Is intolerance the new black?

Nether Wallop Mill, Stockbridge, Hampshire England.

Have you ever been caught in a Twitterstorm? Well, a few months ago I was and generally I would not recommend it. I know at school they told us sticks and stones might break our bones but words will never hurt us. I thought that was true. Now I am not so sure. This is what happened.

Towards the end of a wintry November day in the office a photo popped into my Inbox. Pike! screamed the header and sure enough the photo revealed a man holding a clearly dead pike. I must admit I didn't think much about it. Regardless of the content (which was not really my thing) this was a great photo so I posted it to Facebook and shut my computer down. 

Before 8am the following morning, Jonny our river keeper, calls me. "Have you seen your Facebook", he asks. He is young and follows such things avidly. "People want to kill you. You must do something." I logged on and it became clear I had to do something. Overnight the Facebook post had, as they say, gone viral but not altogether in a good way. I had, unwittingly, become a hate figure in the pike fishing community.  "Why kill such a beautiful fish?" some people had reasonably asked. In a calmer moment I might have replied to the effect that down to me I might not have done, it wasn't me in the photo, I hadn't been there and I'd said as much in the post.

However, calm I was not because scrolling down the comments they became increasingly obscene, ranging from bile-filled invective to death threats. Around the fiftieth comment which read "I'm going round your house and cut your f*****g head off you c**t", I stopped reading. Do you know how to delete a Facebook post? Well, I didn't but it is amazing how quickly you learn when you have to, so I consigned the whole sorry mess to internet oblivion and tried to forget it.

But in truth I haven't really forgotten it; it nags at me that in the quiet backwater we call fishing there are people so angry that wishing Aids on your family is an acceptable response to something they don't agree with. And I am not talking about the anti-fishing/hunting fraternity. I'm talking about one group of anglers being hateful of another group of anglers. So why do I mention this now? Well, Andrew Flitcroft, in excellent editorial to celebrate the 60th edition of Trout & Salmon reminded me vividly of those few frantic minutes in the early morning of last November.

If you get a chance to read Andrew's piece (July 2015 edition) I highly commend it. Looking back over his fishing life since the early 1970's he ponders on the changes in the game fishing world not least the internet and the introduction of catch and release in the 1990's. In a telling paragraph he says, "Little did we know back then that 20 years on we would be asked to put all our fish (salmon) back and that if we didn't we would be publicly vilified by our peers. We hesitate even to take a photograph of our fish, for fear of it being criticised for how and where we hold it. There can be little doubt that the charm and comradeship of our sport has been tested in recent years. Things move on - of course they do - but while we must embrace change we must not lose sight of why we fish."

I think Andrew is right; there is a degree of intolerance creeping into our sport. To mimic George Orwell from Animal Farm, catch and release good, catch and kill bad. Wild fish good, stocked fish bad. My beliefs right, your beliefs wrong. One of my first ever fishing instructors, David Coppock, always liked to explain the four lives of fishing man. It went something like this:  when you start fishing you want to catch a fish, any fish. Then you want to catch lots of fish before you move to the penultimate stage of your fishing evolution where you want to catch a really big fish. You finally reach the sunlit uplands when you simply want to catch THAT fish.

I am sure most of you reading this will recognise that evolution in you and equally recognise others who are still at the different stages, so who are we to deny them that progression that takes different forms with different people? Your idea of Valhalla might well be the solitude of a little stream, winkling out tiny browns but for others the camaraderie of a stillwater with a few fish to take home is everything they need from fly fishing.

I started this piece with a metaphor, so maybe I'll end it with another. It takes all sorts to make a world and angling is certainly a community that has all sorts. You've met them. You know them. Maybe you are one. We are not all like-minded in the pursuit of our quarry. We have different aims and want different outcomes. We might not approve or even like what others do, but we must not be intolerant. Angling is assailed from many sides, but if we cannot be tolerant with each other what hope is there when the chips are really down?

