Wednesday 31 October 2018

End of the Eden Season!

Another Youth Rainbow Trout Day
The weather stayed relatively nice in Cumbria for the latter part of the Eden fishing season, which was a great bonus in respect of our Borderlines days as it quite often cools down a bit too much when planning to introduce youngsters to angling at that time of year. However this was not the case as we had some great weather for all of the activities we provided, especially the fishing events, as they caught plenty of rainbow trout on the small Stillwater we use. So all in all a good result there and we have already planned out our program dates for next year too.

A Beautiful Brown from the Eden
On another note, we did catch a few brown trout on the river Eden too, right up until the end of the trout season on September 30th. This was great news, and also very enjoyable, but the action did seem to slow down a bit quicker than I would have liked it to. 

In addition to this, the fresh water we received towards the end of the season did give us the opportunity to tempt one or two salmon, some of which we hooked and lost and some we hooked and landed. However it did feel as though we had to search for them a little more than usual this back end as they weren't keen on giving themselves up so easily. One of the fish lost was quite a formidable fish too as it threw itself out of the water a couple of times just to annoy us before disappearing into the distant depths of the river.

This was a formidable Salmon
In between these fishing sessions we had some good tuition sessions on the river too (as always) covering many of the Spey casting techniques, and we also have a few booked in during the close season, so let's hope the weather stays nice for as long as possible. I do like to get my teeth into the mechanics of casting and still find it very rewarding to see people improving their techniques. As it happens I am out again tomorrow with someone for that very purpose 

Jeff returning a salmon to to the river
In time honoured tradition, as soon as our Salmon season ended I headed down to Wales for the Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors biannual assessment weekend and open day event. I always look forward to attending these AAPGAI events, getting involved in them, meeting new people and catching up with like minded anglers. Once again it was a great success and something I love being a part of.  

A later but cleaner fish on its way back
If you have never been to one of these AAPGAI open days I recommend that you do so at your earliest convenience, as the demonstrations in both fly casting and Fly Dressing are a joy to watch, with plenty of time for individual tuition sessions and a unique opportunity to ask the professionals all the questions you always wanted to ask throughout the event. Book your place now, its great value for money!

One of Jeff's Killer flies
The next open day event will be held at The Friars Carse Hotel on the River Nith in Dumfriesshire, details of which can be found on the AAPGAI website on the following link: AAPGAI Open Day

As always at this time of year we look forward to extending the season with a bit of Grayling fishing, and yes I am always involved from a tuition and guiding standpoint of course, but I do personally love a bit of Grayling fishing myself, especially when wrapped up warm on a crisp Winters day when the fish are on! "Tight Lines".