Episode 004 – A Warm Welcome Back to the Chalkstreams.

Hi there, Jamie here at the Wilde Trout Journal. Thank you very much for tuning in. Welcome back to the fourth episode of this brand new podcast.

You join me beside the Burbling River Dever this morning. It’s an absolutely gorgeous day. We’ve had a run of three of the warmest days at the beginning of April.

Since as long as I can remember, really, it’s been absolutely glorious. And I’m just looking now at a small, maybe six-inch wild brown trout just drifting over the gravels in front of me. The water here is absolutely tap clear.

And it’s really nice to see a bit of weed in the river after what’s felt like an age of just cold, wet, horrible weather. It’s finally nice to have some sun in the sky as well. And I’m just sat here watching the water go by.

There’s beautiful swathes of green water parsnip and ranunculus. There’s some star water over the other side there as well. And they’re just upstream and across from me, there is a large tree in the river here.

And it’s kicking the water towards me. And just behind it, there’s this large area of silt, which is harboring some very early signs of watercress growing up, which is lovely.

And by June, July time, that would be absolutely shoulder high almost and completely overgrown with watercress. The river keepers here will be really keen to get on top of that. So it’s all to come, all to look forward to.

I have no doubt in my mind it’s going to be a fantastic year for weed growth. You know, we’ve had the best of both worlds, loads of rain, loads of water and finally loads of sun.

So it’s really shaping up to be a pretty good start to the season so far. So I thought this podcast would be a little bit about what we’ve been up to in the last week this time.

We had quite a long discussion piece with Neil Swift at the Wessex Rivers Trust down at the Motus Founta State last Friday.

So I’ve decided that we’d keep this one fairly short and snappy, not least because I’m quite tired after my first three back-to-back days guiding. I’ve got another 35 of those in a row in the May period, so I’m looking forward to that.

But yeah, it’s been a fantastic start to the season.

2:31

My first day was actually with a chap on the Monday just gone, one of my regulars that I’ve guided for one or two years now. He’s come with me a couple of times each season.

We went over to a beautiful beat on the River Itchett, and we had just the best time. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was the first day when we really had some sort of intense sun and there was some real warmth in it.

It really felt every bit of 20 degrees. When we turned up, there was just this deafening orchestra of bird life. It was absolutely phenomenal.

All the reed warblers and robins and blue tits, blackbirds. Everything you can imagine was just singing its little heart out and it was just an absolutely glorious start to the day.

The sun was burning through the mist and it was rolling across the top of the water as the flow took it downstream. And I just remember opening the gates at the top of the beach and thinking this is going to be a good day. And it was.

We had a fantastic time. The chap I was taking is a very experienced fly fisherman. He’s been all around the world and to places like Iceland and New Zealand.

He’s done quite a lot in South Africa as well. And so he knows how to cast the fly. And it’s just an absolute joy to spend some time with him.

You know, every time I get a chance to, it’s just such a great, great chap to guide, really easygoing, kind of listens to what you have to say. You don’t need to be too forceful with anything.

You can just kind of gently guide him into the right areas and you know, he does the rest. And it’s just, you know, the perfect kind of textbook way of guiding, really. And so it was really enjoyable.

We were wading all the way up through this particular beat over some really bright gravels, absolutely glistening in the sunlight. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. It really was.

Lots of weed again, similar to here on the Diva. And it was great to see lots of fish as well. We had some fantastic fishing for some large browns, a couple of small wildies.

We even caught and released a couple of salmon par as well. Couldn’t believe it, but they came up and took a little flashback PTN that Patrick very delicately put into position at the base of a weir pool. And he did remarkably well.

We caught plenty of fish and it was just a really lovely start to the, start to the year. The next thing to mention really is we had some fantastic olive hatches as well.

You know, large dark olive primarily, I think, and they were hatching off in their kind of fleeting bursts throughout the morning. As soon as the sun sort of caught the water, they started to hatch off.

And then there was a period when, during sort of middle of the day, when the sun obviously got very high and it was really quite glary on the water. It was very bright, very hot, and that kind of killed all signs of life off.

And actually the fishing became suddenly really tough. So we decided that that was the best time to sort of furrow in the towel and retreat for some well-earned lunch. And so we did that, we went back to the cabin.

We were sharing the beat with another chap that day who was doing really well himself and he’d had a couple of fish by the time we got back to the cabin.

So we shared a light lunch and then we got back to the river in the afternoon, but it was it was much slower in the afternoon, much less productive.

The hatches had definitely dried up and the fish were pretty uninterested in what we had to offer, to be honest. It was very little rising.

But when the olive hatches did start up again at about three o’clock, there were a couple really kind of quite prolific bursts of them. And we had these large dark olives landing on our hands and faces and forearms and up the rod blanks.

And it just made me think, my goodness, you know, finally the time has arrived. So looking forward to many, many more days like that, I hope, throughout the season.

6:42

And halfway through that day, with Pat, I got a phone call. And I very rarely pick up my phone during a guided day. As you can imagine, it’s considered to be quite rude, to be honest.

