Cowboys, sharks & trout

Greetings! I’ve always thought Zane Grey to be a pretty cool name; in the annals of literature it belongs to the man who is the most read angling writer of all time. But, in truth, we could easily have never seen a single word of his in print.

He didn’t exactly have a natural path to literary fame. Born in Ohio, USA in 1872 he was christened Pearl by his dentist father, with whom he had a complicated and difficult relationship, most probably due to their similar character traits of being both irascible and antisocial. However, they shared some interest in dentistry as Zane was sent out on behalf of his father at the age of 17 to perform extraction house calls until the authorities intervened. Zane was talented. Baseball – he could have turned pro having won a scholarship to Penn State. He swum for the university. Obtained a degree in dentistry which he eventually parlayed into a successful practice in New York City where he alleviated the boredom of his work by following his passion – writing. But the truth is he wasn’t very good at writing. He had yet to find what the publishing world like to call his ‘voice’, it finally finding full throat when he reached his forties around the time of WWI. In 1905 Zane had married, the wealth of his new wife Dolly allowing him to chuck in dentistry and follow what were to be his three abiding pursuits for the remainder of his life: fishing, writing and mistresses. His son Romer estimates that he spent on average 300 days a year fishing, away from home for months on end. Dolly, who seemed to be unbothered by his chosen lifestyle, became his literary manager, the two splitting the proceeds of what was to become a considerable fortune 50/50. For Zane Grey invented what we regard today as the Old Wild West. Cowboys and Indians. The wagon trains. The destiny of settlers spreading across a virgin America. Gunslingers. Bawdy saloons with swing doors. Horse and rider fording clear rivers, fringed with green pines with snow peaks in the distance. The huge open expanse of a nation barely discovered. It was largely a mythology of his invention based on his childhood love of history and mountain-lion hunting trips to the Grand Canyon with Jesse "Buffalo" Jones, a western hunter and guide. He was a prodigious writer with prodigious sales. Over 40 million copies of his 90 books were sold. They were made into over a hundred Hollywood movies, not to mention TV series in later years. Such was the quantum of his output that writings found in his archive kept the presses rolling with new work until 1963, more than two decades after his death. He was also a prodigious spender, largely on fishing. He travelled all over the world to fish, mostly for big game keeping the world abreast of his feats with numerous magazine and newspaper articles as he ticked off world records (11 in all) for marlin and all manner of billfish from Australia to Tahiti. He spent $300,000 on a bespoke boat; something around $5.5m in today’s money. Like Hemingway (they never met) he moved forward the sport of big game fishing, popularising it and also inventing the teaser, the hookless bait that attracts fish to the back of a boat.

So, why do I tell you all this? Well, Zane came to mind when I was fishing in Sunday. I’m a huge believer in using the rod tip as a disgorger. It takes a bit of practice and a certain insouciance to do everything you have ever been taught not to do but it works like a dream. Once you have your fish within rod distance swiftly lower the tip, retrieve the line until taught at which point you have effectively pulled the barbless fly almost into the top ring. Then press the rod tip into the fish mouth. It usually takes a bit of a wiggle but suddenly you’ll find your rod will pop free. And a nonplussed fish will momentarily hang immobile in the water until it scoots off realising it is again free. Now, for this method to work best play the fish hard and fast before it has much time to think about what is going on. But Zane, ever the thinker of what fish were thinking, practiced something a bit different with hammerhead sharks, rarely putting pressure on the fish, gently leading them to the side of the boat like a poodle on a lead. I tried this on Sunday and it really did work: instead of being goaded and furious the fish seemed just generally bemused. Of course, with trout you don’t have quite the same post-capture issue. Zane’s unsuspecting sharks were roped at tail and nose before being hauled into the boat and which point their lack of exhaustion proved a great danger to those in the boat, with consequent injuries.

Did you rollover? Did you rollover your booking to 2021? If you did, and now are going the fishing equivalent of cold turkey, don’t despair as there are still options. I’m more than happy to try to ‘revive’ your original booking. Just ping me an email and I’ll lay out the options. Or if you wish to check out dates first for your particular booking click here to select your beat, then the red button for dates before contacting me.