BBC Countryfile visits Driffield Beck

Driffield Beck in East Yorkshire sometimes styles itself as the Itchen of the North. It is not an idle boast; it is a picture perfect chalkstream often named as the most northerly chalkstream in England and therefore the world.  With my pedant hat on I feel obliged to correct this as the true crown sits on Wintringham Beck some 20 miles to the north. But enough of being a chalkstream anorak.

The programme spent some time with Andrew Dixon, farmer and river owner, who has done a great job of restoring his 1.2 mile stretch.  The Beck is really classic chalkstream sight fishing, fast and clear with plenty of wild trout. It's also home to some huge grayling. 

I spent nearly an entire November day chasing a huge specimen that I  am convinced to this day would have come close to the British record. Sadly, for me at least, it is still there unmolested by any fly of mine.

If you fancy a trip to the East Wolds Andrew and his wife Gemma have a lovely farm at Mulberry Whin with B&B and a self catering cottage. 

Day tickets start from £50. More details ....... You can download the programme on BBC iPlayer for the next 28 days.

Magna Carta: the first environment law

800 years on from Magna Carta and proof that things don't change that much; even in 1215 there were worries about over fishing.

Essentially  the English rivers were becoming blocked by the proliferation of fish-weirs. These structures were formed by hammering stakes into the river bed, creating a funnel that would guide the fish into baskets or nets on the ebb and flow of the tide. Not only were they an obstruction to navigation but they were also silting up entire river catchments. Sound familiar?  Add to that a decline in fish stocks through over fishing and the cry went up that something must be done.

And done it was with the inclusion of Clause 33 into the charter which states: All fish-weirs are in future to be entirely removed from the Thames and the Medway, and throughout the whole of England, except on the sea-coast.

Eight centuries on I don't notice any campaign to re-instate the fish-weirs but Clause 33 is still in play being used by canoeists to assert their right of navigation on all English rivers. To date they have not succeeded.
 

Newsletter quiz

 

A trio  of questions to either confound you or confirm your brilliance. Answers as the bottom of the Newsletter. It is just for fun!

 

1) What is the collective noun for moles?

 

2) What is an oologist?     

 

3) Daddy Long Legs: spider or scorpion?

 

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

    

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk

Founder & Managing Director  

Quiz answers: 1) A labour of moles 2) A collector of birds' eggs 3) Daddy long legs is more closely related to the scorpion as it produces no silk, has one pair of eyes and a fused body.  Spiders have a narrow "waist" between their front and rear.

Sea trout fishing the old way

Sea trout fishing the old way

Last week I went to the New Forest to witness something that by rights should not be happening. A way of catching sea trout that dates back centuries that was it not for a quirk of law, the persistence of an individual and the enthusiasm of a community would by now be a footnote in history.

 

It starts with the Beaulieu River, an unlikely candidate for one of the best sea trout runs along the southern English coast, rising as it does in the heart of the New Forest. If you follow the river down its 8 meandering miles from the source at Lyndhurst to where it becomes tidal 4 miles from the sea it is rarely a big or powerful river. To my

Beaulieu River headwater. Photo Jim Champion.

Headwtermind it always looks a little uninviting for fish, the water and riverbed usually tea colour with the banks close cropped where the Forest ponies, pigs and cattle seek out every last blade of grass. 

But clearly sea trout know something I don't. Maybe it is the loose gravel bed, perfect for spawning, that is a feature of the Forest landscape. Maybe it is the lack of competition - salmon are never seen in the Beaulieu. Maybe it is the fact that the New Forest, at least around the Beaulieu, has changed very little in hundreds of years. Whatever the reasons the fact remains that here is a river that captures the imagination in the same way that sea trout seek it out. 

For the Beaulieu is an unusual river in that it is entirely owned by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. Firstly, it is a rarity for an entire river system to be in a single ownership, but more importantly the bed of all other English and Welsh rivers is owned by the Crown. You might own the land and you might own the fishing rights but you won't own the river bed. That belongs to the Queen. But not so on the Beaulieu and from what I gather it was this quirk of ownership that has allowed the ancient tradition of seine netting to continue to this day on the Montagu Estate.

