Fun in the Sun

I have just had two weeks away in Dubai to celebrate my birthday, with my daughter and her husband. During the first weekend they had organised a birthday party for me with lots of friends in attendance where everyone had a great time. During the following week I done some walking and bird watching, though most of the time was spent sitting around the pool reading. I was lucky to get some excellent books for my birthday including General Mike Jackson’s autobiography Soldier. An excellent read from a man I admire tremendously. Another excellent read was Winston Churchill’s His Military life 1895-1945; finally my other book was ‘Sniper’ a true story about a group of British snipers in Iraq. The weather was excellent with temperatures in the low 30’s C. During my second week in Dubai I was featured on Dubai Eye the local radio station to talk about my fly fishing in the Emirates over the past fifteen years which generated a lot of interest from listeners. On another occasion I attended a press conference at the Meridien hotel where I demonstrated fly casting on the hotel lawn. Much to the amusement of the local population and the tourists.

A Whale Shark was Close Enough to Touch

During the second week I was invited to go fly fishing in the ocean off the east coast at Fujairah, from Dubai it was a pleasant two hour drive through the Harjar Mountains to reach my destination, I chose to stay at the Le Meridien Al Aqah hotel where all the rooms face the ocean. When you pull back the curtains at dawn you’re greeted by the sun rising out of the ocean like a giant reddish orange ball. Often as you look across the ocean you will see the dorado or tuna hitting the bait shoals. The bait fish getting caught between the predatory fish and the diving birds, it’s a killing zone. One we fly fishers search for when we are out on the ocean. If you visit Dubai with the family and you would like to sample the ocean fishing then why not visit Fujairah. The hotel can book you on a sports fishing boat where all the tackle is of good quality Thomas and Thomas rods, Gilmore Reels and Wulff Triangle taper lines.

On my latest trip I had with me Thomas and Thomas Helix and Horizon rods from 8 weights through to 12; I carried a selection of saltwater fly reels Tibor’s, Aaron, Gilmore and Loop with several spare spools. Reels that had been tested in some of the toughest conditions found from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean and down through the Caribbean. Not knowing if the fish would be down deep or on the surface, I had Wulff triangle taper tropics lines, also Rio and Cortland models in floating, intermediate, slow, medium and fast sink to cover every eventually. As a backup I also carried extra fly lines and several hundred yards of backing in case I should be spooled by an extra large fish.

Sun protection is most important; I use and have done so for many years Riemann P20. It’s a product made in Denmark, one I can thoroughly recommend. Clothing is important, I wear tropic designed shirts and shorts. You certainly need a good pair of polarizing sunglasses both to both protect your eyes and fish spotting. I have several pairs from Optilabs with various shades of prescription lenses. A hat with a good long peak is a must; it should be a dark colour under the peak. I use Frog Hair tapered leaders both Deep blue and fluorocarbon in tippet sizes from 10lbs to 40lbs In my tackle bag I have a pair of Abel pliers, hook sharpener, line cleaning kit, various spools of breaking strain line 10 to 60lbs On this trip I had two boxes of flies and poppers in various sizes colour combinations and patterns.


When you’re fishing the Persian Gulf on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, you will often be fishing just twenty miles from Iran. I am told that there are good sailfish on the Iranian side. Perhaps one day I will get a visa to try for these fine sporting fish. Today I’m a few miles off shore, the ocean is flat calm, in the east a huge orange ball is slowly climbing over the horizon, and on the western shore I can just see the Hajar mountain range through the early morning haze. Sixty feet off the port bow a group of Dorado are attacking a school of baitfish. I pull off some seventy feet of line to cover the feeding fish. My fly is a size 3/0 Lefty Kreh red and white deceiver. Two false casts’ I shoot the line, the fly dropping at the edge of the feeding fish. It sinks some 12 inches below the surface, I give two short strips. A fish hits, I strip strike setting the hook. Line is stripped from the reel at a fast rate of knots; as it cuts through the ocean it leaves a rooster tail. 150 yards away the fish leaps several feet clear of the ocean, water droplets fall from the fish, glistening like diamonds in the early morning sunshine. Several minutes later it goes cart wheeling across the ocean. Surely life cannot get better than this. It’s a battle between man and fish; slowly I get an inch or two of line back on the reel, then its several feet. Just as I thought I was winning, the fish goes off on another reel screeching blistering run, and then leaps skywards. I start retrieving line all over again. Twenty minutes later a 35lb plus Dorado is close to the boat and netted a quick picture and the fish is released. Feeling exhausted I pick up an ice-cold bottle of water to quench my thirst. That’s just a little of the action when you fish the waters off Fujairah


