Wilderness Fly Fishing Weekend 16th – 18th May 2014
A weekend of camping and fly fishing on some of Exmoor’s wild rivers surrounded by stunning scenery.
Join myself and rivers expert Lewis Hendrie, a member the England European Rivers fly fishing team and local guide, for a weekend of guided fly fishing on some truly wild rivers and streams.
This course is suitable for a river novice or a more experienced fly angler wishing to learn some more skills and techniques. There will be an element of walking over the weekend (around 30 minutes to one of the beats) so you will need to be reasonably fit, although the walking is usually overshadowed by the stunning surrounding scenery!
The weekend will start by meeting up at the camp site around 3.00pm on the Friday, set up camp and then a meal around the camp fire with plenty of fishy banter!
After breakfast on the second day we depart for the water where you will spend the day catching some truly beautiful wild brown trout whilst learning some new river skills. At the end of day it’s back to camp for some food and an evening around the camp fire.
Breakfast on Sunday will be followed by packing up camp before making our way to a different river and fishing until 3.00 pm. We will all meet up after the fishing for a quick debrief and to say our goodbyes.
Cost for the weekend will be £225.00 per person.
All camping fees, fishing permits, food and guiding fees are included in the cost. All you need to do is to bring a tent, sleeping bag and a chair to sit around the fire on! Any tackle you need can be supplied along with waders although please feel free to bring your own if you have any.
To reserve a place a deposit of £75 is required, or you may pay the full amount if you wish at the time of booking. Any balance must be paid by 14 days before the course date.
As this is a river course, it will be subject to cancellation due to weather conditions, so please bear this in mind, although a full refund will be given in this event.
Today saw me hosting a casting clinic at Burton Springs Fishery near Bridgwater in Somerset.
Arriving at the fishery I was met by blazing sunshine and angler lined banks with bending rods, what more could you wish for?
After setting up some kit, Adam the fishery manager greeted me with a most welcome cup of coffee. If you have never fished at Burton Springs before I strongly urge you to, it’s a cracking fishery with trout and carp on offer to the fly angler with the most welcoming family you could ever wish to be running a fishery, who will do everything they can to make your day a truly enjoyable one. They will even deliver hot food to you on the bank while you are trying to fool some of the hard fighting fish stocked into the lake……. now that’s service!
It was a truly great day in the sun meeting friends old and new, casting some lines and having a chuckle and generally talking about all things fishy.
Time was spent tweaking overhead casts along with some single and double hauling and a spattering of speys, basking in the warm spring sunshine.
Thanks to all you guys who attended and hope to bump into on the bank in the future.
On returning home and firing up the computer it was great to be met with a such nice thank you email as well ………
” Hi Neil, a cracking day, thanks mate. When Jon and I arrived this morning we couldn’t cast for toffees! It seemed that all you had taught me had disappeared. After half an hour with you this morning it all seemed to come together. We spent the rest of the day casting various flies and lures all around the lake. We didn’t catch; but we had a great day. Thanks again, and see you in April. Regards, Ken”
Thinking about trying fly fishing? So what is fly fishing all about?
Put simply, fly fishing is a particular method of fishing where flies made from fur and feather are used to catch fish. The biggest difference between this and other forms of fishing is that no weight is used at the end of the line to cast out your fly, it is the fly line itself which becomes the weight used to enable the cast. Look at any fly line and you will see it is very thick compared to standard nylon line used in other forms of fishing, it is the thickness and weight of this line which is used to flex the rod and catapult out the very light fly across the water.
Why fly fishing?
Well if you think that fishing is a boring pastime where you just cast out your line and sit on the bank and wait for a fish then you really should take a closer look at fly fishing.
Fly fishing is all about going after a fish rather than waiting for it to come to you. It is a very mobile form of fishing where you tend to carry minimal equipment and keep on the move, having a few casts here and there before moving to the next spot, it’s a really active way of fishing.
It can be perceived as a very exclusive sport, available to only the privileged who wear tweeds and deerstalker hats and fish for salmon and trout…….far from it today, it really is a sport for all whatever your age, sex, ability, or social standing!
Not only do we fly fish for the salmon and trout, but more and more these days other species are becoming more popular targets. Fish such as carp, pike and perch as well as saltwater species like bass, mackerel and mullet and a whole host of other species are now targeted by the fly angler. So no matter where you live or what budget you may have there is always a fly fishing opportunity to suit you.
So what tackle do you need?
