Capital Sport In Narnia

A day’s shooting provides the raw materials for flies for Will Martin and friend to try their luck at London’s best-kept fishing secret

- Will Martin

Bleary-eyed, I showered and quickly packed my breeks, tweed jacket and rather muddy shooting socks into my suitcase. It was 7am on a Sunday. I had been staying with the Myrtle family in Buckinghamshire while shooting at the Carlton shoot with my friends Jamie Tusting, Ben Myrtle and long-time friend and fishing companion, Max Blanshard.

Max and I have often discussed the art of flytying while shooting. The two of us collected squirrel tails throughout the winter to turn into Hairy Marys, or patches of deer hair to turn into the controversial Muddler. We would pore over the bag at the end of the day, remarking what lovely flies we could make. So when we discovered that not only were we both shooting at the Carlton, but that we were also both free on the Sunday after, we hatched a plan.

It was late November and the rivers were closed for the spawning season, but our plan was to drive down to Syon Park, Isleworth. Syon Park, the London home of the Dukes of Northumberland, is one of the capital’s great secrets.

Within 30 minutes from central London, Syon Park boasts a crystalclear six-acre lake. Managed by Albury estates, it is available to fish every day of the year from 8am till dusk. Stocked with hard-fighting rainbows and a single prize-winning blue trout, it was an exciting prospect.

Pheasant feathers

While trying for the blue trout was tempting, Max and I had a slightly different challenge. We were to fish with flies tied only using materials that we managed to gather the day before. As we pulled out of the Myrtles’ drive, in the boot with the wellies, fishing rods and reels lay a brace of pheasants. The cock bird had one of the finest plumages a cock bird can have and a fantastic long tail.