I also fished for bonito using a 7 weight Thomas and Thomas Helix fly rod with floating tropics line, these fine sporting fish averaged between 8 and 10lbs and all were released. The highlight of the fishing wasn’t the catching of a big fish, It was seeing close up a whale shark estimated at about eighteen feet in length. It was an amazing creature. I didn’t fish for an hour or more. I just watched and admired this awesome ocean creature It was the most gentle and beautiful animal I had ever seen. It was close enough to touch. As it slowly moved around the boat I could see twenty or more sucker fish attached to the body with other sucker fish swimming close by. I also had the pleasure of seeing a big leather back turtle. Though there were lots of bonito striking at bait fish on the surface they proved quite a challenging and difficult fish to catch. The area where we fished is the second largest bunkering area in the world. Oil tankers, liquid gas tankers, bulk carriers, huge barges loaded with containers and container ships were scattered as far as the eye could see. It’s in the shade of these anchored ships and barges where we often find the dorado. If you want a trip off Fujairah send an email to Wayne [email protected]

Back on the Kennet

Arriving home I had a day to get my equipment ready before heading off down south to fish the Kennet, attend a dinner in London, shoot a magazine feature and record a programme on the Wasing fishery. One of the presents I got for my birthday was a Sat Nave, having made the trip to the Kennet many times I didn’t think I could cut the journey time down. The Sat Nave proved me wrong I cut twelve miles off my journey and with petrol costing over £1-00 a litre every little helps. Leaving home well before dawn I was on the banks of the Kennet by 11 o’clock at noon I had caught my first barbel. Though there was a temperature change between the 35 degrees C back in the Emirates and 5 degrees in Berkshire I loved being back. During the afternoon I walked two of the beats noting how low and clear the water was with a water temperature of 46 degrees F. With the help of Will Carter an opening was made through a large tree that` had fallen across the footpath. I then went off for dinner arranging to meet Will in the car park about 6 o’clock for a session in the darkness.

As I arrived back in the car park several anglers were packing up, the topic of conversation was, “its been hard today”, “I didn’t get a bite using pellets or boilies” “I had one small chub on meat”. Talking with the anglers none of them moved around trying various swims, they stuck it out in their first choice fishing spot, all using the same rig and heavy weights. I really do find this is a mistake. Why not choose to put a few bait samples in three or four fishing spots and fish each in turn with lighter rigs. Will and I made our way down river to fish a swim in the woods which we had baited early in the day. It was a good choice, we soon started getting bites Will catching on both crust and sausage meat, while all my bites were on crust. I had a nice barbel of 9-9-0 which we both thought would be a double later in the season. I also had a good chub. We fished until about 9 o’clock then called it a day.

Barbel and chub on the Enborne

The next day I chose to roam the river Enborne which is part of the Wasing estate water, it’s a small river very narrow in places you can jump across it, long stretches of this delightful stream probably average a foot deep. It offers some delightful brown trout fishing in season. The ways to fish the water is walk downstream putting in a few hook bait samples in all the likely looking spots then fish each one in turn on the walk back upstream. I chose to use a Grauvelle 11foot specialist rod with a nice Avon action matched with a centre pin reel and 6lb line, the rod is a new model as thin as a pencil and I was the first angler to use this new model. I had enough power in the butt to handle double figure barbel big chub and tench. During my roving session I caught two barbel about six pounds each and several chub averaging about two and a half pounds all on lobworms.

Back on the Kennet

Monday morning I am back on the Wasing estate fishing the Kennet, with the water temperature down to 45 degrees F the river was low and gin clear, after a very heavy overnight frost where the temperature dropped down to minus 4 degrees F Its was now bright and sunny. Not good for fishing. I chose to fish for chub. Crust my only bait choice in the current conditions fished on a six inch link. I also chose to ram fishing all the likely looking spots. I struggled for a bite. During the session I recorded programme which included interviewing Josh Dugdale the Wasing estate who told me the estate was purchased in 1743 for the cost of £10,000-00 for over 4,000 acres and it has remained in the same family since those far off days. After the interview I walked downstream until I found a good looking chub swim alongside an ivy clad tree that had been in the water for several years. As I sat making tea the rod tip moved about half an inch. Striking I hooked into a good fish. It was a chub which weighed 5-11-0 a super fish on such a horrid day for fishing. All recorded live on my programme. How lucky can one get? John Wilson tells me there isn’t any luck in fishing. Don’t you believe it? We all get our share of luck. Later in the day fishing two other spots I had another couple of chub weighing about two pounds each.

On Wednesday I was joined on the water by Jon King conditions were even harder, though I did get a five pound plus chub on crust and two smaller fish on lobworms. As Jon had fished for a while without a bite, I suggested a move. I put Jon into a swim which in the past had produced a few nice fish suggesting he fish a short link with crust as bait. I also told him where to put the bait. As we sat talking in the icy cold conditions and the temperature dropping fast with a thick mist rolling down river I put the kettle on for brew. As I dropped the tea bags in the mugs, Jon’s rod whacked round “That’s a barbel” I called. True to form it was, a fish about five pounds. Certainly a surprise fish. But a very welcome one. We fished on until 8-30pm without any more bites then called it a day. After another frost on Wednesday night I decided to return home on Thursday and return back to the river when conditions improved.

Back home I worked on some features for Countryman’s Weekly and Angling Star, then sorted out my pictures from the Kennet. On Saturday it was in the studio by 4-0am working on editing all my recorded material and putting the programmes together. With rotten weather forecast for Sunday I didn’t bother to fish, instead I started to read the autobiography by Ian Botham titled Head On which I can recommend.