Fly-fishing’s leading voices have their say in our quick-fire questions — this month, Matt Hayes
Q
Do you believe that some people possess innate abilities that make them better fishers?
Without a doubt. I have met and fished with some of the very best in many diverse forms of the sport, and there are some people that are connected to the water in a spiritual or intuitive way that cannot be learned. In the past we have termed it watercraft and that’s still a good description. When this ability is combined with passion, great technique and years of experience, you get the real fireworks.
Q
Can someone be considered a “proper” fly-fisher if they don’t tie their own flies?
Short answer, yes. But I would say that to become a great fly-fisher, tying flies is one of the skillsets required to get into the club. Tying directly connects you to the fish and its behaviour. The way you tie the fly makes you consider the prey from the predator’s point of view, and it teaches about hatches and the rhythm of life of the water. That said, casting well and being able to fish stealthily are just as, if not more important, given that you can buy amazing flies these days.
Q
It’s been said that Euro-nymphing isn’t really fly-fishing. Some even believe that it’s detrimental to our sport. Do you use the method?
I have tried it along with methods such as Czech nymphing and tenkara, and I don’t think that it’s detrimental to the sport. It’s another form of fishing and it can be fun, just as Czech nymphing can be fun. Ditto streamer fishing. Nothing to over-indulge in but sometimes gets the job done.
Q
What is the first drink you order at the bar after a day on the water?
Pepsi-Max. I gave up drinking alcohol many years ago after treading the eggshell path and I’ve not touched it since. My favourite drink is tea. Yorkshire or PG served in a China mug.
Q
Social media influencers are having a growing impact on fishing. Is that a good thing?
Yes, I think that it has to be unless the legacy angling media makes a miraculous recovery. There is some real talent in the YouTube world making original content. I much prefer longer-form storytelling, but trends come and go. Maybe long-form will make a big comeback. To be honest, I preferred the pre-internet days, but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
Matt’s family home: Winsnes Lodge on the River Gaula, Norway.
Matt runs the fishing on the Winsnes beat, but catches his fair share too.
Q
A fish must be caught to save your life. Who would you choose to catch it, and why?
One of my mates, for sure. I have a number of top-notch anglers as friends who I would find it hard to choose between, and all are more than up to the standard. I will cheat here: it’s a coin toss between Ed Brown, Rich Lee and Stew Allum. I have fished with all of them for years and a finer trio you won’t find anywhere.
Q
What are your thoughts on the competition scene? Some believe that it makes them better fishers, while others argue that it contradicts the very essence of fly-fishing.
Some of my earliest fishing memories are of matches with the Swan Angling Club in Smethwick (England), and match fishing was a gateway, to some extent, into the sport for me. However, I don’t go fishing to compete, but I do not look down on those who can and do match fish. Match anglers are often highly skilful and dedicated, but it’s the competition, not the fishing, that most often defines them. For me, it’s always been about the fishing. It’s a spiritual, hippy, zen thing.
Q
What is your current fishing car?
A Mitsubishi Outlander with a diesel engine that’s around five years old. The steering wheel is on the wrong side because I live in Norway!
Q
It’s been said that ambivalence towards important causes is our great weakness as fishers. Should we be more vocal in standing up for our sport and the environments that support it?
Yes — of course we should, but I don’t blame anglers for that. We need more focus from the causes we are supporting and more attention given to our victories — there is a lot of good work going on but most of it goes unnoticed because we anglers are not good at communication outside our own bubble. We need fewer NGOs and more causes with tangible specific goals. The call to action is missing.
A scary moment for Matt while permit fishing in Cuba.
A fine brown trout caught from a float tube. Matt is an all-rounder, enjoying catching many different species of fish on a fly.
Matt is instrumental in encouraging the catch and release of salmon in Norway along with the fight against polluting salmon aquaculture.
Q
What do you listen to on your way to the water?
My own head, mostly. I drift between other stuff going on in my life and how I am going to approach the fishing. Eventually the latter takes over, and I spend the journey thinking about the day ahead.
