Richard and Richard (AKA Dave) on the river Churnet

I'm lucky enough to live 5 minutes walk from a beautiful trout stream, the river Churnet. On Saturday I was joined by two chaps who I last met when guiding for them on a wild loch on Islay a year or so ago and they had asked me if I'd mind showing them one of my favourite local rivers.

Fishing on the upper Churnet is tricky, but if you are stealthy and you don't mind getting on all fours and crawling through a few bushes and under one or two fences then the angler can be rewarded with some lovely hard fighting fully spotted wild browns, and the odd grayling too. The scenery is as good as any and the wildlife is incredible, kingfishers fire up and down and the river is home to many dippers and other beautiful birds. 

Choosing a short rod is definitely an advantage here. I like to use my 6ft 3wt Hardy glass rod, this allows me to get a cast in without getting in to too much of a tangle and feels lovely when playing a fish. Richard was using a 4 and a half foot split cane rod and he was able to put a lovely line out with it. It wasn't long before both lads were landing fish and both were clearly enjoying the afternoon.

The lads were using a few different fly patterns but I find that the klinkhammer always does well. There were a few mayfly coming off in the warm afternoon sun and I'd be tempted to stick one of those on at this time of year. There were plenty of large dark olives coming off and quite a few swarms of gnats and the fish were slashing and jumping at them, particularly in the upper reaches of the beat.

The lads caught a few few fish between them, most quite small but beautifully spotted, but a couple were much bigger, one in particular that gave Richard a right good run around late on in the session was closer to the 2lb mark.

Sam enjoyed sitting on the bank watching the anglers landing the fish but later on started to wonder when his owner might start thinking about arranging his tea so it was with heavy hearts that the lads packed up, having had a great afternoon and we made our way back home and then on to the Earl Grey for refreshments, the favourite of which seemed to be Union Hop from Moor Brewery!

Haste ye back lads and I hope to take you up on your offer of fishing with you down Worthing way sometime in the near future.

Slainte

David

A Cracking Start for Fly Fish Islay

Blimey! What a busy start to the summer. The weather has been terrible in the Staffordshire Moorlands, so it is with great fortune that Glen and I found ourselves spending much of the early summer enjoying the fine weather on the magical Isle of Islay with 3 separate groups of guests, all determined to enjoy themselves through catching a few wee broon troots and enjoying a wee dram or two...

We were joined on our Fly Fish Islay trips buy 3 groups of smashing ladies and gents from all over Europe. Some new to Islay, some new to fishing, some experienced anglers, all up for a good laugh.

I haven't had time to write blog posts after each of the trips, excepting the first in April but here follows a selection of pics....(There are many more on the Fly Fish Islay page on Facebook).....

Loch Gorm proved to be a favourite of many of our guests. Fished from boat with an outboard so as to cover as much of this vast machir loch as possible, Richie enjoyed 2 days on the loch and enjoyed some spectacular sport.....

A first for Fly Fish Islay was an outing to 3 hill lochs by way of Islay Estates' Argocat. Guests were guided by head game keeper Scott Brown. One of the lads had never fly fished before our May trip but he still managed to land a couple of stunners to around 2lb from these remote hill lochs.

Popular as ever as a fishing venue was the beautiful Loch Finlaggan, not least because Finlaggan House was our base during the May trip. On the last day we held a small comp....the winner would be the angler who landed the most fish in 4 hours. Kev Pollard came out tops and went away with a nice couple of drams and some cracking fishy memories.

A month later and another set of guests arrived. Glen had his eye on the sea fishing, he new that come June there would be more fish near the shore on the sea lochs. This our base was at Octovullin by Loch Skerrols.

Sean Ruffell carefully selects his weapon...a 28g Dexter Wedge.




















We arranged a clay pigeon shoot for the guests at Octovullin House. It was hilarious watching Pointon firing at clays with a semi automatic shot gun. Scott the keeper couldn't keep up with loading shells as Glen was firing it like a machine gun and still managing to miss.....