Seine netting is truly ancient, depicted in Egyptian wall paintings dating back to 3,000BC and the principles have barely changed in five millennia. Take a net of a hundred yards or more shaped a bit like a tennis net, weighted at the bottom and buoyed by floats at the top. Anchor one end close to shore and then row out into the estuary in a big semi circle before returning to shore. Then draw in the net making sure it remains tight to the bed, making a purse of the net that gradually gets smaller and smaller until you have the entire net up on the shore, hopefully full of fish.

 

On the Beaulieu they have been doing this since medieval times, the net deployed on the chime of high tide to catch eels, sea trout, sea bass and mullet which are, naturally enough, the property of Palace House, the home of Lord Montagu. But some years back the authorities decided that salmon and sea trout netting should cease not just at Beaulieu but along the south coast generally. As you might imagine something of a row ensued as modern protocols and ancient practices butted heads. The result? Well, ancient won the day by virtue of the unique ownership status but only for the Beaulieu. As far as I can ascertain there is no other sea trout netting anywhere on the south coast , plus one set of salmon nets a few miles west at Mudeford.

Now, not everyone was entirely happy with this outcome - netting is unpopular for plenty of good reasons as unregulated it does not do much to preserve a species. But somehow what I saw on Friday mitigates all that. 

There is no economic rationale for the netting. Make no mistake it is an indulgence for the Montagu family that believes in preserving ancient traditions. Seine nets cost thousands. The boat, wooden and old, needs constant care. And it takes two men in the boat and twelve men ashore to shoot, pull and clean the net, all employees from the Estate ranging from the game keepers to Paul, one of the decorators. 

As we all gathered just before 1pm, ahead of the 1.20pm high tide Alan, who has been rowing the boat for the past 40 years dampened my expectations - three sea trout were caught in all of 2014. But this didn't seem to deter the enthusiasm of anyone - everyone involved was incredibly excited. A new day, a new tide, new hope. Villagers and tourists milled around watching Alan launch the boat from the jetty with Paul paying out the net by hand and as the first few yards settled in the water, the crowd rushed down the beach to where the catch would be landed. And rush you have to. This whole process is over in a matter of a few minutes. Alan rows with accomplished strength, describing a perfect semi circle to bring the boat back to shore where he hands over the rope and the haul begins.

The haul has to be fast and smooth, with two guys in the water at either end to hold the net as close to the bottom as possible as quite naturally the fish don't like the confines of the net, especially as the purse gets smaller and will do their best to escape. All this is going on whilst the dozen others on land strain tug-of-war-like with the weight of the wet netting. The net comes in so fast that it is hard to tell whether there are any fish but a few cries and pointed fingers suggest something might be caught as the net is bundled up onto the shore. As the folds are peeled back a mullet is revealed and then, to the utter delight of absolutely all of us, not just one but two sea trout. Photos, measurements, tags, excited laughter and congratulations rang around the shore. The collective joy of such a disparate group of people was wonderful to behold - nobody quite knew the words for sea trout in either Japanese or German but I think they got the general idea.

 

If the guys move fast there is time to shoot the net a second time before the high tide ebbs. With two fish under their belt they needed little urging, the net soon cleaned and refolded back onto the boat. The second shoot was a little further up the estuary, the process exactly the same but this time the heighted expectations were dashed as the net came up empty. 'That', Alan told me, 'is a bit more normal.' So as the man from the Palace arrived to take the sea trout for Lord Montagu's supper, I left pondering on the rights and wrongs. Yes, two trout had died in what some might regard as an 'unsporting' manner but many more will pass through unscathed in the days, weeks and months ahead. Set against that is the preservation a wonderful piece of rural pageantry the like of which you will never see anywhere else. I think it is a fair exchange.

The Beaulieu Estate welcome visitors to watch this traditional method of fishing, which can be viewed from Factory Meadow and the Timbrells, opposite Palace House on the following Fridays: 19/June 1.30pm. 3/July 12.20pm. 17/July 12.20pm. Don't be late or you will miss it! Google map link

Paul - Sea trout (with EA tags) - Estate team - Alan

 

River Itchen Kanara for sale

Kanara on the River Itchen has been a Rod Box beat for as long as I can remember, so I suspect over the years many of you have fished this beat that is below Winchester. Well now, if you want to splash out a bit more than the price of a day ticket it can be yours for £375,000.

