Chris Reeves talks about fishing and tieing

I have been a fisherman all my life and a fly angler for almost 25 years. I began fly fishing at Barn Elms reservoir in West London and progressed via small stillwaters to the large reservoirs, where I fished many of the large competitions with some success.

I then moved on to the challenge of chalkstreams before I started fishing further afield in many “destination fisheries” including Alaska, Chile, Argentina, California, Bahamas and Florida. I fish for trout at least twice a week in the season and also hunt Pike on the local stretches of the River Thames. I still occasionally coarse fish at a local lake but fly fishing and fly tying are the real attraction. I now own a house in Florida and fish there as often as possible, the species may not be trout but at least it never snows!

I started tying my own flies some 20 years ago. I was self taught and quickly realised the value of good instruction and how scarce it was so I became an Instructor under the Salmon and Trout association STANIC banner, later becoming part of GAIA. Since then I have taught privately and also in Adult education courses at my local college. I am currently running a course in London.

My favourite flies to tie are Chalkstream dries and Irish Lough/Loch flies, but I enjoy tying all styles and regularly tie Saltwater, Salmon and Pike flies too.

I am a member of the Fly Dressers Guild and chairman of the Surrey branch, a Whiting Pro team tier since 2005, member of the newly formed Partridge Pro team, on the pro tiers team for Nymph head products of the United States and recently joined the “Bug Bond” team too. I give regular talks at Fishing clubs and branches of the fly dressers guild.

This year I have already been to shows in the United States, Germany, Denmark and twice to Sweden tying a wide variety of styles. I always enjoy trips to Ireland and look forward to this event, meeting some great new friends and enjoying a Guinness or two.

Chris Reeves