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I really didn’t expect to be flicking a fly on our family holiday venturing around China, but when my wife informed me she had found a keen fly angler and fly shop owner in Chengdu who was keen to meet up and go fishing, I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least! I packed my waders and boots and the rest was history.
Sitting in Ning Yu’s shop BFO Chengdu felt surreal, surrounded by quality fly fishing equipment from all around the world, sharing photos of past trips and chatting about where he was planning for us to fish and the target species. The goal was half a day in the mountains of Sichuan fishing for snow trout, and the following day a day trip to the next province over, Yunnan, to fish for a powerful Chinese fish, baija.
Set up with 2wt Euro nymph rods, Ning Yu shared his beautifully tied bombs and caddis pupa and showed me the ropes.
We were fishing rifles with the goal to get down fast into the rifle and slow the drift down to get it right under there noses. the snow trout were sitting in grooves in the fast water and because of a huge temperature drop, feeding slowly. I managed a my first specimen right where Ning Yu said one would be and he proceeded to hook a swathe of fish that managed to allude him, with one solid snow trout that rolled around on the surface before cracking his tippet with a powerful jolt.
The next day, we headed out for Baija with Ning Yu’s friend Randy; a train ride and a mad taxi ride got us to the river and we were on. It was a hard but fun day, with tons of water covered but my fish being the only one landed. This was a seriously strong fish. On the take, I thought I had caught a rock but then luckily the ‘rock’ moved and then peeled off downstream. Randy got in and netted my fish, and I was relieved to have it in my hands to shoot back of with a roar. This fish had some serious lips for sucking caddis and off the rocks.
It was an awesome experience to fish two distinct provinces, trying the local cuisines with quality angler’s, who were extremely niche in their environment of bait and lure fishing but shared that same passion and love for flicking feathers and made the effort to do so.
Simon
Simon is a keen enthusiast for fly fishing, especially all things trout Spey and Skagit style tactics. He's a keen fly tyer, with a strong focus on tube flies, leech and Intruders style patterns. He has been with Iloveflyfishing since the early days and has been a key ambassador for OPST, Aquaz and Speyco as well as all of the ILFF catalogue. He is also a man-keen saltwater fly fisher and can often be found flicking a Crazy Simon fly around the Auckland region. Simon is a regular contributor to NZ Trout Fisher magazine where you can find his column "On the Swing with Simon"
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