Back to Chatton - Fishing Trip 2018

Another summer vacation and Holly and I head up to Chatton Trout Fishery again for some fly fishing with Bob Smith.  She caught the sole fish on our last and her first visit and experience of trout fishing with a fly rod.  This time it was my turn.  It was a return to the adventure of the book Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout (Kindle ebook and now 5"x 8"glossy paperback ISBN 9781729146149 for £6.35, and hardback).  However, this was no early morning session.  It was a civilised drive in the late morning for a post-lunch start.

View from the car park

Bob was a little delayed in his arrival at the venue so Holly and I had lunch before doing about 15 minutes unsuccessful fishing before Bob arrived.  We saw a tiger trout swim past our feet a few times while we waited. 

This was the first Rainbow caught

The Fritz patterns I usually start with were not attracting anything.  

Bob arrived and we walked over to the upper lake at its far end where the spring enters into deep water. This was local knowledge coming through.  It had been a low hot dry summer to that point (as evidenced by the parched soil in the photo above), and the fish were deep in the cool fresh spring water.

Bob suggested a small hook wrapped around with copper wire.  Bang!  First cast and as the intermediate line began to sink past a count of 20, the fish hit.

So it continued, the line sinking deep with various pheasant tail nymphs, wire nymphs and olive nymph lures all sinking close to the reeds where the spring fed in.  All in all I had about 7 on and allowed them to come off the hook prior to landing to speed the catch and release process, (and avoid getting the hire car smelling of fish from my hands).

Holly had one on and lost it with Bob's help but he had a floating line and the leader wasn't really long enough to get down to the depth of the feeding fish.

We had a good session and all too quickly had to get back to home and farewell to a lovely spot where NO English (Environment Agency) rod licence (available online or at local post offices) is required as its part of the River Till catchment area feeding into the Tweed.

Fishing Trip - Glossy Coffee Table Book

Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout 

I'd been wondering how to made a tangible version of the book currently available as e-book on Kindle available for its original purpose as a gift to my daughter.  I didn't use FeedARead.com as the internal images with that publisher are black and white/greyscale.  That was why Kindle was chosen as medium to show the trout in full colour.  However, the images had to be reduced in resolution for the book to be uploaded.

Visiting Weardale Studios (http://www.weardalestudios.com), at the Dales Centre in Stanhope, I mentioned my dilemma to the photographer (Liz Laidler) while waiting for my ID pictures for Kuwait to be printed.  She suggested http://www.photobox.co.uk and this morning I logged on, chose the A4 Portrait format and started adding the text and images one page at a time.  The formats are designed really to people to create albums of images from digital photography/scans, but text is allowed so I was able to have text pages and image pages along with mixed media pages of text and image.

It is not cheap, but then colour printing never is.   It is £65 (GBP) with 46 pages including the options  - HQ premium paper or glossy paper, matt laminated cover finish, box sleeve cover, but if you order another copy there's a discount.  Its on Photobox at http://www.photobox.co.uk/creation/2015752398

I do get messages from Photobox.co.uk suggesting the facility for the photobook was going to go in August 2016, but all seems to be well so far.

Consequently, two copies were ordered; Holly got her personal copy, as did the illustrator.  That was two Christmas presents sorted!

Incidentally, a resent search of the internet came up with this  at Angler'sNet.co.uk the kindle version got to #9 in the Fly Fishing top 10 on Amazon.co.uk which is very pleasing to see.

Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout

Fishing Trip - An Introduction to Fly Fishing and Trout

by Andrew R. Welsh

Illustrations by Vivien M. Welsh

Written as a poem with some prose.

Now on Amazon Kindle

Top 100 Free in Kindle Store (as of 29th July 2017)

• #2 in Kindle Store > Books > Nonfiction > Sport > Fishing & Other Outdoor Pursuits > Hunting & Fishing
• #17 in Kindle Store > Books > Arts & Photography > Art

I first went fishing (as my daughter Holly has done), with a jar and a small net attached to the end of a bamboo pole for sticklebacks and other fry.

It wasn’t until I was about nine years old that I actually got a small fishing rod with a fixed spool reel for casting the baited hook a little bit further away.  At about the same time my father got a fly rod from “Durham Anglers” when it was situated on Claypath in the city.  The proprietor ran casting classes for those who wanted them to go with their new fly rod, so I went along with my Dad and was shown the ropes.  At home I decided to practise casting on the large Rectory lawns aiming for targets with a feather ties to the end of the line.

