Snowy River

I woke this morning and seeing I had planned a days fishing was
glad to see the weather looked good .
A quick trip to the tackle shop was next , I had agreed to meet Mike
http://manchesterfishingfiend.blogspot.com/
at 10am , when we met up he pointed out he had a few inch of snow
covering his roof and that the river may be both up and cold .
We decided to stay with the previous days plans and head for the
river .I have only fished the river a couple of times but lower
down with phil .
http://www.fishingaddict-phil-k.blogspot.com/
We arrived at a snowy river and it looked great , Mike was
enthusiastic about the river and was soon showing me some
nice glides and pools , apart from the odd bit of rubbish washed
down from towns higher up it was really good water for the fly.
We were talking about technique and as I was showing Mike
my method with the fly, I hooked into a nice Brown Trout , it
turned out to be the only fish but the conditions were against
us .

As we made our way up stream we tried a couple of fishy
looking spots and went on a mini mountaineering coarse,
I have got and been in some hard to reach places in the
pursuit of angling but this was a whole new level it was like
being a kid again , every little obstacle we got over was
fantastic fun and made the day as much as the fishing did.
We found some waterfalls and a lot of little glides and pools
which will no doubt bring a few fish in better conditions.

Well a Snowy river is not a bad place to be , I enjoyed the day
and company , I caught a lovely fish , but at the end of the day
even though the fishing was hard the conditions were against us
we were both fishing well and that has to be a good sign for the
season ahead .

No fishing this week

I gave the fishing a break this week , not that I would not have gone given the chance .
Having got some stuff done and out of the way Saturday we planned to go out for a walk on Sunday , it ended up not being a bad day although I didn't walk far .
At around 10am I was sat sorting out Scarlett's hair , my little baby is fast becoming a girl when my mate who I used to fly fish on the old Townsend water on the Ribble and Hodder rang me to say he was going to watch the rugby we go to the home matches and have season tickets , did I fancy a ride ? he also told me his Dad Len , who I learned a lot about fly fishing from was coming along , so a quick word with the Mrs and Logan and our plan was changed .
Logan came with me and although the game was not the best we enjoyed the day , a win for Wigan in the last minute helped . The most enjoyable part was we were soon talking about old times spent fishing and reviving old memories and funny story's that we all remember but are not mentioned or thought about enough .
Our stories took us from the canary islands to the river Lyon on the side of the Tay in Scotland , in fact during the car journey I would think most rivers in the north west of england were talked about , when I think about it I have fished in a wide variety of places and although over the past few years a lot of it has been by myself good company only makes the memories sweeter . I was lucky to have shared some good days with Phil this year and also got a day with Mike the other week I get as much pleasure now just being out and if Idont catch it's not the end of the world .
We talked about a lot of people some sadly no longer with us but most of the funny stories involved my dad .
Another big plus for me was Len talked me into putting my name down for his club and said he would nominate me , ok it will cost a small fortune but I'm in a privileged position being asked the wait may take some time but you only live once and the lengths of river are in my opinion the best in the area . Rob my mate is a active member of the club and I have a ready made fishing partner who is good company and a decent angler to boot , he already takes me on as a guest , now my interest in the fly fishing is rekindled I hope to spend a few more days in his company this coming season with a bit of luck .

Getting some practice

Well with the coarse season coming to an end and the weather keeping the river's up, I decided to tie a few flies I'm a little out of practice , I could do with a wee bit of new material as well , but to start with I kept it simple a few bugs and PTN's .
I plan to rekindle my fly fishing a little this year , I was well and truly bitten with it years ago.
It was only when I got a bit more time and money and started to spend both on the side of a river that I realized how much I missed it .When I was younger I thought a lot of my time was spent on the Hodder and Ribble if I had only known then how valuable free time was I would have spent longer .
My tying as never been great but on the other hand it's fooled a few fish , I tend to be my worse critic and seeing some of the flies my mate used to catch on I think the way you fish must be as important .
Another old bloke I fished with(thinking about it he was only a bit older than me now )had a fly box that seemed to consist of just various Montana nymphs quite well tied and in various sizes ,materials, colours and weight's he seemed to catch even though he was the only person I knew using that pattern on the river , he even used them for Sea Trout .
As a lad I always loved looking at the flies people used and tied and seem to remember the neat boxes . So having looked at my old flies I kept with a little 16's weighted bug , I'ts an easy pattern and you can vary it I tend to stick with 2 or 3 variations else my box becomes a mish mash of flies that I will never use this is a old favorite , it looks a bit out dated but I'm sure with a bit of practice and the odd fish for confidence I will get there .