The sale is being handled by George Burnand in the Winchester office of Strutt & Parker. A keen fishermen himself George says of the fishing, 'It is a combination of a quick flowing stream with deeper slower sections towards the bottom of the beat and is largely a wading stretch of water. It is stocked, has a wild trout population and is noted for winter grayling.'

If you Google map Kiln Lane, Otterbourne you will locate the double bank fishing that runs downstream for 640 yards from the bridge. George Burnand may be contacted on 01962 869999

george.burnand@struttandparker.com

Father's Day

It's Father's Day coming up next weekend (June 20/21) and though I don't think I would exactly endorse the use of the 'fly' in the photo you can't knock the sentiment. If you want to celebrate with some fishing here are some fun ideas.

Half Day Taster 

Send Dad along to Nether Wallop Mill to cement his hunter gatherer credentials with a few fish for the family BBQ. 2-5.30pm. £125. Three places left.To book call 01264 781988 or go on-line.

Fish for FREE with Dad

I have picked out some beats where one child (under 16 please!) may fish with Dad for free. In most cases all the family are welcome to come along.

Dunbridge (River Dun) £229 Saturday

Wrackleford (River Frome) £166 Saturday/Sunday

Fisherton de la Mere (River Wylye) £127 Sunday

*Donnington Grove (River Lambourn) £113 Sunday

*Exton Manor Farm (River Meon) £75 Saturday

*Upavon Farm (River Avon) £70 Saturday

Prices are for one adult and a child. A second rod is available on all the beats except Exton. To book call 01264 781988 or go on-line. If you just want to send Dad off on his own there are other choices. For a full list click on this link.

May feedback draw winner

Firstly, my apologies to anyone still awaiting a reply to a feedback you have sent in recently. I have something of a backlog which I am dutifully working my away through.  The weed cut gives me a slight respite in the action, so I'll be through them all shortly.

 This year the monthly winner has a choice: a signed copy of Life of a Chalkstream in paperback or a Union fly box. I will not be offended if you choose the latter. The end of season draw is for a wonderful Hardy Cascapedia reel.

Well done to Andrew Mackean who wins in May having fished the Half Water on the River Test at Middleton. Andrew, let me know whether you would like the book or box.

 

 

Quiz
 

A trio  of questions to either confound you or confirm your brilliance. Answers as the bottom of the Newsletter. It is just for fun!

1) What is the current British sea trout record?

 

2) When is the longest day in the northern hemisphere?     

 

3) What is the common name for ranunculus?

 

 Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

 

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk

Founder & Managing Director  

Quiz answers: 1) 28lb 5oz caught in 1992 at Calshot Spit, River Test 2) Sunday June 21 with the Summer Solstice at 5.39pm 3) Water crowfoot, a member of the buttercup family

A good gathering

A good gathering

As you might imagine I am not a great one for meetings and especially not ones that bear any close resemblance to a committee. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I took myself off on Monday to the AGM of the River Allen Association for the first time ever.

I guess I should have guessed the venue was to make this something out of the ordinary.  Crichel House in Dorset must rate as one of England's most beautiful county homes, the cream sandstone Classical Revival mansion overlooking a lake fed by the Allen. The shoot room had been laid out for our meeting around a long table draped with crisp, starched linen. As I settled into one of the matching twenty four antique dining chairs I prepared for the usual litany of administration, accounts and points of order. But remarkably under the deft chairmanship of William Hanham this was all dispatched within ten minutes at which point everyone around the table was invited to say a few words reporting from their particular beat on the Allen or the organisation they were representing.

And there were all sorts. The one that immediately caught my eye was a gentleman whose nameplate announced him as from Sembcorp which sounded rather sinister. As it turned out the name was about to be consigned to the Room 101 for daft business names with the firm was returning to its old title as the Bournemouth Water Company. This is one of the smallest water companies in Britain with a  catchment that takes in most of the Dorset chalkstreams. Interestingly he had news that since the roll-out of metering household water usage was steadily declining, a trend they expected to continue into the foreseeable future.

