tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50099438974987356672024-03-05T19:19:59.146-08:00Border Game AnglingClive's BlogClive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comBlogger147125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-23933270796827822762021-03-30T04:32:00.000-07:002021-03-30T04:32:12.662-07:00Hope on the Horizon!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lb6BhEv5BttY008QVZG_Se3bjRgmH-jlAkgDK0tWH55t5BpdId3PujlSCkScFvZkdLzRu0H8jqfsTkV8cVXnW8TsL3KV6to2b2TJ9nj9Y09QAPQcebK_0xmGcIy4wz1gQiF1yGZTynM/s2048/Eden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5lb6BhEv5BttY008QVZG_Se3bjRgmH-jlAkgDK0tWH55t5BpdId3PujlSCkScFvZkdLzRu0H8jqfsTkV8cVXnW8TsL3KV6to2b2TJ9nj9Y09QAPQcebK_0xmGcIy4wz1gQiF1yGZTynM/w200-h113/Eden.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eden Flooding "Yet Again"!</td></tr></tbody></table>At last many of us can now travel a bit further, albeit within our own countries of the UK, but at least it gives us renewed hope, and more importantly, access to many more venues and productive beats on our rivers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Unfortunately the river Eden is big and brown "<u>yet again</u>", but as soon as this water falls and clears, I will be resuming </span><span style="font-family: arial;">my teaching and fishing activities</span><span style="font-family: arial;">, as we now have the green light to meet up to 6 people outdoors, after what seems to have been the longest period I have ever spent away from a river!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9u8rroG438yiwIlOkYxPsGObGO2K1awFhcCNbzM-k8qC2M5AHr7wTTvJ_pFSf32Rama14NPXCM6V8ZnXT_LaGMVvW1Qr1xy0EJ_urVDzBgQp_m_E1S50q3k4jL1eXDF2O4RFztHKlvYQ/s2048/Salmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9u8rroG438yiwIlOkYxPsGObGO2K1awFhcCNbzM-k8qC2M5AHr7wTTvJ_pFSf32Rama14NPXCM6V8ZnXT_LaGMVvW1Qr1xy0EJ_urVDzBgQp_m_E1S50q3k4jL1eXDF2O4RFztHKlvYQ/w200-h150/Salmon.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Something to look forward to!</td></tr></tbody></table>On the upside though, at least we can now look forward to one of the best parts of the season, without having to worry about missing out on some historically good early fishing, and from mid April we should be encountering some quality, over wintered, and hard fighting trout too, but even more so as we enter into May, which is definitely one of my favourite months of the season, as I am sure you all know that this period can offer up some fantastic sport.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The salmon fishing on the Eden has also seen some good results between April and June over the past few years, especially last year, when we were eventually allowed out that is, before the third lockdown kicked in again, so fingers crossed for this to continue into 2021.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ph3C0wwj_Ckj4GhfbjDSlYWSLsVJsCKz9s1bG2C0tA4quEHOdAsmfIy7PmLLGkSxRHFTzEIPJ2c6n0TcuHaMAtbwOLbzSOAKW3bLQmwikJhiuYgUc7xTZoUFC_2FCiSqjACLw2jw7xA/s2048/Snowdrops..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1354" data-original-width="2048" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ph3C0wwj_Ckj4GhfbjDSlYWSLsVJsCKz9s1bG2C0tA4quEHOdAsmfIy7PmLLGkSxRHFTzEIPJ2c6n0TcuHaMAtbwOLbzSOAKW3bLQmwikJhiuYgUc7xTZoUFC_2FCiSqjACLw2jw7xA/w200-h133/Snowdrops..jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Life on the Riverbank!</td></tr></tbody></table>For obvious reasons I cannot give you much in the way of fishing reports at this time, but I have to say, whilst walking my dog along the river, <i>(whenever possible)</i> it was good to see that the Pandemic was unable to affect the onset of Spring in any way whatsoever, and given the doom and gloom we have all had to live with in recent times, it was good to see the many aspects of new life coming through along the riverbank in defiance of what these difficult times have inflicted upon us.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Here's to a new beginning and let's hope all goes well as we move forward into the new season!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div>Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-42596066670908584382021-02-03T12:00:00.001-08:002021-02-03T12:23:56.890-08:002021 (What will it Bring)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC53c7HlnLgxDimbWkLzXvW1-bUjHnc3LjCRByeSmodTtVRRkljvuec5a8fxkRmK_h3behBjcejDlv-Z76gUbRb2wgXHx4O2pMPm32aGfZsqcoTKTwK0ulGsAogF6NaWT997Ql7kDdxB4/s2048/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC53c7HlnLgxDimbWkLzXvW1-bUjHnc3LjCRByeSmodTtVRRkljvuec5a8fxkRmK_h3behBjcejDlv-Z76gUbRb2wgXHx4O2pMPm32aGfZsqcoTKTwK0ulGsAogF6NaWT997Ql7kDdxB4/w200-h150/001.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eden Tributary (Caldew)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;">Well here we are again in Lockdown (3) 2021, with only a few fishing options available to us, and even then, only if you live local that is! Well even though I am quite local to the river Eden, and it's tributaries, there have been few opportunities to open my account.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sadly, the Grayling fishing was a wash out once again, with many of our local rivers constantly running bank high and coloured, "sounds familiar doesn't it"! </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHLWgKXQxInvzHO5Hxh81t87iKIQo5zuodBwarFlDfOeZ6MHYQSt0pZ7DvSkPNJO4dfHh_M8WDbNLqhoa4HxrOrKR8jmJyIUit-ncxPxPX0fTQ4hkFcniV88XeuHCbWYeXhttdfkxNarQ/s2048/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1352" data-original-width="2048" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHLWgKXQxInvzHO5Hxh81t87iKIQo5zuodBwarFlDfOeZ6MHYQSt0pZ7DvSkPNJO4dfHh_M8WDbNLqhoa4HxrOrKR8jmJyIUit-ncxPxPX0fTQ4hkFcniV88XeuHCbWYeXhttdfkxNarQ/w200-h132/002.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main River Eden (1)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The 2021 salmon season on the Eden is now underway, <i>(January 14th)</i> but once again, conditions, coupled with the current Covid19 situation, which sees restrictions on travelling, <i>(rightly so)</i> and many waters closing their fishing's on a temporary basis until restrictions are eased, continues to prevent any serious fishing from going ahead. However as you can see from the photographs, we have not been missing anything. So unfortunately, given current conditions my January blog will be short and maybe not so sweet.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJER35IlB5dWDLPRL2-q_GI1BJTeL1-RYphlblb1Xvjhe2paOimL_HPDj6utD1vmJq7LXdioQbqdxmSVH3BTPlL-M9l0Uc9V1-2vLwK3HgusKBhNSLyJhIm0Cok_ErUq7uFZPh4IGVT4/s2048/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibJER35IlB5dWDLPRL2-q_GI1BJTeL1-RYphlblb1Xvjhe2paOimL_HPDj6utD1vmJq7LXdioQbqdxmSVH3BTPlL-M9l0Uc9V1-2vLwK3HgusKBhNSLyJhIm0Cok_ErUq7uFZPh4IGVT4/w200-h150/003.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Main River Eden (2)</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That said, there is some hope on the horizon with the roll out of the vaccine well under way, and hopefully this will see us at least getting back to some sort of normality as soon as is sensible to do so. So watch this space!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On a brighter note, the Eden did fish very well during the periods we were allowed to fish in 2020, with plenty of good trout being caught and a very good average size of salmon being recorded throughout the system, <i>(many in double figures)</i> and I am pleased to say that there are already a few sessions lined up for this year in anticipation of better times ahead. However it is only fair to let you all know that given the </span><span style="font-family: arial;">recent </span><span style="font-family: arial;">affect on bookings, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">due to the current Covid19 situation, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">I have been forced </span><i style="font-family: arial;">(after 4 years of not doing so) </i><span style="font-family: arial;">to slightly increase my prices for the 2021 season in an attempt to offset the cost of beats etc. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVFk0D8Nhpvz-Ax_xCG7f5xxmf0gjGtYhJ94Kxi6ckENHAFxCKjEBbb9-xVw4967QcsAChKC65_-q8xMqesKQmz1WAe3brWu88i5jZeifQ0R4_-6xBSOr6hyNizlwiOwxDbcu8McKJZs/s2048/004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1356" data-original-width="2048" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVFk0D8Nhpvz-Ax_xCG7f5xxmf0gjGtYhJ94Kxi6ckENHAFxCKjEBbb9-xVw4967QcsAChKC65_-q8xMqesKQmz1WAe3brWu88i5jZeifQ0R4_-6xBSOr6hyNizlwiOwxDbcu8McKJZs/w200-h133/004.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sawbills still fishing!</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Current prices can be viewed on the website <a href="http://www.bordergameangling.co.uk/casting_tuition.htm" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">However, those of you who paid in advance, or bought Border Game Angling vouchers for 2020 will be accommodated in 2021 at the price you originally paid.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Finally, it seems that the Sawbills on our river have a total disregard for the rules as they continue to fish, regardless of the high waters, whilst all we can do for now is sit tight and hope all goes according to plan and we too get to fish restriction free. Here's hoping we will know a little more by the end of this month. "Fingers Crossed".</span></p>Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-13658740693646096552020-12-31T05:55:00.000-08:002020-12-31T05:55:34.128-08:00The End of a Strange Year!<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Well, unfortunately the final two months of 2020 didn't give us the opportunity to lighten the mood and improve on the rest of this years many Covid restrictions, as we were literally faced with another one in the form of limited access to the river, but this time due to the usual high water conditions we seem to have become accustomed to at the end of the salmon season, making the Grayling fishing almost impossible.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1RJBPrjm9p4Vfzu5bHEvoBHKJgFRtw08Q-xViCnm1HjBrZfjvDt-1c97S99uwPScBO5g0qZ7HBxH5yO2-HYy0bCWrlZ1ElYsjgELBK-O_GjgNnDdm7t4EGqI0G64oClMpa_N_B95v7s/s2048/Grayling+001.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp1RJBPrjm9p4Vfzu5bHEvoBHKJgFRtw08Q-xViCnm1HjBrZfjvDt-1c97S99uwPScBO5g0qZ7HBxH5yO2-HYy0bCWrlZ1ElYsjgELBK-O_GjgNnDdm7t4EGqI0G64oClMpa_N_B95v7s/w200-h150/Grayling+001.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One to Remember</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, unlike the current Covid situation, the river Eden is once again returning to some kind of normality, especially the upper reaches, and given the general forecast for the Cumbria area over the next couple of weeks</span><span style="font-family: arial;">,</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><i style="font-family: arial;">(unless things change again that is) </i><span style="font-family: arial;">the new year might yet see an opportunity to indulge in a bit of Grayling fishing before the salmon season is upon us once again. Fingers crossed!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the meantime I have included a couple of pictures of previous catches to give us all some encouragement as to what we <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_pOGlu9JoczS2YqvEOKlLA_2eT9jyHKH32JHET4ExhuDzaLLd5LSvhPUEXV-826zzb8I3Palbb7G51EGFVrrDl15G9ImqxZgWuyrjiyiB5KkEaPf3CLgK5zi3aG86aVDIMKGhih9AjM/s2048/Grayling+002.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1402" data-original-width="2048" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM_pOGlu9JoczS2YqvEOKlLA_2eT9jyHKH32JHET4ExhuDzaLLd5LSvhPUEXV-826zzb8I3Palbb7G51EGFVrrDl15G9ImqxZgWuyrjiyiB5KkEaPf3CLgK5zi3aG86aVDIMKGhih9AjM/w200-h137/Grayling+002.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another nice little fish </td></tr></tbody></table>might encounter when we do manage to get out, which now looks like it could be sooner rather than later, although </span><span style="font-family: arial;">a few days ago </span><span style="font-family: arial;">you would have been forgiven for thinking that this was never a possibility, as all areas of the main river were around 4 metres above summer level and coloured.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway I look forward to seeing some of you again in 2021, if you are allowed to travel that is, as Cumbria has now been designated Tier 4, with many other areas of the UK also now in the higher Tiers! So let's hope that the vaccine allows us to turn a corner for the year ahead ultimately allowing us all to get back to doing the things we enjoy. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">All the very best for the New Year and stay safe! </span></p>Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-74016568492664966892020-11-04T04:13:00.000-08:002020-11-04T04:13:33.470-08:00Last Cast 2020<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TOVH-9zGjZ70CcHC_u1_6uwZDYf9MsJ9PsHyNrS7cAbbPRzd9yfFnIZoJvg6iXOomj3OnmsoHQwAhKjX4fltAmeGNPE-IkrGe21UvEcBwt9LFzs2CaW2WYyPiU9ej50M1DT5aQm2wU4/s2048/Andy+001+%252820.09.20.%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1187" data-original-width="2048" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7TOVH-9zGjZ70CcHC_u1_6uwZDYf9MsJ9PsHyNrS7cAbbPRzd9yfFnIZoJvg6iXOomj3OnmsoHQwAhKjX4fltAmeGNPE-IkrGe21UvEcBwt9LFzs2CaW2WYyPiU9ej50M1DT5aQm2wU4/w200-h116/Andy+001+%252820.09.20.%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice lower river fish for Andy<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As the 2020 season for many rivers in the UK now draws to a close the general consensus for the vast majority of salmon rivers shows a good all round season and the river Eden was no exception, especially in the early months once we were eventually allowed to fish again, however the latter part of the season certainly produced some very big fish throughout the system with all areas reporting some very large coloured cock fish being caught. Not surprising as these fish can be very aggressive when in attendance at this time of year!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAcgIgb5YR_pW4neoejt-J7eQCZCkfo9kNqAbLKbJx8tNFvmCBngzwItYC6fe2iSLUBhD-8ztkWttdVuIXXG-NTWeXsrHODWjOU5DJm-FUGzIMt4YTp0aTWwE-pXvGZ3UYIm8VbYpLb0/s2048/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOAcgIgb5YR_pW4neoejt-J7eQCZCkfo9kNqAbLKbJx8tNFvmCBngzwItYC6fe2iSLUBhD-8ztkWttdVuIXXG-NTWeXsrHODWjOU5DJm-FUGzIMt4YTp0aTWwE-pXvGZ3UYIm8VbYpLb0/w200-h113/002.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One in the Net<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;">As you are all aware, it's been a difficult season for trying to get everyone who had booked in for guiding and tuition sessions out on the river in the time left available to us due to the various lockdowns and restrictions in place in different areas, with many of these sessions having to be rolled over to a later date in the year, not to mention some of you missing out all together because of this, so hopefully this can be rectified next season, fingers crossed!</div><p></p><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyeMtl457WPlMzE9SYU4tSePT37ipMhkCTs3GQH3QktQrD4xiFs7wut2Axl0DGfBSTXmZ8uc5EHGzVPQJHtePk1eJbPEqn5fJ6YhSF8xWqyBld1B5dxtQbRtdNTAD3V7NvI1c0wgYHP8s/s2048/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyeMtl457WPlMzE9SYU4tSePT37ipMhkCTs3GQH3QktQrD4xiFs7wut2Axl0DGfBSTXmZ8uc5EHGzVPQJHtePk1eJbPEqn5fJ6YhSF8xWqyBld1B5dxtQbRtdNTAD3V7NvI1c0wgYHP8s/w200-h113/003.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A proud moment for David<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway despite these difficult times we did encounter some good fish again towards the end of the season, especially cock fish in their spawning livery, but good fighters non the less and the steady amount of fish running the system bodes well for the future.