James O'Brien looks back at his fly fishing journey and how he now likes to travel light.
A few years ago I was carrying all the carp tackle down to the lake when a guy who was sat on a bench enjoying the view with his family asked, “do you always hump that load of tackle? You could do with a set of wheels”.
“Yes I do, and this isn’t all of it, there’s more in the van.” I replied.
“Don’t know how you do it mate, I fly fish and it’s easy to get to the water, all you need you can get in your pockets, traveling light, the best way to fish”.
While I was sat in the bivvy later that evening I thought about what this chap had said. It made a lot of sense, ‘buy some wheels? - all you need you can get in your pockets?’
I started looking into what was needed to start fly fishing and found it a revelation. Rod, reel and line, box of flies, landing net, that’s it.
So off to the tackle shop, and bought the gear for less than a couple of hundred pounds, I must say at this point I was only intending to fish the local reservoir and took the tackle shop’s advice on what I needed.
What a great start to my fly fishing journey when I caught a 2 lb rainbow trout on my first outing.
Not sat for hours and throwing loads of feeders and ground bait, no need for a bed chair, cooker, bivvy or the rest of the paraphernalia associated with specimen carp fishing.
This was the start of my obsession with fly fishing for trout that slowly expanded to fishing the rivers on the fly and then chasing the grayling.
"One water I fished didn't provide outboards so I bought an electric motor"
That of course meant buying some waders, a good staff, and a new rod or two and the lines to go with them.
I was enjoying my new fishing discipline so much the carp gear was left in the garage for several months without use.
Then the big decision, fly or carp? What to do? Sell the carp set up and use the money for new fly tackle, and maybe taking it to the next level and even start tying my own flies?
The decision was made and my complete van load of carp equipment was sold, along with the van.
Everything fit so well into the newer smaller car, and I was really enjoying both still water and river fly fishing.
Then things started to change, reservoir boat fishing was put in front of me and it sounded like another challenge for me to conquer. So let’s go for it.
This involved buying a boat seat as the thwart boards are hard and unforgiving when sat on all day, as I found on my first day afloat.
More, heavier rods, wider selection of lines, longer handles for the net, drogue and clamps, larger fly collection so bigger boxes, a large bag to put it all in along with drinks and food for the day, waterproofs etc. etc.
This called for a larger vehicle, so put the car in part exchange for a small van.
Also one water that I fell in love with didn’t provide outboards, so I bought an electric motor with a large leisure battery. I soon realised that for a full day I needed two of these batteries or I would be rowing back to the boathouse.
On the last visit to my beloved reservoir, as I was humping all the tackle down to the boat, a guy who was sat enjoying the view on the bank near the boat dock asked “Do you always hump that load of tackle? You could do with a set of wheels."
“Yes I do, and this isn’t all of it, there’s more in the van.” I replied.
“Don’t know how you do it, I fish Tenkara style and all you need you can get in your pockets, travelling light, that’s the way to catch fish.”
Now where did I hear that before?