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| You can still winkle a few out |
Still no significant signs of rain, despite the odd promise by the forecasters in early July (nothing new there) and the cooler air we experienced in late June also came to nothing as we are now constantly being bombarded with this very hot, energy sapping, weather.
However, we have been far from idle on the Eden over this difficult period, and during these less than ideal conditions we have found a few methods that still work, managing to winkle out a few fish with people here and there, especially if you are prepared to book your sessions later in the day and into the evening (which some of you have been doing) when sport is still quite good, regardless of what people might think, with some good brown trout and grayling fishing into dusk, and sea trout into the early hours (not to mention a few large browns on our sea trout flies).
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| CAA Members Open Day |
In addition to taking people out on the river, I once again had the good fortune to be one of the testers for the Trout & Salmon magazine, testing a variety of 14 foot salmon rods, the result of which will be available in the August edition of the magazine. As well as this, along with my good friend Jim Fearn from Guide Fly Fishing, (also an AAPGAI Instructor) it was my pleasure to help deliver another casting and have a go day for Carlisle Angling Association members, which was once again well received and fun to do.
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| REDFA Youth Angling Day |
Another Borderlines day ensued, this time it was arranged by REDFA (River Eden & District Fisheries Association) where we introduced 27 young anglers to a variety of activities, including Safety on the river, Entomology, Water craft, Fly casting and Fly fishing. The day took place on the Appleby beat of the river Eden, courtesy of Appleby angling association, with assistance on the day from Kirkby Stephen and Penrith angling associations. The day was a great success with several testimonials received by Mike Ashwin of REDFA following the event. Another very rewarding day!
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| Irish International Fly Fair |
I also visited N. Ireland again with several friends and fellow AAPGAI instructors (Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors) for the Irish International Fly Fair, to take part in the demonstrations and casting tuition in the village of Killyleagh, this is a fund raising event for the Dibney River Conservation Trust (a great cause) and at the same time it allowed me to catch up with many good friends over there too. Upon my return, the low warm water conditions certainly didn't stop people coming out for casting tuition, and the usual sessions ensued, with several people wanting to get their casting up to speed prior to the rain arriving to provide better conditions for fishing (which it will at some point).
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| This one came to the Dry Fly |
However, we are certainly not letting these difficult conditions keep us off the river, and whilst we are awaiting rain we will persevere with a variety of techniques, and no doubt continue to catch fish on some of them, whether it be weighted nymphs or upstream spiders in oxygenated water, or even dry fly late into the evening, or large hair wings through the night, there will always be a successful method to keep us going until the weather changes and breathes additional life into the river system.