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once again we encountered several large trout at the back end too as they were not shy in taking some formidable looking salmon flies, some of these specimen browns would have been spectacular sport on the trout rod, but they live to fight another day and I look forward to meeting them again on the right gear!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LelahA5xP6KrH0SvlSySDQl8te0uHgwFeinMwSaCU2od24IxI3HuruipNBnbdc_ssqvn9Qh-uIu3Q3uLmhLkkYpEBsfBqJ6UQZou0X1J1lFBVHgQ-9xP5c51DySF4w12F-Wf8eM46ss/s2048/005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4LelahA5xP6KrH0SvlSySDQl8te0uHgwFeinMwSaCU2od24IxI3HuruipNBnbdc_ssqvn9Qh-uIu3Q3uLmhLkkYpEBsfBqJ6UQZou0X1J1lFBVHgQ-9xP5c51DySF4w12F-Wf8eM46ss/w200-h113/005.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of several for Jeff<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Since the end of the Eden season the river has been mostly in the trees due to the large amount of rainfall we have recently experienced, <i>(nothing new there I'm afraid)</i> so no chance at the moment of any Grayling fishing anytime soon. However once the river falls again, and if we can manage a week or so of settled lower water, this could easily change and I will be keeping a keen eye on this as I do like a bit of Grayling fishing myself whenever possible.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: arial; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb0jQoTCuiUJ5xkCbJiN70I0ODQcUwauRLGdN0pR4OEw_sGVYcx1ZSoI0BWnULug9WkbEOLoinKNuhPKW2xYUBJwVDhm3x11ERzsCZer08g8Dlk1Qcc2p9gWTS5j4gk0ohALedRL-E4s/s2048/006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxb0jQoTCuiUJ5xkCbJiN70I0ODQcUwauRLGdN0pR4OEw_sGVYcx1ZSoI0BWnULug9WkbEOLoinKNuhPKW2xYUBJwVDhm3x11ERzsCZer08g8Dlk1Qcc2p9gWTS5j4gk0ohALedRL-E4s/w200-h113/006.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A last minute Specimen for David</td></tr></tbody></table></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyway I hope you have all at least managed to get a little bit of fishing in over these difficult times and with the new lockdown rules in England now upon us I am fully aware that this <i>(once again)</i> makes it difficult for some of you to travel to certain rivers to do this, so even if we do get good conditions for Grayling they may not be easy to access because of this, but here's hoping!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYch4NUjV3dDRk_i5uVjG6ZsGCt2s3glrhgrIojkDeqYxNZnAHqZdUIeDpim1jz0yeEFqQyLUr8t2sal5uARv_geWKRyMYFFgsVrK_auL-4GeWYyYkO0kzti6jB9zei7mUmpYskihSEc/s2048/007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvYch4NUjV3dDRk_i5uVjG6ZsGCt2s3glrhgrIojkDeqYxNZnAHqZdUIeDpim1jz0yeEFqQyLUr8t2sal5uARv_geWKRyMYFFgsVrK_auL-4GeWYyYkO0kzti6jB9zei7mUmpYskihSEc/w200-h113/007.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Returned Safe and Sound<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That said, as long as everyone remains safe and well, that's all we can ask for, and I look forward to seeing some of you again next season when hopefully things return to some kind of normality, whatever that might be. "Tight Lines" to all and stay positive.</span></div><p></p>Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-68761762909392667292020-08-21T05:43:00.000-07:002020-08-21T05:43:22.037-07:00Catching up and Catching fish!<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizA2x8EXx4u0x4_IRCKwmhZt98zkoYSfQE4Ta-1JoEm6L_3xzunxOl4nu2d_XjlCup1gSvwsQv05QaoTQz4DNBQlLKkHuSoZXX_MupDtNQVvI6Dmbuj6M4ghEXuUJYnSXPA1khlBLh0aE/s1916/Andrew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1916" data-original-width="1599" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizA2x8EXx4u0x4_IRCKwmhZt98zkoYSfQE4Ta-1JoEm6L_3xzunxOl4nu2d_XjlCup1gSvwsQv05QaoTQz4DNBQlLKkHuSoZXX_MupDtNQVvI6Dmbuj6M4ghEXuUJYnSXPA1khlBLh0aE/w140-h168/Andrew.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>A Private Sanctuary</u></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">With all that's been going on in the Covid world I thought an update on the fishing throughout July and August is in order to take our minds off all those rules and regulations we now need to follow. The good thing about fishing is that it affords us the opportunity to disappear into the countryside and temporarily forget what's going on in the world around us, (at least in the short term that is) which is exactly what Andrew is doing in the picture on the right!</div></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eCupld2BRYBKMJsbeDqEC7WvocEGaQZESZWHfdAl0xnpY25a5_jfrZ5UMTmP9kf4mC_egiSoW5re2z1TWXkvKQtoMcJagexRHF5JZNXPL0UTlIiOikPgpvZ_lPmJyxKNemetOf9bMVY/s2048/Trout+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1298" data-original-width="2048" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-eCupld2BRYBKMJsbeDqEC7WvocEGaQZESZWHfdAl0xnpY25a5_jfrZ5UMTmP9kf4mC_egiSoW5re2z1TWXkvKQtoMcJagexRHF5JZNXPL0UTlIiOikPgpvZ_lPmJyxKNemetOf9bMVY/w168-h106/Trout+2.jpg" width="168" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Playing a nice Trout</u></span></td></tr></tbody></table>Since my last blog we have had a good mix of success stories and a few steady away days with plenty of trout being caught and several salmon too, including a few lost fish along the way, (as always) but at least the opportunities have been there, and the<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrXwLHp7c0Hg_Eh-oB8D-rvc4OiIVc39ANlrERQ27WSAvUbdHIXaX67SVdrIhqK7CuY1Nyhw_1LvJUpnzB4GDSqz14OpL89Fh4J1QyZax9ZmyzPa4VV6EFOiRjM2YV2QCJRL8C8baiG4/s2048/Trout+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1311" data-original-width="2048" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrXwLHp7c0Hg_Eh-oB8D-rvc4OiIVc39ANlrERQ27WSAvUbdHIXaX67SVdrIhqK7CuY1Nyhw_1LvJUpnzB4GDSqz14OpL89Fh4J1QyZax9ZmyzPa4VV6EFOiRjM2YV2QCJRL8C8baiG4/w134-h86/Trout+1.jpg" width="134" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>In the Net!</u></span></td></tr></tbody></table> quality of the trout this season has been exceptional at times too as you can see from the specimen shown laying on the stones below, and with some days producing numbers of trout into double figures, what more could we ask for!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzCkcaUP0Mt_XABzI0qKcnRDro2FUhDB7VPTLHMlc3tm6WWw-8t4GjIEHoZSHI1lT-mkwBlgLY9AeAVNyVBceTmEl6mI8UGEb1Wk7mJa53neWNq1d_J5uuDPuSF29QBKhJQahjJ3G5Uzs/s593/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="392" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzCkcaUP0Mt_XABzI0qKcnRDro2FUhDB7VPTLHMlc3tm6WWw-8t4GjIEHoZSHI1lT-mkwBlgLY9AeAVNyVBceTmEl6mI8UGEb1Wk7mJa53neWNq1d_J5uuDPuSF29QBKhJQahjJ3G5Uzs/w103-h155/Untitled.jpg" width="103" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: small;">A real Specimen</span><br /></u></td></tr></tbody></table>That said, as we entered July and into August, the numbers of trout caught did diminish slightly (not uncommon) but we still encountered some great sport along the way. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>However, t</span>he hotter, brighter days we encountered did make things a little more difficult, especially with the salmon fishing, but not without some success and I remember one particular day with low clear water conditions and the sun shining down the pool (not great conditions, especially for salmon) <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOt6DMdmCp_4BsHsDDlWVVQiX9_wUbzPt8nbKyjKghh43CTXA-Plu_erg2R3dD7tyMl1M5cHA_43DV7XZsAva_pF7D1_fCt3da5mHvPsOnW-jOiGz48OwU6qIoKjgaUoE95vCik8dDxiQ/s2048/Grilse..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOt6DMdmCp_4BsHsDDlWVVQiX9_wUbzPt8nbKyjKghh43CTXA-Plu_erg2R3dD7tyMl1M5cHA_43DV7XZsAva_pF7D1_fCt3da5mHvPsOnW-jOiGz48OwU6qIoKjgaUoE95vCik8dDxiQ/w210-h118/Grilse..jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Hot sunny day Grilse</u></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>providing us with a very fresh Grilse and three further chances of good fish too. I've learned many times over the years, there's nothing set in stone, and therefore "never say never" as the salmon most certainly don't read the so called rule books!</div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lower river especially continued to produce some good salmon, but these fish soon headed upstream once we received the first lift of water. That said, fish were beginning to settle in again down there until this recent bought of rain arrived which is now lifting the river once again. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhhoNGIt_mhuYDbfnG-oruztbTYmd8VXUEKpOmBZXp3G9EoKUNkE-9SXGqTyLia5l_B3v85zcrYXSndmGNIN1A4x2SzFoxXAGIFEwXFXI5h87TUNZyat6hHehgZQZbI3mhUW61YprIHtA/s1108/Flatty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="718" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhhoNGIt_mhuYDbfnG-oruztbTYmd8VXUEKpOmBZXp3G9EoKUNkE-9SXGqTyLia5l_B3v85zcrYXSndmGNIN1A4x2SzFoxXAGIFEwXFXI5h87TUNZyat6hHehgZQZbI3mhUW61YprIHtA/w109-h168/Flatty.jpg" width="109" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Flatty on a Tube</u></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>This is no bad thing for the rest of the river though and hopefully we will now see some further catches upstream, but maybe not like these couple of oddities shown in the pictures on the left and below, both caught on the fly. </div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0PN2pMumIc8SG7zP_iJD1CwQl-z-ZKtF7NHvwASoHSHJ7HQIeRfi2CE1J-C0vbKlkY4zxndb5bxb4ohT46v8szA4fEUdRTteSzCkJKBCe8ENJfpnbMNTEmcG3GiwDLL1whWdHkhtj0s/s1434/Rainbow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1434" data-original-width="916" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0PN2pMumIc8SG7zP_iJD1CwQl-z-ZKtF7NHvwASoHSHJ7HQIeRfi2CE1J-C0vbKlkY4zxndb5bxb4ohT46v8szA4fEUdRTteSzCkJKBCe8ENJfpnbMNTEmcG3GiwDLL1whWdHkhtj0s/w107-h168/Rainbow.jpg" width="107" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>A large rogue Rainbow</u></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>August can often see a slow down regarding the trout fishing, but catches can return with a vengeance in September before the season finishes on the 30th</span>, however, given the fact that many sessions had to be cancelled earlier in the year, due to the current Covid situation, my diary is now almost full until the end of the season (as you will see from my online calendar) as many sessions were rolled over to later in the season, and with the last day of the Salmon season being October 14th, apologies to those of you who were still planning to book in this year and only have a small number of days left to choose from.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's hope the rest of the season continues in a positive vein and I will keep you all up to speed as to what happens next as we do our best to make sure it does!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span>Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-76344924696241613512020-06-08T05:34:00.000-07:002020-06-08T05:34:41.142-07:00Different Rules for Different Regions!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0YGf4xdSneA_sytxjqpd4arApHyk5VkWRfX6VGhG2wJoq4TvXoqGl_LF_H_rKzo86HP4I4LLf7GABVky3DSczixyb_zTUUyEDYMrwcMPUnTmUiyWqOySK04iTS65BxrppSggqJoe4Ks/s1600/UK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="133" data-original-width="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0YGf4xdSneA_sytxjqpd4arApHyk5VkWRfX6VGhG2wJoq4TvXoqGl_LF_H_rKzo86HP4I4LLf7GABVky3DSczixyb_zTUUyEDYMrwcMPUnTmUiyWqOySK04iTS65BxrppSggqJoe4Ks/s1600/UK.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">United Kingdom?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thankfully since my last blog we can now all go fishing again, however, depending upon where you reside in the UK, there are </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unfortunately </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">differing travel restrictions, e.g. in England and N. Ireland we can travel anywhere to fish, but in Scotland and Wales the guidelines state that a limit of 5 miles is the current recommendation. In addition to this, accommodation is still not available until at least July 4th, which also restricts multi-day trips for those of you who like to stay over and fish a variety of beats on different days. That said, as long as we do not experience a new spike with regard to Covid-19 we are now definitely moving in the right direction and hopefully we can get back to some semblance of normality very soon!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1iuGWfc1UR72OJlj2bXE7kfB1qN3PKtfeVSSF7Zn3KBBHE9nQ-QtvXxeXoah_YhqkSvdemGU40KXYiz3cwJSHX6jjy23gHjJh07d_HXTBQvpAtYHtultmVvBvPQGkWeQ_4Ye3NYHyKE4/s1600/Coops+Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="1387" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1iuGWfc1UR72OJlj2bXE7kfB1qN3PKtfeVSSF7Zn3KBBHE9nQ-QtvXxeXoah_YhqkSvdemGU40KXYiz3cwJSHX6jjy23gHjJh07d_HXTBQvpAtYHtultmVvBvPQGkWeQ_4Ye3NYHyKE4/s200/Coops+Fish.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Typical stamp of fish from lower Eden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Those of us in England were very fortunate to have been given the green light to return to the river on May 13th and despite the bright sunshine and very low water conditions, up to, and during this time, there has still been some very successful salmon catches on the river Eden, (mainly on the lower river) and most of the fish I have seen have been very fresh indeed and in the 12lb - 15lb range.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5VfZk1xYvoxtG3J4M1MjnEUOILnEgC6NqMn-cjGBf6NjwhzLiPZmso3gHoWnF1cRhZeTNv5XfDj8gy7qbGYsHirVFUZKm7_2-xS0WLzYhB9OQq4ZmYCDhl0ZngUGtVZjz_WXDjBV67w/s1600/Salmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="768" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv5VfZk1xYvoxtG3J4M1MjnEUOILnEgC6NqMn-cjGBf6NjwhzLiPZmso3gHoWnF1cRhZeTNv5XfDj8gy7qbGYsHirVFUZKm7_2-xS0WLzYhB9OQq4ZmYCDhl0ZngUGtVZjz_WXDjBV67w/s200/Salmon.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Slightly smaller, but still a good fish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It is not unusual, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">following long periods of low water (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the lower beats) for fish to stack up in these areas due to limited access to upstream migration, but these beats do seem to be holding an exceptional amount of fish this time around, and the fishing certainly did improve once that persistent East wind decided to leave us a while back.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past few days alone, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">on the tidal beat I look after on the lower river, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">we have moved into double figures of fish caught (and several lost) and that's only the ones I am currently aware of. This implies that there is a lot of fish down there and on some days this is very apparent as they are often very active. I hope this remains the case for anglers coming from Scotland and Wales when you eventually get the chance to take advantage of this fantastic bounty. Long may it last!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_fHKG-Dg2bNssBiocHu8HvYHF2ZnYcirxi-b-QwyugXXUO59ca8E1w_IrB2uN9Zbg0t7twcfgY8ObYluOzYNRY95ZoAOfa_8qELZTCpzjF874gd_u5LYi5-9xrDkDGQIRIWe3JGlZVo/s1600/Eden+Trout+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1600" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_fHKG-Dg2bNssBiocHu8HvYHF2ZnYcirxi-b-QwyugXXUO59ca8E1w_IrB2uN9Zbg0t7twcfgY8ObYluOzYNRY95ZoAOfa_8qELZTCpzjF874gd_u5LYi5-9xrDkDGQIRIWe3JGlZVo/s200/Eden+Trout+-+Copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of many Brown caught</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The trout fishing has also been very good and my first day out on the river produced a very enjoyable catch of 18 brown trout, (all on the dry fly) which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially after such a long period of cabin fever, and I have to admit, I have had a few more since then too. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwBh9FlB1mXuZk3kReb0NfQJjZwi79Bg5GM4zw_ONskieTqs6Dx7sMao_qA5Mgwm2erE1EjcxH34A_moMUYr3jepQOmx4OVvX669Udy_aSLFCQXWgnThirFrCRX60mDQZkrcQxJXXids/s1600/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1600" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwBh9FlB1mXuZk3kReb0NfQJjZwi79Bg5GM4zw_ONskieTqs6Dx7sMao_qA5Mgwm2erE1EjcxH34A_moMUYr3jepQOmx4OVvX669Udy_aSLFCQXWgnThirFrCRX60mDQZkrcQxJXXids/s200/001.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I haven't been fishing all of the time though, as I have been taking advantage of the fact we could get out again to do some much needed river improvements on the lower beat ready for some one to one and small group fishing sessions which I am now doing again since June 1st (in line with government guidelines of course). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Therefore I have at last had time to clear the steps in front of the small shelter down there as well as doing some further repairs to the shelter itself, <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zXER0R2CG-FWxokbNDEjlsi4cY6c6_KU_LR1KEDK2V2W4ELHz-xEIGdMswObbvBhHkbRJ7wt5LJov_H_w8JFIbXokhPrltwJUd6h3FJzJB2Xf9NFqBC18FxW-zXatsO_mmz1nCcJkbU/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7zXER0R2CG-FWxokbNDEjlsi4cY6c6_KU_LR1KEDK2V2W4ELHz-xEIGdMswObbvBhHkbRJ7wt5LJov_H_w8JFIbXokhPrltwJUd6h3FJzJB2Xf9NFqBC18FxW-zXatsO_mmz1nCcJkbU/s200/002.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
