Welcome to Issue 74 | Eat, Sleep, Fish

February is a funny month. I’m not one for wishing my life away but when I get to February, pancakes aside, I want things to hurry up as March is just around the corner and that means I’ll be on my home river fishing once more.

The salmon season starts on March 1st and I’ll be swinging flies for salmon with Emma, my wife. We’ll bring the dog and see what the conditions are like and adjust the amount of time we fish accordingly. Sometimes it is a couple of hours but often more. We take it in turns fishing pools and I enjoy sitting and watching Emma fish as much as doing it myself. It's always a fun day, no matter the result.

March 15th is a day where me and a lot of fishing friends get together and mark the start of the trout season. It started about 10 years ago with just my pal Toby and I. We fished a few pools, caught some fish and had a sandwich and coffee to warm up before heading back out again.

Over the years it has grown a fair bit and I think there was in excess of 20 friends last year coming from as far as Berkshire for the day to mark the occasion. We start with coffee and a catch up and then I organise who is going to fish with who and where. The thing I really like about this is that fishing friendships have been formed over the years from these meet ups.

Some years the fishing can be good, others tougher. Two years back, regular fixture at the event, Jim couldn’t make it. I knew he’d have fished just a dry and so most of us there decided to do the same. It was totally the wrong tactic for a cold, hatch free day and hardly surprisingly we didn’t touch a fish all day. This was in stark contrast to last year when the fishing was really good and a number of fish were caught on dry flies.

At the end of the day no matter how good or bad the fishing has been we all congregate in the bar for a few drinks and to talk about the day and just talk fishing generally.

Who knows what this year will bring but I know I’m looking forward to it.

Huge thanks to Charlie Brownlow for this month's cover shot, I'm dreaming of BC!

I'll be at the BFFI and the Roadford Fly Fair (more details below) and hope to see some of you there!

Pete Tyjas is a fishing guide based in Devon, UK visit his website for more details

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