July and August can be hard on the chalkstreams when fishing ‘normal’ hours.  Yes evenings can sometimes be superb but summer is generally not as good as the spring and autumn for top class Trout sport.  Click here to read more

Many chalkstream beats remain dry fly only until the end of June.  Spring and autumn are the peak times for hatches of upwinged flies and from mid-June onwards to mid-September hatches tend to be sparse.  Click here to read more

After the driest spring in the south of England for over a hundred years it is great news that the rains have started to fall this last ten days.  Click here to read more

The Mayfly season on the chalkstreams is perhaps the single most famous fly fishing ‘event’ of the English fly fishing year.  Each year is different and this years certainly was!  Click here to read more

My favourite Danica Mayfly immitation is a size 10 or size 8 Grey Wulff.  Having fished seventeen Mayfly seasons down on the chalkstreams I have considerable experience of the excitements and frustrations of fishing ‘the hatch’.  Click here to read more

Well the Mayfly are ‘up’ in good numbers in some places but not yet in others.  In the last three days I have guided on three different rivers – the River Itchen, the River Test and the River Kennet.  The Mayfly have been up in good numbers on the lower Test and lower Itchen for around a week now.  Click here to read more

On Tuesday 3rd May I guided two regular clients on the River Test at Longparish.  The sport was slow in the morning.  The river looked great but is was bright and there were few fish to be seen and very few rises.   Click here to read more

Rather than guiding on Saturday and Sunday I had a few hours fly fishing for myself while over in Wales for the long weekend.  I fished the River Usk on Saturday and Llangorse Lake on Sunday.  Click here to read more

There are many advantages of taking a day with a really good fly fishing guide, not only will they take you to the places that are fishing well at the time of your visit but they are able to pass on a great amount of their substantial knowledge and experience which is hugely beneficial even to the most seasoned of fly fishers.

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May as I tell my clients is a “black month” as there are increasing numbers of  black terrestrial flies hatching many of which find their way onto the water. Click here to read more