T minus 387

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There are 387 hours until the start of the fishing season here in Devon, not that I am counting or anything. Fishing never stops here but it does slow down, a few days at local stillwaters, a bit of pike bashing and occasional forays away after grayling but on March the 15th it kicks off properly.

Between now and then I have some serious fly tying to do, I seem to have fallen behind somewhat in my plans to restock the boxes from last year and to tie some new patterns ready for this year's adventures. There is much still to do, so far I have been concentrating on the heavyweights, tungsten bead nymphs and big streamers. Next up on the to-do list spiders and dries.

Copper headed hare's ear nymph. A go to pattern for early season.

Coneheaded bugger, for big waters.

I am now also getting out and about on the rivers I fish looking at how they have overwintered, it is amazing how much they can change in a few short months. Contrary to much of the South and East of the country which is already in drought, our rivers are full. Last year seemed a wetter than average year in North Devon and this year has continued in a similar vain, the local rivers really look in good fettle.

This is the time of year that sees me making my resolutions, New Year's Resolutions are so clichéd, new season's resolutions are what its all about! Firstly this year I want more adventure, more days fishing remote or seldom visited waters and more nights under canvas. Researching, planning and preparing for fishing adventures is nearly as much fun as doing them and this winter I have not been idle. I have some beauties pencilled in including fishing waters that have quite possibly never been fished before and a more adventurous slant on a popular foreign fishing destination. I can't wait to get started!

Secondly I plan to really develop my tenkara fishing. Tenkara is an ancient technique used by subsistence fishermen in the mountain streams of Japan. It is something that is in some people's opinion a bit of a 'fad', for me I think it is a technique ideally suited to some of the moorland fishing I enjoy. I really want to spend a lot of time developing my skill with this beautifully simple technique. I will write more about this soon.

Tenkara on the Itchen in February, not exactly what it was designed for but good fun nonetheless.

So that's it from me, more to come soon, in the meantime why not tell me about your resolutions for this season, it would be great to hear from you.

Derrick

Ps less than 386 hours now...

How do you eat yours?

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The subject of killing fish is an emotive one, I have known anglers almost come to blows over the subject. I kill fish, for me it is a part of my sport. I don't kill many, by far the majority of my catch is returned but occasionally I want to take a fish. When deciding whether or not to take a fish I apply two personal rules. First and foremost the fishery must be able to sustain the loss of that fish. Secondly I must be sure that I can do justice to the fish by producing a good meal for me, family or friends. I think there is anything more damaging to our sport than the thought of fish being killed for nothing more than a trophy or a weigh in. When I kill a fish I feel I have a duty to produce a worthy meal from it.

So, with that in mind, I thought it might be worthwhile to post a few recipes that have served me well over the years. I have always cooked a bit, from an early age under the tutelage of my Mother, but I am no chef, so don't expect anything to cordon bleu. I am not claiming ownership of any of these recipes, I may well have unwittingly robbed them from any of a number of sources. So first up - Thai Style Trout:

I first tried this recipe with fillets of bass but I prefer it with trout.

1. Finely slice garlic, ginger and deseeded chillies, amounts can vary to taste, but I usually go for 2-3 cloves of garlic, 4 cm of ginger and 1/2 to 1 chilli depending on how adventurous I am feeling.

2. Add the chopped goodies to a good glug (is that a culinary term?) of soy sauce and a splash of rice wine vinegar. This is the marinade / cooking sauce for the fish.

3. I usually go for a trout of a couple of pounds in weight, cleaned and slice the flesh 3 times on each side, I am told this helps the fish cook evenly, I don't know, but it certainly helps the marinade seep into the fish. Place the fish on a sheet of foil and pour the marinade over it and into the cavity. Fold the foil to form a loose, watertight parcel.

4. I leave that for a couple of hours before baking in the oven - time and temperatures dependant on the fish size. 25-30 mins at 200c should do for that 2 pounder.

5. I like to open the parcel at the table and take the fish off the bone. Serve with some stir fried veggies and some sticky rice. Spoon the cooking liquor and chilli / garlic / ginger over the fish.

If you like the sound of that why not give it a go? Let me know what you think, better still if you have a favourite recipe why not share it? Email me (info@adventureflyfishing.co.uk) and I will post it in a future blog.

Enjoy.

Adventure Fly Fishing UK, as seen in...

