I had an e

I had an e-mail from my old pal Pete De Kremer, informing me that he took his son out on Rutland at the end of last month. His son David, who is 12 years old caught four fish to Pete’s NIL! If that wasn’t enough, his four fish weighed in at 7lbs. 4oz., 6lbs. 12oz., 5lbs. 4oz and 4lbs. 10oz! How about that for a beginner? Even more ironic was the fact that David was using one of the rods set up by Nigel and Nathan. This gear caught the first three fish for David. Pete then made his son swap rods – obviously he was getting so frustrated. Within three minutes David caught his fourth fish, on Pete’s rod, which hadn’t produced a single pull until then. There must be something inherent in the way that a beginner fishes. Maybe it is that they don’t fish. For much of our season on Chew, at least until well into July, the fish were reluctant to chase a fly, so the most successful anglers were the ones who were able to fish their nymphs static. I think that as an angler ‘learns’ the art of fly-fishing, there is a great tendency to believe that there is always a need to move the flies. This also occurs with dry fly fishing, a time when I am pretty sure the flies should be left static. Maybe I was fortunate to learn my lesson early, for on my first visit to Rutland, in beautiful conditions (overcast, muggy, gentle breeze), I failed to get even a take until I stopped to have a cup of tea. Within half a minute I had the rod wrenched from my hand. This repeated itself a few times, and thankfully the lesson was learnt. Back to the tale of Pete and David. This week being half-term, Pete decided to take his son to Hanningfield to try for one of the big fellows. No prizes for guessing the result! Peter came away with a brace of six pounders, but this time David managed to land a fish of 10lbs 1oz. A similar thing happened in New Zealand last year with my son, who managed to catch a salmon on his first time of trying, dad still waits for his first! Anyway, I’m off to Hanningfield over the weekend myself – to see if I can catch on to some of this ‘beginners’ luck. Tight lines,

Martin Cottis