Fishing has always given me that ability to truly escape my troubles at home and when I get to the water, I enter a different state of consciousness. I’m not one of those that has the phone on when I am fishing. On the way home, I’ll listen to a football match on the radio
Q
Tell us the strangest, or scariest, experience you’ve had while fly-fishing.
I’ve had a few, but here are two that stand out:
It was an evening in July and I was fishing the Bottle Pool on Gaula, Norway. I have caught many big fish from this pool and, as I made my way up the bank to the head for my first run, I felt a buzz of anticipation. As I neared the rod stand, which is perched atop a high bank and level with the bank on the far side, beyond which, only slightly raised above, is the Road 30 linking Trondheim to Røros.
I paused at the stand and drank in the scene. The pool below and its seams and pockets were the focus of my gaze, but for some reason I looked up. It was around midnight and wasn’t quite dark; it would not get fully dark at this time of year and wouldn’t for many nights. A purple sky and a steep mountain slope covered in a trillion pine trees gave way to the road: a long flat grey ribbon that hugged the river on the far side for around 100 meters. My gaze was completely on the road when a huge plume of lightning or plasma suddenly shot up into the heavens. It was as if the lightning had struck upwards and, in the process, lit the scene with a breathtaking brilliance. Since we are very close to the Hessdalen National Park, which is famous for light anomalies and high strangeness, we are quite used to unusual lights in the sky, so I was not too surprised. But I did wish that I had recorded it.
I returned to the fishing lodge having landed a big fish and sat down to chat with the lads in the bar. Eventually, I told the story and, to my relief, one of the rods who had been fishing the far side had seen the same thing at the same time.
I have a transparency photo from the late eighties of my second scary experience, which took place back in Cuba in the late nineties. We were fishing off Las Salinas and the guide boats there were tiny plastic skiffs with no platform, and it was up to the guide to fashion a push pole.
While fishing with Ed Brown one day, we decided to go out a long way into the flats to seek the deeper water and our target for the day: permit.
The picture tells the story. One minute it was calm, the next it was eerily calm, and then we see the twister on the horizon. A storm arrived immediately and we huddled into the bottom of the canoes which were lashed with fierce winds and torrential, freezing rain. Thankfully, we lost the damn thing somewhere back in the chase, and we eventually made it back to camp.
Q
Does using high-quality tackle make a difference to your catch returns?
Yes, I think that it does in general. New high-quality kit ups your keenness and confidence. I fish better when I am confident. Of course, the very best rod won’t turn a novice into a master caster and until the novice reaches such a point as they are ready for the next level, the technical nature of really expensive kit may even become a hindrance. In general, though, it’s nice to go out looking and feeling the part.
Q
What is the greatest life lesson that fishing has taught you?
That it is at its best when I am fulfilling my other family responsibilities too.
A big pike on the fly for Matt…
… and a big Norwegian grayling.
Q
While catch-and-release is now widespread in the fly-fishing world, some people endeavour to land as many fish as possible. Should more restraint be shown?
I think so, but it is rarely the case. Modern life is so competitive; it’s tempting to allow that to become your mantra in fishing too. PBs and stats get the headlines and we have become weaker and less inclined to explore how to respect water and the life within it.
If I catch a really good fish, I’ll often not fish afterwards. I like to spend the time celebrating with friends, but that is an easy thing to say when you have spent as much time fishing as I have.
I would love anglers to develop more of a conscience when it comes to “smashing” it, but I am tempted to think that it is something that comes with time spent on the bank.
Q
Imagine: an environmental law is proposed that would see every river, lake and ocean on Earth restored to perfect health for eternity. The catch: it can only be passed if you give up fishing. What do you do?
I can’t really envisage such a model succeeding without the help of a worldwide force of guardians, which is the role that we fishers should fulfil, so I feel that angling can leave a positive footprint and would be an essential part of any workable model. Having said this, if it was only me who had to give up fishing, then yes, I would do so in a heartbeat.
PHOTOGRAPHY: MATT HAYES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Hayes
Born in 1961 in the UK’s industrial midlands, Matt grew up coarse fishing on canals and rivers. These days he runs Winsnes Fly Fishing Lodge on the Gaula River in Norway where he lives with his wife, Anne Marit and their three children. He admits, he has to pinch himself sometimes…
