By Tony Hoggart
Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to finish 6th in a field of 13 very competent river teams in the American National Fly Fishing Final, however we did and the more we thought about it the more we came to the same conclusion, that with more time on the water we could get much better at this style of fly fishing. So the first of many, AAF(G) Rivers days was planned by Andy Croucher and executed by myself. It took place on my local water the River Swale. Although I have fished the Swale since I was 12 I have been utterly consumed by the experience we had in America. I have found myself on a river at every opportunity since our return so when my measly one week leave came round I used the opportunity to fish the Swale at every opportunity, in fact it was 7 of 9 days I spent on there practicing and experimenting with different flies and Leader make ups. Mainly in preparation for the group who where coming down to fish the AAF(G) river day.
The venue was the Richmond falls beat, normally a picturesque place right on the edge of Richmond with the falls and Richmond Castle been the prominent features in the area. Unfortunately for us it had been the Richmond Summer party the night before we arrived, slightly bad timing from myself. So we were greeted by people lying around in great massive piles of rubbish and beer cans (I couldn’t believe my eyes when they got up and cleaned the place). Luckily it had not affected the river and apart from the odd kid floating down stream we had the place to ourselves. 9 people turned up for the event and I thank them all for their input and support. The day started with a semi brief from me explaining areas to fish and methods and techniques I find effective. I highlight I find effective because often in river fishing it’s got more to do with what you are comfortable with. We then split into groups after a bit of fly sharing. Most people raping Martin Watson’s boxes of his CDC dries (a great dry that did some real damage on the day), I also found a few of my better nymphs going the way of Everrett and Jones.
I took Graham with myself to an area about 5 miles outside of Richmond, when I initially asked for volunteers to fish the more technical areas of the swale only Graham volunteered. Everybody else was far too eager to get on the water and couldn’t wait any longer. Graham Lumsden and Robbie Bell took the lead as figure heads and took there respective small groups to different areas where ideas and methods where passed around and shared, as a whole they did well catching plenty of Grayling.
I on the other hand had Graham practically on his hands and knees fishing some technical water with double nymph, a method which we had used extremely well in the states, and by all accounts work very well here. It involves an 8ft leader to the first fly I favor a cased caddis and another 2 ft to a small heavy nymph a flashback PTN sufficing, no droppers tied eye to eye. The cast is more of a lob with only about a foot of line out of the top rod ring it is difficult to cast. All you need do then is track it back till it stops or you feel that heart stopping thump. Graham took to this method quickly and after realizing you can catch fish in very fast shallow water fished with extreme vigor and diligence. This stretch produced some good fish, notably a huge wild brownie to Graham, without question the best fish of the day. Well done mate, can I have me flies back now…...
In the afternoon no body wanted to fish the technical beat, mainly because they had all had fish from other areas and where more than happy to go back to them. I took Graham to a seam in the current I knew held plenty of fish and set him up to fish it unfortunately there was just to many of us in the area and the fishing died off slightly all though fish did come out the area it required accurate casting to get the flies deep under the willow trees. People drifted around different areas of the river fishing contently, occasionally sitting around chewing the fat and putting the fishing world to rights. I enjoyed this part most of all, it was nice to just relax and enjoy the day, no pressure, no practice just pure fishing.
In my opinion the day was a great success and I for one can not wait to get out again, I would urge any one with even a slight urge to river fish to get in touch with myself or Andy. We will be running more of these events, trying different areas to give everybody a good chance of attending. All kit can be supplied if you give adequate time for us to get it together.