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Do you remember a few months ago I told you about my day out with Simon Dawson a writer with a well known magazine? You can find my blog about it in June on the list to the right of your screen. Well I am very pleased to report that the resultant article has appeared in this month's (October) edition of Devon Life Magazine. I am really pleased with it and proud to be featured in such a prestigious publication.

Simon was a great student, we had a lot of fun, it is quite clear from the article that he thoroughly enjoyed his day. I think it is fair to say that fly fishing was not what exactly he had expected, I think he had anticipated a day sat on the bank of a lake watching a fly drifting about unmolested for hours on end. Of course, we know it is not at all like that, the fish played their part and we had an exciting, tense few hours as the fish chased, swirled, nipped and grabbed quickly moved flies in clear water.

You can almost see the excitement as a fish stalks Simon's fly.

The magazine hit the shelves a couple of days ago and I was probably the first person to buy a copy, Ok I will be honest, I bought 3 copies! Have a read for yourselves, Devon Life Magazine is available at all good newsagents, now! Best be quick before I buy the remaining copies!

Derrick

To Autumn

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Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

I am sure you weren't expecting to find a bit of poetry amongst these ramblings but this time of year always seems to bring the romantic out in me. This season has me thinking about bonfires in the garden, harvesting the remains of the vegetable plot and chopping wood to see us through the winter. The fishing can be pretty good too. With freshwater in the river this time of year can offer the best chance of a salmon, the trout in our streams are gorging themselves in preparation for leaner times and the fish on our reservoirs are starting to think about a higher protein diet and ganging up the fry. But there is no getting away from the fact that the winter is getting ever closer and so this time of the year sees me thinking about pike.

I met up with my mate Mark Bailey yesterday for a foray after pike on Chew Reservoir. Those of you that have followed these blogs for a while will know Mark, a fellow AAPGAI instructor, caster of razor sharp loops and pike nut. Mark's fishing CV is an unusual one, he started life as a pike fisherman, baits and lures, fishing all over the country, catching hundreds of pike and then one day he decided he wanted to catch them differently and picked up a fly rod. I doubt there are many British fishers that have pike as their first fish on a fly.

A bit like Grizzly Adams but with a fly rod.

Chew is a premier trout fishery that happens to hold a good number of coarse fish and pike, including some seriously big ones, both Mark and I are convinced there is a British record pike in there somewhere. Which is why we keep coming back. But the presence of pike poses a problem for those that manage the fishery. On one hand their core business is trout on the other they have anglers coming from all over the country to fish for the pike, by fly during the normal fishing season and then by more conventional methods on specific days through the winter when the fishery is normally closed. The bonus for the fishery owners is that that these fish are wild, not stocked, therefore free. The problem is the trout fishers are catching less fish and fish damaged by predators and they blame the pike. And so there is a conflict. The trout guys want the pike removed, the management don't want to risk losing the revenue from the pike guys, so to appease the trout guys they stock more fish. More fish = higher overheads and potentially more fodder for the predators.

Tackling up at the carpark I took the opportunity to chat to a couple of trout anglers, it was really interesting to hear their point of view. ' They put over 80,000 trout in here last year, 36,000 were caught, what happened to the rest? over 40,000 disappeared'. I can't vouch for the figures but I could certainly see how disillusioned he felt about the way the fishery was being run. I thought better than suggesting that perhaps the majority of those 40,000 were still swimming around the reservoir as opposed to every last one of them consumed by the marauding hordes of pike. These guys were considering not renewing their season ticket next year. 'The management are talking about netting the pike out, but that's all they do is talk'.

I can certainly appreciate these guy's point of view, but I can't help feeling that there is more to it than a simple need to cull pike, I say this as both a pike and trout angler. There is a school of thought that says that the pike in Chew are feeding predominantly on the coarse fish doing little, if any, significant damage to the trout population. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere between both camps. To cull pike, or remove them to another water, is to tinker with a delicately poised ecosystem. I can't help thinking that the solution should involve addressing a whole range of issues, stocking densities, average weight, feed prices, ticket costs, pike and cormorants (we saw over 300 on the water yesterday). Also I think the question needs to be asked, what is it that the trout angler wants? After the doom and gloom of the car park chat I went to look at the recent statistics, the rod average this year is over 4 fish per rod. I don't have the figures to prove but I would suggest that the average weight of these fish is considerably more than it was ten years ago. That doesn't sound too terrible to me. What do anglers feel is a fair deal for their day ticket? It would be interesting to hear from any of you if you fish this fishery, or indeed any others where pike also hang out.

