Not a ladies man.....

Severn Heaven, that's what Glen had told me...a place where monster Grayling lurk. That was all the encouragement that I needed to join the lads, Glen, Guy and Phil for a day on the Severn.

After a restless night dreaming of monster fish, I woke before the alarm went off at 05:30 on Sunday morning, to find the garden covered in 10 cms of snow. That certainly wasn't going to stop me and off I set crawling along the A5 mainly going sideways. Just 7 miles and 30 minutes into the journey Glen called to say that one of the lads had dropped out and we decided that given the weather it probably wasn't worth going. So disappointingly I set off back home just about making it back home and almost smashing the car in the process.

Just an hour and a half later Glen called to tell me that snow or no snow, he and Guy were on their way. Well there was no way that I was going to let them catch all the fish, so it was back on the road and just over 2 hours later I was with the boys on the side of the river.

After an introduction to Phil, who had already had some fish, it was time for a quick discussion of tactics and flies and then to business. We were all fishing using the Czech Nymph method, a tactic that I was yet to master.

After just a few minutes Glen was into a cracking fish with Guy following close behind. And that was the to be the tale for the rest of the day, the lads catching some of the biggest Grayling that I have ever seen in my life!!! Check out their blogs for some "hard evidence" if you don't believe me!

The lads kindly tutored me in how to Czech Nymph spending their precious fishing time giving me tips and tricks and of course providing me with a few demonstrations on how to handle big fish.

The surroundings and the river were fantastic and we all agreed that it looked like we were somewhere else in the world.


Despite only catching two small grayling, one which became a flying fish and almost hit Guy on the head, I must admit that I had a fabulous day. And so in the words of an almost famous angler....Lord Pointon - "In angling you always get another chance!"

Thank goodness for that.....

A little lady makes my day....

Hadn't planned to go out fishing this weekend, but as I sat looking rather idly at my fly tying vice, the missus asked me what the matter was!

"I need to go fishing I told her" and then much to my surprise she promptly said "Oh well then off you go, back make sure back by four!". Well I definitely didn't need any more encouragement and ten minutes later I was on my way to the River Sence. I only had two hours to fish but that was sufficient for the fix that I needed...

Given the nature of the River Sence which is mostly shallow, I decided to fish using the duo and my fly of choice was going to be one those Flashback Nymphs that had arrived in the post from JT yesterday morning. Twenty five minutes later and I was tackled up and ready to start fishing...

Now I never know if its good to catch on the first cast or not but I certainly wasn't complaining when on the first cast I hooked into this little lady.


She was only a small fish but gave a good accounting of herself and promptly went back.


Sadly that was to be the only landed fish of the day, but as I always say if I've caught one fish then I'm happy! And the truth be told after catching that first fish I would gladly have gone home.

Shortly afterward I hooked into a large brownie in some of the faster water, who ran right into the deeper water of the pool above and promptly came off and missed another small grayling just before I finished fishing.

This will probably be last time I fish the River Sence as my membership in the club finishes in March.

A couple of the runs that I shall miss......

Hard work....but worth the effort!

Well Saturday morning bright and early, far too early in fact for my liking, Clive arrived at my house keen to get to the working party on the Dove. With talk of fishing adventures past and those to come, we past through the fog and mist on the hills to arrive at Crowdecote, a part of the river I have yet to fish.

After a brief wait for a few other members to arrive we all set about removing the old barbed wire fence. To be honest it was hard graft, but there's no better place to be working than right beside the river. Of course I would rather it had been a fishing rod and net in hand than a pair of pliers and a hammer.

The hard work was interspersed with talk of fishing, peeks at the river and possible lies and some useful tips from members who had fished the section before. And of course the odd bit of humour which mainly came from Alex almost falling into the river. He had been removing a post with barbed wire and two seconds later it along with some of the bank had collapsed into the river leaving Alex desperately clinging to the new fence with a rather worried look on his face!



What was more funny was the fact that Rob was quite happy to stand there and laugh at him and I was too busy trying to get the camera on my phone working, to help the poor chap out.



Nevertheless no committee members were hurt in the shooting of the picture and work was successfully completed. After a break for lunch and a cup of coffee, Clive and I decided that our hard work deserved some reward, so off we set for Milldale.

On the way down we bumped into Adam who had mentioned at the work party he was going to give the river a try as well. On inquiring he told us he had already had 3 small grayling. We pressed on down the river a bit further and dropped in near the "wasps" nest. I opted for Czech nymphing and Clive for a single bug on an indicator, nevertheless after an hour neither of us had had a touch. By this point Adam had worked his way down river and was in the pool in front of me when he hooked into a lovely grayling.





I chatted with Adam to inquire what he had used and he had caught his grayling on relatively small bugs, which he had drifted from some way upstream. Then opening his fly box he kindly gave me a couple of JT grayling bugs to try out. However knowing that I had not caught yet he kindly invited me to fish the pool that he was in, giving an indication of where I might find success.

I must admit I found that gesture extremely gentlemen like, after all if you've caught one grayling in a pool, you undoubtedly stand a pretty good chance to catch another and yet Adam was quite happy to give me the opportunity.....what a credit you are to angling Adam...and a fine example to each and every one of us!!!

Sadly though after just a few minutes more fishing, I heard the peal of girls laughter from behind me and turned to see Clive looking slightly wet and not at all amused. In my usual sadistic way I burst into laughter when I realised he had tripped and fallen in the water...not good....but very funny!!! Given it was quite cold we hurriedly headed back to the car and then set off home.

And so another day by the river ended, this time with scratched hands from the barbed wire fencing, still no "ladies" in the net and yet still happy.