I once had a life, or rather life had me. Funkadelic- Can You Get to That – 1971
Wed 4th March -With the wise words of Funkadelic reminding me of our ongoing punch up with time – My search for a rare spring salmon launched – I Enjoyed 2hrs fishing a run above Balderstone – all quiet apart from a distant woodpecker. Took the 11ft switch rod – I felt under gunned – the 15ft is more at home here on the big rib. I’ll fish every lift now.
2026 – The Master Plan – Note to self
Fish more – Coarse and Game – explore forgotten places and be more versatile in my approach. Ring every drop out of time and environment. Celebrate glorious mistakes and successes in equal measure, while perusing epic, tiny adventures.
Remember not to forget – friendships old and new. Nurture relationships. Playhappy
I waded through the constant noise of fact, fiction, post-truth, new truth and fake news. I was maintaining and functioning, but with a fevered kind of neo-bewilderment. Anarchy Pie – A Penny a Bee
Had two sun-kissed, cold hours on the Rib – exploring a couple of runs for elusive Grayling – missed a couple of pulls but quiet. What I did while happily dabbling was start to notice the landscape. This time of year has a lower heartbeat. The woods seemed more brooding. Part of me wished I had a bait box full of maggots. Next outing I think I’ll trot on the Calder.
Out now the revised 3rd edition of TC
Recently I was privy to the contents of a great salmon anglers fly box. Surprisingly he only had one box containing 40 flies – just these two home tied patterns in various sizes. If you had to choose two patterns what would they be?
June 16th
Had a lively five hours for my second Ribble trip of the season. Spun the tails and deeper water because of high winds. Then had the last two hours with the fly rod. Lost a huge Brownie, landed a chub and then lost a belligerent fresh run sea trout 3 – 4lb that went berserk. Deer, sand martins, egrets, heron, lapwings, oyster catchers all present but the star of the show was a fishing common tern – who worked the river and treated me to some epic dives. I saw one running salmon. Top evening
A new year always feels exciting to me. Show winter the door and carefully head for spring. The wheel of the year turns and returns with themes of reincarnation, renewal and rebirth. The chance to roll the dice again.
First outing of the year took us to a booked days fishing on Warwick Halls Park Beat. The river keeper Graham showed us the pools and we got to it. Lovely well kept beat. Easy access. I fished most of it in the day. A nasty north easterly made casting in some of the pools unpleasant so rather than flog it the sensible option was to fish those with cover twice. Gin clear water maybe a touch low. We never saw anything but it’s still very early. I’d like to revisit late April or May after a bit of water.
It gave me a chance to try some newly acquired gear – 12ft double density tips. I think they’re really made to go with true skagit line rather than a WF full floater. The minute I hit the wind my cast landed awkwardly. I switched to a 3 ips 10ft airflow and everything felt more balanced.
Excellent day, had a real good laugh with my mates Marc & Ste. We will all be back.
2024 drifts into a warm soft focus and Janus shows us a gateway to a new year full of possibilities & adventures.
EA report on salmon stocks https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66f6ad7ea31f45a9c765ede8/SalmonReport-2023-summary.pdf
Top morning on the Ribble today 28/9 – my mate MH landed 3 salmon and another friend PB got a nice cleanish Grilse – I can’t buy a pull but you just have to keep going and keep the faith. My mate was blanking on the rib this morning then 3 hrs later he’s had 3 !
August slips into September – the last week in August gave our beats perfect water – perfect water is at best fleeting and usually not that perfect either. You get what you get. Managing expectations is part of the gig. For 4hrs a session for five days I thought “next cast”. Brownies, sea trout and grayling all obliged but no salmo – maybe a light pull but I didn’t even see one. I did hear of five caught above and 3 from our area. The river is on at least plus 20 that I know of ( not including Paas, Bowland, Southport, Warrington, Wigan, settle and RADAC numbers ) so it’s probably plus 50. The river has still been a source of superb entertainment and solace. It’s a good job I enjoy trying . So with 8 wks left – maybe next cast !
