The river Dee and its inhabitants are slowly coming to life. Good hatches of Grannom are starting to get the attention of the Trout and the large dark olives are being slurped off the surface when they make an appearance. The river is definitely in need of a little water which according to the forecast,…

This week ended with a couple of days guiding on the Dee. With the gauge on the Corwen stretch down at 0.45, the river is as low as I’ve seen it for some time. The water is still a little cool and the trout are yet to show but it’s not all bad news. The…

According to Chiara, it is now ‘customary’ that we go fishing on her birthday. You might note from recent posts that it’s been a slow start to the season and I wasn’t relishing the whingefest that would ensue if the river was as stingy as it was the last time she fished.   Fortunately, we…

The Trout streams are slowly coming to life but I’ve still to witness a decent hatch of any of the good sized flies that usually kick the Trout season off good and proper. I’ve not yet seen a Brook Dun, a March Brown or a Grannom and the Large Dark Olive hatches I’ve witnessed have…

Jon had fished the Derbyshire Wye once before and even though he’d caught some quality Brown Trout, the fabled wild rainbows had eluded him. Armed with my findings from the previous day, we spent the earliest and (in theory) the coldest part of the day exploring the river as he was planning to make it…

It’s Easter Monday and I’m still troutless. The air temperature has dropped even further and there’s snow on the hills. I have several lockdown purchases to field-test and a few bookings from stir crazy clients chomping at the bit to get out. “Better get the back out there” I thought to myself.   The Derbyshire…

Today I decided to step up from the tributary I visited on Tuesday to its parent river in my search for the seasons first wild brownie. The thinking was that even though it’s still very early in the season, the water might be a little warmer which might bring some insects and in turn, some…

Even though the guiding diary is filling up, I am currently ill prepared for the coming season. During lockdown, I’d purposely not tortured myself by ignoring the jobs that usually get me all fired up for the start of the Trout season. Tying flies, cleaning reels and lines, refilling fly boxes etc. were all too…

Buoyed by Wednesdays success, I headed to the river again today. This time, it was the river Wye in Derbyshire. The temperature finally dropped today so I wasn’t expecting any surface activity and during my 2 hour session, I didn’t see a single fish rise.   The beat had its full quota of rods so…

Today I had an eventful trip to a small, busy Cheshire river. This club water is heavily fished by coarse anglers who throw in pints of maggots in an attempt to draw the fish to them. The fish density is fairly low here and there is always somebody else fishing. I see the eyebrows raise…