March 2020

Second blog!  The first one produced lots of really kind comments so that’s decided me, I’m going to keep it running.

It’s been quite a busy few weeks and interesting times too with a different style of writing for the features I now do in Trout and Salmon. Bit more planning for each one but happily it does mean still working with photographer Peter Gathercole, and as always it’s almost constant banter while we set about getting the job done. My lovely wife Sue travels along on feature days and gets to see parts of the UK that most likely wouldn’t happen otherwise and it’s good to have some company on the long drives.

Always appreciate being lucky enough to see so many different fisheries and I’m constantly learning new things. For a large part of my life I have been involved with the Fishery Managers Association trying to act on behalf of all fisheries, and the interaction with owners, managers and fish farmers has been really rewarding.

But, gradually it became harder and harder to get cooperation from fisheries for meetings, or indeed membership, such that much was expected, but for no input or involvement and yet when we go on feature days a lot of it is about talking fishery politics, what’s available in terms of stock, weed control, problems with lice, algae and all other fishery matters.

I will always champion the fishery people and it’s so much harder now with the advent of social media and the emergence of so many armchair experts.

I sometimes look at some of the sites and see comments about fisheries that very clearly come from people with no idea of the realities of running a day ticket water and then too there are posts from fishery owners/managers constantly knocking fisheries in other parts of the country.  Suffice to say that each fishery is different to another, has costs which are likely none too easy to compare and it’s entirely up to the fishery as to how to market itself and then it’s down to the angler as to which ones to frequent.

The fish themselves cost much the same throughout the country – providing we compare like with like – and if you don’t like a particular water then find another. Better still, take on one yourself and get into the real world.

It’s sometimes quite funny now when an angler starts to tell me how a fishery should be run, because the conversation seems to stop real quick when I just ask which one he or she has actually run.

I most certainly don’t regret the 34 years of my life spent running a syndicate trout water and again now these past two years on a day ticket fishery although I think we do all have some regrets in life.

One of mine is that although I am Cornish born and bred, there is so much of my home County that I have yet to see. Indeed there are lots of places in Cornwall that I would dearly like to fish but in late February a three day visit to the Lizard area let Sue and I go to see some of the glorious coastal villages (if sadly empty in winter) and some of the old tin mine structures.

While having a couple days with an old school friend in Bude up on the north coast I was able to do a mid day talk to his fishing club at their AGM and that was a genuine pleasure. It’s good to meet anglers around the country and in an ideal world, magazine editors, and indeed myself, would love to be able to get around and discuss matters with as many fisheries as possible, but it just isn’t practicable within the budget set by the publishers for each issue.

Actually been quite a busy time these past weeks as I have been doing a couple of fly tying lessons at home and then was down in deepest Sussex doing a teaching day for a lovely club.

With a regular client we had a crack at carp on fly in early March but in reality it was still too cold and wet. But, perseverance pays off and we got a few fish moving under bushes and two to the net. It will get better and there’s some more 20’s on the cards for this year.

Finally, just this last week, I arranged a get together here at Dever Springs for guests on previous Alaska and Argentina trips along with some of the ones booked for this coming July to Alaska. It worked real well and new friendships were made. Sue and I did the mid day nosh with fried pheasant breast strips, a whole smoked Sparctic trout and a pate’ made again from Sparctic in exactly the same way as it’s done on the Alaska base camp. Bit of a busy day for us but very worthwhile.

The July Alaska trip is full for this year and already I’m looking to reservations for the next two years as well as looking to Strobel in Argentina for next March. Hosting these trips is something I thoroughly enjoy and now with thirty plus years of experience I’m sort of getting the hang of it.

Finally for this month’s blog, here’s a puzzle.

Why do I so often see facebook posts of really nicely tied flies which are then wetted and photographed with the caption that this is how the fly will look in the water.

That’s how a wetted fly looks when it is OUT of the water.

IN the water it looks exactly the same as it does in the air.