Diary of a retired Gentleman of dubious Character and interesting upbringing Fly fishing small becks, rivers and chalk streams. Particularly with Bamboo fly rods and Silk fly lines . Coarse fishing too.
This year has been long dry , hot and certainly has made fishing for trout on my wonderful north Yorkshire streams challenging and to be honest with low levels and doubtful oxygen levels really i think they are better left alone . So after a little bit of activity on the spring fed chalk stream and really struggling to raise much interest from the trout which are in low numbers mainly because of…
Strange part of the year . It starts of with unbridled enthusiasm for the first day . Then that is usually followed by shitty weather , overflowing rivers freezing winds , this year we had things the other way around although the enthusiasm was still there but strangely tempered . We had very low rivers bright sunshine and cold days. Truth is its been hard . My fishing mojo has changed, strange…
It was my birthday the other day and tbh as birthdays go it was pretty good . The morning was fishing on a local stream . Evening was dinner out at a local . I had the river to myself , the river keeper was the only other person I spoke too. It was a typical conversation , the river the fish , the fly life and his ever growing number of dogs . As for the fishing it was slow . As usual for me I…
I retired just over a month ago . After working full time for precisely 52 years and 6 months . Also it is now 55 years and 8 months since I caught my first brown trout on a fly . The working life time is more than enough . The fishing time period is most certainly not enough. First trout on a dry fly this season from just under that tree . In the last year or two many have said to me when I…
To say the least, It will be interesting to see what this year brings . This year will bring full retirement and apart from the obvious lifestyle change it brings more leisure time ( or so I am hoping ) . from the blogs perspective I intend to change things too. I`ve had the blog a long time and I have become sort of fond of it. Granted the days of blogs being the must have in the online world…
Happy Christmas Everybody I am wishing you all tight lines , big fish , pristine waters , serenity ,and the magic of the season . "May your lines be tight, your flies be magic,
I know I am letting the blog drift but i thought an end of season update was in order. Also to show that I do also listen to those kind readers who emailed me and said don`t give up writing the blog . So the plan is I will do that but I plan along the way to change what I put up . I hope I can convey and reflect more on why I fish , especially why I visit the places I do. Also as I am now semi…
Over the last couple of years the whole social media thing Has lost its shine for me so apart from the odd grip and grin on FB and the silly sense of humour posts that`s it . I might in the future shake of the cobwebs of the blog , but somehow doubt it . So for now the post title says it all. Tight Lines everyone.
Last season this upland stream was new to me , it was great to fish during those first few weeks when the high waters everywhere meant that this little stream was still fishable due to its pocket water nature and you could always find fish , moving on twelve months we have the opposite , following the driest march for 60 years the rivers are low , the ground is dry but the pocket water nature of…
. . "Perhaps the greatest satisfaction on the first day of the season is the knowledge in the evening that the whole of the rest of the season is to come." The above quote by Arthur Ransome sums it up very nicely . Even as a boy I can remember the same excitement . I mean Christmas is just a day that ends all to soon. Whereas the first day of the season opens the window to a whole new year . with…
As is usual in the darkest bit of winter one spends more time on t inter web , In this last few weeks of winter shitty wet days and dark nights I have spent many an hour mindlessly scrolling through various forums and I marvel at the nonsense spouted by the add men selling stuff and folks on forums . There are a couple of words and phrases that seem to be in vogue at the moment . I always thought…
Blimey 2025! . A quarter of a century since the Millennium . Which seems like 5 or 10 years ago. But there again I am one of those who says 30 years ago is the 1970s , Retirement heading my way fast at the moment my weeks have more days of than working . So more time for fishing and other stuff, But what about this year what do I want to see ? For me there will be more fishing with bamboo. I…
Well that`s it them , 2024 done and dusted . A year to be remembered only for its miserable surface hatches and for having too much water at first and then not enough . for a lack of a summer and a lack of notable fish . For sure I have hooked several notable fish this season sadly they all did not quite make it to the net . There was the large trout that engulfed the Martins minnow only then to…
Testament of a Fisherman "I fish because I love to. Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly. Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape. Because in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing what they…
It really has been a strange sort of a year . A spring so wet it was biblical . Followed by a summer that never really matured it was either too hot or too cold and things never really seemed to get going , Rising fish seem to have been notably absent and judging by other anglers I speak to that seems to have been a pretty common experience. The chalk stream has been a constant fascination though.…
So my last post used a racing analogy . My Friday a couple of weeks ago was another day that would be backing the long odds . Until Thursday evening I had no intention to fish on Friday as the weather forecast was making Saturday look like a certainty for a good day . But late plans meant that on Friday I was heading out to the river again . I was very happily surprised to arrive at the car park,…
Well as far as fishing summers go I think that to use a racing term 2024 is one to put down as an also ran. It was slow to get going due to last years biblical rainfall. Then being followed by a very dry couple of months .High summer never seemed to get going . I had some brilliant early days up in the upland stream that I joined this year. Otherwise its all been a bit strange . The chalk stream…
After pretty much a lifetime of fishing and being a fly fisherman for 54 years now I have learned a bit about fly fishing , mainly I have learned that I really don’t know that much at all. Technically there is so much to learn , Casting , line control, fly choice , the list goes on. Fly fishing is so satisfying because of that very fact . It is something that you will never be able to say "So…
One of my favourite Artists from the 70s was Ian Drury and the blockheads .And after a long driving session a few days ago when I explored my Spotify library that song has been in my head . The events of the last few days have made me think about the title . It has been a depressing long winter and spring that has brought more than a fair share of challenges . We have had to little Sun , too much…
I picked this rod up at the Grayling Society Auction at the last Symposium. What a cracking little rod !!! . I am getting increasingly fond of the whole bamboo rods experience . Perfect for this small stream.
A blog I have followed for years is a Hippo on the lawn a recent comment on my blog shows two things , First it tells me Tom the writer was ill and the poor bugger is so confined that he has nothing better to do than comment on this fellow bloggers posting . He is in Angola and obviously suffering from some malady and second he is also suffering from generator and technology issues . We take so…
It has been by all accounts and also by some considerable margin. A depressingly long , wet and miserable winter. There has been no proper winter weather ie hard frosts and some proper snow. We had a couple of bits of the white stuff . But nothing to speak of , Truth is it started to rain around last October and it has hardly let up since . The springs that feed my new chalk stream came up quickly…
I have just read that the above fishery is going under new management , Great news its somewhere that I have fished in the past but my recent enquiry about it a few months ago was responded to in a pretty actually very unhelpful manner , So the news is welcome and I wish them all the best , So I have updated my comments that are on the local fisheries blog page . Good luck to you we need more…
This year I am starting the process of getting into retirement. I think initially it will be a day a week less work and then over the next years slowly increase fishing time and decrease working time. I enjoy my work still and I have the pleasure of working with nice people in an interesting profession but its time I just did a bit less of it . I am most fortunate that I have a understanding wife…
Monday 8th January I had a walk from the office this lunch time. Grey Skies , Northerly wind coming straight in over the North Sea , pretty depressing weather really , I had to drive to Newcastle and back on Sunday the North Moors looked cold bleak and desolate , Standing water everywhere on back roads mud everywhere after it has washed out of the fields . The Weather was well grey and it rained.…