Meet Martin. Martin Cottis is an international man, not of mystery ah la Austin Powers, . Fly fishing is his bag and from his base in the UK he organizes trips for clients to target a huge variety of species all around this wonderful planet.
Yes there will be many of you who know what being a guide entails, however this is a little of my understanding of how Martin Cottis operates. If you want to have a go for brown trout in Iceland, Martin will guide you and using his experience and knowledge, help you to get the best out of your trip. Perhaps you’ve toyed with the idea of visiting Cuba to send out a fly to a bone fish, Martin will get you sorted and he’ll also put you in the path of other types of fish, including jacks, snapper, barracuda, and tarpon. All the excitement you could want – so take yer heart pills.
Other regular destinations include Spain, Portugal Greenland, Slovenia and so on. He has quite the eye for detail as he sets in motion trips hither and yon. There are the flights, accommodation, all the fly fishing gear to be checked and rechecked, licenses, local regulations to get the head around, best time of year to go for maximum results, passports and other documentation. On and on it goes, but judging by what his clients say he is rather adept at it all.
Martin and his wife live in Bristol and he has become very skilled on a couple of his local waters, The Blagdon and Chew. Blagdon is a Somerset reservoir at the base of the Mendip Hills known for it’s beauty, featuring wild flowers and bird life. Chew is also a reservoir and in the early season the “buzzers” hatch in great numbers to become midges, so matching the hatch is important. Later dries and nymphs come into their own. Martin has been fly fishing the Bristol lakes since the mid 70s, then around the end of last century he retired from his school teaching career and now has had some 26 years as a fly casting instructor and a fly fishing guide.
He is Bristol Water Fisheries only fully qualified instructor and has a large number of fly fishing and casting achievements to his name. There would be few if any who could match his record in competitions, having represented England at Loch Style Home International level and fished for the Bristol Reservoirs Fly Fishers Association team, a hugely successful outfit in British competition fly fishing. With this team Martin won two Benson and Hedges Gold Medals, one Silver Medal and several bronzes.
However that is merely skimming the surface of the pinnacles he has reached.
met Martin years ago after a mate said “There’s a bloke you need to meet, he fishes.” The upshot was I took dry fly fisher Martin Cottis out on a South Island, West Coast lake and at one stage we spotted a fish rising a way over near the margins. I said I’d take us closer in the boat but he told me there was no need as he could reach it from where we were. I was incredulous, but next moment there was line in the air and he rose, hooked and netted a superb Lake Poerua brown trout. From close to 60 metres! It was only later I learned he had been a member of England’s gold medal winning fly casting team and he is well-known in UK angling circles.
He returned to New Zealand on another occasion and again I took him out, this time on Brunner. He assembled rod and line in the boat as I fizzed us across to the mouth of the Crooked, where he almost immediately spotted 4 or 5 trout in the clear water, then hooked 3 of them in fairly short order. He had a ball and was thrilled with his time on the lake.
We have managed to keep in touch through the magic of the internet and some years later I mentioned we were coming over to the UK and he advised if I was to be in Ireland he’d give me a rod and reel so I could experience some fishing in the auld sod.
We arrived at my wife’s cousin’s home up north in Downpatrick, where the package containing a Fulling Mill fly rod and reel was waiting for me. He wanted the reel back because it had a good line on it, but said I could keep the rod. I still have it and have put it to good use on many occasions.
So he is a kind and generous man and I am proud to have had him as a mate all these years. If you happen to be heading across to the UK and want a very good fishing guide for around Somerset, Ireland or even a lot further afield, Martin is your man – tell him Ivan sent you!!!
