Today I was faced with a big decision. A right turn at the main road would see me join the queues of traffic heading towards the shops and a left turn would take me deep into North Wales to fish the river Dee.I have to confess, the deliberation was brief.   The river is still…

An evening meeting in Corwen means either travelling across during the rush hour or making a day of it and having some time on the river Dee. Sadly, during the winter months the latter involves a period of down time between the end of the fishing (around 4pm) and the start of the meeting at…

A tough but most enjoyable day fishing for Grayling as guests of The Peacock Fly Fishing Club.   Snow, wind and rain all tried (but ultimately all failed) to dampen our spirits and the slightly high and coloured Derbyshire Wye proved a challenge.   With the Hanak International Grayling Festival planned for this weekend, many…

Fellow guide and CADAC member Peter Scholes of Lancashire based Bowland FlyFishing contacted me to say he was coming down to fish the Dee.   He has a team entered in the Hanak Grayling international scheduled for December and as much of it will be fished on Corwen waters, he wanted to explore a new…

A combination of bad weather and bad timing has meant that Chiara’s ex colleague Ginny, hasn’t fished her CADAC ticket once this year…. and it expires in December. So with no rain forecast and the river slowly dropping, a half Dee Day was planned.   The girls’ Duo set ups tempted Grayling on both the…

Brothers James and Michael had struggled to redeem the fly fishing voucher purchased for them by their wives, but eventually after 2 postponements, it was all booked. The river Dee would again be unkind to us but as they had a full weekend of activities planned anyway, we were going to carry on regardless of…

As I pulled on my waders in the car park by the river Goyt today, I was struck by how many people were around. Over the last few years I’ve watched this area of New Mills get steadily busier as a housing estate was built just above the river. Those long summer afternoons spent picking…

The hideous weather continues to cause disruption to not only my guiding but also my personal Grayling fishing, so I was forced to take extreme action.   In the past I have dabbled with long trotting for Grayling, a classic way of targeting autumn Grayling that’s particularly effective in high water conditions. Whilst this entails…

Those of us that join clubs often ask ourselves if it’s worth renewing the membership, usually around the time that the reminder drops through the door. Those balmy summer afternoons on the river are dim and distant memories by the time the subs are due again.   Chris invited me over to help him assess…

Today was Day 3 of my quest for one last good Urban Trout of this season.   When I arrived at the river today it looked promising. The level had dropped 20 cms and the clarity was good. The sun was shining and early mornings rain appeared to have made little impact.   After a…