Put The 'Fly' back into your Fly Fishing

I'm excited........I've just booked a place on what I hear is a very good course run by the Freshwater Biological Association - 'Entomology For Anglers'.

The two tutors running the course Stuart Crofts and Andrew Dixon have few equals when it comes to this subject.

The purpose of this course is to increase fly fishers’ understanding of entomology, which could
make a big difference to their catch. Understanding the life cycle of the flies that are being imitated helps better decisions to be made on what a fish is feeding on, when and where that
type of food will be available, and how best to represent that food form. The course will describe certain aspects of the natural fly which can be incorporated into imitations, explain why some flies are more significant than others and why some important flies are often neglected by anglers. It will also involve a field visit to a river site to collect some of the species the fly-fisher
encounters.

This will be followed by practical advice on how to identify them under the microscope. Anglers Stuart Crofts and Andrew Dixon, have both fished for England at national and international level and have studied entomology for many years.

Three courses are being run at;

Saturday 9th April at Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), University of Glasgow, Loch Lomond

Saturday 21st May at the FBA River Laboratory, Dorset

Saturday 28th May at FBA Windermere, Cumbria.

I've been lucky enough to fish with Stuart quiet a few times over the years and his enthusiasm and knowledge of entomology changed my whole approach and understanding of fly fishing.

See: http://www.fba.org.uk/fba-training-courses

I can't wait!

Get A Grip?

Interest is building in the Clean Angler Pledge and thanks to the World Wide Fred French Web my mutterings have gone out to a much wider audience!

It was nice to see the Angling Trust make reference to ERT's call to ban felt wading boots. I hope this organisation with its significant resources and contacts will pick-up the baton from herein. I will make contact with them in the near future.

I have had a few questions regarding the tendency of non felt soles to slip and slide on the river bed. This is an interesting issue. I have been using Simms Aquatstealth Soles for about five years and have never felt 'slippage' to be a problem. I spend an awful lot of time in waders and fish and work on some pretty spatey rivers.

Having just received a new pair of Orvis Eco-Trax boots I took the opportunity to test them out yesterday on the main Eden and they performed very well indeed. The boots are studded which I think helps.

Dare I say it, but I think sometimes slippage can be exacerbated by poor wading technique. If you try to 'walk' a river I think there is a higher risk of skidding! On spate rivers I find that you are best off 'feeling' the bed of the river and that slower measured progress is the best approach (it doesn't scare the fish either). Obviously it goes without saying that you should never attempt to go against the flow (in all but the shallowest of water) but use it to your advantage. Wading staffs can be a real aid...but I've yet to find a good one that isn't stupidly expensive.

Inspect - Clean - Dry - Spread The Word....... Not The Problem!

Best Foot Forward

Since my last blog. Our good friends at Orvis have subsidised the purchase of our new 'felt free' Ecotrax wading boots. Contained within each box was an information card from Orvis President, Perk Perkins, highlighting the rising problem of invasive species. This is a great example of a company with a sense of it's environmental responsibilities and they are to be commended!

Spread the word - not the problem!