As I mentioned before, you don’t need masses of equipment, to start with just a rod reel and line a box with a few flies and maybe a net will get you going which can be purchased for as little as £50 to £80, so it needn’t cost you a fortune to give it a go, then if you find you like it you can then go on to add to your tackle collection.
As far as size of rods and lines goes, you will see that there is quite a selection. As a starter outfit you should look to go for a rod of around 9ft that casts a 5 or 6 weight line. This set up is pretty middle of the road as regards size goes and can be used on a variety of venues for various species.
So why not give fly fishing a go? If you think you wouldn’t like fishing give fly fishing a try and you might just be surprised!
Sea Trout fishing has always held a special place in my heart since I caught my first one some 35 years ago now, it’s infectious and once its in your system you can never get enough of that feeling of pitting your wits against this cunning fish in the pitch black of night. Night fishing isn’t for everyone but if you haven’t tried it before give it a go, its amazing how your other senses take over when you can’t see a thing in the black of the night and for night time Sea trout……the darker the better!!
Our lodge on the banks of the river Warleggan
For this years expedition I booked a riverside lodge for a week week on the river Fowey at the Wainsford Fishery. In past years I have spent a lot of time Sea Trouting in Devon rivers and also had a few trips to Wales but I had heard good reports about the Fowey so thought it was about time to tackle some Cornish Sea Trout.
The Fowey at Wainsford
As with any fishing for migratory species, good water levels are important for the fish to run up the river systems, and to my dismay on arrival, although not totally unexpected, the river level was very very low. Apart from the obvious problem of no fish running this proved to be a real problem when it came to scouting the river in daylight, a very important part of night time fishing on a water you are not familiar with, as the water was so low and clear and I would have spooked every fish in the pools and so ruined the night time fishing. Trying to avoid this I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees on the bank peaking around and through bushes, for anyone watching this must have all looked a bit odd!!
As we had not had any significant rain for a while any fish that were in the river would have been in there a while and with Wainsford being a fishing estate and fished fairly heavily, these fish would have seen all manner of offerings under their nose and would have become hard to catch but I was up for the challenge and just happy to be on the water.
The Eden Project,a great day out…….if you can stop thinking about fishing!!Had trouble matching the hatch here….it was about 20ft high!
Day times were spent visiting the local sites mixed in with messing around on the river Warleggan, a tributary to the Fowey on which our lodge was located on the banks, catching some very pretty wild Brownies.
One of the rivers “pretty brownies”
At night I would go out about 10.45 p.m. armed with two rods, one set up with a Rio Gold floating line and the other with a Rio midge Tip, in my opinion two of the very best lines on the market today. Because these lines are so good i fish with more confidence which means I fish better ultimately leading to more fish……its a mind thing but true! Casting single and double speys in the dark takes some practice but if you have a good line it makes things just a bit easier.
Wainsford fishery is split into four beats, fished on rotation throughout the week and each beat is different so keeping things interesting. There are plenty of holding pools so given the right water I could see this being a first class fishery.
The first three nights i spent without a fish although i did hear a few fish in the dark of the night and tried everything in the box from deep lures right through to surface wake lures, although fishless i was happy that I had tried everything to try and tempt any fish in front of me. Nothing worse than getting back and thinking ” what if I had tried?” I only spent one to two hours on the water each night as with just stale fish resident i did not think it would be worth flogging a pool for too long.
The fourth night arrived, i set up as usual, waded into the first pool on my beat and after twenty minutes had an arm wrenching pull on the line then all hell let loose as a powerful fish charged up and down in front of me and at one point behind me!! These fish really fight hard when hooked, you only have to look at the tail on a Sea Trout to see where the power comes from. After a 5 minute battle the fish was safely on the bank. I flicked on the head torch and was astounded to see in front of me a fish of around 3lb…..but fresh run!! The next day may have shed a little light on this.
Result………a fresh run fish.
The next morning while eating a good fry up and drinking coffee i flicked on the t.v. and watched the local news. A report came on saying that 36 hours previous there had been a tidal surge across a lot of the coast line from Plymouth down into Cornwall caused by movement in the sea bed, then followed some footage of a tidal bore making its way up one of the estuaries. Reported as a “mini tsunami”, is this what had pushed a few fresh fish up the river? I don’t know for sure but I could not think of any other reason and two more fresh fish were caught the following night so there’s every possibility this was the cause of fresh fish entering the river system.
Unlike my wading boots…….I never gave up!
The last couple of nights I had no more fish, I had a few pulls and a fish on for a few seconds on the last night but all in all I really enjoyed the trip and I will be back for more and hopefully some decent water in the river.
