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…

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.  …

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…

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…

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…

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…

With the big flies now done for this season and the river shrinking away in the summer sun, the fishing gets a little more tricky. Stealth now becomes really important as the fish not only become super spooky but almost shut down after gorging themselves on the larger, early season insects. Only small, perfectly presented…

After the bumper day last week we were hoping to catch the tail end of this years Mayfly hatches on Saturday. It was our friends Steve and Hilary who very generously gave us our first opportunity to experience a flush Mayfly hatch so it was really good to meet up with them again.   Today…

By now you will be aware of the allure of fishing a Mayfly hatch. You might also have seen that whilst we know they happen in early June, there are no guarantees that you’ll witness the spectacle first hand, as Chiara and myself know only too well! On arriving at the scene of our annual…

There was a little bit of rain today! I was selfishly hoping that in addition to swelling the river, it would keep the dog walkers, stone skimmers and BBQ‘ers indoors. It did exactly that early doors but as the day wore on and warmed up, the rain stopped and the Sunday Strollers took advantage of…