which </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">in all honesty I feared would have been washed away by the early season floods we had, but no, my previous repairs have paid off and kept it in place and it still serves us well. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3e3yuFqirgb9A4t4YpOgeAOHnxvxJezqcIGs6u-zBZCXSyOdpTqrbrBSNzdZM4PGhgpColQHR94LTbSZ4oRsgQShjFuX6a2C2TQb4aVVb2nlnotmhoUAB_2wvTbkhpQLXMMWbYQnsgw/s1600/005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga3e3yuFqirgb9A4t4YpOgeAOHnxvxJezqcIGs6u-zBZCXSyOdpTqrbrBSNzdZM4PGhgpColQHR94LTbSZ4oRsgQShjFuX6a2C2TQb4aVVb2nlnotmhoUAB_2wvTbkhpQLXMMWbYQnsgw/s200/005.jpg" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So h</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">opefully from July the 4th, which is when it has been intimated that accommodation options will become available to us again, it will also be there waiting for those of you coming to enjoy your multi-day trips to the Eden. I am sure Scotland and Wales will have better travel guidelines by then and I look forward to rearranging these sessions for those of you who's trips had to be cancelled.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehQ7-DirzDDeM3k5hms-vOsvcZTTuH8WGZhTAyt67Rfnz02JBsKPdfMRo4SbTca2u1LwCT2tlp0utN61qnX3aYrlQgKtSRn-Wry92nAGsz-tFk_c9NSb8PgbmB_X8645NVahi1tSbjeM/s1600/006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhehQ7-DirzDDeM3k5hms-vOsvcZTTuH8WGZhTAyt67Rfnz02JBsKPdfMRo4SbTca2u1LwCT2tlp0utN61qnX3aYrlQgKtSRn-Wry92nAGsz-tFk_c9NSb8PgbmB_X8645NVahi1tSbjeM/s200/006.jpg" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway I am sure time will tell and I look forward to catching up with many of you again, giving everyone the opportunity to shake off those cobwebs whilst indulging in a some long overdue fishing. Not long Now!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the weekend we received our first significant rainfall which did effect the river (although not in a big way) adding a few inches of fresh water and affording some of the salmon on the lower beats a little more access to beats higher up, but the good news is that fish are still being caught on the lower beats and also still being seen on recent tides. This looks very promising for the rest of the season.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span>
</div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-63307585699838703942020-04-25T06:21:00.000-07:002020-04-25T06:21:17.162-07:00Fishing Lock down Continues<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and coping with the lock down situation as best you can. A big thank you to those key workers amongst you, especially those of you who work within the NHS, or like myself, have a partner who does, as I certainly know how worrying this can be in these difficult times.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vd6OxM9A7XhSPVXShpl9DslT-cMk83L-wYhPOnWS5bo5-Z7tm4Ok0wqL3XCd0mXcXJCs2YWz8Hev8d5QNJ5XQOFGbXwuUgs2sEH6G13N95alVgcPAoRzuziOI1v74yiGdpdsfJsJzMc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1580" data-original-width="1600" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_vd6OxM9A7XhSPVXShpl9DslT-cMk83L-wYhPOnWS5bo5-Z7tm4Ok0wqL3XCd0mXcXJCs2YWz8Hev8d5QNJ5XQOFGbXwuUgs2sEH6G13N95alVgcPAoRzuziOI1v74yiGdpdsfJsJzMc/s200/1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"What fish look like"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although there isn't any fishing going on at the moment I think it is important to stay connected and therefore </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I just wanted to touch base with you all. First and foremost to wish you all well, and secondly to at least give you all something to read before cabin fever sets in.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you probably all noticed, as soon as we went into lock down, the rivers came back into good order again following what had already been a very long period of high (and often coloured) water conditions, "Typical". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However it's not all doom and gloom though, as the weather conditions we have recently been experiencing, i.e. bright sunshine, although very enjoyable, (given our current situation) is not necessarily ideal for fishing, especially when accompanied by a persistent East wind, (albeit slight) as this almost always contributes to what would generally be a period of difficult fishing in terms of catches. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is due to the fact that in these types of conditions the fish usually switch off, or at the very least are reluctant to take our offerings, and where trout are concerned, hatches tend to be very sparse indeed (which would explain a lot). Yes you can sometimes tempt a fish or two to take a weighted nymph during these periods, (as we have done many times before) but this often then becomes a searching game. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The salmon also tend to switch off during these periods, for reasons that are up for debate, but they definitely do! So we can at least take some solace from this for the time being, however this wont last forever, so lets hope we can get back out there soon, even if it is just on our local fisheries whilst adhering to the social distancing rules until further notice.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw-FwdmhY-jTj2xiDNo4VynRDYKd4zFeY3MIHihtP2y2QsT9CVnoftK7x5DIKmecP3fsQiM-Qbgh7aBUynsqxOlt6FaxVmGti-T-1sdTnWfYKtN4omtK7SuysdIHgWgv_X_SElq-vFqQ/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1083" data-original-width="1600" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsw-FwdmhY-jTj2xiDNo4VynRDYKd4zFeY3MIHihtP2y2QsT9CVnoftK7x5DIKmecP3fsQiM-Qbgh7aBUynsqxOlt6FaxVmGti-T-1sdTnWfYKtN4omtK7SuysdIHgWgv_X_SElq-vFqQ/s200/2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Relaxing in the Countryside"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the meantime I have been missing our fishing sessions so much, that along with the many chores recently undertaken </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">during lock down</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, including a plethora of painting jobs </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(which I am sure many of you can relate to) I have also indulged in a couple of jigsaws (something I haven't done for many years) in an attempt to remind myself of (a) what fish look like and (b) relaxing in the countryside. I think you will get my drift from the pictures attached.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Anyway, hang on in there and let's hope we are all back at it as soon as it is safe to do so, and I look forward to catching up with many of you on the river bank when the time is right. "Stay Safe".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-5530984339180305032020-03-28T03:30:00.000-07:002020-04-22T06:49:21.784-07:00Fishing in Lock down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqlWsboi-TsJ2HKqy6sFxLFGpd3DzVPUP7CZh-UaLWxjk7HyRL9yupu_8R4oTU432Xdk01BzkTe0RklyC9b228ghX7qXzqo1mH8ErQTtxQPs9KMRjjOxSu4bDFEIaMacYoNxZLdHvkG8/s1600/Grayling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="1600" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSqlWsboi-TsJ2HKqy6sFxLFGpd3DzVPUP7CZh-UaLWxjk7HyRL9yupu_8R4oTU432Xdk01BzkTe0RklyC9b228ghX7qXzqo1mH8ErQTtxQPs9KMRjjOxSu4bDFEIaMacYoNxZLdHvkG8/s200/Grayling.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eden Grayling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following a poor start to the Eden season <i>(and many other rivers)</i> due to persistent high waters preventing us from indulging in our favourite pastime, and now with the added disruption of the coronavirus outbreak, keeping the majority of us in isolation. Despite trying to remain optimistic, I can't help wondering when our next venture out on the river will actually be!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTT0Sb-OL1nN-Fu3rnFZyQ5hH-9diyZg2GCFe7WA91zaltANyHVtCKkBHvyiKAd9NV5-G97hZ39an-4p2sP7fu-n518LE_EEijUcueS6ZE3mkXJFRuS8pE8iEpQ-GN-UZyAIqeqM7tl-0/s1600/Eden+Brown.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="1143" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTT0Sb-OL1nN-Fu3rnFZyQ5hH-9diyZg2GCFe7WA91zaltANyHVtCKkBHvyiKAd9NV5-G97hZ39an-4p2sP7fu-n518LE_EEijUcueS6ZE3mkXJFRuS8pE8iEpQ-GN-UZyAIqeqM7tl-0/s200/Eden+Brown.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eden Brown Trout</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although we all understand the implications of this truly invasive pandemic, and it goes without saying that we will all continue to do our bit if it means saving lives, but it certainly doesn't stop that sinking feeling that we all get when we cannot go fishing. With this in mind, let us keep our fingers crossed that things get back to normal sooner rather than later and that statistics improve soon for everyone's sake.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPo1FXoiTrcCOD5HgWyAuRcX0KniGq5HGZkxTcMM4-CrUmURMdk9xW5UZMlgCYNf2FNybgOCozTi9kPTEvml90cXj7fb6bWvDLSK3LcHU9NNHjaA9PBy4S8WZv1qi7pEhsKMmBsUZYsk/s1600/Sea+Trout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="125" data-original-width="228" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPo1FXoiTrcCOD5HgWyAuRcX0KniGq5HGZkxTcMM4-CrUmURMdk9xW5UZMlgCYNf2FNybgOCozTi9kPTEvml90cXj7fb6bWvDLSK3LcHU9NNHjaA9PBy4S8WZv1qi7pEhsKMmBsUZYsk/s200/Sea+Trout.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cracking Sea Trout</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, in the interim period, "being as we are all in the same boat", <i>(so to speak) </i>I wanted to stay in touch with everyone <i>(by way of my monthly blog)</i> to wish you and your family members all the very best at this difficult time, and I hope you all continue to stay in good health as we move forward.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> All the signs point to an eventual decline of this situation and given the sterling work being put in by our NHS staff <i>(who are on the front line) </i>we will surely beat this thing and get back to some kind of normality!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4S9FfV3M7zruC5uWyJGa7brSyg9mRPCB2M6vGudduIZuLLL4pQAzarGqy5c6M88KADiYld0iRMnX8p-mknjL43r2-gS9WZ-glNpdKW2CH4SR7JxmGkE2JMwS3DUjGgv-PoEDaoCSisVI/s1600/Eden+Salmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4S9FfV3M7zruC5uWyJGa7brSyg9mRPCB2M6vGudduIZuLLL4pQAzarGqy5c6M88KADiYld0iRMnX8p-mknjL43r2-gS9WZ-glNpdKW2CH4SR7JxmGkE2JMwS3DUjGgv-PoEDaoCSisVI/s200/Eden+Salmon.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh Eden Salmon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said I think we are currently in this for the long haul, and being as we may not be visiting the river for some time, I thought I would include a few pictures from previous fishing trip here on the Eden in an attempt to hopefully help cheer you all up whilst many of you <i>(except for key workers)</i> are stuck at home. <u>Stay Safe</u>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-58372713720300858522020-02-29T01:56:00.000-08:002020-03-02T02:00:16.416-08:00The Deluge Continues<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbqjMWr248jh6MDQ8I8Pz2p1OYtL7ye2AK1_jNTIlP6r-Ww_CC0jsoQ78jIlFfuaBe5lgD54ZzuWg1KUGvrFG6pdJn2FGhuDhX8WXWmzfgr3qjcyUzPii2m6zf5JKM6dRSufdzRBhahI/s1600/20200216_124823.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKbqjMWr248jh6MDQ8I8Pz2p1OYtL7ye2AK1_jNTIlP6r-Ww_CC0jsoQ78jIlFfuaBe5lgD54ZzuWg1KUGvrFG6pdJn2FGhuDhX8WXWmzfgr3qjcyUzPii2m6zf5JKM6dRSufdzRBhahI/s200/20200216_124823.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An Eden tributary in full flood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More of the same throughout the month of February I'm afraid, with persistent rain and wind battering the Cumbria region <i>(among other areas)</i>. We haven't even been able to get near the river let alone do any fishing, and the high winds have definitely scuppered any possibility of casting lessons.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as we approach March </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">we should be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hopefully normal service can resume.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuwzofXyeSeB4B9FNDV8zxzBLd3jebgDbUvkkfaMd7mnUQBY3JHDdOIGQqtbKgdBLlfpQsqMIx0iZfEu0WUf-4ROrG1Lof1FQZy74gMJ7RX8UE3nNM4CNp6PTupQzSgEH1yylfPX641o/s1600/20200216_131053.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxuwzofXyeSeB4B9FNDV8zxzBLd3jebgDbUvkkfaMd7mnUQBY3JHDdOIGQqtbKgdBLlfpQsqMIx0iZfEu0WUf-4ROrG1Lof1FQZy74gMJ7RX8UE3nNM4CNp6PTupQzSgEH1yylfPX641o/s200/20200216_131053.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A bit high for fly fishing</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said, the weather obviously hasn't dampened any enthusiasm though as plenty of you have already booked in for both casting lessons and fishing sessions on the river, if anything I think this bad start to the year has made us even more determined to get out there and get started.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I do like to have some reports for everyone by now, on the salmon front at least, but as you can see from the surrounding pictures there is no way whatsoever that any fishing could have taken place given the recent conditions, so here's hoping we can make up for that as we move closer to the trout season starting on March 15th.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji69nL9vO227zwhBPySZOB_n1w862uOTU5vYjo1FhDGKDAJC6txTs9nVJd69oA-dgY_FWhtoZYcibwYmRfuRmStUmrjKESDYB9Tk41Rgwa4svGuHxKaQvqGwTgxcciOe8kZzBRyYETtnY/s1600/20200216_131323.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji69nL9vO227zwhBPySZOB_n1w862uOTU5vYjo1FhDGKDAJC6txTs9nVJd69oA-dgY_FWhtoZYcibwYmRfuRmStUmrjKESDYB9Tk41Rgwa4svGuHxKaQvqGwTgxcciOe8kZzBRyYETtnY/s200/20200216_131323.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There was a path here somewhere!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although there is still plenty of water in the system, the river is now beginning to show signs of dropping back to some kind of normality and as long as we don't get anymore persistent rainfall we should be able to enjoy some good sport again soon, and believe me, I am looking forward to catching up with several of you for some casting sessions which are booked in for March.