I did get quite good at casting, but when it was time to go to the river, I ended up back with my five feet long rod and fixed spool reel.  I didn’t get to fish with the fly rod.  My other friends seem to enjoy ledgering, spinning and floating fishing for coarse fish, and every now and then a trout would take the bait.  I carried on an amassed a selection of tackle and rods and represented Newcastle Polytechnic in the National Colleges match fishing competition on the Grand Union Canal near Warwick University in 1984.  I did manage to borrow the rod on a few occasions to fly-fish in the River Wear at “The Sands” in Durham City, but always ended up catching chub, dace and roach; never a trout on the fly.

It was only while working at the Royal Infirmary in Sunderland that I inherited some fly making equipment from my grandfather that I started making flies for Mr. R Warne (the Senior Chief at the time in the Histopathology Department) and getting my father’s old fly rod, that I was able to go with my father and his new rod to practice fly-fishing for trout  in actuality at Witton Park.  It was their that I caught my first trout on an artificial fly.  It was exciting to think that a fish would take a piece of material wrapped around a hook that looked nothing like anything in its natural diet.

It wasn’t just the fish that was hooked that day but me, although it wasn’t until I met Bob Smith from Morpeth (while teaching in Ashington), that I really started to become obsessed as well as proficient at catching trout and making flies.  I had previously been thinking always about the cast and hadn’t actually understood what the fishing books had been describing for the process of retrieval of the line and hooking the fish.

I picked up the tips quickly and since then have generally managed to return home with a couple of trout from every trip.  The average is that I never return empty handed, and one July day in 2005, even managed to get a TroutMasters award for a 14lb 6oz Rainbow Trout at Jubilee Lakes in County Durham.

I have to say also, that I am not actually interested in pulling out every fish in the river or lake.  I like to catch  a fish that I will eat with my family.  I don’t wish to have a fish suffer the trauma of being caught and released either.  When I have what I need, I pack up and go home.  I like to tailor my flies to hooks that will fulfil this purpose.  When working in Qatar, I would fly fish in the shallow waters around the pier in the bay at Simaisima.  The fishing was good for four years, until net fishermen removed all the fish in about one month during the fifth year.  So much for my Friday morning relaxation!

Fly fishing is a skill; an art if you like.  Each cast I like to be as smooth a roll as possible.  I get embarrassed when the fly makes a splash on the water. In Qatar I remember being filmed casting by people from the pier.  I must have been an unusual sight, waist deep and casting across the waves in the baking sun.

Regretfully, I didn’t do my research into Mongolia particularly well before arriving for a three month teaching stint, though in my defence, I only had four days to get ready!  I left my rod at home and only last week discovered that the country has the world’s largest trout species about 700km from where I was in Ulaanbaatar.  However, given that the Taimen can be up to two metres long and 90kg, my light tackle might have been hard pushed to cope with something more deserving of heavy salmon equipment.

Many fisheries are importing trout species from around the globe, so it may be useful to anglers young and experienced, to see the many varied forms and colours of fish we call “trout” included in the guide.

The e-book got into amazon.co.uk's top ten for fly fishing books according to Angler's Net website in April 2013.

Now at the end of July 2014, the action in the book is about to become reality as Holly and I head to Chatton Trout Fishery  in Northumberland to meet up with Bob Smith who has indicated he will be able to assist in the fly fishing tuition of Holly. I have no doubt that she will do well with his expert tutelage. 

Fly Fishing

A new book on fly fishing has come through the pipeline.  The trout and instructional pictures are complete.  Its based on a poem I wrote to my daughter about her first fishing trip (which is hopefully to happen in the summer when I return home).  It gives brief instructions on the equipment to use and how to cast the line.

The one secret to fly fishing, however, is the method of retrieve of the line.  All the books and magazine articles assume understanding of jargon and never pass the information on correctly.  I stell in the book (in the simplest possible terms) the real method that allows you a fish (if one is there) almost every cast.

Brook Trout

She appears to be fascinated by the fish I return home with to gut and prepare for eating. She will hopefully will take up fly fishing when older and land plenty of trout.  Until that time, I shall show her the knots she will need, and also play and land fish.  Casting might take a while for her to master, but I'll not stop her trying.  Maybe she will better the 14lb 6oz lump of Rainbow Trout I'm holding in the picture after catching it in County Durham.  This one earned me a 2005 TroutMaster award.

Californian Golden Trout

The book has been typed up, the last few pieces of artwork, such as the images on this page have been added and it was uploaded to Amazon Kindle on the 14th April 2013.  Copies have been selling well so far.