Embarking on a saltwater journey
By Tim Weston.
STARTING any journey can be quite exciting and starting a new journey in any fieldsport for me is even more so. I have been very lucky during my career that I have been employed to work in some magical places, meet some wonderful people and experience some exceptional things. I have also been very lucky in the fact that my job has also always been my hobby. My life has generally revolved around shooting, stalking and fishing.
During the summer of last year I wrote about a steep learning curve I made in 2020 from fly-fishing on the chalkstreams of southern England to floating a maggot or drop shotting a lure on the canal here in Wiltshire. In that respect, the transition wasn’t too hard, it involved learning about new kit and slightly different species but the fieldcraft was more or less the same. However, for 2021 I have a new fishing resolution, I am going to venture into the world of saltwater fly-fishing.
I have worked as a fishing guide in Russia, Ireland, Norway and spent a good amount of time in Alaska, all in pursuit of salmonid species with a fly. Salmon, sea trout, steelhead, Artic char and wild rainbow trout were all on the menu but all have a common trend – I was fishing for all of these species in freshwater. This sometimes entailed a large body of water such as Lake Rotorua in New Zealand or even somewhere like Rutland Water here in the UK, but I have never before chased a fish with a fly in the vast ocean.
Where do I start? I don’t suppose just picking up my rod and venturing off to the seaside and starting to chuck flies around will have the desired effect, so I started researching using social media and the internet to try to get some ideas of what I need to do in terms of equipment, flies, locations etc.