The hydrologist had less good news; every month since December has seen average rainfall at less than 50% of what is normally expected.  Groundwater levels are a tad below usual, but not enough to make anyone panic. The ground moisture is -1.5%, which he helpfully explains means that any rain that falls from now on will mostly be  sucked up by the land before it has a chance to recharge the rivers. How different to this time last year. Mother Nature has a habit of equalling things out.

Tom Troubridge, the retiring cormorant licensee ( I bet you never knew there was such a thing) delivered the best speech of the day charting his 15 years spent battling the Bristol authorities to obtain a licence on behalf of the Association to cull cormorants in the Allen valley. In many respects there is something utterly Pythonesque about the whole process. The bureaucracy that granted the original licence to cull a single cormorant in the first year. The changes of policy that happen at a whim. The presumption that these birds are a good thing until proved otherwise.  But all credit to Tom, he took on Defra and won.

And so around the table we went; Dorset Wildlife Trust, Environment Agency, Waitrose, East Dorset Council and the River Trusts to name a just a few. It was a remarkable gathering of people whose lives are touched daily by the chalkstreams and understood they could contribute, directly or indirectly, the conservation of something as special as the River Allen. When it came to me I couldn't compete with any of them on their level of expertise, but it did lead me to reflect on how the swingometer of public opinion has changed. 25 years ago it would have been inconceivable that a supermarket chain, water company, and river owners would have sat around a table for a morning to simply share news, views and information. Back then a river association meeting would involve a damn good argument about weed cutting dates, complaints about the lack of fly life accompanied by everyone's pet theory before we all went away not really much the wiser.

Now I'm not saying the chalkstreams are in prime condition; you will have read enough recently to know that pollution, urbanisation and competition for a scarce resource is not without its problems. But sitting around that table I have a sense that we have gone beyond passively managing decline. In the past the temptation was to say the problems are bigger than us, so what can we do? But clearly we can do a lot and it is a huge credit to everyone who sat around that table on Monday who are working to protect, improve and conserve our uniquely English chalkstreams.

 

April feedback draw winner

The feedback draw is back for a new season. It really is hard to overstate how valuable your contributions are to me. I can't spend as much time on the rivers as I would like (!) so hearing what you see and report makes the world of difference.

I really do read and reply to every single one; I sometimes can't keep up when they come in thick and fast during the peaks months, so please bear with me if you don't hear back immediately. I do also share your reports (anonymously if I think that is best) with the owners and river keepers; I can promise you that sometimes you cause a flurry of phone calls and as a result things do happen.

This year the monthly winner has a choice: a signed copy of Life of a Chalkstream in paperback or a Union fly box. I will not be offended if you choose the latter! The end of season draw is for a wonderful Hardy Cascapedia reel.
Well done to James Rawlins who wins in April having fished Avon Springs on the River Avon. James let me know whether you would like the book or box.

 

 

Quiz
 

A trio  of questions to either confound you or confirm your brilliance. Answers as the bottom of the Newsletter. It is just for fun!

1) What bird is Cuculus canorus?      

2) What time is sunset today on the River Test?           

3) Who is the Minister for Environment? 

Hatch no. 2 for May

There is not much doubt that it has to be Ephemera danica that has just started to show in good numbers during this week, but maybe a few days later than usual this year. It is the way of the world that us fishermen get far more excited than the fish when the first hatch appears; the old fish take a while to remember what it is all about and the young fish a while to understand. 

Mayfly fishing is a waiting game most days; you will need to give it a few hours until they start to appear (often 3pm is the witching hour) so up to that point small amuse bouché such as Black Gnats or Olives will sometimes stir fish that are otherwise patiently waiting the arrival of the main course. 

 

Some days fish can switch rapidly between the emerging, hatched and dying mayfly, so have a variety of patterns to hand. Don't forget a 5lb tippet to make these wind-resistant flies turn over with ease. Finally if you do see early morning activity, and this will happen mostly in weeks three and four of the hatch, it is a good bet that the trout are taking spent mayfly from the day before.

