The Grannom hatch has continued unabated over the past few days and I have been on the river several times as much to witness what was going on as to seriously fish. Mind you I do seriously fish at every opportunity just this time I wouldn’t have been too upset if I never had a […]

Spring is struggling to show itself here in Mid-Wales we have had temperatures varying from freezing to 17°C and winds from flat calm to hurricane force all within a few days. The worst of it; apparently courtesy of entirely inadequately named “Storm Dave”. And I must at this point digress from my tale of piscatorial […]

The book ”The Trout and the Fly” (ISBN 13: 9780510225346) by Goddard and Clarke was groundbreaking at the time of publication (1981). Featuring close-up imagery of trout behaviour and new ideas about artificial fly design. The outrageous concept of the USD paradun hiding the hook from the fish as a result of its inverted position […]

I have become an ACE experimenter on stream. I basically never “just go fishing” I am always playing with the options trying out new things fiddling if you must. On what is relatively new water for me there is much to learn. Although to be fair I do like to net a few fish before […]

I am not a gadget guy really I try to keep my gear as simple as possible; minimalistic even although I still carry too many flies and too many fly boxes. We all have our own vices. But I don’t grab every gadget that comes on the market. I try to carry items which enhance […]

I’m not talking about Rhonda Byrne’s self-help tome love it or hate it but something that likely will actually if not change your life at least vastly improve your fly-fishing success. If you have read anything much of my various blogs you will already know that I constantly bemoan the focus of fly anglers on […]

The difference between breaking strain and the “X” system. Yes it is mid-winter here in Wales freezing cold and the prospects for any fishing even Euro-nymphing for grayling are severely limited. We have had nothing but rain for weeks and the rivers are in spate. But with no fishing expeditions to write about I have […]

I have been fly fishing for over 50 years but I would have to admit to being a bit of a slow starter. For much of my “career” I have been a one man band not necessarily out of choice but because in my youth I didn’t have anyone to confer with. I read everything […]

Fly Fishing is NOT about the fly; but what if it is? I have written extensively about my view; that fly fishing really isn’t about the fly; despite so many anglers writers influencers and others all becoming besotted with flies and fly tying. It isn’t that I am immune to the allure of a nicely […]

I recently “hosted” an old friend from South Africa who was visiting the UK and cleverly arranged to get in some fishing in Mid Wales. Best I understand it he managed to convince a considerable family entourage to camp out in the nearby hills just so that he could go fishing for a few days. […]

On those chill winter evenings perhaps glass in hand we might conjure up images of fishing either in the past or potential future. But those images rarely include struggling to cast into a frigid gale slinging tungsten on a tight line rig or stumbling on slippery boulders and heading for an unanticipated swim. No optimists […]

I have been asked more than once by anglers and non-anglers alike; “What makes a good fly fisherman?”. It can be interesting to ponder because at first glance one could suggest that it would be the guy who casts the best or ties the neatest flies perhaps simply the one who spends the most time […]

Dimples on the far bank. I have had a LOT of adjusting to do since moving to Wales; a gorgeous place with gorgeous people lovely scenery and pretty good fishing. BUT the fishing is quite different to what I was used to in the Western Cape of South Africa. Where I used to be picking […]

As Forrest Gump famously noted “you never know what you are going to get” and so it was with my most recent foray onto a section of the Upper Wye River. I had been out the day before and drummed up a few grayling and the occasional trout on an emerger pattern but there wasn’t […]

No doubt if you have read many of my blog posts you will know that I am far more of a “presentationist” than an “imitationist”. This is to a degree a little embarrassing for someone who has published articles and books on fly tying. To be fair my fly tying books are a lot more […]

It is an opinion that I hear all the time that heavier gear lands fish more rapidly and with less stress to the fish and that light gear advocates are killing fish through their selfish machinations.. A recent post on line about an admittedly unintentional capture of a 4.5lb cock salmon on 7X tippet highlighted […]

Euro-nymphing isn’t simply “Chuck and Duck” Now it so happens that I have been fortunate enough to spend something in the region of forty years fishing some of the best dry fly water publicly available in the World. (Although I suspect that most anglers have never heard of the rivers of the Limietberg). Those waters […]

Damp days Euro-Nymphing and line stick. I have been doing OK here on the upper Wye in mid-Wales rarely actually suffering a blank but always wondering if things shouldn’t be better than they are. For one thing there have been few rising fish I mean really FEW. The last serious amount of surface activity was […]

The Wye Usk foundation have a number (in fact a good number) of streams designated as “wild” and one can obtain an annual permit to fish them should they not be booked by day ticket anglers. They tend to be smaller streams less well known frequently slightly overgrown and containing on average (but not always) […]

When Otto in the film “A Fish Called Wanda” discovers the safe he expected to contain millions in diamonds is in fact empty he exclaims with understated angst “Disappointed!”.  It is only a single word but within the delivery is captured gut wrenching despair and upset. Sadly I have to say that I know exactly […]