Anyway, back to the fishing. After our chat we were half expecting to be beating the pike off with an oar. Unfortunately it wasn't like that, far from it. We saw a couple of fish roll, we had a couple of tweaks and one fish follow Mark's fly to the boat and that was about it. We cycled through the colours, the depths, the areas but all to no avail.

just a few patterns to try before we call it a day

An interesting day, despite the lack of fish, we will be back soon to try again. In the meantime it will be interesting to see how the argument develops.

we like them big, BIG!!!

Fly Fishing Devon - on a bike. Part 5

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After a troubled night, with the noise of more heavy rain drumming on my bivi bag, I awoke to a beautiful sunrise and enjoyed breakfast with the rare feeling of sun on my face. I had an appointment this morning with the guys at the Westcountry Rivers Trust at their office, some 25 miles away, so as tempting as it was to stay, I had to get moving. Today was the reward for yesterday’s grind up onto Dartmoor; a glorious freewheel for almost 10 miles off the moor and down through Tavistock.

Across the River Tamar and into Cornwall I very soon arrived at Stoke Climsland, the home of the WRT, to be met by the Director Dr Dylan Bright, Angling Development Officer Dave Chapman and the rest of the staff. Here, over a very welcome Cornish pasty and a beer, I learnt more about the work of the Trust. I am not going to go into the work that this charity does here, I will post seperately on the subject later, suffice to say they are a key player in much of what has happened to improve the watercourses and fisheries in the Westcountry since it's creation in 1995. Take a look at their website www.wrt.org.uk

Suitably refreshed I pushed pushed on for the finally few miles to the banks of the River Inny, a tributary of the Tamar. As I set up for the final onslaught I talked to the farmer who owns the beat, he told me about the numbers of sea trout and salmon that run the river late summer given a good spate. However, a good spate is something this river had not see for many months. It appears that Sunday's rain fell only on me. I hobbled down the steep valley to find the river running low and gin clear, 'about as low as I can remember seeing it' said the farmer.

I spent a few hours working my way gently upstream fishing the New Zealand rig or single dry flies, casting to free rising brown trout. I had hopes for a grayling today, alas they failed to put in an appearance. It was a fitting end to my 5 rivers adventure, obliging trout, beautiful surroundings and a warm sun on my back. I have no idea how many fish I caught, it's not important, I have no doubt that my reactions were blunted by 5 days of pedalling, but I do know that I savoured every last second on that lovely beat until it was time to wind-up and make my way slowly (very slowly) up the steep hill to my lift home.

Derrick

Fly Fishing Devon - on a bike. Part 4

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Despite knocking off 15 miles last night today's journey up on to the top of Dartmoor was a grind. The fishing here is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, 15 miles of brown trout fishing with salmon and sea trout a possibility in the main rivers - East and West Dart - given water. Fishing permits can be purchased for cash or exchanged for passport tokens at a number of local outlets including the Two Bridges Hotel, outside of which I parked my bike.

I wandered in to reception where a large group of people were enjoying pre-dinner drinks, ladies in summer dresses, gentlemen in shirts and ties, me in 3 day old cycling gear, sodden from rain and sweat. I would suggest at this stage that I was a little 'bedraggled' and probably the last person the staff were expecting to see. The member of staff that served me was not as versed in the arrangements for purchasing permits as I was and flatly refused to exchange my tokens for the permit, 'we don't accept them this year, its changed'. He would not be swayed, despite me pointing out the Angling Passport logo printed all over the permit, or the 2011 passport brochure which stated very clearly that they could be exchanged. 'Besides' he said, fingering my proffered tokens 'they are wet'. 'They are wet?' says I, my voice rising an octave, 'I have cycled over 100 miles to be here, they are wet, I am wet, everything I own is wet'. He was not going to change his mind (he was wrong, I checked at the Westcountry Rivers Trust, the Hotel has now been re-educated, I understand) so I handed over my £10 note, it too was wet, but he didn't mind. I beat a trail out of there and went fishing.

Cherrybrook is a tiny stream, it is beautiful and tranquil, but that isn't why I chose it, you are spoilt for beautiful and tranquil fishing up here, no the reason I chose to fish Cherrybrook is that it is a flat journey from the Hotel to there, simple.

