Practical UK fly fishing tips, gear guides and river advice for beginners.
You know what the worst part about making a proper cock-up on the river is? It’s not the lost fish or the snapped tippet. It’s that moment when you realise you’ve been doing something fundamentally wrong for months, maybe years, and nobody bothered to tell you. Or worse, you just never noticed because you were […]
The Biggest Fly Fishing Mistake I Ever Made Read Post »
Right, let’s talk about the stuff that trips up every beginner. And look, we’ve all been there at some point, standing by a river wondering why everyone else seems to be catching fish whilst we’re getting absolutely nothing. The good news is that most beginners make the same handful of mistakes, and once you know
Top 5 Fly Fishing Mistakes Beginners Make Read Post »
Right, let’s talk about getting your first fly rod sorted. I see this question come up all the time down at the water, and honestly, there’s a lot of nonsense out there that’ll have you spending way more than you need to or, worse, buying something completely unsuitable for our rivers. Gear Used in This
Best Fly Rod for Beginners in the UK Read Post »
Right, let’s talk about the stuff nobody tells you when you’re starting out with fly fishing. The YouTube videos make it look dead easy. Bloke stands in a river, flicks his rod about a bit, and suddenly he’s into a three pound brown. Reality hits different though. Gear Used in This Article View on Amazon
Common Mistakes Every New Fly Fisher Makes (And How I Still Make Some of Them) Read Post »
You can have the fanciest rod, the most perfect imitation flies, and a casting technique that would make an instructor weep with joy. None of it matters if you’re flogging away at dead water. Gear Used in This Article View on Amazon Reading a river is the difference between going home with stories and going
Reading a River: The Skill That Changed My Fly Fishing Read Post »
June is honestly one of those months where you can either clean up or go home skunked, and half the battle is just having the right patterns in your box. The hatches are absolutely bonkers right now. Everything seems to be happening at once. Let me tell you about a session I had on the
Best Trout Flies for June in the UK Read Post »
Right, let me tell you about the single biggest mistake I see beginners make on the river. And honestly, I made this exact same mistake for probably two solid seasons before someone finally set me straight on the Test one drizzly April afternoon when I was getting absolutely blanked. The mistake? Casting too often. Sounds
The Biggest Fly Fishing Mistake Beginners Make Read Post »
You know that moment when you’re standing in the river, watching trout rise all around you, and they’re ignoring every single thing you cast at them? Yeah, we’ve all been there. Understanding how trout actually respond to different fly patterns isn’t just about matching the hatch. It’s about reading what they’re doing right now, in
How Trout React to Different Flies: What You’ll Actually See on the Water Read Post »
Right, let’s get straight into it because this question comes up at the river more than any other. Can fish actually see your leader? The short answer is yes, absolutely they can. But like most things in fly fishing, that’s only half the story. Gear Used in This Article View on Amazon I spent years
Can Fish See Your Leader When Fly Fishing? Read Post »
Right, let’s talk about the stuff nobody mentions when you’re learning to fly cast. All those YouTube videos make it look dead simple, don’t they? Bloke stands there waving a rod about, line shoots out like magic, and suddenly there’s a trout on. Reality is rather different when you’re stood on the Usk in a
Fly Casting Mistakes That’ll Cost You Fish (And How I Learned the Hard Way) Read Post »