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-72791155181866915202020-01-31T06:12:00.000-08:002020-02-04T06:16:00.005-08:00Welcome to the New Season 2020<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCcymCIOmYTSY7bBKII-VS1_FC4qwrUKrnWPvYji5VGZLX5BBhpYzOPX9-h6IUk3skBEd9wyBvras6vrzv2dmprPOdHTjiIg1RExWYqexQiIYIDK38pWMJeu9cHuG6WftaccUra-jnaHo/s1600/River+Eden+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1058" data-original-width="1600" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCcymCIOmYTSY7bBKII-VS1_FC4qwrUKrnWPvYji5VGZLX5BBhpYzOPX9-h6IUk3skBEd9wyBvras6vrzv2dmprPOdHTjiIg1RExWYqexQiIYIDK38pWMJeu9cHuG6WftaccUra-jnaHo/s200/River+Eden+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not great conditions for Grayling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I can't believe we are into February already, a poor winter up to now if you have been targeting Grayling, with water levels continuously fluctuating on the river Eden. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However we are already three weeks into the 2020 Salmon season, <i>(still early yet, I know) </i>but I was made aware only yesterday of a couple of fish being caught on the lower river, this I have yet to confirm, but it would not be the first time early season salmon have been recorded down there.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite the usual cold, wet days of January, there have also been a few kinder days in between which have allowed for the odd tuition sessions, yes you heard it correctly, I am more than happy to take out the Die Hards on these early season days, and in the sunshine especially, <i>(with the right clothes on) </i>these sessions can be very enjoyable and can always be re-arranged if the weather turns against us.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Apart from these early tuition sessions the fishing itself can be quite slow at this time of year, until that is, we get into March, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(when the trout season begins)</i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> and beyond this, when the Salmon numbers begin to increase. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpio1-Y4qEqaflf5KSvYwgaikxujRopla4_CKofgNdRhEoDAcAoZCc16WNvvPdB_b1TyrwyZh9p3uE024yW9pQhwzD6qUPZUpKTb9qlult1bXHBzwmnb0eqrBsAI6cj4JTUlmhvmotqcc/s1600/B.G.A.+Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="760" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpio1-Y4qEqaflf5KSvYwgaikxujRopla4_CKofgNdRhEoDAcAoZCc16WNvvPdB_b1TyrwyZh9p3uE024yW9pQhwzD6qUPZUpKTb9qlult1bXHBzwmnb0eqrBsAI6cj4JTUlmhvmotqcc/s320/B.G.A.+Logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tuition & Fishing available any time of the year</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
However, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">as you can see from the link below to the <a href="http://www.bordergameangling.co.uk/AvailableDates2020.htm">2020 <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Border Game Angling</b></span> website </a><a href="http://www.bordergameangling.co.uk/AvailableDates2020.htm">Calendar</a>, bookings are now beginning to arrive fast and furious and I can't wait to catch up with people again and also meet people for the first time in 2020 as things start to get going again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I am looking forward to seeing some of you again throughout the year, to either help improve your casting skills, catch a few fish, or both! Here's to a good season in 2020.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-36496336821059203372019-12-23T06:35:00.000-08:002019-12-23T06:35:24.811-08:00Best Wishes from B.G.A.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvbYZu8QNIwUita06I8EqBoQFpRttSjwi0qtIU7Yl-BCmSWxxWM5Bl8E9urU2cTyqE-X5UxKnSF0xmVoGP0KsrnW4LL1YNr0H6Ly9mRXiXoFSnsBnphQ4A2INkXDLZn3c-RoLhD3xIqZY/s1600/Merry+Xmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="300" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvbYZu8QNIwUita06I8EqBoQFpRttSjwi0qtIU7Yl-BCmSWxxWM5Bl8E9urU2cTyqE-X5UxKnSF0xmVoGP0KsrnW4LL1YNr0H6Ly9mRXiXoFSnsBnphQ4A2INkXDLZn3c-RoLhD3xIqZY/s200/Merry+Xmas.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I can't believe its that time again, no sooner has the season finished than Christmas is upon us again. That said it does give me the opportunity to wish you all the very best for the festive season, to thank you all for your company on the river this year, and to sincerely hope that 2020 offers you good health and good fishing once again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Going into the Grayling season has not been as straight forward as I had hoped, and with the exception of a few "<u>almost settled days</u>", we have had to search hard for these elusive creatures. This has been made more difficult by the continuation <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiwudkbFQf2x8_6x7AyvAddfO32d_kconjBNYjioNwTK2VstcbPyCrIXbzH_AiYpQP7yMz_ZuzQrcGQLBp3V2C8-VopNUMd7ydvVKHVj1MeyktWH9TNftBsZJwytQDjJWJ7SacwPZLCY/s1600/Chris+with+Grayling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="161" data-original-width="289" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoiwudkbFQf2x8_6x7AyvAddfO32d_kconjBNYjioNwTK2VstcbPyCrIXbzH_AiYpQP7yMz_ZuzQrcGQLBp3V2C8-VopNUMd7ydvVKHVj1MeyktWH9TNftBsZJwytQDjJWJ7SacwPZLCY/s200/Chris+with+Grayling.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They haven't all been elusive!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
of high and unsettled waters yet again. Never mind though, we will just have to wait until after Christmas and into the New Year to hopefully see the river falling and clearing again, which I am sure it will at some point. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The 2019 season did bring some exciting moments to the salmon fishing once again, although there were some slow periods too when I thought we should have caught a few more, oh well that's fishing I suppose, however we did see some very good trout fishing on the river again this year, I always look forward to that, especially when there are a few flies hatching and the trout can be tempted to the surface.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgElKx7GVfhgvWh9RBuwuSht291QMJJVKnZYSJCOu-bEtWPjxMPlhwsfexJoc9nB2eoHwtzHSW-gul108xgd52XVfW-wJOQ66vTHqY-xXVLLwAAexzp17MrS1QtcUh5LnVz3xM2zsLUAbA/s1600/Merry+Xmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1241" data-original-width="888" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgElKx7GVfhgvWh9RBuwuSht291QMJJVKnZYSJCOu-bEtWPjxMPlhwsfexJoc9nB2eoHwtzHSW-gul108xgd52XVfW-wJOQ66vTHqY-xXVLLwAAexzp17MrS1QtcUh5LnVz3xM2zsLUAbA/s200/Merry+Xmas.jpg" width="142" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway I for one am looking forward to what the 2020 season will bring and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">once the festive season is over, and we all get back to normal again, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am sure you will be too. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The preliminary salmon catch returns are now in for the river Eden between Carlisle and Penrith, which I am sure the salmon fishers amongst you will be interested to know are looking quite encouraging, so here's hoping we can get our share next year!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Tight Lines" to all and I look forward to catching up again in 2020.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-16834289400249767592019-10-31T12:39:00.000-07:002019-10-31T12:39:31.276-07:00End of Season Wash Out<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbZ3Hu0PPZG8k4r38jFuc7ud1wkQPSjnxuOi2n7DxfjigdgDE1g2PapsrxznQdTo6_lFGn_QVDpBNFzu2gzj92dYgQTgKSskuQyQQZ8C63aU0ZKRJOGHl2IGOkjjYSXohunwGpcZptJ8/s1600/Eden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpbZ3Hu0PPZG8k4r38jFuc7ud1wkQPSjnxuOi2n7DxfjigdgDE1g2PapsrxznQdTo6_lFGn_QVDpBNFzu2gzj92dYgQTgKSskuQyQQZ8C63aU0ZKRJOGHl2IGOkjjYSXohunwGpcZptJ8/s200/Eden.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A big brown end to the season </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, as with many rivers this year, the end of the season on the Eden finished prematurely, with a deluge of water triggering a succession of cancellations as the persistent rainfall resulted in a series of high and coloured waters as you can see in the picture on the left.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately some of you were here for tuition purposes only, which was just as well given the uncontrollable conditions we were experiencing, however </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">from a safety aspect, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it did eventually get to the stage where I had to call a halt to that too as the river became very swollen and</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>inaccessible in many places.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfaHXoWiz3U4ETvPY86xh6twOUKSEsnf9G6zYQ5Rdhjl6ho6Rp8ipn1o1I4XqRJ3ZXpeTz0nVBvfw_HK6S3qJfhsTT8ivYuMGudztq2e_BmLkDJlWpHdOYliFDN03tkVfhrbmWhm01AA/s1600/Salmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1030" data-original-width="1600" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmfaHXoWiz3U4ETvPY86xh6twOUKSEsnf9G6zYQ5Rdhjl6ho6Rp8ipn1o1I4XqRJ3ZXpeTz0nVBvfw_HK6S3qJfhsTT8ivYuMGudztq2e_BmLkDJlWpHdOYliFDN03tkVfhrbmWhm01AA/s200/Salmon.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Returning a small Salmon to the river</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, we did manage a couple of salmon before the river became ridiculously high, and several seriously big browns attached themselves to our salmon flies too, which is not unusual in these larger waters later in the season, but they were all returned to the water unharmed being as the trout season was over. Jeff pictured right managed to hook land and return this small coloured salmon to the river before conditions became difficult again later in the day.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_xVhqiJ5Jm3LPTCfvJ_pLFWopi8bT0qNAwB__4uCtoviGhVaqJxEE3uyFetV9KmJm7OrdIC8YBy7WbmoIoTXkOBXc0pb1eBNFMDqJSs_Fx-XkEObf66bfpdjpj9qF_rI_vj6KOODPgI/s1600/Pike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_xVhqiJ5Jm3LPTCfvJ_pLFWopi8bT0qNAwB__4uCtoviGhVaqJxEE3uyFetV9KmJm7OrdIC8YBy7WbmoIoTXkOBXc0pb1eBNFMDqJSs_Fx-XkEObf66bfpdjpj9qF_rI_vj6KOODPgI/s200/Pike.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very nice double figure Pike</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Time is too short to waste though, and apart from one rather windy, difficult, but eventually successful day, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">spent on a Stillwater hunting Rainbow Trout, we did also manage to arrange a couple more days for the youngsters via <a href="https://www.borderlines.org.uk/">Borderlines</a>, but </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">given that once again the rivers were out of order and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stillwaters</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> were by far the best option, </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">instead of a session for Salmon or trout our quarry was to be the elusive but formidable Pike</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With this in mind the youngsters did themselves proud and managed to catch a few Pike throughout the day, including this very nice specimen (above left) laid out on the unhooking mat. This powerful fish was none the worse for ware for its efforts and swam off very strongly when returned to the water, as seen here (below right).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvP70HjAvZUsVGZ7izYYd8dlFeSPp3w-cD1wbc4iC7wh8AQUEFodhVJXDnlz7LK2oRCtcf4erg0GDvkHF070ts20YJf6DzbWpl9PbZTm4f-YAFLAee9IAH_K8rQBshqkzELYF8_N73-yo/s1600/Returned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvP70HjAvZUsVGZ7izYYd8dlFeSPp3w-cD1wbc4iC7wh8AQUEFodhVJXDnlz7LK2oRCtcf4erg0GDvkHF070ts20YJf6DzbWpl9PbZTm4f-YAFLAee9IAH_K8rQBshqkzELYF8_N73-yo/s200/Returned.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A large Pike in excellent condition</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The latter part of October was dedicated to the usual instructor assessments for <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> which were held down in Wales, and a great weekend it was too with eight instructors passing their qualifications, four of whom were new members. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was followed by our </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">well attended </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">biannual open day event,</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> which included a variety of fantastic demonstrations on a wide range of fishing related subjects from rod building to fly dressing and on to single and double hand fishing techniques, all delivered by several of our current <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> instructor members. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJC-MRAhrTRNC8KJ35DU5tQpUlKePz9mYuxahzeawDhm81UGg2DHb1oZNdvXNVfeS7mSo74r8cE55Hz3gw9wFzNFfNRA6Zqs0nct0vu5xOlFOBgSwQj1amzDF1gYa39bclgXozbEEbL0/s1600/Demo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="1600" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYJC-MRAhrTRNC8KJ35DU5tQpUlKePz9mYuxahzeawDhm81UGg2DHb1oZNdvXNVfeS7mSo74r8cE55Hz3gw9wFzNFfNRA6Zqs0nct0vu5xOlFOBgSwQj1amzDF1gYa39bclgXozbEEbL0/s200/Demo+2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Demo on Split Cane</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have never attended one of these <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> open days you should, as its a great day out. The next one is to be held at the <a href="https://www.friarscarse.co.uk/">Friars Carse Hotel</a> in Dumfries & Galloway on June 13th 2020. To book your place details can be found <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/diary">here</a>. It would be good to see you there!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the meantime, as the rivers settle down again, (fingers crossed) we will be </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">out there</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> once again targeting Grayling and hopefully the big waters won't have done too much damage and we will be able to find a few good pockets of fish for some great winter sport. Here's hoping!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2l6x3s_9HUYkYLYe93vLV-GqJceal8F6x81osSaOEINBMeGUetq41J-sbWLjLzb4PKEYCGBp-T5WKGlA7rZSHxheNGVKuxS4nJjFp_k2OcHmeyXKj5gh9pqKd8avqY_EzMvFAlrJqz0/s1600/Holly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="88" data-original-width="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN2l6x3s_9HUYkYLYe93vLV-GqJceal8F6x81osSaOEINBMeGUetq41J-sbWLjLzb4PKEYCGBp-T5WKGlA7rZSHxheNGVKuxS4nJjFp_k2OcHmeyXKj5gh9pqKd8avqY_EzMvFAlrJqz0/s1600/Holly.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas Vouchers</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">On a final note, don't forget that vouchers are available once again for those special Christmas presents for friends and family who would like to come fishing in 2020, or simply enhance their current casting skills, especially if they have never fly fished before, it's the ideal gift. Just drop me a line if you want to arrange this, or click </span><a href="http://www.bordergameangling.co.uk/GiftVouchers.htm" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">here</a><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> for further details.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-86682757367520389812019-08-31T11:21:00.000-07:002019-09-01T11:22:14.011-07:00Shows & Tuition, but not much Fishing<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0yz3JN-JibUcpseKNL6MzHhkz3vuH8TO24qyx0DYCkA79LqTJs59nVQGVzUWgKuDOZkhr-_9QvHN4_knTFIxl6tTJsqCNBRZt0-j-K3-18j5W9NdZjaLEO068SnCxorAZO8GFnTPfl9g/s1600/Jeff+with+Trout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1045" data-original-width="1600" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0yz3JN-JibUcpseKNL6MzHhkz3vuH8TO24qyx0DYCkA79LqTJs59nVQGVzUWgKuDOZkhr-_9QvHN4_knTFIxl6tTJsqCNBRZt0-j-K3-18j5W9NdZjaLEO068SnCxorAZO8GFnTPfl9g/s200/Jeff+with+Trout.