I’m constantly surprised when people don’t believe me when I tell them that I cannot cast a fly. Why on earth would I want to lie? And why on earth do people think that because I’ve fished for most things that I would have necessarily have learned to throw bits of fluff and feather?
I’m told Wayne Rooney can kick a football but give him a proper (oval) ball and he’ll struggle to whack it between the uprights. Likewise give me a feeder and I’ll drop it on a sixpence at 80m but give me a bit of tinsel on a hook and a floppy stick and I’ll end up with it at my feet or, more likely, in my head.
To tell the truth I’ve always been rather embarrassed by the fact that I couldn’t fly fish and have tended to keep very quiet about it – unless asked. I’m one of those irritating people who doesn’t like to do anything unless I can do it well; sod all the politically correct “it’s all about the taking part…” nonsense!
So it was with some trepidation that I took up old friend John Synnuck’s invitation to join him for a day’s pike fishing on the fly at the current UK big pike Mecca – Bristol Water’s Chew Valley Reservoir.
John and I have pike fished together for the past 20 years or so and had been looking to catch up for some time and, for once, my inability to cast a fly didn’t matter because, firstly, it was John – and I’m more than happy to let old friends see me make an arse of myself and, secondly, was the small fact Chew holds more 20 and 30lb pike than you can shake a number 7 weight fly rod at – and even a total arse could end up attached to one!
I do possess a lightweight fly rod and, courtesy of a very kind act of generosity, a fly reel to match. The generosity was down to one time (perhaps still current) FM member John Woods who spent a morning patiently trying to teach me to cast a fly a couple of years back – sadly we lost touch and I never practised…
Neither, however, were any use for chucking a fly the size of a Yorkshire Terrier and dealing with a snapper which could potentially be north of 35lb so I called on my boss, MacNab Media Chairman Richard Hewitt, and fellow editor, Fish & Fly supremo Paul Sharman, to furnish me with the appropriate kit.
“What? You can’t fly fish?” said Dick in amazement…
After taking several delightful Hardy creations out of their exquisite tubes and lovely shiny reels out of their pristine cases Dicky then uttered the words I knew would be coming but which I had nonetheless been dreading all morning: “Best we go into the garden and see which ones suit your style of casting best…”
It was only when he saw me foolishly flapping in the breeze that Dick finally realised that I had been telling the truth and his face went very pale indeed as it dawned on him just who he had given several hundred pounds worth of prime Sintrix and finely engineered aluminium to.
Twenty minutes tuition had me landing a 7# Intermediate line in a (roughly) straight line at a range of about 10m (at very best). Dicky was despairing of me but from a boat and with all day to practise I reckoned it might just see me through…
Chew Valley
Nestling in the foothills of the Mendips and constructed during the period 1950 to 1955 Chew Valley is Bristol’s largest water body covering some 12,000 acres and was built to supply water to the city and environs; holding some 20,000 million litres according to operating company, Bristol Water. From an angling point of view more pertinent perhaps is that it is relatively shallow and operated as a trout fishery with limited availability for pike fishing – but oh what pike fishing!