Plentiful brown trout were had from all of the lochs that our guests fished throughout the 3 trips, and all were amazed at the differences that could clearly be seen between the different strains of fish from each loch.

On the final day of the last trip we bumped into Justin Ruthven-Tyers at Islay Studios. Both Glen and I had recently finished reading his new book 'Phoenix From the Ashes' which is a belting read.......Justin lives on Islay with his wife Linda and their boat 'Caol Ila' can often be seen moored in Lagavulin Bay.

Justin was never really a joiner / carpenter before his house burned down and he decided to build a new one....oh, and he also decided to build a beautiful boat...'Caol Ila'...the book tells all and is an incredibly enjoyable read.....

The most memorable moment of all the trips this year has to be Glen catching a 2.5lb sea trout. I am proud to have shared the moment with him...read all about it on his blog....www.glenpointon.blogspot.com

I hope to update this blog on a more regular basis, but may just post pics and a few words from now on. Expect many more pics from Islay because as of this Saturday, I'll be living there....:-) :-) :-)

Slainte

Woody

Make Way For The Supermarket

We have a new supermarket coming to Leek and it has caused quite a stir. When it was announced that the new supermarket was coming and the plans revealed that the intention was to build outwith the town centre, many protested saying that shoppers would be less likely to spend in the existing shops and that the independents would suffer as a consequence. Most fuses were blown however, when they announced their intention to make improvements to the road layout in town, and when it was suggested that the roundabout at the bottom of Derby Street, heaven forbid, might be removed.

Supermarkets are unfortunately a fact of life. None of us will stop them coming to our towns. We already have a Coop, a Morrisons, a Netto, an Aldi, and a Farmfoods, and the owners of the new supermarket are just after market share. Whether our businesses survive or not will largely depend on how positively we react and adapt to the situation instead of adopting a Canute style stance of trying to stop them coming at all. Certainly a bigger threat to all retail business is the increasing tendency for all of us to shop online rather than locally, the money leaving the local economy immediately and not even keeping local folk in jobs in the supermarket down the road. The message that we as retailers are shouting about through worthwhile schemes such as Totally Locally is don't do all of your shopping in the supermarket and if every adult in Leek spent just a fiver a week in a local shop then that would bring an extra 4.1 million pounds into the economy, safeguarding the jobs of local folk, and maybe even creating a few.

However.

When any business comes to town, they should be incredibly careful about how they treat the environment. Historically, Leek was a very important town to the textile industry. The town was at the centre of the arts and crafts movement, Morris and Sugden both having offices and businesses here. At one time, Leek factories were responsible for the dying of cloth for the entire Catholic Church right across the globe. Consequently much industrial waste was poured into the River Churnet and at one time it was said to be the most polluted in Europe. All this has changed and with legislation in place to protect rivers from industry, the Churnet has  found some of it's former glory.

I'm lucky enough to fish our great rivers in Staffordshire and Derbyshire, the Dove, the Wye, the Derwent and the Manifold being my usual haunts. Anglers throughout the world are jealous of us who fish in these parts because of how blessed we are in scenic countryside, and in the diversity of flora and fauna that exists here, especially our wild brown trout, our grayling, and now, our salmon. I can honestly say though that of all the fishing I do in this part of the country, the upper Churnet is my favourite of all places because it is simply beautiful.

The small stretch of water in the picture above is a bend in the river Churnet right by the side of the road beside the Churnet works where the supermarket and it's related developments are to be built. Before the trees were felled in this spot, I would regularly stop and stand and watch free rising fish dimple the surface of the water was they smutted after small insects that had dropped their or that were emerging from below. The river was under the cover of 2 or 3 trees whose canopy afforded the fish shelter from predators in the form of Herons, and their roots would be a safe place for the smaller fish to hide from the bigger. This canopy was the home of many birds, and regularly, down the tunnel formed by the overhanging branches, kingfishers darted about between their favourite fishing pegs, now disappeared, and so too the birds.