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A good Trout on tinted water</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Plenty of rain in August, with the only exception being the August Bank Holiday, and as the river was high again I took a couple of days off to take advantage of the good weather. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, there were a few good Salmon waters from time to time, especially as the water levels dropped and cleared, but the problem was, as soon as they did begin to drop the rain came back with a vengeance lifting the river again and again, making conditions very unsettled, "Never a great scenario for good </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">results".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18IFknPiuatwYHDojjCvJA3NrKu1xhAEYPQMO8Wvdts1GqFnIHNHp2kpsOyImd67TrEdbl5pkc6F9IcOBoahXVOyBmZAsdUrQqMKT0_q-WtGrnruoNS2JgDz5Xm2ORzTR1vjibPqc0TU/s1600/Galloway+Fair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1115" data-original-width="1600" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18IFknPiuatwYHDojjCvJA3NrKu1xhAEYPQMO8Wvdts1GqFnIHNHp2kpsOyImd67TrEdbl5pkc6F9IcOBoahXVOyBmZAsdUrQqMKT0_q-WtGrnruoNS2JgDz5Xm2ORzTR1vjibPqc0TU/s200/Galloway+Fair.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dark Clouds at the Galloway Fair</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Despite this</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> there was still the odd Salmon caught, along with a few very </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">goo</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">d trout days too, especially when the water was falling with a slight tint to it, which always encourages some interest to the fly, but on the whole not the best </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">all round </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">conditions.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However there was always something happening in August, as the majority of days were either taken up with tuition sessions, or introducing youngsters to angling through <a href="https://www.borderlines.org.uk/">Borderlines</a>, with the rest of the time spent at local Shows, i.e. the Lowther Show and the Galloway Fair, providing demonstrations and tuition for the public. See below left as one of our instructors teaches a youngster how to Roll Cast at the Lowther Show on day one!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY38vbSZWg602cvDnIAL3dWvW2ba_Ukd-H2G1sQP_f8dHb7VhgVNA5yhKjiU_E96HD2qKzCp3MNrUzSM1btyBY-paivWNi24TJuy03wwMcfCbBedxNhlP79ZDK2SteFzFeb_Fm751u15M/s1600/20190810_155718.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1600" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY38vbSZWg602cvDnIAL3dWvW2ba_Ukd-H2G1sQP_f8dHb7VhgVNA5yhKjiU_E96HD2qKzCp3MNrUzSM1btyBY-paivWNi24TJuy03wwMcfCbBedxNhlP79ZDK2SteFzFeb_Fm751u15M/s200/20190810_155718.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark Colman (<a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a>) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Needless to say that both shows experienced periods of heavy rain, with the latter going ahead with little effect when compared to the Lowther Show, which unfortunately had to be cancelled on day two because of the conditions under foot, making it difficult to both access and exit the Show in vehicles due to the deep mud.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking forward to September now, I don't know where this season has gone, but hopefully we can enjoy some better runs of back end salmon than in recent years as we have several days already planned to test the water, so to speak!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-48811587680808585882019-07-30T05:21:00.000-07:002019-07-30T05:21:56.414-07:00High Temperatures in July<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6ifRf4l2-yb-2dw0aWzNqYD3a0cnIjDIt3q3RaraRSNyRmkrYLxmHrLiBUEHpVRI4qZG36AeFch6t6qH1wnUoEZG0blCi2bUAVfH8H2GaGSer19pPMi1rrwymJn4CqCHZzOC_KQZx88/s1600/20190627_155433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="1600" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6ifRf4l2-yb-2dw0aWzNqYD3a0cnIjDIt3q3RaraRSNyRmkrYLxmHrLiBUEHpVRI4qZG36AeFch6t6qH1wnUoEZG0blCi2bUAVfH8H2GaGSer19pPMi1rrwymJn4CqCHZzOC_KQZx88/s200/20190627_155433.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alan landing a nice trout</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">July saw some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded here in the UK, which seems to be becoming the rule as the years progress, and Cumbria itself is certainly no exception to this rule as we too encountered those very warm, muggy nights, which often make it very difficult for</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">those anglers venturing out for Sea trout in the early hours. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whilst these uncomfortable conditions don't always stop you catching a few fish, the water temperatures are often far too high for great results as fish become more lethargic due to lower than normal oxygen levels, some evenings giving the impression that you could take a warm bath in it. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, as luck would have it, we did eventually get some fresh water through the system, more so just recently, which has certainly helped our cause,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and according to the forecast we still have more to come, which is encouraging.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzgdl302NVewt-x2hO9TN-b1Z9uFoHMjD2JKAIgcCCFnXVxDUgjDsfzi-IMMbwZuYaNblA5fk9-ewi33BIcgw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">That said, the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> river did see a good influx of Grilse at the beginning of July and those of you who have recently been out fishing with me (especially on the tidal reaches) will have witnessed this yourselves, along with </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">some very sizable </span>multi<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">-sea wintered fish showing themselves too</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">, so I am hoping this recent water, and the water still to come, will soon trigger an increase in catches, I don't see why not!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUp8WLYP9q8PTBeF8o98OsGHNe4JoqTFPuzZrskOnlokbU9Ho0j3aRACB_WATPEEGNktibs9emljfWOJtXxm5vsPoCQtpMdRzfXrfIAc_x0OK48WhmuOHbzbtgL2gzQU80ndo_Xx40is/s1600/Oakwood+Stream+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="1600" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVUp8WLYP9q8PTBeF8o98OsGHNe4JoqTFPuzZrskOnlokbU9Ho0j3aRACB_WATPEEGNktibs9emljfWOJtXxm5vsPoCQtpMdRzfXrfIAc_x0OK48WhmuOHbzbtgL2gzQU80ndo_Xx40is/s200/Oakwood+Stream+%25283%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff with the fruits of his labour</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from the usual fly fishing forays and several <a href="https://www.borderlines.org.uk/">Borderlines</a> youth days, most of June and July have been taken up with casting tuition sessions, which I always enjoy, and its good to see that many of you are very keen to improve your techniques in anticipation of those red letter days lurking in the wings. I must admit though, it's always nice to put a well presented line out just before catching a good fish, it's a great feeling, as shown by Jeff in the video above, a regular visitor to the Eden, as he puts out a nice line!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36Jc4SeaErtLS2Wn13-nMQA4_VgyNxK3BGTFwCVOWQuQmO55yKj3BNfwWXDYmtYI71pco-Rzk7IijnTl5Dz85pOX6yhKcQSEd8wVaoSMgy25cw_DSbNRXs4vP0dLMPv-dhxEIAdeRQYw/s1600/Lowther+Show.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="220" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36Jc4SeaErtLS2Wn13-nMQA4_VgyNxK3BGTFwCVOWQuQmO55yKj3BNfwWXDYmtYI71pco-Rzk7IijnTl5Dz85pOX6yhKcQSEd8wVaoSMgy25cw_DSbNRXs4vP0dLMPv-dhxEIAdeRQYw/s200/Lowther+Show.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.lowthershow.co.uk/whats-on/lowther-fishing-island">Lowther Fishing Island News</a><br /><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not long now before the Lowther Show here in Cumbria, and also the Galloway Country Fair in Dumfries and Galloway, both events are held on consecutive weekends in mid August where we are involved in the fly casting demonstrations and the tuition areas. These shows are great social events too, so if you are in these areas on, either the 10th & 11th of August, or the 17th & 18th August respectively, then it would be great to see you there for a good chat and a catch up. "Tight Lines" to you all.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's looking forward to seeing a few of you there!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-31373577822850200092019-05-31T06:01:00.000-07:002019-06-07T08:30:41.228-07:00May Paves the Way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqq3Tp5wZBk5e_AMllF4a6Vd3ZWmyapwjBZOlepWTQ72gYeDqcvvTZkhEWIZNOsk6EGVPS_DU1yDih28RXCMEbK8Wyqe_RYQ9F-JrOlLFq41LatmzbaUsFkUcjXpljb8XXVPIAB-8paQ/s1600/20190509_155808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRqq3Tp5wZBk5e_AMllF4a6Vd3ZWmyapwjBZOlepWTQ72gYeDqcvvTZkhEWIZNOsk6EGVPS_DU1yDih28RXCMEbK8Wyqe_RYQ9F-JrOlLFq41LatmzbaUsFkUcjXpljb8XXVPIAB-8paQ/s200/20190509_155808.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A well earned Brown for Charles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although very inconsistent in terms of the weather, May, <i>(</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>as per usual)</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> didn't disappoint, and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">given that the trout were difficult to tempt at times, especially when some good fish were obviously in attendance visually, we certainly had several sessions where they did oblige</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, especially when fishing the dry fly, which is always an exciting prospect.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrVMAbodZsQY485BDtS8PWIVaYYiYJvGOlvJf2XoGITgbjyCM9NYfLALZlKQZATftEjU-PLbL-LUh8P1Pf4Iz_GPjmCxg2ixvNU94sDNaYyfaVFdDl0oBrCxJtI1IyYnZgjdcrqyCvJ4/s1600/20190507_152753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1084" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrVMAbodZsQY485BDtS8PWIVaYYiYJvGOlvJf2XoGITgbjyCM9NYfLALZlKQZATftEjU-PLbL-LUh8P1Pf4Iz_GPjmCxg2ixvNU94sDNaYyfaVFdDl0oBrCxJtI1IyYnZgjdcrqyCvJ4/s200/20190507_152753.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another on the Dry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was noticeable that the trout were at their most indecisive when the weather coincided with the colder winds on the surface, which often seemed to curtail the insect life and put the fish down. During these periods the gold head nymphs were more effective, searching the nooks and cranny's of the sub surface areas where the trout were tucked away. The goldheads saved the day on a few occasions throughout the month, but as soon as we saw any hint of surface activity, albeit for short intervals, on several occasions, we generally managed to achieve some kind of interest to the dry fly, which was very satisfying!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPEi80eHRnF0qNHvcvxBbTlaGNrlO6ythiFxI4_wyPzhRjGwO0K4UXEgC29VS9qktqQD20kBTQT2k1TzB-D6GHZIZ4Ku_G4F8ctJ_0nRc2Uvhxca_pcMo5Bcbc0w8IFMXxmPLhhM0IjdM/s1600/20190514_143506.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1064" data-original-width="1600" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPEi80eHRnF0qNHvcvxBbTlaGNrlO6ythiFxI4_wyPzhRjGwO0K4UXEgC29VS9qktqQD20kBTQT2k1TzB-D6GHZIZ4Ku_G4F8ctJ_0nRc2Uvhxca_pcMo5Bcbc0w8IFMXxmPLhhM0IjdM/s200/20190514_143506.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brown trout to Richards Dry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said, during the slightly warmer periods, as the wind calmed down, there were more obvious signs of potential dry fly opportunities with a variety of Upwings on the water. Earlier in the month we saw a few Iron Blues and then as the month progressed we saw more Olive Uprights, and often </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">encountered several very noticeable Large Brook Duns sailing past as we covered the rising fish. In addition to these Upwinged flies, we did witness a good smattering of Sedges <i>(Caddis Flies)</i> from time to time too.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpMn_f6hLYHLlu4x9gXtj2PZzmadDb4esfns8S4hzvNJwZrX5ipUT7Y-zsG2u-J72bply6PFoO5KVU4CCk2TU9LnhN7ifCuHOlAOA8WnB7Mjo0GY1_JlXinAKhqcK_y3spvE0D-0B0Xs/s1600/20190521_152247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnpMn_f6hLYHLlu4x9gXtj2PZzmadDb4esfns8S4hzvNJwZrX5ipUT7Y-zsG2u-J72bply6PFoO5KVU4CCk2TU9LnhN7ifCuHOlAOA8WnB7Mjo0GY1_JlXinAKhqcK_y3spvE0D-0B0Xs/s200/20190521_152247.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mike with one on the Goldhead Nymph</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Salmon continued to be caught in the early part of the month too, especially on the lower river, <i>(as before)</i> but as the water levels continuously dropped away they became much more difficult to catch, and even though we were still seeing fish in the beats, it was obvious that they were becoming more and more agitated as they await fresh water entering the system to get them going again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBavJWuV8cUgXN2PzqUELWW-TOIOaEkA3dfsE6DKLJ9RebrJECMPSr8rpL_7ECRNaB5g5dWwR3DR2rjehwp7ifnwcHLeq4a7WXSdYVBhEGri_UDpkatAe4JHycrqepnEly1WBnH5f03JQ/s1600/20190520_114030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1093" data-original-width="1600" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBavJWuV8cUgXN2PzqUELWW-TOIOaEkA3dfsE6DKLJ9RebrJECMPSr8rpL_7ECRNaB5g5dWwR3DR2rjehwp7ifnwcHLeq4a7WXSdYVBhEGri_UDpkatAe4JHycrqepnEly1WBnH5f03JQ/s200/20190520_114030.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back to a dry for Steve</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However, we did get a lift of water at the end of May, but nowhere near enough to get the salmon interested again, in fact, because of the extended period of low water we have experienced, this small rise simply lifted the algae and weed from the rocks that had accumulated there as a result of this and suspended it in mid water, thus propelling it downstream and causing a couple of days of very difficult salmon fishing on the fly. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"A good lift of water would be very welcome now to flush the river through and help improve the salmon fishing as we move into June".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_Rr39m1HGJRfG_tv7sc9q_XvYiAN53pSWWl2URpl2QRATWearU75sSwO5i8kdbbnCbMD4q_ds1mjO_4bOx36NVH6bsNiQu7b2YyzH0hSsTE8bxosKluIo1xvPOYbOXlnJB2ktnB8X-Q/s1600/20190521_160050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="1600" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-_Rr39m1HGJRfG_tv7sc9q_XvYiAN53pSWWl2URpl2QRATWearU75sSwO5i8kdbbnCbMD4q_ds1mjO_4bOx36NVH6bsNiQu7b2YyzH0hSsTE8bxosKluIo1xvPOYbOXlnJB2ktnB8X-Q/s200/20190521_160050.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bluebells along the River Bank</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">On the up side, if you like fishing in beautiful surroundings, this longer, slightly cooler period, has most certainly encouraged the Bluebells to stick around for a bit longer this year, and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">whilst we have been enjoying some good trout fishing </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there has also been some amazing views along the riverbanks as a result of this as this years Bluebells have really taken hold. Great to see and always a bonus!