Welcome to Issue 56 | Eat, Sleep, Fish

There's something about driving along by the river when there's been some rain. The nearby parking areas are all filled with cars that are empty now that their occupants are in their waders swinging flies for salmon.

At the end of the day's fishing some of the nets in the boots of the cars will be dry and in others they will be wet after use and their owners will head home with their report of the day.

I witnessed this scene just the other day. My home river, the Taw, rises on Dartmoor but the main tributary of the three that feed it comes from Exmoor where far more rain had fallen and the salmon were running.

My wife, Emma and I had been invited to fish a prime beat and our timing looked just about perfect.

I love to watch Emma fish. She Spey casts beautifully and for her, it is a large part of why she enjoys salmon fishing so much. I watched as she lifted into a fish that didn't stick and so my net stayed dry.

I fished the pool and nothing happened. My net remained dry.

We walked to another pool just talking and planning our strategy for how we would fish it. Emma let me fish the pool first. My net remained dry.

I watched Emma fish from a bench and saw the line tighten and her lift into a good fish. If anyone needed to see how to play a fish confidently yet carefully this was a perfect opportunity. Of course no one else was watching but I wish they were. When the time was right I stepped down and did the netting duties on a 12lb salmon. After a quick photo and watching the fish swim away I re-attached my now wet net.

We fished a little more and again Emma lifted, this time, into a smaller grilse and the net was once again wet.

We watched the fish swim away and put the wet net into the back of my truck and headed home.

I hope you enjoy Issue 56

Good fishing!

Pete

Pete Tyjas is a fly fishing guide based in Devon

Devon School of Fly Fishing