Whilst we are all arguing about not wanting more supermarkets (at least not the ones that sell everything dirt cheap, bring us an Aldi Megastore any day of the week), and about our roads and a roundabout, these people are doing whatever they like, and I fear this is the sign of worse to come. The Churnet in Leek is only just recovering from a major pollution incident that happened within the last few years, it's trout and grayling have returned and along with them kingfishers, salmon and otters that haven't been resident in these parts for decades. I fear for their future.

Angling Resolutions

Happy New Year! It's been a while since I've updated my blog, mainly because I've had very little angling or dramming related to talk about. 2011 wasn't a good year for my fishing in and around the Staffordshire Moorlands. Islay was superb, as usual, despite wetter conditions than usual, the lochs gave up their troot without too much of a fight. In truth, Islay is one of the reasons I've not been out on the rivers of late, it has totally spoilt me, I love the island for it's whisky and it's fishing and it is truly angling and dramming heaven.

I have big ambitions for 2012 and my new years resolutions are built around these. Firstly, I aim to take groups of anglers to Islay on a much more frequent basis. Many of the anglers who joined us on last year's trips have booked up again for this year, and they're bringing more people with them, once you've been to the magical Isle of Islay, it is difficult to get it out of your system. So from March to October, we'll be running a trip at least once every two months so get in touch if you would like to join us. There is sea fishing involved too now as well as the loch fishing for truly wild angry Scottish brown trout, salmon fishing on the Laggan and even a little stalking can be arranged if required....look up and like 'Fly Fish Islay' on Facebook and you will kept up to date of all of our forthcoming trips.

I also intend to fish more back home in the Staffordshire Moorlands during 2012. I really enjoyed my Islay fishing last year and each time I returned home, the rivers were either empty of water or in flood so it wasn't good for the trout season. I've had a re-jig with my fishing tickets, I really enjoyed the Wye but couldn't justify it again purely because I feel that it is just too far away for me to nip out for a couple of hours fishing, consequently I didn't get my money's worth last year. I'll be rejoining LTDFFA, the little syndicate on the Staffordshire bank off the river Dove at Dovedale ('The best parts of Derbyshire are in Staffordshire'), there is a good crowd of anglers in that club and I really enjoyed the craic last season. I've dropped DRAC, again due to waters being too far away, and I've kept LADFFA. This year, the plan is to get out and do a little more coarse fishing especially when the rivers are out of sorts. I want to get back to the waters where I fished when I was a lad and challenge myself to try new techniques and methods that I've never dabbled in before...help!! To this end I've rejoined Leek and Moorlands Fishing Association and Fenton and District so that I can fish Heron Marsh and most importantly, Knypersley Reservoir where I fished when I was at school and loved the place.

My camera has broken which is another reason that this blogger has been quiet, this is a situation that will be put right quite soon, when, with a little help from my mate Jason Snape who took the superb picture above at Dovedale in the autumn of last year, I will purchase a new one.

Here is to a 2012 full of angling and a little dramming ;-)

Slainte

David

Islay May 2011 Trip: The First Weekend

We've just had a great week on the Isle of Islay. How do I know that it was great? Well you only need to look at some of the comments that are being left on Glen's blog and my blog to know that there will be one or two extra folk returning to the magical Isle of Islay during Feis week 2012. I sent an email out to all attendees asking if they'd seen my fishing cap that I'd accidentally left in the cloak room of Finlaggan House, our home for the week, desperately hoping that someone might have picked it up. The response I got gave me a wee giggle and summed up the week in a nutshell....

"ps...didn't find cap, but had to throw away someone's pants from cloakroom floor !!??!?;-)"

Pointon??

Thursday 19th May was spent packing the van with way too much stuff as normal...8 rods, one of which I'd use in the week to come. 4 reels, ditto. Far too many clothes and far too much booze. The weather has always been good to me during the week of the Islay Festival of Malt and Music, but this year, the weather forecast wasn't as promising so I'd packed enough to cope with the hottest of summer days, to the coldest of the winter months.....At 4am, Pointon and Snapey arrived at Highfield and, after a few load "Wooooodddddyyyy"s and an appropriate swear word or two, we pointed the van Northwards and off to pick up Kev from Macc, and then on to the Motorways 6, 74 and 73 calling in Glasgow to collect Glen's newly purchased Sage rod that he was keen to try out on the wild lochs of Islay during the week ahead.

