Rain at last!!!!!

Well dear friends, it's come at last. After 18 months of drought, and hosepipe bans the rivers are full again, and it's been plentiful. Whilst we still need another few weeks worth, this will at least help clean the river of it's recent pollution. No help to the fish, but it may help the mayfly lava. Too soon to tell but lets keep our fingers crossed, other wise it's 3 years before we can think of restocking again.

Don't for get to follow me on my other blog. www.thedeepeningpool.blogspot.com please follow I'm a little short of numbers?

Best Wishes to you all.

Pollution! 2012.

As if the lack of rain was not enough, our river has had a massive pollution incident. A lorry has turned over and dumped a large amount of fertiliser into a section of the upper river.

There are large numbers of trout, bullheads, stone-loach and minnows dead. It's very sad, and it will be a long time until the river recovers.

I'm now have another blog, and running this one down due to all the above river problems. PLEASE, PLEASE follow me on the other blog, I really have made some great friends with this blog.

I'm @ www.thedeepeningpool.blogspot.com. sign up and follow so we can keep in touch?

Thanks to all, see you soon. Fishermanrichard.

Unwelcome break.

Sadly the season start this April, could be the first time in over 30 years I don't fish for trout? First my wife has just suffered a mild heart attack, and will need some care from your's truely. And second the winter and spring rain has not arrived.

After such a long winter lay-off from my trout fishing, I was really looking forward to my spring, summer fly fishing. But I will not fish in a river with such little water, it would over stress the allready over stressed fished, and present little challange.

So I will be doing something? Maybe trying to get a carp or two off the top, or even a nymph. I've enjoyed the test carp set you when trying to catch them, and the fight once they are hooked.

16lb Mirror off the top.

                               If the blog is a little quite in the coming months, you know why?

A short day session on the fens.

I told my wife I wouldn't be long? The weather had turned mild (10 deg) for February. This time of year can see snow, bitter cold days, and wind, but this mild front had been with us for a day or two, and I thought those fenland pike could be feeding?

On my arrival it was windier than I expected, but still ok for fly fishing, just! I set up my 9# Greys Platinum rod, along with a new Cortland pike line.

I had kindly been given a new line to try a few weeks ago by Gareth who works for Airflo. however I found it a bit too heavy for the fens. It's called a Sniper and is perfect for windy days, in fact it's the only line I can use when the wind would normally stop me fishing. It's based on a shooting head, and with the head being so short it's possible to get the head out with one back cast, and then shoot the thin running line, even into wind. But as I mentioned it does land with a thump.

The Cortland however is much more subtle, and the taper finer. It's a bass come pike line, in yellow. With less wind today I found it perfect for large flies in shallow water, and it lands very softly for a 9#. Both lines are needed to cover all my winter pike fishing, horses for courses?

My back was still giving me problems, so walking any distances was out. So I fished close to the car and covered maybe 600 yards. One spot I know has produced the odd better pike recently, so this was an area I wanted to try first.
Casting on the fens is always a problem as you have a high bank behind you to deal with.
If you cast in a standard way, you will be continuously climbing up the bank to fetch your flies. I've found however if you use a European oval cast while standing with your back to the wind, allowing no slack in the cast (so no stop)you can manage the cast almost as well as normal! In fact it's an oval cast in reverse, with the first part of the cast going high back along the bank, and dropping back level with the river. Worth a try if you find a high bank behind you?

Fishing up the drain no fish were forthcoming. I'm sure much of this out of the way river had been fished out by cormorant's over the last few years. In England we have a serious problem with sea birds on our inland waters. The birds have little food in the sea these days due to over fishing, so have found river and lakes very easy food stores. I've actually witnessed a bird taking a large pike, maybe 5lb and eventually swallowing it. The other problem from time to time are mink. I recently found a large barbel of around 7lb partly eaten by one of these black devils. 
Looks like I'm going to have to find a new stretch of river next season to concentrate on.

                                                     Barbel part eaten by a large dog mink.

Time for change!

                                                   My River.

I hope you like the new layout. I thought the older one looked a little dated and for the coming season a change would increase your viewing enjoyment. I also wanted it to look a little different from some other fly fishing blog.

I'm going to start off this season with trout fishing, both traditional fly and Tenkara too. You can see my progress in the coming months. Once the big mayflies are over in early June, I'm turning to carp in the hope for a 20lb fish on the fly rod. Then back to trout, and Pike late season. But as you know it can all change, keep viewing. Thanks to all the 130 other blogs that support me.