So it’s not the done thing at all. But I know Pat very well. And the phone rang and I thought, I’ll just give myself just a few minutes to answer this because it could be important.

So I stepped out of the water and just had a quick chat with this lady on the phone who had called for her family. They wanted to book a private tuition for the two adults and their two young children for the very next day. That would be Tuesday.

And normally that’s just not possible. It’s just too tricky to organize something at late notice with so many moving parts. They wanted a hamper lunch as well for the four of them, plus somewhere to fish, plus the guide, me.

So there’s quite a lot going on. But I said to the lady, Amy was her name. She’s a lovely lady, said, just give me five minutes and I’ll see what I can do.

So I called in a couple of favors.

And I’m so glad I did because the very next day, we had the most fantastic day at one of the venues that I use, Werewell Lakes, on the Werewell Estate, just upstream from Fullerton, near Stockbridge on the River Test.

And the lakes there are just absolutely stunning. The river keepers, James and his crew, they do a fantastic job. So the grass was beautifully mown.

The lake was really clear, absolutely brimming with large trout for the beginners to catch. And of course, there’s no better place for somebody that’s never picked up a fly rod to go and learn how to pick up a fly rod and use it.

And so we just had the most amazing morning. It was only a half day. But we just had the most tremendous fun.

And family were really lovely people. They were so keen to learn. It really set the bar very high indeed for the rest of the season.

This weather was glorious. Just there’s not much more I can say other than it was really the storybook way to start the season. So, so pleased to have got those two days under the belt.

8:56

And then yesterday was very different for me. I spent the day with Damon Valentine, who is quite a well-known cameraman in the industry.

He’s been doing quite a lot of photography, videography and cinematography for people like me, fishing guides and people involved in the fishing industry all around the country. And I think abroad as well. He’s a very talented guy.

And so it was an absolute privilege to spend a day in his company and he was doing some coverage of one of my private tuition days that I do.

And so my sister came up from Somerset where she lives and we just had the most fantastic day at one of the other fishing venues that they use for these sort of tuition based days, which was Manningford Trout Fishery in Wiltshire.

And so we went up there and we had, again, just tremendous fun. It was really hot in the sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day.

So it was quite, actually it was quite unbearable at times, but we sort of soldiered on. And it really felt quite summer like, actually. It felt like we’d skipped spring altogether.

It was really quite hot. And so they’ve got two lakes there at Manningford, and we decided that we might sort of try and retreat to the Catch and Release Lake, which is much smaller than the main lake.

And the Catch and Release Lake is surrounded by beautiful kind of archaic woodland, and there’s some big old beach trees up there that you can get some shade under. And so that’s where we went.

We went up to the Catch and Release Lake to get out of the sun, and we filmed a little segment up there.

And then we went down onto the river and did a bit there, did a bit of kick sampling and showed Emma, my sister, how we sort of read the water and try to understand how the fly life and entomology falls into place within our understanding of the

trout’s diet and fly fishing in general. And we went through the fly boxes and all of the things that are important to a beginner before we got onto the grass and did some casting. And that was when, you know, my sister’s true colours shone through.

She was pretty good, actually. The first time she’s ever done fly fishing for trout, at least. We went salmon fishing together a few years ago for a couple of seasons.

Actually, we went twice or three times up to the River Oar on the west side. And we had some fantastic trips up there, but we never caught anything worth speaking of. The fish of a thousand casts comes to mind.

But anyway, she actually turns out she was pretty good at the trout fly fishing casting. We did a bit on the grass and Damon threw the drone up and got some shots of us practice casting into some of the hoops that I used to try and refine accuracy.

And then we practiced a bit of line management and that sort of thing. And so it was really, it was really fun and engaging day for everyone.

At about half twelve, one o’clock, we’d all sort of unanimously decided that we’d had enough and it was time for a break. So we popped down to the Red Lion in East Chisholmbury, which is an absolutely fabulous pub.

I think they won a Michelin star a couple of years back. And I got that they deserve another one. Really, it was it was absolutely fabulous.

We all had the same thing, which isn’t very adventurous. I know, but the three of us had a shoulder of roast lamb and some mashed potatoes and stuff and some asparagus. And it was really, it was really good.

So if you’re ever in the area, you must check the Red Lion out in East Chisholmbury. Very, very, very good indeed. And well worth the drive if you’re anywhere local.

So we pop back after that, we pop back to get a couple of more sort of finishing touches for what we needed from Manningford. And we decided to do a little bit on the main lake as well.

But if any of you have been to Manningford Trout Fishery or know where I’m talking about, you’ll know that it’s a venue that’s very well known for its large trout. And so it can get quite busy at times with people trying to catch those big fish.

And so we decided to sort of give that a bit of a rest. There were a lot of people there. And we tried to stay out of everybody’s way.

Obviously, we’ve got the camera poking in and out of everybody’s business. So we were sort of weaving in and out throughout the day. But we did a really good job, I think.

And Damon was absolutely fantastic. And, you know, we had a great deal of fun.