I had agreed to work at the Lagavulin Distillery open day on Saturday which required us to be on Islay in time for my 8am start at the distillery, and so, we camped at Port Mor campsite for the night, our accommodation at Finlaggan House not being available to us until late Saturday afternoon.

During the early evening, Glen took Kev to have a look at a nearby stream, and began casting to the wee rising troots......the perfect start to their fishing week, although Glen managed to leave his new Greys scoop net that he'd desperate miss in the open fishing competition, the following day on the famous Loch Gorm.

The campsite was very convenient for the Port Charlotte hotel and later that night, whilst Snapey and Pointon caught up with some much needed rest, Kev and I met up with Mark and Helga Unsworth and Ian Gray in the pub and checked out the Islay ales and enjoyed some local music......I'd need the ale to help me to sleep as the wind whipped and whistled about the tiny tent in which I attempted to sleep and eventually struggle out of at 6am the following morn...the facilities are great at Port Mor, under floor heating in the shower blocks and red hot showers soon warmed me up and prepared me for the day's work ahead. I was really looking forward to getting in to Finlaggan House though, the van was full of the kit of 4 blokes, most of which were geared up for a week's wild angling and one of which was geared up with a multitude of photographic equipment....it had become impossible to find anything in the back of the van, that was if you could get in to the bl@@dy thing, the doors having decided to refuse to open. How the boys laughed as my OCD reached dangerous levels.

The lads took me down to Port Ellen and dropped me off at Lagavulin Distillery, where, during their Feis Ile open day, I'd host a whisky tasting for attendees, paring Lagavulin 16 year old with Catriona MacGillivary's home made treacle tablet and Lagavulin Distillery Edition with Rochefort and Stilton cheeses...winner...

Glen was itching to enter the Feis Ile open fishing competition on Loch Gorm and Kev had decided to join in too. The pair were dropped off at the designated meeting point on Gorm and they met up with the other local anglers....Glen had met some of these local lads before, among them some of Scotland's finest fishermen. These guys put us English anglers to shame....down our way, a lot of anglers chose fly fishing because they think it gives them a certain status, they chose to do it instead of golf...they talk about the 'ethos of fly fishing' whatever that is, and thankfully, these Scotch lads fly fish because there is no other style of fishing available, that's it, so they are all normal guys, not a jot of pretence amongst them, and that's why Glen thought it appropriate to walk in the the barn full of them and say....

"Well, I've met all sorts of blokes in my time, I've met Scousers, I've met Geordies and I've met Mancs but you Jocks are the biggest c@nts of them all!"....nice one brother....

I'll let Glen tell you / explain about (delete as appropriate) the competition on his blog....seemingly it was a near run thing. One thing I will say...all the lads were incredibly brave out fishing in those conditions which was basically a storm that had blown in off the Atlantic and was reeking havok on the loch. I reckon Kev must have thought he was in Heaven when he eventually reached the comfort of Finlaggan House, and tucked into his first Islay

I finished my day's work and headed of to Finlaggan. Throughout the evening, more and more members of our party started to arrive. Glen and Kev had much to tell us about the competition and, at about 9pm, we were joined by the Luxembourg contingent which consisted of Terry, Mark and James. Introductions were made, drams were had and later, Herman and Katey joined us for drinks in the large dining room where we planned the week ahead and shared our expectations. Pointon, as ever, giving it the big 'en, kept everyone's feet firmly on the ground and it was obvious from the start that we'd managed to bag ourselves a bunch of normal people, all wanted to fish, all wanted to drink, all wanted to have fun and all wanted to enjoy the experience of eating freshly caught wild loch trout, from loch to pan to plate all within a few minutes.....