Click & collect It is strange how phrases evolve into common currency. A decade ago, the term click & collect was a bright new retailing idea. Not everyone in the industry thought it viable. Plenty of consumers had no idea what it meant. Or if they did, they doubted its utility. Today, boosted by the Covid crisis, it is as much part of our daily shopping life as a trip into the store and home delivery.  It is even filtering down to the antediluvian fly fishing world. With our local Stockbridge shops closed, and the Royal Mail delivery service a bit spotty, you are welcome to collect your Fishing Breaks fly order from us. Click & collect is available on request from Nether Wallop Mill, SO20 8EW. Please call or email prior to placing your order online. Minimum order two packs.

Fishing Cast No. 6 If you didn't catch up with the latest edition of The Fishing Cast it is still live. We share the secret of our first post-lockdown fishing destination. Ponder casting into the Thames from the roof of the Savoy Hotel. The hackle trick to tying a good wet fly. And start the debate as to the best ever fishing film. Listen to Fishing is back here.

It is not just about the trout With all the excitement surrounding trout and the Mayfly we tend to forget about other fish in the river, but we are still in the spawning season for coarse fish. Some, like grayling, do their thing early at the start of the close season in March, whilst others such as pike, are later. Here’s a great photo snapped by our river keeper Simon Fields this time last year at Bullington Manor of two Esox lucius paired up, relaxed on a comfortable bed of starwort.

Quiz A bit of a cinematic theme this week but as ever, it is all just for fun with the answers at the bottom of the page. 1)     What was the purpose of the original HOLLYWOOD sign? 2)     How many spaghetti Westerns did Clint Eastwood star in? 3)     What was the screen name of Marion Morrison?

Enjoy the holiday weekend. Best wishes,

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Director www.fishingbreaks.co.uk

Answers: 1)     A temporary advertisement for a local real estate development 2)     Three. A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) 3)     John Wayne

Fishing is back

Greetings! Frankly, I don’t think the fishing community could have asked for very much more from the PMs announcement on Sunday and the detail that emerged from the respective government departments on Monday.

What we had rather feared was a release from lockdown that placed a restriction on how far we could travel. But not at all as far as England is concerned. We can travel as we wish. Fish in a family group. Or fish with a friend as long as we observe the standard social distancing protocols. Even one-to-one tuition and guiding is permitted with sensible precautions followed. Really the only fly in the ointment is the lack of accommodation be it hotel, self-catering or B&B with little hope of any relaxation before June at the earliest. So, as you might imagine we have had a busy few days this week. Hurrah! But it is good to be back after two months of essentially twiddling our thumbs as frustratingly many perfect fishing days came and went with not a fly cast. My box of April specials – hawthorn, large dark olives, iron blues and grannom – remains unopened. But the mayfly box? Now that had its first outing on Wednesday. Happy days, with many more to come, I hope. For latest availability click here.

The white of May For the past few weeks, the meadows have been clothed in white. The candle flowers high in the branches of horse chestnuts. Swathes of cow parsley lining the headlands. Delicate dandelion heads recently turned to white seed, ready to be scattered on the slightest breeze.  And in the past few days we have had the hawthorn snow as the hedgerows shed white flowers, dusting lane and field. It is all very beautiful to the eyes. But to the nose? Frankly, an awful stink hangs over my daily walk across the downland. It smells to me something akin to rotten flesh. As it turns out I am not far off the mark.

The Common hawthorn is a staple around these parts both as a tree on the downs, where its prickly branches and rough bark makes it a survivor from grazing sheep and adapted by man for hedging, regular cutting creating a dense, prickly barrier to both sheep and cattle. Those same characteristics make it a popular home for nesting birds, the flowers, mostly white but sometimes pink, a spring destination for insects and bees, including that friend of the fisher the Hawthorn fly so called as it emerges at the end of April at the same time as the hawthorn blossom. The hawthorn has all sorts of associations with pagan fertility rituals; before the Maypole it was the tree around which the dance took place with the flowers weaved into garlands. Bizarrely, at least to my mind, modern day perfumiers have created a synthetic versions of the hawthorn musk describing it as a ‘spicy, almond-like scent’ and you’ll find it in perfumes from Chanel, YSL, Penhaligon’s and many others. But for the hawthorn the truth is double edged. The flowers emit a chemical called trimethylamine, a colourless gas with a strong, fishy, ammonialike odour which is both at once a sexual stimulant but as nurses from times past relate, smells a lot like gangrene. This, as it turns out, attracts a group of insects called carrion beetles, of which there are 21 species in Britain. Normally they feed on, and lay eggs in, dead flesh but drawn to the flowers by the rank smell they end up pollinating the hawthorn as they move from flower to flower in their vain search of meat. I’m sure you’ll never look at a hawthorn bush in quite the same way ever again……..