 

River Test One Fly video

The One Fly seems like a distant memory now but if you'd like to see a wonderful cri de coeur by two time winner Chris Sandford, who didn't do quite so well this year (!), Matt Dunkinson's three minute video of the day is worth a viewing. Click here to watch .....

Have a good weekend.

Best wishes,

    

Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk

Founder & Managing Director  

Quiz answers: 1) Cuckoo 2) 8.48pm 3) Liz Truss with responsibility for our rivers.

Does litter bug you?

IN THIS EDITION:  Does litter bug you? ...... One Fly Festival winners ...... Meadow flower of the month ........ Hatch no. 1 for May ......Quiz
www.fishingbreaks.co.uk info@fishingbreaks.co.uk 01264 781988 Newsletter Friday May 1st 2015
Does litter bug you? Dear Simon,    I am often asked whether poaching is a big problem for us and the truth is no. Occasionally we will get a bunch of kids dangling over a bridge but trout are mostly a wary bunch who soon outwit them. So, on the rivers do we have any problems of the human kind? Well, of course. I must admit what used to enrage me most was wanton vandalism; breaking down fences, the smashing of cabin windows and low level stuff. But today it is litter that really is the bane of my life. I exaggerate not when I tell you that each and every one of the river keepers I know will have spent some time in the past month on litter patrol in the run up to the opening day. However, for them it is not just a stick, bin bag and rummage along the verges but the donning of waders that has to do the job. It really never ceases to amaze me the amount of rubbish people discard into rivers. It is hard to conceive why anyone would lob a beer can into a pristine stream, but they do and in quantities you would find hard to believe.  And there is a definite pecking order for the metal. Beer cans are in a clear majority, energy drinks second, closely followed by soft drinks. Sandwich packages, crisp bags and sweet wrappers are the litter stuff, plus loads of assorted items you really do not want me to list. Depressingly there is also a pattern to where we find most of this. Inevitably it will be downstream of urban conurbations; typically the hundred yards of a river below a road bridge or foot bridge on the edge of a town that will require a weekly clean up. The further you get away from people the less the problem ..... You may wonder what has prompted this rant. Well, three things really. Firstly, it has been much on my mind as we have dedicated so much time to the clearing up during April. Secondly, when we are trying so hard to improve the big stuff like water quality and habitat the litter thing really makes you despair as to why as a nation we can't be good about the small stuff. And finally the campaign launched by Country Life  at least told me I wasn't alone in being appalled at the quantity of littler desecrating our beautiful countryside. It doesn't make for uplifting reading (e.g. 2.25m items of litter discarded every day) but the article and subsequent support it has garnered is worth reading. Here is the link .....   One Fly Festival winners A new venue, new beats and more teams that ever before gave the 2015 competition that little bit of edge as the anglers and guides, new and old gathered at The Greyhound in Stockbridge. There were a few glances to the heavens, recalling last year when it rained relentlessly from dawn to dusk. But with good cloud cover, a light breeze and just a very slight chill to the air after an over warm week this looked a perfect fishing day. So it proved. By lunchtime the scores were stacking up; the fish total had already surpassed the 2014 full day tally. Six teams were vying for first place, with scores of a thousand points plus, a total usually considered good for a whole day. As the teams returned at the end of the day there was no real inkling as to who had won as so many different beats had produced so many good scores. In the final analysis the top five places were taken by five different beats covering four different rivers with 184 fish between them. That compares with 154 fish for the entire competition last year, which gives you some indication of just how good the fishing and fishers were this year. The total on the day was 409 fish, not including a chub to a dry fly at Broadlands!     Winning team: Stream Dreamers (top left). Duffers Delight: The Dream Team (top middle). Alex Lewis & Big Fish winners (top right)  When the results were in the winner was Stream Dreamers led by John Graham a richly deserved reward as they have taken part in every One Fly since its inception. The winning angler was Marcus Janssen competing for the first time with a long time One Fly guide Brian Raw, who caught 48 fish on a Pheasant Tail/Hares Ear combo nymph, similar to the fly that won in 2010. The Estate prize went to Compton Chamberlayne who had been knocking on the door for the past two years with Benham Estate and Avon Springs picking up the section awards. The Big Fish prize with a 24" fish apiece was shared by Jan Grimstone and Alistair Robjent.  