My friend thinks that fly fishing is “boring” but that’s because he’s never actually tried it.
Every day, every encounter, every fish and every river is different so if that’s boring, then “boring be I”!
Two recent examples of fishings unpredictability revolve around Mr Ad Hoogenboezem.
Ad was one of a group of four anglers from the Netherlands that came to fish with me back in September.
On our morning session, the Dee fish were still playing hard to get after the heatwave. It took a few tactical changes but eventually, we started picking up the odd fish and soon everyone was off the mark.
Ad’s own first fish was met with screams of delight and I remember thinking “I hope I’m still this excited about catching fish in 20 years time”!
Ad’s Grayling was caught on one of his own nymphs and the group later informed me that he spent more time fly tying than fly fishing AND that he was in fact, a fly tyer of considerable world renown!
Click here to visit Ad’s website
The rest of our day was spent covering differing water types and suggested tactics in an effort to prepare them for their week ahead on the mighty river Dee.
Ad caught steadily over the course of the day and each fish was heralded with a song of indeterminate origin and structure.
It was a great day and as I bade them farewell and “tight lines!”, Ad promised to send me some flies in the post when he got home.
Not only did he keep his word but I also received pictures of his own surprise, the beautiful river Dee Brownie pictured above.
This is without doubt one of the finest Brown Trout I’ve seen come from this particular stretch of the river Dee.
From the cuts on Ads hands, it looks like this bruiser put up quite a fight but I’ve been assured that no harm was caused to either fish or angler in the brawl.
In addition to the great pictures, I was also informed that the whole group caught consistently during their week whilst perplexed locals were blanking.
Must have been down to Ad’s flies!