It was with great excitement that The Welsh Hawks set off for the grand final of the Airflo Open championship at RUTLAND water. Now this event holds a certain amount of magic with plenty of history! It first began way back in the mid-80s, back then it was sponsored by Benson and Hedges but obviously with the ban on advertising quite a few other sponsors have come and gone over the years. It's now been taken on by Airflo who...
Our annual trip across the pond to Wales could not come quick enough as many of our competitions had been cancelled or postponed. We were waiting in eager anticipation to get all the gear packed up and the road trip started! After the excellent fishing on Clywedog last year we were all excited to get back out on the water. When we reached our accommodation at Hafren Forest Bunkhouse we were greeted by Sarah and Darren who were excellent hosts for...
So the dust is starting to settle on another big final down on the big pond! After each match I fish on Rutland I appreciate the enormity of the place, traveling back to the dock at the end of day 2 you could see boats coming back from the top of the mighty south arm boats rounding the corner of the peninsula from the north arm and boats converging from the 2 corners of the dam. Our event started early Tuesday morning...
It is fair to say the team was just a little bit excited about the prospects of 3 days practice and 2 days competing at the Airflo Spring Invitational International Competition which was held at the mighty Rutland Water. The last time the Welsh Hawks competed as a Team on Rutland at was back in October 2019! The first day of practice was hard. It was 28 degrees and bright sun. We split the team into three areas; North Arm, Bowl...
One of the huge benefits of being involved with The Fly Shop is not just being able to help give fellow fly fishermen new ammo to target fish, I also get to fish with the patterns of the other guys in the design team. Russ and Gazza, Arden, Alec and Wayne all have contributed some totally awesome flies that are always developing with new materials and ideas. You have the benefit of all these patterns being tried and tested before being put...
Since launching the fly shop and guiding one question I get asked a lot is why so many lines and what would you class as essential. The first is a floating line this is a must have. I use the Loop Opti still water in a WF7. This line is mainly used for dry fly or bung fishing. It loads the rod very fast and is great for covering moving fish fast. It also turns the bung and flies over very...
Love it or hate it, bung fishing can be a very productive method on the small Stillwater’s, particularly in the colder months of winter. A small weighted fly fished 4-6ft below the indicator can be devastating when no other methods are working. Once you work out the depth the fish are feeding at you can present your fly completing static in the zone. These are my favourite flies for beneath the bung.
Top rod for the day was Christian Jones who is captain of our second team amazing result fishing against a very strong field. We had avoided the curse and topped the day with great individual performances by Russ Gazza and Guss. The ever consistent Nymphomanics in second and our second team in third.