Fishing the Cherrybrook

I hid my bike amongst the tall moorland grass and walked downstream away from the road bridge and the picnic munching tourists that had gathered there despite the brisk wind. Within minutes of venturing away from the moorland roads I was struck by the remote beauty and seclusion of the fishery. The stream itself was running clear with only the peaty stain, typical to these moorland waters, evident. There was some surprisingly varied fishing for such a small stream, narrow fast running sections, small pools that just scream fish and long canal like glides. With a large head of trout and relatively meagre feeding opportunities the fish cannot afford to be too picky. I found any small, dark dry fly would produce the desired response and fishing was fast and furious. The brown trout were small, 4-6 inches at most, but beautiful with dark backs, to match the peat stained water, gradually fading to a light, silvery, yellow belly with dark red, almost claret spots.

Small, but perfectly formed.

I fished on until dark, completely absorbed into the surroundings and the fishing, I pitched the bivi close to the stream, readied myself for bed and ate dinner - pasta for the last time, I was starting to get bored of pasta.

The gortex coffin. It's all about the location.

Fly Fishing Devon - on a bike. Part 3

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Normally anglers blog the great days, big catches, loads of photos of grinning anglers and fish. Not all days are like that, today wasn't like that, here's the blog anyway.

I awoke on day 3 to the sound of rain against the bivi bag and for a second I contemplated cycling the 30 miles to the River Torridge in my chest waders. Despite the weather the journey was enjoyable, some great views, a close encounter with a full pack of fox hounds and not too many hills.

As I popped my 5 tokens into the Gortleigh beat postbox I heard the first rumble of thunder, by the time I was kitted up it was raining again, only this time with more purpose. The beat consist of over a mile of the river Torridge and a small leat, a good amount of fishing for your tokens. Some good runs and excellent looking salmon and sea trout holding pools. Anticipating that the rain might very soon put the river out of condition I quickly tackled up, a Duo Rig, standard prospecting set up for me and set off slowly upstream.

not just a nice fishing spot but I could hide under the bridge from the rain.

With me today was Nikki Davies, a photographer from North Devon (check out www.ndpictures.co.uk), I don't know if she does underwater photography, but it could have come in handy as the rain intensified and started to give the appearance of being 'set in'. She managed some great shots, despite the weather and the good thing about working with a Pro such as Nikki as you forget they are there, I can concentrate on the fishing and not worry about 'getting the shot'.

A photo of the photographer, photographing.

A managed a couple of fish, around the 6-8inch mark, on a weighted pheasant tail nymph fished under the dry fly. And then things went down hill. Firstly the rain got even heavier, so much so that it was time for Nikki to give up before her expensive gear got completely saturated. Working with a pro is a real treat and it was a shame that we didn't get the conditions to get the best from it. Secondly, approximately 5 minutes after Nikki left the sun came out, damn. Thirdly, shortly after that I snapped a rod. Completely my fault, I hooked up on some himalayan balsam (this river struggles with it too) just as I started into the forward cast and I guess that the two sections had been gradually working apart because with a loud crack the rod broke at the male part of the ferrule. So back to the bike, out with the spare rod and try for a sea trout as the river starts to rise. An hour lately, soaked to the skin, river the colour of cocoa I decide to knock it on the head. On my way back to the bike I bump in to a local farmer who fishes the beat regularly. Typically, he assures me that I should be here tomorrow, with the freshwater in the river he expects a good run of peal and salmon.

Wet, wet, wet.

At 4.30pm it was too early to head for the campsite, so back into the riding gear and back on the road. I ticked off 15 miles of the next day's route and at 8pm I pulled in to a campsite on the banks of Roadford Reservoir. As I had neared the lake I had contemplated fishing the last hour or so of day light, I like this lake, some very nice brown trout live there and I considered salvaging the day with a fish or two as we went into dark. And Angling Passport tokens can be used on all Southwest Lakes. However, as I rolled in to the campsite I realised just how cold, wet, tired and hungry I was. It quickly became evident that I needed to concentrate on my own welfare for a while. Thankfully the campsite had fantastic showers, I must have been in them for half an hour. I made camp and went to bed after dinner - pasta, feeling a little sorry for myself and hoping for a better day tomorrow.