Back on the River

Almost 2 weeks since I was last out and my incident where I needed hospital treatment but my nurse, the boss.......Karen my wife allowed me to get out for a few hours this afternoon, she knew if I didn't I would be like a bear in a cage.
I was in no mood for a full day just a few hours easy walking and getting back out by the river, everything else was a bonus.
I opted for a short drive to my nearest club beat which was easy walking throughout, and nothing technical, Im still not 100% but its a start.

The trees on the walk down to the river had changed so much in the last few weeks, the willow catkins were now in full bud.









and the marsh marigolds were showing all their glory

I arrived to find a cold wind blowing downstream from the north and the river low and clear, so opted for a couple of nymphs to start with, I had covered half the stretch before I got into some shelter from the biting wind and the river changed dramatically too out of the wind, a few small fish were frequently rising and a few LDO's were hatching in the calm water, so a quick change and I was soon into my first small trout.

I think the club may have stocked this stretch already which they seem to do and is beyond me as the river doesn't need any stocking, and I fear the small fish rising were all stockies as these are not the normal stamp of brown trout from this river.

In the space of 20 minutes I had 8 fish all of the same stamp but it was nice to be taking them on dry fly even if they were stockies, one was being very picky, it kept rising to flies but anything I threw over it, it wasnt interested and it was only after coming down to a size 20 midge that it finally rose to my artificial.






The wind changed direction and the hail stones started and the river went dead again with the biting wind, so decided enough was enough and headed back to the car.

Whilst on route I happened to notice that the hawthorn bushes where I get my Sloes for my sloe whisky was standing proud and easily recognizable.

An instant giveaway with the hawthorn bushes in white bloom

So if your planning on making any sloe gin or whisky,this year now is the time to have a drive around the country lanes and identify the bushes whilst they are so easily recognizable and this will save a lot of hunting come September time when everything is green and harder to find.

As I drove home I found another 4 sites where hawthorns are in abundance so they are marked down to remind me to revisit them in September when the sloes are ripe and ready for picking.


This week I opted to buy another beaudex reel as the two redington zero reels I bought for Finland I haven't been getting on with them, they over spool and your left with having to re-spool slack line every time you cast any distance so a visit to the well known online auction site and a few reels identified all in excess of £50 except one which I found so placed a single bid and won it, total cost with P&P £15.50

The reel arrived mid week and apart from the obvious paint loss the reel is in perfect working order, I have to say I do love beaudex reels, and for being over 50 years old they do the job superbly, much more so than their modern day counterparts.

So that was it, a few hours back out on the river and my inner beast quietened down for another week where hopefully I will be back to full health again and can get some more technical fishing done away from the stockies.