This is a new feature for us. The idea is to share details of fishing guides and instructors but in a format that allows a potential client to know a little more about the person who might be giving them some spey casting lessons or taking them out for wild brown trout on a river. It is, of course, free so if you are an instructor or guide and would like to appear just contact us.
Name: Lee Watts.
Where Based: South Wales.
Tuition offered: Single hand casting instruction.
Guiding Offered: Instruction/guiding for trout and grayling, with some in the salt.
Target Species: Trout, I always come back to river trout. I remember reading something which said that you can class fly anglers into two types. Those who fish for trout, and those who fish for anything that will take a fly. I am the latter. Though I enjoy catching salmon, I’m not very good at it. I don’t fish for sewin that often anymore, being fed up of the queus to fish a pool and the mentality of the minority.
I'm pulling flies a lot more, and that gives me more options. I'm pulling flies for salmon, catching good brownies on streamers and piking. My favourite fish of the moment is pollock. Everyone talks about the bass, which are great and usually require a lot of craft for good uns, but nothing hits with ferocity, or pulls like a pollock heading for the kelp on a fly in the UK.
Tell us about yourself: 40yrs old, I live and am from Seven Sisters, an old mining village in the Dulias valley. I'm a full-time clinical physiologist at 2 local hospitals and a part-time guide.
Part-time for me involves approximately 2 clients per month evened out throughout the year. Sometimes I may see 4 clients in a month, other times none.
I hold AAPGAI advanced and FFF qualifications and I am an Orvis endorsed guide. Ive fished in Iceland, Sweden, NZ and Scotland and I have my first warm water trip to Cuba coming up in May. When I'm not fishing, I'm usually wildfowling on the Carmarthen coast with my spaniels.
What is your angling ethos: Fish in places where others don’t - it's where the fish hang out. Also, tie your own flies, its not hard, that’s kind of the point! Appreciate the fact that you can put fish back and treat everything about them with respect, think about how you would like to be handled and always fish barbless.
Your angling influences: My Dad taught me to fish on the Usk river and reservoir. There are a few people I have cast and fished with who completely blow me away with what they can do. I have a friend Darren Jackson (Daz) who is a very special angler, but also very humble. Paul Proctor always impresses with his tips and attitude. Stuart Jarvis was the ghillie at Glan Usk and is a wealth of free flowing knowledge and skill. I will never be as good a fisherman as any of the above.
From a casting perspective, I would have never gone down the route of becoming qualified if it wasn’t for Paul Arden and Sexyloops. Richard Wothers at Airflo and Illtyd Griffiths have also been big influences, as have the North West casting junkies Lee Cummings, Tony Riley and Jim Fearn (incredibly skilled guys).
My trips to Scotland are always made more successful and enjoyable if Will Shaw and Ben Dixon are involved. Both are AAPGAI, both work in the tackle industry, one of them smiles!
Contact Lee via his website: http://www.leewattsflyfishing.co.uk/