With the holiday traffic set to reach a crescendo in the afternoon and heavy rain forecast, I shot down to my local urban river for a couple of hours. The forecast was way off as the rain had already rendered the river big and brown.   A copper headed pattern took a couple of Grayling…

Douglas is in North Wales with his family to support his daughter Natalie as she completes England Youth Fly Fishing team duties on Llyn Brenig. Himself an accomplished boat and coarse fisherman, Douglas wanted to improve his river fly fishing skills so whilst daughter and mum headed off to the lake, we made our way…

I was offered a days Salmon fishing on an exclusive syndicate beat just above Corwen. I don’t do much Salmon fishing but it was an opportunity too good to turn down. Flamboyant fellow CADAC committee member Mick was to be my guide and the torrential rain that battered us both on our respective journeys into…

After casting lessons in the morning at Chirk fishery, I had a couple of hours on CADAC’s Halton beat of the river Dee. The previous nights rain had raised the river and the Salmon anglers were out in the hope that there might be a few more ‘tourists’ around.   I was, as usual targeting…

Being a competitive yachtsman amongst other things, Jeremy wasn’t concerned when I explained that the river had risen considerably overnight. Nor was he concerned when I said that we might get more rain later in the day. He was only interested in preparing for his impending retirement by learning how to fly fish.   The…

Otter. Grayling. Red Kite. Who needs Springwatch?

Back into beautiful Derbyshire for a classical concert in Buxton on Saturday night followed by fly fishing on the Wye on Sunday. A very relaxed and pleasant weekend thanks to friends Steve and Hilary.   Fortunately, I wasn’t forced to don my dinner jacket or my plus fours. I think it’s fair to say that…

Today I had the pleasure of guiding Mike, a new fellow Corwen and District Angling Club member. We chose a beat that he had never fished and focussed on dry fly and duo presentation. He’d also had an issue with ‘missing’ takes so we set about trying to solve that too.   The conditions weren’t…

On Sunday I was my pleasure to guide recently retired John and his son Dave on the river. They had both attended an introduction to fly fishing course on a Stillwater in LLangollen and were so smitten that they immediately invested in their own fly fishing gear. Conditions for our day seemed almost identical to…

Fish farmer Sean was already a keen and accomplished course and sea fisherman but the delicacy of fly fishing had always appealed to him. With a trip to New Zealand on the horizon and a fly rod that will easily fit into his luggage, he was eager to learn the casting and presentation skills that…