13:22

So those were the sort of first three days of my trout season as it starts. Today has been a little bit of a catch-up job behind the desk. Unfortunately, as nice a day as it’s been outside.

Again, really mild as I sit here. But this morning, I have spent most of my time sending emails I should have sent yesterday, if you know what I mean.

So anybody that I haven’t got back to, I’m sorry, I promise I will get back to you today if I haven’t already. But we’re working on it. So there’s lots going on.

It’s nice to be busy. But I thought I’d just take half an hour out of my day to come down here and sit beside the river. A trout, I don’t know if that mic would have picked that up.

But a trout, just as I was speaking then, and I can see it, has just risen and taken something off the surface. That’s fantastic. A little, tiny little Wilde Brown Trout.

It’s really small. Probably, I can see it now. It can’t be more than 8 or 10 centimeters.

And it’s just fit up to the surface and plucked something from the sky. Amazing. Now, I’m looking for some signs of fly life.

I can’t see much at the moment. I suspect that that little trout’s probably just taken an emerger as it was stuck in the surface film. It may be olives, could be granum or even hawthorn.

But probably, probably olives. But it’s really nice to see and absolutely, absolutely delighted to be, to be sat beside the river. Just watching the flow go past, it’s absolutely tap clear here today.

So, and this is the upper test here on the River Deva. It feeds into the main river down near Chilled Bolton, but we’re right up high on the system. And so the water here is inherently very, very clear.

So I can see absolutely everything. And I’m watching not just that trout, but several others in front of me on this, on this small bend. Another trout has just risen over the other side of the river.

The river here is probably, it’s probably only 15 yards across. It’s very narrow. You know, I could, I could very nearly touch the other side with the rod tip.

It feels as though if I had one with me, I could probably drop a fly right under that bush, that’s hanging over. But I’m just looking downstream now, and I can see even more fish creeping around over the shallows.

It’s an absolutely delightful afternoon here.

15:48

So what I thought I’d do is have a little walk, a little bit further downstream from here and just have a chat about our plans for the next couple of days. Well, I’ve just come a few hundred yards downstream, and I’m sat by a small pool here.

The river’s a little bit wider, maybe 25 yards across, and on the opposite bank, it isn’t really a bank at all.

It’s just lots of overgrown willows and snaggy trees falling into the margins, and a little bit of aquatic vegetation, things like reeds and rushes and the like. And between that and I, there’s just the clearest water you’ve ever seen.

It really looks as though there’s no water there at all.

And in fact, the only thing that gives it away is the willow floss floating along down on the surface, getting stuck in the little eddies and whirling round in little hurricanes as they float off downstream.

And the water parsnip, of course, is just riffling beneath the surface, but there are swathes of it out there. It’s a beautiful, bright green color. It never ceases to sort of amaze me just how clear the diva gets.

And this is really the pinnacle of chalk stream flyfishing. Trout look as though they’re sort of floating in thin air. It’s that clear.

And so it’s just an absolute pleasure to spend half an hour here just watching the world go by, listening to the birds and just picturing what it’s going to be like in a couple of weeks’ time during the May fly.

So I’ve come to sit down here just to sort of talk a little bit about the plans for next week. So today has been a bit of a catch up day, as I say. Tomorrow is going to be a bit more exciting.

So I’m going back to Halfords Hut on the Oakley Beat at the Mottus Fonter States, down on the Middle Test, some of the most famous water in the world down there.

And absolutely delighted to be involved with the kind of restoration project of not just the river, but the heritage stuff as well.

And so we’re actually going in there tomorrow to kind of redecorate Halfords Hut with some of the old memorabilia that Halford would once have hung on the walls himself.

And some old pictures and photographs and things that should really make the place the nod to the birthplace of flyer fishing that it once was. And so we’re really looking forward to doing a tremendous job on that.

We’ve also got all the teas and coffee making facilities, a kettle, the water and all the cleaning supplies to go in the cabin ready for Monday the 13th, which is actually only, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s actually only next Monday.

So it’s very, very soon that the first person will be fishing on the Mottes Fonter state this year. And we’re really looking forward to seeing how they get on.

So that’s why we’re down there tomorrow, making sure that the hut is all set up and fully supplied with all the stuff that we need. So yeah, really looking forward to all of that.

And then the weekend comes round and Saturday and Sunday again, I’ve got a private tuition on the Sunday, which is going to be really exciting. It’s going to be very similar hopefully to that of Tuesday, which I was talking about just a moment ago.

Whereas Saturday is going to be a quieter day for me, I need a little bit of time to sit down at the desk and get some bits sorted. So I’ve got to get some other filming arrangements sorted and various other things.

So really looking forward to getting that out of the way so that next week we can get back on the river again. And that’s what I’ll be doing almost every day next week, Monday to Friday. Very much looking forward to getting the rods out.

And yeah, doing a bit of fishing. So only a short one this week. We had a long discussion piece with Neil last Friday.

So I wanted to keep this one a little bit short and snappy. Just a quick update on everything that’s been going on. So thank you very much for listening and getting this far.

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We’ll see you next time.