Teaching Now available

I'm back, after passing my exam I took a break to refresh and recharge the batteries, just been having fun with my family and enjoying beer.............. to much beer so it is now time to pimp myself to the world at large.

My website will be up an running in the coming few weeks, I hope that it will be useful for anyone wanting any tuition or help.  I have managed to secure a stillwater to teach on for the coming years Walkerwood in Stalybridge is the place, it is one of the first waters I ever fished on and I love the place, lovely settings, some huge fish, great fly life as well, something for everyone to get to grips with, be warned it is not an overstocked pond, this is quite a big water with a healthy head of fish, get it right and you will have a great day, John runs the place and will put you onto the tactics and the fish and even the times that the fish will switch on, yes, he does know the water that well.

Prices for tuition at Walkerwood start from £20 for an hour, this includes a 5 hour sporting ticket for you to work on your casting after the lesson

Watch this space as I will be posting on a regular basis ion the coming weeks and please get in touch for any tuition

Chris

Fly Fair Time

It is the Fly Fair at Trentham Gardens this weekend, a full weekend dedeicated to spending money, oops sorry, it is dedicated to Fly Tying and to allow us poor tyers to replenish our stocks of materials. A good thing to spend time on is the tyers row, this is full of professional tyers from all around the world, they are there for you and for you ato ask questions,they are all very approachable and will give you as much advice as you want\need, so, if you have a question this is the place to ask it. There will be people tying Fully dressed Salmon Flies, ultra realistic nymphs and flies, as well as lots of people tying great fishing flies. There is a Tyers clinic, comprising of Chris Reeves, Chris Watson, Mauro Raspini, Frederico Renzi, Ian McKenzie and
Wendy Gibson, lots of knowledge there that will answer any question you may have.

The best stand to vistit will be the Uk Fly Dressing Stand, it is next to the bar, a few libations may be available upon request, come and pay us a visit and we'll have a great weekend

Woo- Hoo, Passed

As it says in the title, passed with flying colours, where is the bar. . .

I,m here . . .

Well, I arrived in Builth Wells today, looked at the River Irfon, it looks great, lots of leaves though, I had 3 fish take my wool when I was practising. My casting was good, same again tomorrow please , that goes for the weather as well.

Bugger, 17 hours and it will all be over. . . .

It's the Final Countdown...............

de de derr derr, de de de de derr.etc etc, I hate that song, really annoying rubbish, anyway, how is the casting I hear you all ask? Well, I fished on Sunday with Bolton Fly Tyers at Foxhouses lake, the weather left a little to be desired, to be truthful, after a quick poll most of the lads would have stayed in bed, but due to the club commitment we braved the driving wind and rain, Orange Blobs were the fly of the day, strange but I would say that 90% of the fish fell to Orange flies. I spent a lot of the day fishing into the wind; at least I know my double hauling works well. Winner on the day was Bob, whose surname I cannae remember with a joint 2nd for Mike France and Dave Vickery,  but well done to all of the lads, I managed to lose 3 fish and catch one, a good day in difficult conditions.

I went out on Monday, Spey casting on the lake, this was interesting but I got the hang of it towards the end of the session, a nice calm day, same for Friday please. Then later in the day working on my overhead casts, hauls, mends on the grass, this went very well, I had a play with my overhead cast, it is amazing how little effort it takes to throw 50ft of line, try it, cast and aim to cast so that only the fly line straightens and not the leader, or, cast normally and the next cast take some power out, same again and again and you will be amazed how little effort it does take, we all fall into this trap of feeling the need to T H R O W the line out when with little effort you will cast a tighter faster neater loop that unrolls to the target with about a third of the effort.

So, I am out later today, Spey casting again and some more overhead work, then I will start getting my kit together for the weekend, need to remember all of my notes. I am packing spare everything, 9am Friday is looming ever larger on the horizon; I just need to control my nerves, which leads to another question...........

Whisky or Vodka on my Cornflakes on the morning of the assessment?

The one that got away

Yesterday, what a day, the weather changed dramatically, gone was the sunshine, in came the frost and wind, I was heading over to the Dee again, for a run through of my Casting assessment with Louis Noble, and we were meeting at the Berwyn Arms section of the River Dee. Before arriving at the car park I took a road that had been pointed out to me by Fred the last time I was on the Dee, a nice cut through over a hill! there was a lovely cloud inversion over the Dee valleyAnd dropping into Glyndyfrdwy, it was awesome, no recommended in the dark or snow or ice but on a good day I would recommend this road to anyone!! Unless you are scared of heights!

So, the assessment, it went well, I got into the river, warmed up and Louis turned up, after being surrounded by cattle when trying to cross the railway, so he abandoned his car and walked over, leaving the car to the cattle, the Speys went well, very well, and the mends, wiggles and any other casts worked well, I am beginning to feel confident about the casts and really happy, the Speys have really come together after the hard work of the past month, the next 11 days (holy poo poo, 11 days!!!) will be spent adding polish to the casts and getting the patter together. Lots of reading to get through, and things to brush up on.

So, onto the fishing, I changed rods and worked my way upstream with the dries, had a couple of small parr and Grayling straight away then nothing else. Time for a move, but before that some lunch. I moved to above the bridge in Corwen , fancied fishing some heavy bugs in the faster water and the deeper holes, the falling leaves made fishing dries almost impossible, I fished my way across and picked up a couple of small grayling, then just after taking a call from Dylan I hooked what I thought to be a fresh grilse! The line stopped, I lifted into it, saw a flash of sliver then as the fish neared the surface I saw a big dorsal fin and the fish went to the bottom and stayed there for the next couple of minutes, I couldn’t really do much with it, I saw glimpses of it and it decided enough was enough and releases itself, I was gutted, I have had 2lb Grayling and this thing looked and felt a lot heavier, I suppose that is why it is called fishing and not catching though.

That was it, my last session for a couple of weeks, lots of studying and casting to be done, then the Fly Fair then more fishing, the leaves will be gone and the grayling will be about, I can’t wait.

Final day after Salmon

Last Thursday was to be my last day out after Salmon, It was a long fruitless day as well, good fun and nice to be out before the crowds descended on the weekend for the last day on Saturday. It was good to be out, I had a look at Chain pool but it was full, so off to the Berwyn Arms and Taylor’s pool, I met up with Fred on the car park and we walked up the pool, it looked god, we spotted fish, so Fred went down the pool first and I had a go with a sink tip, this proved to be a little to heavy so I changed to an intermediate, no luck on the first run through for either of us.

Second time down the pool and Fred thought he had snagged, only when pulling the line did the snag kick and make good its escape! Not before showing itself on the surface!!
I then moved over to Chain pool for and couple of runs through the pool; again I saw fish but no luck.

I then called Tango as I thought I saw him downstream of me, nope, he was upstream, so I was invited up for a paned and a chat, I met him and Dylan and we moved over to Typhos for some Salmon fishing, I fished with Dylan who is a very knowledgeable man and knows the Dee very well, it was good to fish with him but the River crossing left a lot to be desired, hairy to say the least, waist deep and really pushing through and after a confession from Dylan about his swimming abilities I was a little worried to say the least.
In all, a good final days fishing a good to meet up with a couple of lads I will be sharing a table with at the Fly Fair