August 9, 2020
Busy property manager Mark was given a days fly fishing by his wife as a birthday present. When we met up, he said that he was really just looking forward to a relaxing day in the Welsh countryside…but a fish would be nice. Having only targeted sea fish like kamikaze Mackerel, Mark was a…
August 2, 2020
After doing some guiding further downstream, I moved up river to the Bala stretches of the river Dee on Friday. I met up with good friend and fellow Hoylake Flyfishers member Ron to explore some of the excellent waters that can be accessed by the members of the Hoylake Flyfishers Club. These waters are controlled…
July 29, 2020
Part of the joy of fly fishing and guiding is that no two days on the river are the same. It’s never boring but some days are more eventful than others. Today was eventful. Toby, a regular visitor to North Wales was accompanied on this trip by his wife Fiona. He had planned an earlier…
July 25, 2020
It’s been an excellent week in North Wales. In addition to seeing both clients and friends catch quality fish, I’ve been able to wet a line myself and re explore some of the river Dee’s less fished beats. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words so I won’t bore you with…
July 20, 2020
With the Welsh border reopening last week, I was very keen to take advantage of the near perfect river height and semi settled weather, and to target some of the River Dee’s spectacular Grayling. It would also give me the opportunity to survey the inevitable changes that occur every winter when the river floods. …
July 18, 2020
As a young boy, a neighbour GAVE my brother and I matching cane fly rods. To us they were just fishing rods so they were immediately fitted with Intrepid Boyo reels and used to terrorise the river Trents Gudgeon and Minnow population. Back then we had no idea about fly fishing (some might say little…
July 13, 2020
First Half Saturdays client, Anthony wanted to start making the adjustment from reservoir fishing to small river fishing. He was hoping that this would enable him to tackle some of the fabulous little Welsh rivers close to his Liverpool base. The conditions were kinder to us than they have been of late but the Derbyshire…
June 25, 2020
These days I have a posh fly vest for guiding and nice waters and an older one which is a bit more ragged in appearance and gets used on waters where my smartness is not so critical. Heading for the Derbyshire Wye yesterday, I selected the newer one but in my haste forgot to remove…
June 24, 2020
Grayling are back in season and whilst one of Europe’s top Grayling rivers is still off limits to me, I’ve been able to reacquaint myself with this beautiful creature on rivers other than the Welsh Dee. As this strange season trundles on, I’m presented with a unique opportunity. The good weather, relaxed restrictions and the…
June 18, 2020
As we’re still locked out of Wales, I’ve been ‘forced’ to stay in England to endure the charms of the river Wye in Derbyshire. A quick glance at the web page revealed a video update from the river keeper stating that as a result of the previous nights thunder storms, the river had risen and…