If anyone felt a little bit nervous going into the One Fly that was as nothing compared to the 14  who put their vices on the line for the first ever UK Iron Man Fly Tying Challenge. This has its origins in Fly Tackle Dealer Show in the USA and takes a little bit of drama from the American version of Masterchef. This is how it works: the competition challenges all-comers to create the perfect fly within 15 minutes, but with a twist. The contestants are given no prior knowledge of the fly-tying materials. At the sound of the bell each is given an identical bag of fur, feathers, dubbing, flashy materials and hooks. What and how they tie is up to them, the outcome only limited by their skill, imagination and the ticking down of the clock. Just to spice up the challenge even more, a mystery material is given to each contestant half way through the first round. This must be included somewhere in the finished fly! When time is up luminaries from the fly tying industry judge the flies, eliminating all but three of the contestants who go forward to compete in a winner-takes-all tie-off the same evening. Fly tying is a skilled art that requires a steady hand; all credit to the competitors who, despite some shaking hands, all managed to complete a fly in the allotted time. Two One Fly guides. Rob Doyle and Stuart Tanner made it through to the final round along with keen local tyer Simon Ware with Stuart (pictured) winning out in the end.  A huge thank to Orvis for conceiving this event and also to The Greyhound on the Test for hosting the One Fly, all the rivers owners for providing the fishing and I am pleased to say the events raised £750 for our chosen charity the Alex Lewis Trust. If you would like to see more photos here is our link to Flickr. Hatch no. 1 for May On Tuesday I took a walk along the River Test at Middleton and bumped into Jeff Smith. For those of you who might have fished there any time in the past 40 or so years, Jeff will be familiar. A coal miner who came south, he learnt his trade under the fearsome Countess of Brecknock at Wherwell before moving 4 miles upstream to Longparish. Jeff, at least to my southern ear, sounds as Yorkshire as the day he arrived and he likes to play up the gruff northerner gig, but really he is nothing of the sort. Since he retired five years ago he still takes an active interest in the river, helping out Andy Clay the current keeper during the weed cut and generally lending a hand. Walking along the river we were both bewailing the lack of Hawthorn fly in the past few seasons. It is not really a river fly at all, the eggs laid in the damp earth beneath hedges. It looks like a house fly with an undercarriage, the long droopy legs hanging beneath as it flies. But it is not a strong flyer and once grabbed by a gust of wind it succumbs to its fate, which often ends it up dumped on the river where the trout go mad for this occasional feast. As Jeff and I chewed the cud we turned the corner along into the meadows to be greeted by a huge cluster of hawthorn flies, dancing as they do around the hawthorn bushes that make up a majority of the hedges around these parts. It is good to be wrong sometimes.   Meadow flower of the month The cuckoo flower Cardamine pratensis is the first and most visible of all the flowers in the water meadows (pratensis is Latin for meadow) in late April, poking its head well above the grass.    It is often called lady's smock but I guess it gets its bird name as it appears around the same time of the first cuckoo call. The delicate pastel mauve-to-white petals always sparkle on damp mornings, little shining beacons dotted across the grassland. If you pick a few be careful; in folklore it is said to be sacred to the fairies, and so was unlucky if brought indoors. It was not included in May Day garlands for the same reason.     Quiz Back by popular demand is the quiz. Remember it is just for fun and the answers are at the bottom of the page. 1) How many fins does a trout have, including the tail? 2) Which fish is generally regarded as the biggest salmonid? 3) Which country is hosting the 35th World Fly Fishing Championships this year? Have a good holiday weekend. Best wishes,   Simon Cooper simon@fishingbreaks.co.uk Founder & Managing Director   Quiz answers: 1) 8. Pectoral x2, pelvic x2, anal, adipose, dorsal and caudal (tail) x1. 2) The taimen. 3) Bosnia and Herzegovina June 18th-21st.