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKKA8Wvskyx-eD3l5B19hP2fcuyLAy9s5gcCqTFQ_d2tFebfYq-nFsfQgS_0lc1LFA1zWETYZ9DJ6j3iNye2xWmfTqAXupsUa3taIHZkSDLrJMYkKjfdVuYLGqogYK8qagjwT4kXza2k/s1600/20190518_115402.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1290" data-original-width="1600" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjKKA8Wvskyx-eD3l5B19hP2fcuyLAy9s5gcCqTFQ_d2tFebfYq-nFsfQgS_0lc1LFA1zWETYZ9DJ6j3iNye2xWmfTqAXupsUa3taIHZkSDLrJMYkKjfdVuYLGqogYK8qagjwT4kXza2k/s200/20190518_115402.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.borderlines.org.uk/?page_id=2">Borderlines Day</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Some very enjoyable <a href="https://www.borderlines.org.uk/?page_id=2">Borderlines</a> days with the kids this month too, including a few school classroom sessions exploring the history of angling <i>(amongst other things)</i> and how we came to be using the equipment we are using today. However, the highlight of this months youth sessions has been the Rainbow trout fishing on a new Stillwater venue, specifically donated to us by the Buccleuch Estates in SW Scotland for the benefit of the youngsters we are introducing to angling and the environment. A big thank you to Buccleuch Estates!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Finally, here's hoping we get the opportunity </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>(conditions permitting)</i> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to do a bit of Sea trout fishing at night this year, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">during the months of June and July, which is always something that can get the heart pumping, especially if these hard fighting fish decide to give us some exciting sport.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-8460939592608692752019-04-30T11:22:00.000-07:002019-05-28T02:49:13.733-07:00April into May <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkahDbFVkEl8qTnvZWkoRtykZbXgXJ9f1TJ6tLOA_1geWJi3IApjWOoARBE4QnbJ2T2pZOfc6Ut3LWMt_KwzSNDTf-1xQujY27Hm3xqPMg3oHMeLPG7kWFWUba94H8AEU-9VFCD_pH_-Y/s1600/T%2526S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="118" data-original-width="223" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkahDbFVkEl8qTnvZWkoRtykZbXgXJ9f1TJ6tLOA_1geWJi3IApjWOoARBE4QnbJ2T2pZOfc6Ut3LWMt_KwzSNDTf-1xQujY27Hm3xqPMg3oHMeLPG7kWFWUba94H8AEU-9VFCD_pH_-Y/s200/T%2526S.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trout & Salmon Magazine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As expected, April did eventually warm up</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, but it certainly took its time! The trout are only just now beginning to show a proper interest in our offerings, but fly hatches are not exceptional apart from some steady hatches of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Grannom<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">from time to time.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">April kicked off with a very enjoyable rod test for the <a href="https://www.troutandsalmon.com/">Trout & Salmon Magazine</a> which can be viewed in the May edition of the publication. The test consisted of a variety of 13' to 13' 6" rods for a range of applications. Some really nice rods in the mix which we put through their paces with a good selection of fly lines.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In between tuition sessions we travelled up to the river Tay on our </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">annual pilgrimage </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to represent <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> (Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors) as part of the joint <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> / <a href="http://www.sana.org.uk/">SANA</a> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Scottish Anglers National Association) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">assessment team. The aim was </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to assess potential <a href="http://www.sana.org.uk/">SANA</a> candidates taking their <a href="http://www.sgaic.co.uk/">SGAIC</a> (Scottish Game Angling Instructors Certificate) qualification. A great weekend was had by all (with good weather for a change) with a 50% success rate as 6 out of 12 candidates successfully gained their certificates. Well done to them!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgXDA_A2y4cQgx9VLa0DFBs71hkfsRNsWKEMnDLQFmCVg9vszwe2IQyi8PdwSAtMx4T0xgmjxs5Bs62id5AcPkrxS5C2Lc6WccNc0XE0cVm8usX0EY4YImTOJO9xBHHmySdZrVfiZXAg/s1600/Salmon+32+inches+Long2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1600" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgXDA_A2y4cQgx9VLa0DFBs71hkfsRNsWKEMnDLQFmCVg9vszwe2IQyi8PdwSAtMx4T0xgmjxs5Bs62id5AcPkrxS5C2Lc6WccNc0XE0cVm8usX0EY4YImTOJO9xBHHmySdZrVfiZXAg/s200/Salmon+32+inches+Long2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of several fresh lower Eden fish</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back home on the Eden, it was good to see a few spring salmon being caught, with the majority of fish being double figure fish too, just like the one in the picture on the left courtesy of David Pinner who fishes the tidal beat I lease on the lower Eden, and whilst the river is now low once more these tidal reaches are still doing well given that these very fresh fish are now having to wait around for fresh water before continuing their journey upstream.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another good sign yesterday was the amount of silver smolts dropping down the river in an attempt to make it back to sea, and only yesterday I had to stop fishing as I was catching too many of these valuable fish on their important journey, and I must say, they were good quality smolts too, with the majority being in the 7" to 8" range. Lets hope they manage to avoid the multitude of fish eating birds we are now seeing on our rivers and that their journey is a successful one!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-C0kguykoCC5Yoj0aOFcJ0NvBw6mg5zGYhbuKhofhFaecRIkhFrGy12C7yHa7CIFm2_Xl8klpYYdf5aR1rZMXbWfdVg8zTp7EIp4Ca4Cf7PZDQY36UP9nrII9UbmVtkziM9bpMw5cRU/s1600/David%2527s+Fly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1600" height="96" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe-C0kguykoCC5Yoj0aOFcJ0NvBw6mg5zGYhbuKhofhFaecRIkhFrGy12C7yHa7CIFm2_Xl8klpYYdf5aR1rZMXbWfdVg8zTp7EIp4Ca4Cf7PZDQY36UP9nrII9UbmVtkziM9bpMw5cRU/s200/David%2527s+Fly.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David's well chewed fly </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Plenty of fishing days booked in for May, so fingers crossed that what is often a very fruitful month lives up to our expectations. May is probably my favourite Month of all, especially after a very fickle April as things start to come to life on the river and hatches improve encouraging the trout to be a little more accommodating. A lift of water wouldn't go a miss either to encourage some of those lower river salmon to populate some of the upper reaches. Watch this space!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-74648199199532739292019-03-31T04:07:00.000-07:002019-04-01T04:44:48.544-07:00Unsettled Weather throughout March<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXUi1E8IlbwmAVgLmQ4vcHU6RGpWIcFkUz0WY5UNt8k_N6fzB9GZRMWlkptks1sE93w6NUf5SDR3f6KSslnWvVrJJB1N95N6VNP9ZCGPDbyx5LNrT6S8B9RamncBI18MSQRzu5q_wst7Y/s1600/Early+Eden+Brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1404" data-original-width="1600" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXUi1E8IlbwmAVgLmQ4vcHU6RGpWIcFkUz0WY5UNt8k_N6fzB9GZRMWlkptks1sE93w6NUf5SDR3f6KSslnWvVrJJB1N95N6VNP9ZCGPDbyx5LNrT6S8B9RamncBI18MSQRzu5q_wst7Y/s200/Early+Eden+Brown.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve with his first River Brown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">March was certainly one of those very unsettled months which threw a variety of conditions at us, from cold winds to sleet, snow and heavy rain, but luckily we also had a few days when the weather was a little more forgiving and afforded us some quality time for a bit of casting tuition too, and following the opening of the trout season on the 15th March, we also picked up one or two nice fish during a couple of tuition / fishing sessions. It is always a bonus when those simply coming to improve their casting also get the opportunity to experience the end product.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the most part of March the water </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">always </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">seemed to be a bit on the high side for fishing, especially on the lower river, although the latter half of the month did throw up a salmon or two, from different beats along the river, and the trout fishing also picked up towards the end of the month. With the long term forecast looking much better, April and May are certainly looking more promising, as is often the case.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR34iSsMRQK-Ov4M4O2JOQ3T-n9bTLOpQVMbd5pWLjVPeEjQ6lWDjiNsB5hSh8AnnF-G6JP6oLjG5eb-bWdxKCpXOclNA0Xd_5AYWC-nY0kSEaZGQbQ0fqRaUQKpIasUjyepw03Sd0ago/s1600/AAPGAI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR34iSsMRQK-Ov4M4O2JOQ3T-n9bTLOpQVMbd5pWLjVPeEjQ6lWDjiNsB5hSh8AnnF-G6JP6oLjG5eb-bWdxKCpXOclNA0Xd_5AYWC-nY0kSEaZGQbQ0fqRaUQKpIasUjyepw03Sd0ago/s200/AAPGAI.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> indoor presentation</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The recent <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> weekend <i>(mentioned in my last blog) </i>went very well indeed. We were so lucky with the weather given that the forecast was atrocious, and it certainly was in many of the surrounding areas, however the turn out was very good considering that some people living further north could not make it to the event at all, being as some routes were inaccessible due to the snow. However we managed to put on some great indoor presentations as well as a few outdoor demonstrations, whilst the worst of the weather skirted around us. The next open day event will be held in Wales in October, so if anyone is interested please let me know and I will send you details.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Given that conditions are set to improve significantly, and the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">signs are all there too, with some varying hatches of Large Dark Olives now coming off which are always a good indicator, and a good early season fly that regularly attracts some decent trout. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have therefore been doing the usual improvements on the lower beat following the damage caused annually by the higher waters and we now have several river sessions arranged for both salmon and trout fishing down there. Can't Wait!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgO86jVvx1BUqaePC2GfPiRSLPm32QWJUsDJTME0UcnVuPaakL1FHil-BKR0FcSRicQjkzcCvtf8ZhKKA2yOpWhhREgfd0lD8kRg2yxxYWkR0uXqRtJ16nK8xFhTBs-QCEsBEUQ5fHC4E/s1600/Lower+Eden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgO86jVvx1BUqaePC2GfPiRSLPm32QWJUsDJTME0UcnVuPaakL1FHil-BKR0FcSRicQjkzcCvtf8ZhKKA2yOpWhhREgfd0lD8kRg2yxxYWkR0uXqRtJ16nK8xFhTBs-QCEsBEUQ5fHC4E/s200/Lower+Eden.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Improvements on the Lower Eden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As you will see from the calendar on my website, shown here: (<a href="http://www.bordergameangling.co.uk/AvailableDates2019.htm">Available Dates</a>) my April dates are still reasonably available, but May is well on its way to being fully booked up with just a few days left, so if you are considering a day or two in May, or even a casting session, please let me know a.s.a.p. and I can reserve one or more of the remaining dates for you whilst there are still some left.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Looking forward to getting back into full swing again with the usual casting sessions and some good fishing sessions as the season warms up and the fishing comes into its own once again. I will see many of you soon and "Tight Lines". to all.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-11191090897256405502019-02-28T16:45:00.000-08:002019-03-01T16:57:45.444-08:00Welcoming the New Season!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjks5mInVmNxdb_r4xSKu3Dyu254t8yzi_0o3uQL-cWLIGsS6YabYzrGkqY37DxR7_M0W0YcaLAr6a0pBMkXG5xDL7iDMy03m8Z2AcgyZ8m0SNPpPFF8PyYIGSG6Db07E0Fs2dml6OWSxY/s1600/Patagonia+Sea+Trout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1183" data-original-width="1600" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjks5mInVmNxdb_r4xSKu3Dyu254t8yzi_0o3uQL-cWLIGsS6YabYzrGkqY37DxR7_M0W0YcaLAr6a0pBMkXG5xDL7iDMy03m8Z2AcgyZ8m0SNPpPFF8PyYIGSG6Db07E0Fs2dml6OWSxY/s200/Patagonia+Sea+Trout.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patagonia Sea Trout</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As we move into March I know those trout anglers amongst you will be itching to get out again, anticipating some good trout fishing forays later in the month, especially if this good weather continues, hopefully encouraging some early insect hatches on the river. Don't worry it won't be long now before the season is in full swing affording us the opportunity to target some good fish once again.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The early season weather has been quite warm, to say the least, but several rivers have already reported a few salmon being caught, although not yet in any great numbers. That said, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in recent times </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">that's not unusual with better catches being recorded from April onward.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrzUK3eld9Ixn0BQhCxJUelG99vs3Co24j790yYhMVeSOHTdmpzIzPJPSi-IE4k9AsZhsKKDYXxsPEbp_-ihcH8dnhl-L-UnV_x4zPB668tMhVXRat3I2OFvO4yhL0BKz2BcmW5lj4Tg/s1600/Patagonia+Brown..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYrzUK3eld9Ixn0BQhCxJUelG99vs3Co24j790yYhMVeSOHTdmpzIzPJPSi-IE4k9AsZhsKKDYXxsPEbp_-ihcH8dnhl-L-UnV_x4zPB668tMhVXRat3I2OFvO4yhL0BKz2BcmW5lj4Tg/s200/Patagonia+Brown..jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patagonia Brown.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">However to be perfectly honest I cannot </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">comment in too much depth on </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">February </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">fishing </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">this year as I took the opportunity to fish in Patagonia for Sea Trout and big browns, therefore I managed to miss most of the February fishing in the UK. That said, it was a fantastic experience and one I would recommend to any angler thinking of doing so, although I am now a little lighter in the pocket area than I was before.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whilst the fishing season on the Eden is just getting underway, (apart from the tuition side of things given the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">exceptional </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">weather) I also took the opportunity to help out on the River Nith open day event on Monday the 25th, on the Carnsalloch beat of the river where we were all piped down to the water by a lone Piper to bless the river and celebrate the new season there. A very pleasant experience!