Hard Frost..........Hard Fishing

After several days of hard frosts, myself and KSDAA club secretary and dear friend John Garner headed to the river in search of grayling. After a slippy drive, we both arrived at the river raring to go.

The weather was sunny and the ground was beginning to thaw as we were assembling rods and talking tactics. We were going to do a kick sample but our friends Neil and Simon, also KSDAA members, from Blackpool had beaten us to it.......so thanks for saving us some time.

After walking up the river in search of suitable runs and glides we settled on a favourite "hotspot" so eat sarnies and have a coffee.

To cut a long story short..............it was a blank day. We thought we stood a high chance of hooking some grayling but they had other plans today.

The time in between fishing a walking the bank gave me time to take some stills so please have a look.

TL to you all.

CH Flyfishing

Finally........Patience and Persistence

As fishermen, we all get that feeling of "why the hell do we bother....." and sometimes it gets us down. For many many evenings after work I have made my way down to my local river in pursuit of my quarry.

This evening I approached the river with a positive and strong mental attitude.... I will catch a fish, I will catch a fish. After working my way down several pools, I came to a nice pool with some movement. So I changed my fly to a small Garry Dog hairwing pattern and away I went.

After a few casts through this pool, the line tightened and I presumed I had hit bottom, but the bottom moved. And here was my reward.

And one picture for good luck !!!!!

Final outing before the shop closes

Myself and KSDAA Secretary, John Garner, made a final outing today before the end of the trout season on the Eden. There was plenty of fly about but hard to find any visible rising fish. However after walking and stalking, myself and John hooked into several fish and John hooked into a nice grayling ( see video below ).



A great way to finish of the season with fish brought to the net and released. Always a joy to see.

Twitter world......

I now have a Twitter account.

Follow my Twitter here and you will share my river adventures..........

Check for updates daily.

Guideline Haze V2 10/12

There seems to be a huge thing for "blinged" up reels at the moment. I feel that some people are going for looks over function and practicality. I have had the pleasure of owning Abel, Hardy, Orvis and Ari reels but they are really looks rather than practicality of use. Abels and Ari's are things of beauty.

After using Guideline products for 2 years now, I have decided to get one of there mid range salmon reels. The Haze 10/12 v2. This beast has good line capacity and can hold 300m x 30lb backing which is great for those big silvers or early season spring fish.

For a reel thats about £250, its a great buy and spare spools are to excessive either.

Have a look at one and see what you think

Its anodised high-gloss black finish is a great and will match most rods.

River Kent - Sea Trout

Last week saw me down by the river bank most nights waiting for the darkness to fall. When the splashes begin, it's time to rock and roll. I have experimented with using lighter equipment, I moved down to a 9ft 5wt which I thought would be unable to turn over the flies but it managed to remarkably.

With some fresh patterns in the box, the hunt began.

Heres is one of the bigger ones from last week. ( slightly coloured )

A selection of the flies I used last week. Mainly all black. Better the devil you know and all that.

Evenings are hotting up!

As the evenings are now lasting longer and the sport is lasting longer, us fisherman need to start dusting off the cob webs and head down to the river to separate the men from the boys.

With the hot weather and fresh showers we have had lately in the Eden water system, the hatches have been more often and more dense. Some great hatches of BWO and mayfly have seen trout roll, splash and thrash which is always great to see.

Paul Procter's article in this months T+S is certainly worth a read as its based on the Eden.

You may even recognise this young man...................