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 […]

Yesterday was a day of firsts in fact quite a few firsts for me the executive summary: The notion to target some bass started about a week ago when I  had to visit Aberystwyth Hospital for an appointment and arriving early into town I wandered a little. I discovered “Aber Fishing Tackle” and of course […]

With my Wye/Usk foundation “wild streams” annual permit I can attack any number of wild streams if they haven’t been booked for the day. The website is remarkably efficient in terms of providing notification of which streams are about to be unfished. Today I had a plethora of choices and I have been trying to […]

It is early March here in mid-Wales and spring is trying to bring a burst of new life to town. There are daffodils on every grass verge and new lambs are starting to populate the local fields despite the lingering winter chill. It isn’t warm but it is warmer than it was which means that […]

This past December was one of the wettest on record we had water leaking through the mortar of the chimney breast and spreading chill damp patches on the walls of the loft space. The Wye had been in full flood breaching its banks in a few spots only days ago. But after three or four […]

It has been wet and windy here in Mid-Wales although we have avoided most of the “Yellow Weather Warnings” which seem to bypass us to the North West or East. I have taken some time away from my cottage restorations and did hope that I might try my hand at some winter grayling fishing. Trouble […]

Without many fishing options I am still obsessing about flies. Some more thoughts on trout and fly design.

I remain convinced that the idea of close copy fly design is erroneous. That there are other things we need to consider in terms of producing and fishing more effective patterns.

Of late I have had little of anything much to do but tie flies and perhaps think more than I should. Time does that for you it leaves space to think and one can do too much of it. But I have recently been working on filling a fly box with patterns in preparation of […]