Fly fishing is a popular form of fishing and encompasses a vast array of practices, tackle and techniques. This website is designed as an information portal for fishermen seeking advice, tips and articles on any aspect of fly fishing. Whether it is dry flies, nymphing, wet flies or lure fishing there is something here for everyone.
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Fly Fishing.
Whatever technique of fly fishing is used, most if not all fishermen share a love of nature and aquatic environments. Frank Sawyer was perhaps the greatest observer of nature. Below is an article he wrote just before his death in 1980. It should serve as a stark warning on the fragility of the fishing environments we perhaps take for granted:
"It was my 69th birthday last month and it is now just over 50 years since I started full time on the Avon as a river keeper. It is true that during this half-century I have seen, examined and fished many other rivers and waterways about the British Isles, and in countries abroad. But the Avon, the Hampshire Avon as it is called, has always been my base, my home water so to speak, on whose banks I was born and where, as boy and man I have lived, and perchance may end my days. One might say I started with the dawn, have gone through a long summer day and now, as evening approaches, I have the chance to spend more time thinking than working.
There is much I can think about, but sometimes, in view of what has happened in recent years, I wonder if a lot of what I did in the past was not a waste of time, thought and energy. The Avon is not like it was when I was a boy, nor like it was when I started as a river keeper, for from then until now it has been an endless battle against adversity.
Recently, a number of people have asked me about then and now, what changes have taken place in the valley during my lifetime, and if these have been for the better or worse. A very difficult question for me to answer. All I can say with truth is that the valley and the river have altered considerably since I was a boy but whether the fishing today would have been better had nothing been changed, can never be proved. However, I do know that unless something is done in the near future the river, like me, has gone through the summer day of its life and eventide is fast appearing.
Now this a sorry thing to have to say and I feel sad about it. But one must face facts. Our upper Avon fishery no longer produces the healthy aquatic life I knew when I was young. It has been fading gradually for several years and through no fault of mine or of others who now have it in their care. We have reached a stage when we feel helpless, when we can find no remedy, no antidote which can bring about a fresh lease of life. Yes, there have been changes, there has been serious illness and remarkable recovery; we have gone from the depth of despair to the peak of accomplishment. Not just once, but several times. Till now there was something we could do. And we did it.
I could tell of a lot of things we did during those 50 years; but it would take me a long, long time to write, and I have no space for it here. Besides, a lot of our activities have had publication in the past. Sufficient for me to say is that we did see good results which made up for a lot of the hard work that was carried out. But now, despite all that was done then and what has been carried out in more recent years, we are faced with a problem that we alone cannot solve without help from various authorities.
The fishery is not fading for want of attention because I feel sure it gets far more of this now than ever it had when I was a boy. It is fading simply because of contamination, of polluting and poisonous matter which enters the water supply from many different sources, so many that it is impossible to pinpoint anything. Each can be harmful, but a combination of all can be deadly. For a start, and maybe the worst, is the discharged effluent from sewage disposal plants. No one will ever convince me that this is harmless to aquatic life, for many times I have proved it to be other-wise. Sewage contains many things which were unheard of years ago and, besides, there has been a tremendous increase. Today few people in towns and villages are not on a piped water supply and main drainage. Millions more gallons of water are used and these same millions have to be disposed of somewhere. If it was just the water with natural things in it there would be little harm done. It is what is added in the so-called interests of hygiene that brings the trouble. I see it all in our home, you see it in yours: chemicals for this and chemicals for that, something to help with the washing up, in the washing machine, in the bath and the toilets; stuff which they proudly advertise to kill all known germs. And it does. It is easy to use and easy to flush away. It is the same in the farmyards, in the piggeries and the milking parlours. Everything must be kept spotless. Wash it down, add chemicals to kill the undesirables, they say. Then swill it down the drains.
Then there are the miles of road washings and the run-off from the land which has been treated with the modern farming aids. Again, as in the case of sewage, it would not do a lot of harm if it was just rainfall and the washing in of natural things. But all such water is laden with chemicals which cannot be dealt with by natural forces. So few realise that everything has to be consumed, has to pass through the body of some living creature before it can be utilised again in creation. If by any act of man, or a disruption of nature, certain things become contaminated so that they are unfit to eat, or poisonous if they are eaten, then a part of the cycle comes to an end and other things which should follow on must suffer in consequence.
This is what is happening in our waterways. No need to ask what is wrong with the Avon, what is wrong with many other rivers. The answer is plain for all to see. What we don't know is how to prevent it happening, for if it is allowed to continue there can be only one ending.
I have said we feel helpless. But have we to go on and on, year after year, seeing nature gradually being destroyed? Surely there is something which can be done, something at least, which could be attempted?"