Film & book follow ups It never ceases to amaze me how far and wide news from the chalkstream percolates, not to mention the manifold connections we all have. My bit on Geoffrey Wellum’s First Light prompted an email from Fishing Breaks regular Nick Oram who is a self-confessed Spitfire nut having been not only fortunate to fly the plane but also meet Geoffrey Wellum on two occasions. Nick asked him about the river references; it transpires Wellum wasn’t a fly fisherman but clearly carried his childhood memories into adult life

As to a River in all Seasons I was fortunate to be contacted by Nick Dunford, son of Geoff Dunford the original filmmaker who has filled in many of the blanks. His father was a keen amateur photographer who tried his hand at film in the early 1960’s and enlisted Southern Television to make the film. The Dunford’s were, and still are, farmers in the Test valley at Longparish and today have the Vale Farm coarse fishery. At that time Geoff looked after the river from Vale Farm right down to Newton Stacey so he had access to the many fisheries on this prime section of the River Test through the Middleton Estate, Longparish House and Wherwell Estate. The lady angler was Mrs Dauney who lived in Longparish House who had trained he dog to retrieve her fish. The fish rearing took place a bit further downstream with keeper Ernie Mott on the Leckford (John Lewis) Estate. However, the film disappeared from view for nearly fifty years having never been aired by Southern Television. Jack Hargreaves, he of Out of Town and How! fame, had originally agreed to do the commentary but changed his mind. Southern Television then bought in Bob Danvers Walker (pictured) who was best known as the offscreen voice of Pathé News cinema newsreels during World War II. However, he largely ignored the specifics of Geoff’s script which left nobody happy. So it was that the film, shot on professional 16mm celluloid, lay unwatched in the Dunford home until earlier this year his grandson found a film processing studio who digitised this unusual format. At the age of 93 years Geoff Dunford gathered with his family to watch the film with plans to update it for release. Sadly, Geoff died the following day so what you see today is exactly as it was left from the 1960’s. Watch a River in all Seasons here. You may also read more about Nick Oram's book Spitfire Elizabeth & The Roaring Boys.

Fishing Cast No. 6 Fishing is back! Well, you know that, but Charles will give you a bit of background on his involvement as to how it happened as we discuss, despite the wonderous news, the difficulties ahead. We share the secret of our first post-lockdown fishing destination. Ponder casting into the Thames from the roof of the Savoy Hotel. The hackle trick to tying a good wet fly. And start the debate as to the best ever fishing film. Listen to Fishing is back here.

Buy flies online Stockbridge still looks a bit sorry for itself with just a few shops open. The good news is that you are still able to buy sausages from Robinsons and the makings of a fabulous picnic (and fresh coffee) from Tide & Thymes. Sadly, Orvis and Robjents have been shuttered since mid-March with little prospect of opening until June. So, fishing-wise you need to arrive prepared. If you need flies check out my Hatch Calendar for the top patterns in May/June and buy them online.

Quiz No particular theme this week but as ever, it is all just for fun with the answers at the bottom of the page. 1)     Which profession regularly uses the words contango and backwardation? 2)     What is the name of this British beetle often found on hawthorn blossom? 3)     How did the Fab Four arrive at the name The Beatles?

Have a good weekend. Hope you are going fishing! Best wishes,

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Director www.fishingbreaks.co.uk

Answers: 1)     Stockbroking. A situation in which the spot or cash price of a commodity is higher than the forward price with contango being the reverse. 2)     Thick legged flower beetle. Only the male has the thickened ‘thighs’ that give the beetle its name; it uses them to impress females. 3)     As a jokey tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets and/or Lennon reversing the French term les beat to create a new word.