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8wJtSqxw_ARz3VXLX3tSmvnnveQRlfyva02Q0xM8tYJKMgUI8fzCMyDFTIxgesDOZvntpYVYF4dAHzcthRFMiA_tn-QnhQ5JT_t0UId-vfzQnGFv5oz7rD3Pa2HEww6_FTNmq25HMbzM/s1600/Nith+Open+Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="953" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8wJtSqxw_ARz3VXLX3tSmvnnveQRlfyva02Q0xM8tYJKMgUI8fzCMyDFTIxgesDOZvntpYVYF4dAHzcthRFMiA_tn-QnhQ5JT_t0UId-vfzQnGFv5oz7rD3Pa2HEww6_FTNmq25HMbzM/s200/Nith+Open+Day.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">River Nith Open Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back on the River Eden again tomorrow though, delivering another casting lesson, so hopefully the weather will stay good and I can keep an eye out for any early moving fish in anticipation of March 15th when the new trout season kicks in.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As it happens I will miss the first couple of days of the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eden </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">trout season this year as I will be attending an AAPGAI assessment event at the Friars Carse Hotel in Dumfriesshire where we will be holding another open day for the public, so if any of you are going to be in the area on Saturday the 16th March, why not come along to the Friars Carse Hotel and take advantage of the knowledge and skills of the professional AAPGAI instructors in attendance who will be delivering demonstrations throughout the day in both Fly dressing and fly casting in the hotel and it's grounds. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8F31GPRjKhBf5EEceNM_25PtQ7J7tDuoZjkIAkzpHunoeNO7FaI69xkPoZjqzJ12zTYMuHxM5eqq9WzxziRAtpb9gYl4K-20axe6xZkydpgBbVF6-lAPBR7PhpTwuyaVXXIjV3dKO7kQ/s1600/Friars+Carse+Hotel..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8F31GPRjKhBf5EEceNM_25PtQ7J7tDuoZjkIAkzpHunoeNO7FaI69xkPoZjqzJ12zTYMuHxM5eqq9WzxziRAtpb9gYl4K-20axe6xZkydpgBbVF6-lAPBR7PhpTwuyaVXXIjV3dKO7kQ/s1600/Friars+Carse+Hotel..jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Friars Carse Hotel (AAPGAI Open day)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It will be great value for money at £50 per head which includes a buffet lunch as well as coffees and teas, and if you so wish there will be one to one tuition included in the price, or you can simply sit back, relax and enjoy the free flowing information available to all. <a href="https://www.friarscarse.co.uk/fishing/aapgai-open-day/">Click Here</a> for further details, including directions, and I look forward to seeing some of you there on the day:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hope to see you all soon and "Tight Lines" for the New Season!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-54615274222251182018-12-12T05:07:00.002-08:002018-12-12T05:08:24.922-08:00Merry Christmas to All<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwfvhloVaPUO2fFPmdKOu3BfFad2_rDQa6SgEC5kojFJqbQeebSOV1OfQR1uYGLjcS76YZkvWxJBX_hndwKR0XAQTkDv2Gka5_aT5tJFh5p700WqHUCZB59Ug1lYh4ZKO91XGkEjdorBs/s1600/Merry+Christmas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="225" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwfvhloVaPUO2fFPmdKOu3BfFad2_rDQa6SgEC5kojFJqbQeebSOV1OfQR1uYGLjcS76YZkvWxJBX_hndwKR0XAQTkDv2Gka5_aT5tJFh5p700WqHUCZB59Ug1lYh4ZKO91XGkEjdorBs/s200/Merry+Christmas.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy New Year!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u><b>Merry Christmas</b></u></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> from Border Game Angling. I hope everyone enjoyed their time out on the river with me this year, and having already taken a few bookings for next season I am very much looking forward to seeing many of you again in 2019.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Winter Grayling fishing has been a little slow up to now, but that's most certainly down to the recent high waters we have had as you can see in the picture below showing one of the Eden tributaries in full spate.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7-4j5wY-iPgnMuS39RTrRZ8USyw1YU5fEnuW0fC5LpWO1jWQA2fOa-D9tn7ZoRIGeHb-j2Q2Uk57SbLPd8sI2QTXnvgv8TuPMEpg02fgpy-Ev8Y8N_HfUqUsX63zaXJhyWs5LDis_pU/s1600/Flooded+Tributary..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7-4j5wY-iPgnMuS39RTrRZ8USyw1YU5fEnuW0fC5LpWO1jWQA2fOa-D9tn7ZoRIGeHb-j2Q2Uk57SbLPd8sI2QTXnvgv8TuPMEpg02fgpy-Ev8Y8N_HfUqUsX63zaXJhyWs5LDis_pU/s200/Flooded+Tributary..jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flooded Eden Tributary.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">if the weather stays dry and the river continues to fall, (as it is doing now) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there should be many more opportunities to fish for Grayling between now and the new Salmon and Trout seasons.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So not a lot more to report at the moment I'm afraid until we get back out there, which I am happy to say I will personally be doing this Saturday following a casting lesson, so definitely looking forward to that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the meantime, until we meet up again, I hope you all have a great Christmas and achieve everything you want to achieve in the New Year. "Tight Lines".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-67825955604252342832018-10-31T05:18:00.001-07:002018-10-31T05:19:40.318-07:00End of the Eden Season!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggItE9UDdnw54ISOyjDAVtLE5awyv7ItPj10UzU55d2ZdVopvcmnJucRWoGaeSu82Z7CGBfs45SIFp7W490-OEyvuXehe2FzXrTiLHS57lXoaGXvZL7qxfgCgA5bDr8GBDeyqXlUXS4U/s1600/20181015_142733+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1600" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjggItE9UDdnw54ISOyjDAVtLE5awyv7ItPj10UzU55d2ZdVopvcmnJucRWoGaeSu82Z7CGBfs45SIFp7W490-OEyvuXehe2FzXrTiLHS57lXoaGXvZL7qxfgCgA5bDr8GBDeyqXlUXS4U/s200/20181015_142733+-+Copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another Youth Rainbow Trout Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. 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.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgv6xj-juwNIyAYyaLDU4XSiFH78EA_DyW_W6gYUYQxiUGX1rbjtXkkv9k6TG6F5V1sOgK34UXRlMNA7zf_n7uJWO2lFRnSz-mlF-g018vfnZLCalDWG2D_6DTwv_v6E6gNyg2UXdx44/s1600/Brown.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1432" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfgv6xj-juwNIyAYyaLDU4XSiFH78EA_DyW_W6gYUYQxiUGX1rbjtXkkv9k6TG6F5V1sOgK34UXRlMNA7zf_n7uJWO2lFRnSz-mlF-g018vfnZLCalDWG2D_6DTwv_v6E6gNyg2UXdx44/s200/Brown.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Beautiful Brown from the Eden</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4EdNVWZyEVDSkK41CG2PAQjVyDxqYJLifxnJ2Rzi6kbgVcm_DZcttkE4qUI2ul171ipS3q8USbmAqdvHje6W5Tn24seEBJG0J_dVrtVKk4Ts7bshkg0J2A8MUNiRkqTimsjmjjCaUw0/s1600/20180905_163351+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1052" data-original-width="1600" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4EdNVWZyEVDSkK41CG2PAQjVyDxqYJLifxnJ2Rzi6kbgVcm_DZcttkE4qUI2ul171ipS3q8USbmAqdvHje6W5Tn24seEBJG0J_dVrtVKk4Ts7bshkg0J2A8MUNiRkqTimsjmjjCaUw0/s200/20180905_163351+-+Copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was a formidable Salmon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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 </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIJEwrZOKi9-z2p7yJs5gUDyo9z7xjPSB5KtpHP9rd7WXT-yC71Zu2vTAMD_8LUNrGuEdp9PH242vOHniUqW0bJdtn5LBg7uJIMWjv1RtWU1PirX3zUeIwUUnZoLafOkSaTaGcPV1wSo/s1600/20181006_173653+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="1600" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIJEwrZOKi9-z2p7yJs5gUDyo9z7xjPSB5KtpHP9rd7WXT-yC71Zu2vTAMD_8LUNrGuEdp9PH242vOHniUqW0bJdtn5LBg7uJIMWjv1RtWU1PirX3zUeIwUUnZoLafOkSaTaGcPV1wSo/s200/20181006_173653+-+Copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeff returning a salmon to to the river</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In time honoured tradition, as soon as our Salmon season ended I headed down to Wales for the <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">Association of Advanced Professional Game Angling Instructors</a> biannual assessment weekend and open day event. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I always look forward to attending these</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> AAPGAI events, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">getting involved in them, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">meeting new people and catching up with like minded anglers.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Once</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> again it </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">was a great success </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and something I love being a part of. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9D7awBdOMR_0RCvHx24r4RrES0Puwc4K4t6KWfV-xX7VdV3VPgdnXDp3VKwuMQ8XkySP3e__-HxuMyr-Zox1fkwzOSnJU7aKQBdSEveEqbg7GtYgghycfhROuwo38bUy08qmOGtKQGng/s1600/20181010_113511.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9D7awBdOMR_0RCvHx24r4RrES0Puwc4K4t6KWfV-xX7VdV3VPgdnXDp3VKwuMQ8XkySP3e__-HxuMyr-Zox1fkwzOSnJU7aKQBdSEveEqbg7GtYgghycfhROuwo38bUy08qmOGtKQGng/s200/20181010_113511.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A later but cleaner fish on its way back</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you have never been to one of these <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/syllabus">AAPGAI open days</a> 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!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtJDppwULXi8CJUxoFlF6rHV0-aKsC2awA95FbNJN-BBgGWkguf0EBfMThOC627gLUoYPJlQ379Zpy0rUW0eT8k90zjkMsiD4o2m-tf129ayhFoV3kOyhS4c3qi1bJRN_ABngKfcT5ZPY/s1600/20181007_100937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtJDppwULXi8CJUxoFlF6rHV0-aKsC2awA95FbNJN-BBgGWkguf0EBfMThOC627gLUoYPJlQ379Zpy0rUW0eT8k90zjkMsiD4o2m-tf129ayhFoV3kOyhS4c3qi1bJRN_ABngKfcT5ZPY/s200/20181007_100937.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of Jeff's Killer flies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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: <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/syllabus">AAPGAI Open Day</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">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".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-26591034042501131312018-08-31T08:16:00.000-07:002018-08-31T08:16:11.972-07:00Water at Last!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5MJvf3PtAk4VW6EtoF6zBKiBoyu_w1HtdZA9zidx3-ZVZNViHiGlmw_kMo6qlbqQ_DyCr25ZA5VkjInWzpXUTAZoHLUd1H41nl62iS6UTI-gD4sth_OCuHQ0-rXAQY1Fe6gT1AFP6in4/s1600/Brian+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5MJvf3PtAk4VW6EtoF6zBKiBoyu_w1HtdZA9zidx3-ZVZNViHiGlmw_kMo6qlbqQ_DyCr25ZA5VkjInWzpXUTAZoHLUd1H41nl62iS6UTI-gD4sth_OCuHQ0-rXAQY1Fe6gT1AFP6in4/s200/Brian+2.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fish On!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At last August saw some fresh water entering the rivers which certainly helped to drop the water temperatures and encourage a few salmon to accept our offerings. However there was a short spell at the end of last month and the beginning of this, when there was a significant amount of fish stacking up </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the lower river</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, but whilst temperatures remained high they were simply ignoring our flies altogether. The up side to this was at least you knew you were fishing over fish, and when you were getting comments like" I have </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">never seen as many fish in a single pool before"</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, then at least things did become a little more exciting.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b>"When we did eventually get some water there were spells of action with fish lost and fish caught on the fly".</b></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrjopciITHI2BCoalVetE-KNODzLfY6HYit2XziZDaeaZcvOs8EejVZpIx69Eei0J3tmXagAr79la-ESG1ktSK8uGn7mqHDdbtlLH2i2lssMxauvW8CKiPLsT5irfNXv9iXsCnsxDtL0/s1600/Brian+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="373" data-original-width="280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrjopciITHI2BCoalVetE-KNODzLfY6HYit2XziZDaeaZcvOs8EejVZpIx69Eei0J3tmXagAr79la-ESG1ktSK8uGn7mqHDdbtlLH2i2lssMxauvW8CKiPLsT5irfNXv9iXsCnsxDtL0/s200/Brian+1.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1 of 2 on the day for Brian.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fish in question however have now moved on from these lower reaches following the recent rain we received and will hopefully by now be well distributed throughout the river, but before they moved on we did manage some success, with a few anglers connecting with a few of these fish.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the river now dropping in again we will hopefully see some fresher (more aggressive) fish entering the system and once again building up in numbers ready to offer us some further excitement, especially around the tidal stretches of the river and hopefully they will be more willing to oblige.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sea Trout fishing didn't really materialise in any significant way this year and although there were fish caught, numbers of fish were definitely down. This is not necessarily down to lack of fish, but is most certainly associated once again with the high water temperatures and the stress this can cause the fish themselves, often causing a lack of interest in our offerings and when they do get the urge can often result in very tentative and missable takes, unlike the aggressive takes we like to encounter when these fish are very comfortable in their environment. So if you didn't manage to get out in June / July to indulge in a bit of night fishing, don't worry as you didn't miss much at all.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BPeYmlcQxAyZ4lLXNg0hlwZEHjUswLs13HTG5KIQOYNcGsqlyaRMc7S7o3t_KZ4GenZGhICZvbXiQkUR94O0BMnnA3n1Z7u1x0jG62GfgDhEKNoWZtSuJIMaLpEaY3r6KRzbwtlUC2o/s1600/Trout..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1600" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_BPeYmlcQxAyZ4lLXNg0hlwZEHjUswLs13HTG5KIQOYNcGsqlyaRMc7S7o3t_KZ4GenZGhICZvbXiQkUR94O0BMnnA3n1Z7u1x0jG62GfgDhEKNoWZtSuJIMaLpEaY3r6KRzbwtlUC2o/s200/Trout..JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nice Brown coming to the net.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was good to see the Brown Trout fishing eventually improve too following the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">input of some </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fresh water. This gave us more options when fishing for them, other than just nymph fishing in pocket water. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There has also been a few better browns grabbing the salmon flies of late, which is always a good sign that they have woken up a bit, unfortunately they are usually the sort of fish you would like to encounter on much lighter tackle.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4Qc2w6tAESKpwW5WLew9FHUslkG507NfCMnkNtGZRmhfuLMO78sg4Ux2amfkJ1s42hM748k5l1qyoQ8R8ckySpfdQjzgZOVsvXFcGPPxeO-5_Da4LXGHnaX-jPYTu8X-UZ7iya3qpEw/s1600/Lowther+Show.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="629" height="124" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL4Qc2w6tAESKpwW5WLew9FHUslkG507NfCMnkNtGZRmhfuLMO78sg4Ux2amfkJ1s42hM748k5l1qyoQ8R8ckySpfdQjzgZOVsvXFcGPPxeO-5_Da4LXGHnaX-jPYTu8X-UZ7iya3qpEw/s200/Lowther+Show.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Casting Demo at the Lowther Show.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Lowther Show was a great success again this year especially given the mixed weather we had over the weekend, but it was nice enough to bring people out to watch our demonstrations and get involved in the casting tuition and competitions available on the fishing island. It was good to meet new faces and catch up with familiar ones too!