by barrages of rifle fire somewhere nearby on Salisbury Plain, probably extra training in response to what’s going on in eastern Europe. Heavy ordnance chipped in from time to time, while various helicopters put in the odd appearance passing overhead, some pretty sinister looking. Bri and I chose Avon Springs because we haven’t fished it together for what must be ten years, and I was last here in 2015. It’s too good a fishery for that, and still reasonable VFM at 4 for £50. Why should Wiltshire generally be cheaper than Hampshire? The young Avon alongside is run by Fishing Breaks now, so we had Club ‘Lake’, 5 acres, and Spring ‘Lake’, 2.5 acres, at our disposal.  We both set up intermediate outfits, received wisdom suggesting it’s still time for lures until the spring advances a bit more. Last day of the coarse fishing season, BTW. Not wishing to incur any bad luck by going widdershins, we set off down the left hand b...

  “A fly at one end and a philosopher at the other” – Sir Humphry Davy     Molly M. (my sat-nav, now nearly 10) took me a route she hasn’t before; I saw some pretty bits of Berkshire on a bright, spring morning, splashing through the residue of obviously heavy overnight rain, along winding, country roads.   The Fluff Club have been to Barn Elms Fly Fishery a few times, the cursed Covid intervening since episode 44, nearly three years ago. Whytee was the first to arrive, the lodge still locked and deserted. You have to pre-book (and pre-pay), names are written on a black board, upon which you chalk your catch return before leaving. The proprietor does arrive to check who is fishing, during the course of a day, but all the Covid malarkey means there is no keeper at present, thus no tea, coffee or heating in the lodge. Worse, there is already a lot of weed, particularly blanket weed, which will be a growing problem, (see what I did there?). The recent storms have le...

 Bit of an update, apropos of nothing:  As well as this blog, the Fly Fishing Forum, Facebook, and Instagram, I've now started posting things on Twitter, while I try to get my head around that particular social [or is it antisocial?] medium.  Anyway, the photo above shows some flies I've tied recently. Ignore the three skinny ones at the back, which were given to me by a boat partner in a competition last year. The other three patterns are my most recent ties:  On the left are four Jig Prince Streamers, after Fly Fish Food's recent post; the middle three are black lures to fish on an intermediate this weekend, but I can't remember whose pattern they are variants of. The flies on the right are [my] unweighted Twinkle Nymphs for small-river fishing this coming spring and summer, and for casting to sighted fish in small stillwaters.  Tie on, brothers and sisters!

    …”a trout is a moment of beauty known only to those who seek it,” – Arnold Gingrich   Communication breakdown: Whytee pulled into the car park, Dodgy Phil close behind, to see Lumberjack and the Fishery Manager by their vehicles. “Did you get the email? I didn’t”, asked Lumberjack, “What email?”. The FM said “Your chairman cancelled because of the weather forecast”. Whytee replied “Damned if I did. Who looks at emails first thing in the morning before going fishing?”, then a little anxiously “Does this mean you’re closed?” whereupon FM (whose name might be Leslie) responded in the negative, cheering all four of us up: he had some customers and the Fluff Boys, albeit only two plus one, had some fishing. Money changed hands, then we readied for the off.   Damerham holds a historic place in the realm of small stillwater trout fisheries and is the home of the Blue Trout, a Rainbow variant. There are three ‘lakes’, Holyhead, Mayfly, and Horseshoe, interlaced by the ...

  I fished this particular swim every time I fished that beat on the river, always stopping a little before the bend to fish the glide into the deep pool. It was somehow magical, mysterious, I couldn’t pass it by without making a cast or two. It’s not that the swim was a banker, a spot where I always caught, but it drew me back, nevertheless. I had fished down the entire beat, grimly determined despite the sudden, unexpected squall that caught me without waterproofs, I was soaked through and chilled to the bone, but still drawn to that swim to make my final attempts in the failing light. I arrived in position and spotted a rise near the far bank from what seemed to be a good fish. I bent to my dry fly box to make an appropriate selection, and was suddenly startled to find an elderly chap standing by my left elbow, his tweeds as soaked through as I was. “This is a lovely spot” he said, wringing water from his old, flat cap “Do you mind if I watch for a while?” I agreed, addin...

  Driving to the reservoir we chatted about all sorts of things, but as usual, the main topic was fishing. Phil, my mate, informed me he’d been reading a book about reservoir and lake fishing styles, and having thought about it long and hard he believed he had come up with a winning combination of flies for a three-fly cast: “It’s all about having patterns that work together as a team, instead of as individuals” he said, “I reckon I have figured out the ultimate selection”. He wouldn’t elaborate any further and changed the subject. In the boat he waited until after I had tied up my three-fly cast and then revealed his master plan: “On the point goes a big, black Woolly Bugger” explained Phil “then on the middle dropper is a pearly Cormorant and finally the top dropper is a tiny nymph”. I stared blankly. “You just don’t get it, do you?” he said, “The big black fly represents a monster dragonfly nymph, which is chasing a small fry, which in turn is after the little nymph”. He...

    Brian hasn’t fished Manningford Trout Fishery for some years, so that’s why we picked it this time. Considering we both usually fish Hampshire’s small stillwaters, a trip into neighbouring Wiltshire   represents great value for money: a four fish C&K ticket for £40, add in a lovely fishery with excellent facilities, fully finned trout, and what’s not to like? It’s also a nice drive too, around an hour depending on the traffic, crossing some beautiful countryside and passing through pretty villages.   Received wisdom says lures fished deep this time of year, so we both started with intermediate outfits for pulling lures, trying different countdowns before starting the retrieve. I commenced operations along the windward bank, a strong ripple on the surface, save for the bits in the lee of the three islands. There was plenty of room to leapfrog each other along the bank, only another four customers were present, one of whom was fishing the river beats. Fish w...