Best Wishes for the coming season.

Maintenence for youself.

Just over two weeks ago I put a disc out in my back. It was a simple thing, the road was busy and I picked up our little Border Terrier 'Daisy May' to avoid any problems, and bingo!!Luckily my wife was with me, so she walked back home to fetch the car, and rescued me!
Now before you click onto another site, wait. If your of a certain age, or are unfit, overweight then a prolapsed disc could be just around the corner. I've always had back problems, being over 6'2'' does not help. But as I've had this problem 20 years, I've learnt a trick or two that I'll pass on.

When I did my first disc the medicine was complete rest. Two weeks in bed, pain killers don't move around let it heal. Nowadays it's different.
I started doing a daily Yogi session (30mins) just over a year ago. One of my daughters kindly brought me a dvd for Christmas, and I gave it a go. Within a few weeks I found it managed the low nagging daily pain, that was always there. I was able to cut back on my pain killers accordingly. But the problem with all exercise related to pain is, once the pain goes, you stop, or cut back on the exercise. Foolish.
I had been slowly cutting back a little on my own sessions, so in truth I was mainly just going through the motions?
So let me tell you first how Yoga helped me, and how I got back on my feet in just a few days?

If you do it right, and your a back, knee, hip, sufferer, it takes a few weeks to get the exercise tough enough to make a difference, but safe enough you don't kill yourself. I started with a 30 minute slow gentle back, and hips exercise. Never once going for too big a stretch (because that's what you is all about stretching) and building up over weeks slowly. After six months I found my pain was reduced by about half, and when it got really severe a good stretch would often be better than a pill?

So when I put my back out recently I found exercise rather than rest, was my best medicine. OK for the first two days after the hernia, it was bed/sofa rest, but after that slow but lengthy Yoga sessions meant after only a week, I was walking about, if not a little gingerly.
You see one of the main problems with a slipped disc is, you think you will make it worse but moving about. And the awful pain that this condition gives you makes you fearful, so you over rest. If the slipped disc happens to trap a sciatic nerve as well, the worse thing you can do is rest it, why, because it can remain trapped, and cause long term damage to the nerve. Stretching the leg over a few days will often release the nerve, and the pain will subside.

It's really worth finding a good Yoga dvd/book for back sufferers, even if you don't have a problem right now. Yoga gives you a great feeling after a session, and if it means you can get fishing a few more times a season, I'm all for it!

Heaven Sent.

Anyone who's been reading my last few posts, will know I've been a little worried over the coming trout season, I mention a few weeks back that my local river held little surprises for me now, and with the lack of rain I've been banging on about the whole year, I had concerns fly fishing in such skinny water?
Well with just a few weeks to go to the seasons opening I've found Tenkara. Tenkara is one of the oldest, and most simple forms of fly fishing you can get. Just a rod, line and tippet between you and the fish, no reel. The line level nylon or tapered leader is fixed to the rod top, and with a tippet and fly your set to fish. Originating in Japan, Tenkara was around when God was a boy and is as simple as fly fishing can get. But as with all things that seem blissfully simple and Japanese, there is an art to it.

Now rather than trying to explain Tenkara to you, I'll refer you to two excellent web-site that cover the topic in fine detail, and both sell items required to start this fascinating form of fishing. And you can view this wonderful upload from Youtube. If this doesn't get you excited about Tenkara, nothing will?
One www.tenkarausa.com and the other www.tenkarabum.com. both offer free information, advice video clips, that will help you with all you need to know. There are various blogs as well that cover Tenkara if you Goggle.

The points Ryan makes on the clip about how fly fishing is getting so far away from the basics, really hit a nerve with me. I go fishing with £1,000 or equipment most times to catch 9''-12'' fish mainly. I'm as caught up in the hype of commercial fly fishing as anyone, and don't enjoy it. Tenkara is all about letting much of that go, as far as I can see!
For myself I'm really up for a new challenge. Learning how to cast for a start, and landing fish without a reel should be fun. But more importantly in the increasingly shallow water I'm going to face this season, this ultralight style of fishing may just save the day?

I'm awaiting a Tenkara rod and line from the US, once it comes I'll show you what it's like and how it all works. Hope you enjoy the clip and a big thanks to Ryan for making it. His site will now be on my blog list, take a look. www.ryanjordan.com  His back county photography and Tenkara articles are really high quality, and even if your not a backpacker you can always wish you were?+