Once again we were lucky enough to be joined by Jason Snape. All the good pictures on this post (and the ones to follow) are taken by him. Jase kept an eye on things for us whilst we were out on the loch. He made sure the house was warm and that the kettle was at the ready when we got back at the end of the day. He also kept Pointon under control and at times I wondered if he'd slipped some medication into Glen's tea, so uncharacteristically chilled out he appeared to be.

On Sunday we took it easy during the morning. It was a good opportunity to get a good breakfast, settle in to our wonderful accommodation and to sort through our fishing gear. Some of the group were keen to talk about and indeed tie some of the patterns that Glen and I were recommending. At about 12 noon we left the house. The conditions were looking quite good, although a little breezy, and after a team photo or two, off to Loch Finlaggan we went....

From left to right....Mark, Glen, Me, Terry, James, and Kev.

We all dropped in to the loch in the visitor centre bay and immediately started to see fish rising to our dry flies. Islay is great for dry fly fishing, in most conditions and the rises are often spectacular. Even if fish are not freely rising to insects floating on the surface it is worth casting a dry fly even during a gale as we'll see later on....

The LTD orange tag was a favourite and some had opted for the recently launched LTD Mouse variant which received much interest from the wee angry Finlaggan troots. Mark was the first of the Luxembourg contingent to catch and he was over the moon. It was great for me and Glen to see that the lads were catching so early on, it took the pressure off us a little, there would be nothing worse than the lads blanking all week having made so much effort to be there......It was ace to see the looks on their faces each time they landed a fish..

It had been a long day and we had managed plenty of fish between us. We decided that a good feed was required and we agreed to head in to Bowmore for a curry. It was 7.30pm. I could see that conditions were improving all the time and as we walked back towards Finlaggan Castle and the house, I remember turning to Kev and Mark and saying that Glen could be on for an amazing evening if conditions continued to improve. Glen decided to stay and fish and when we got back from our huge feast in Bowmore, Glen told us how he'd had 26 fish in an hour or so worth of electric fishing and I knew he wasn't exaggerating, I'd seen how the conditions were improving and have been on the loch before with David Morris and with Glen where there have been fish rising everywhere, battering the naturals in the calm warm breeze of a quiet Loch Finlaggan Evening...superb. Glen got back to the house before us and met Herman and Katey. Herman got the stove fired up and set about turning Glen's catch into a feast. Glen told me later that it was the best fish supper he'd ever had, and washed down with a glass or two of Black Bottle, he went to bed later in no pain at all.

What a start to our Islay trip May 2011, and there would be much more to come....

To be continued....

LTD!!

Woody

PS nice video of the trip by Glen......Click Here

Sorry....had to raid Glen's comments again as Terry left this great message....

"What a week! Fishing Islay was incredible! First and only time in my life I've been able to shoot my entire line with only one false cast but then I suspect I won't be casting in Gale Force winds with gusts of 120 Km/H too often! The memories are incredible: Shooting the bull with Glen and the guys in the evening over numerous pints and drams while the wind and rain pounded against the windows, fishing up to my ass in water while the wind and rain pounded against me, Glen cooking eggs on the Aga with a headlamp when the electricity cut out, the looks we got when we walked into the curry house and the pub wearing waders and boots, letting myself be persuaded by Mark that an eight mile hike through the woods during a gale was a good idea, watching trees and branches come down in front and behind us while hiking, watching Jase striding along with his jacket wide open and no hat while James, Mark and I looked like drowned rats, those two nice kids who gave us a ride back to Finlaggan house so we didn't have to walk the last two miles, discovering the ultimate death sauce and, maybe just maybe, adding too much to my pasta sauce, (I did noticed that everyone was walking around bowlegged the next day) turning the air blue with curses when I lost those three lovely trout on Gorm due to my lousy tippet material, bringing that first lovely fish to the net on Finlaggan, the heart stopping rises on the infamous LTD SEDGE. tying my first flies in over twelve years, the pleasure of having fish take them, the torture of having Mark and James taking swigs of Laphroaig's Quarter Cask while I was driving us from the airport and couldn't drink and most especially the memory of a bunch of fantastic people who made this a magical moment in time! I'm there next year with a cheeky smile and a glint in my eye...."