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am hoping September and October will throw up some better salmon fishing this year, given that conditions were against us when we should have been having positive results, although I guess we will be at the mercy of the weather again if this is to be the case.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-27522996390872143432018-07-31T09:22:00.000-07:002018-08-01T09:23:06.476-07:00The Heat is On!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not much change in the weather throughout July I'm afraid, apart from the odd shower here and there, (some heavier than others) but with little effect on river levels (until now that is) as the water was quickly absorbed by the dry ground.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1us7oLq_NHV8Ii-7dArarBRB61BqHebDse0lv-9VZzKlPy5Cnns16p_qXMXbjlvnMuEJ0z2hAUjoTZInvAd6F82o_zASN38kfmsxLYTjSYMU7lFv5tdqd7MlXUAm7e-1YRr-WjPxQgI/s1600/20180721_161228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1us7oLq_NHV8Ii-7dArarBRB61BqHebDse0lv-9VZzKlPy5Cnns16p_qXMXbjlvnMuEJ0z2hAUjoTZInvAd6F82o_zASN38kfmsxLYTjSYMU7lFv5tdqd7MlXUAm7e-1YRr-WjPxQgI/s200/20180721_161228.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unhooking a trout caught on a Spider</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said, these very welcome showers also brought with them some well received cloud cover offering us a little respite from the scorching sun. These intermittent mini freshets (so to speak) did produce a couple of sessions when the trout obliged us too, especially when searching the pocket water and the faster water at the heads of pools where gold headed nymphs were the order of the day. We did however have some success on the spiders too, especially at the tails of pools where the water was interrupted by the rocks protruding through the surface, creating slightly faster flows and small pockets of oxygen.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The salmon fishing, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">like the weather</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">, also dried up throughout July with the odd report of fish being taken on goldheads whilst fishing for trout, something I have encountered several times myself over the years and also whilst guiding people on the river, especially in low water conditions. As I write this blog I am now receiving reports of salmon entering the lower river in response to the 20 cm rise of water we received towards the end of the month. "Finger Crossed".</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMj3VLMl5im3ev0ruCbACvMdtbkezz3Ei5NDI0uq4sKSLQQzypm3rE8XnV338RXejm-LGssdPkCqXyiEqxlKePVSayjiwJz-jQWxlBXb5_1OkalucFoPW0-ABRrV_sInU6j825pJK3w2M/s1600/Borderlines+Day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="768" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMj3VLMl5im3ev0ruCbACvMdtbkezz3Ei5NDI0uq4sKSLQQzypm3rE8XnV338RXejm-LGssdPkCqXyiEqxlKePVSayjiwJz-jQWxlBXb5_1OkalucFoPW0-ABRrV_sInU6j825pJK3w2M/s200/Borderlines+Day.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Borderlines Morning session</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The good weather does however continue to encourage a number of youngsters to attend the many courses provided and delivered by the <a href="http://www.borderlines.org.uk/">Borderlines</a> team. These courses </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">(like the one shown on the left)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> consist of </span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">various group sessions throughout the day which include, health and safety, fish recognition, entomology, fly casting, Knot tying, fly choice and much more. The youngsters then venture out onto the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stillwater's</span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> we use (under supervision of course) and proceed to catch their first fish. This allows us to explain playing and landing a fish, and either how to dispatch a fish properly, or alternatively how to catch and release a fish in the correct manner, should they so wish.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As mentioned in my previous blog, the good weather certainly doesn't stop people coming along for casting tuition and whilst the fishing is slow it's a good time to take advantage of this opportunity, so that once we do receive some fresh water, (which we inevitably will) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">techniques will be in place and ready to go.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAs6QqfAyQsFsp3VGC6EfmUHh9astbYkFPs8rgB2OBKJFu6WeFzjfvLhA_BcYUMrPrP3ZJ0JxR0DBaTdk3XcVonGvXiiacYObI1CHC64iJlCsshzXzAzbJZZLru_VAcqbl-EIVRQA1_Wk/s1600/Lowther+Show.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1600" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAs6QqfAyQsFsp3VGC6EfmUHh9astbYkFPs8rgB2OBKJFu6WeFzjfvLhA_BcYUMrPrP3ZJ0JxR0DBaTdk3XcVonGvXiiacYObI1CHC64iJlCsshzXzAzbJZZLru_VAcqbl-EIVRQA1_Wk/s200/Lowther+Show.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lowther Show</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Our next big event is the <a href="http://www.lowthershow.co.uk/whats-on/fishing">Lowther Show</a> where several of us get together, under the <a href="http://www.borderlines.org.uk/">Borderlines</a> and <a href="https://www.aapgai.co.uk/">AAPGAI</a> banners (along with a variety of other instructors) to </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">provide tuition, advice and demonstrations</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> on the fishing island </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">throughout the weekend of the 11th and 12th August. It would be great to catch up </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with some of you there </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a browse around the Show itself can be a great day out. Until then!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-43799801387803032812018-06-30T02:06:00.000-07:002018-07-04T02:06:53.997-07:00Hot! Hot! Hot!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SHAbCNCEA-KskWFkU5CqSmi1Cm8HnlxYWbKFFgCPJ8NiSMSnq8rKpiZq-MFiI1Mh9zt5j0OY9WCYb0x0TX2mivMZs4GNISygQx1KRnWKHIhBE5pyfYQFuFqHAzlQdFOmfBOoHep_LtY/s1600/20180613_142145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1436" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SHAbCNCEA-KskWFkU5CqSmi1Cm8HnlxYWbKFFgCPJ8NiSMSnq8rKpiZq-MFiI1Mh9zt5j0OY9WCYb0x0TX2mivMZs4GNISygQx1KRnWKHIhBE5pyfYQFuFqHAzlQdFOmfBOoHep_LtY/s200/20180613_142145.jpg" width="179" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warm Weather Jobs!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As June temperatures continued to soar and river levels dropped even further the fishing became very difficult, especially the salmon fishing. In fact the coin has totally flipped over when compared to the very cold early season weather we had to contend with, and because of this the usual transitionary period between the end of March and the beginning of June never materialised, ultimately sending us from chilled to grilled in a very short period of time and therefore missing out on the good sport we have become accustomed to over that period.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good time for getting on with other important jobs I hear you all say, which is exactly what I did, i.e. a good bit of river bank Strimming for better access </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">on the lower river </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and a well overdue style repair.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOHwO6uOlSkO25oMnM78typ4fMGwCZVoByI9AJOWE7uvWnRjtwjzlr4Er3CWZWbvzs5ZiO7nR5m_MD4vJ0xB4WPZGOhIJfhxrXO3aphjvxDI5SynCdXaNOuKLqlPyiPUU6AjWiTLZVeDA/s1600/Craig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1211" data-original-width="1600" height="151" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOHwO6uOlSkO25oMnM78typ4fMGwCZVoByI9AJOWE7uvWnRjtwjzlr4Er3CWZWbvzs5ZiO7nR5m_MD4vJ0xB4WPZGOhIJfhxrXO3aphjvxDI5SynCdXaNOuKLqlPyiPUU6AjWiTLZVeDA/s200/Craig.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knowing where to look!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The extreme weather didn't stop us catching a few trout though, as there are always fish to be found when targeting the right areas, regardless of the conditions. Granted it becomes a little more difficult, but that can often add to the challenge for some anglers.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We have taken advantage of this weather in other ways too, and it is always good to get some casting practice in when the weather is nice with some of you coming along to do just that in anticipation of things to come when conditions are more favourable for fishing. We certainly covered many interesting casts and techniques during these sessions.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcxPntki9WJ94OZdU5-ZPM1bkhZZnKt2MJXMijv4vjvpJHnelvTjgO7p79yuUVmO_8dqXATw7Re4rIW1mGhM8yIuQQ3VLYtUJSidB2hWDXuTfIvBYkm5Jy3kujX0cfo3TRB1bx943jms/s1600/Rainbows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="859" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUcxPntki9WJ94OZdU5-ZPM1bkhZZnKt2MJXMijv4vjvpJHnelvTjgO7p79yuUVmO_8dqXATw7Re4rIW1mGhM8yIuQQ3VLYtUJSidB2hWDXuTfIvBYkm5Jy3kujX0cfo3TRB1bx943jms/s200/Rainbows.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Youngsters on a learning curve!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it is also a bonus to be able to teach the youngsters when the weather is good and as part of the Borderlines team we have been doing that on a small tailor made Stillwater whilst catching a few Rainbow trout. This is great way to teach children how to hook, play and land fish.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In summary, a little bit of fresh water wouldn't go a miss at this stage, for all species of fish, but especially as we are now into that time of year again when the Sea trout fishing can be very good, especially at night. So at the expense of this good sun bathing weather I do think it is about time we had some cloud and rain to put the rivers back in good order again for the benefit of us poor anglers. Although some may not agree!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-53286844905328796412018-05-31T05:24:00.000-07:002018-06-04T05:31:18.088-07:00Warmer Times and Low Water<div style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU1BweElM5IYJZTXEgRfyN_b_x7-T3eotoI2Yxo7MR4O7kTjo4gzj00Efa3YGPklmE8SlYHbb-7JogXaW8aR-Eow3EKsGP6QhT3kqq7Sg6L3ToVTq20HBHxStvIcKis3IO5XRvmAYdcQM/s1600/001+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1114" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU1BweElM5IYJZTXEgRfyN_b_x7-T3eotoI2Yxo7MR4O7kTjo4gzj00Efa3YGPklmE8SlYHbb-7JogXaW8aR-Eow3EKsGP6QhT3kqq7Sg6L3ToVTq20HBHxStvIcKis3IO5XRvmAYdcQM/s200/001+-+Copy.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard into 1 of Several</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The month of May did see the weather conditions gradually warming up at last, which included some hot and muggy days at times too, along with very low water conditions. Despite the sunshine we were also plagued by those persistent east winds again that unfortunately tend to hold those better fishing days at bay. That said though, we did eventually manage some good results regardless of the ever returning east wind situation and we did encounter both trout and Salmon along the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><u>"If you search hard enough there is always a nice fish to be found hiding somewhere along the way"</u></span></i></b><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLE8Pvv0gfIc60dnn-PSWTYTomgo45DGm0-494xtRQVo-_x3gFm6Wu71yRRErZYP36qL2XXpTwqM1pmfCF7fMzHrV-4oYiaBhC468DNocOp-x5hGGQppIVNmba4pzkpnQOJx-xqO597w/s1600/David.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLE8Pvv0gfIc60dnn-PSWTYTomgo45DGm0-494xtRQVo-_x3gFm6Wu71yRRErZYP36qL2XXpTwqM1pmfCF7fMzHrV-4oYiaBhC468DNocOp-x5hGGQppIVNmba4pzkpnQOJx-xqO597w/s200/David.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of two fresh Salmon caught by David</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a spell over a couple of days when we connected with four salmon, two of which parted company after a touch of "<u>Heave Ho</u>" between angler and fish, and two of which the guys managed to land. Around the same period another couple of very good fish (salmon) unfortunately won the day after a tussle on the lower river, an area where fish tend to hold up when the river becomes low, as was the case by the end of May. However there has been fish constantly showing down there and a touch of fresh water wouldn't go a miss just to liven them up a bit, although being a tidal beat we tend to get new fish arriving all the time and too much water sees them passing through the beat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG5-xQq1joYry0vCUyIZUGW25eAGckrshnrwfJH3xOPhXi9_rJRRPihTT1ZR5SOfBj8EiWvy-yTP73YuHuNf0cIyD3SqYvwdcle62LDrW1oljWjeLWe-xUZjleVw8QkCh1814hE_cc26k/s1600/003+-+Copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG5-xQq1joYry0vCUyIZUGW25eAGckrshnrwfJH3xOPhXi9_rJRRPihTT1ZR5SOfBj8EiWvy-yTP73YuHuNf0cIyD3SqYvwdcle62LDrW1oljWjeLWe-xUZjleVw8QkCh1814hE_cc26k/s200/003+-+Copy.jpg" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another from the pocket water</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Trout fishing picked up a bit too as we moved further into May, although many of our fish were to be found in pocket water with upstream Nymphing tactics, a method we often keep for those very hot difficult summer days when trout head for those little oxygenated gems. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That said, we did get some fish on the dry too as the fly life gradually improved throughout the month, with sparse hatches of Iron Blues in attendance along with a few Brook Duns and falls of spinners later in the evening. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxLsEdIcMrK_7QZxo-sNfBmVgqDe6Sh64zJ9bFZTL1ii0vvDMayCkKj8f0NBWH7FZ3OvG_mkTLWKjJftJYVg_E9GvEtVJFlgoPm8PsEvlhUSzKS_X1K9pxaZY2_8AN-dZElBQ9Zfu9Qk/s1600/Danica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="834" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJxLsEdIcMrK_7QZxo-sNfBmVgqDe6Sh64zJ9bFZTL1ii0vvDMayCkKj8f0NBWH7FZ3OvG_mkTLWKjJftJYVg_E9GvEtVJFlgoPm8PsEvlhUSzKS_X1K9pxaZY2_8AN-dZElBQ9Zfu9Qk/s200/Danica.jpg" width="103" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mayfly</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were a few Hawthorn flies being blown onto the water at times too, but with not much interest from the trout I'm afraid, at least in the areas we were fishing anyway. However, what was very noticeable was the increase in the amount of Mayflies (Ephemera Danica) in attendance with trickle hatches of these large beautiful insects coming off on a regular basis throughout the month, "great to see", but again not a great deal of interest from the trout, although we did see one or two taken with intent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><u>"Looking forward to what June has in store"!</u></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><u><br /></u></i></b></span></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009943897498735667.post-17609089612711625092018-04-30T08:02:00.000-07:002018-05-01T08:04:06.111-07:00A Long time coming!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQR8zEVVUPS2vJCogUBFIJw2Q-Su9DvEhgvMdZSypYEquj_Vov1fD4Q8O9e6Lbq8sH7DZRA_x6f7n-BIRGThVrGGMAFSJovuqmWvnOgdP9cXfe8_TmIQTDdj7PNpFolFObOGfe-5GLPV0/s1600/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1600" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQR8zEVVUPS2vJCogUBFIJw2Q-Su9DvEhgvMdZSypYEquj_Vov1fD4Q8O9e6Lbq8sH7DZRA_x6f7n-BIRGThVrGGMAFSJovuqmWvnOgdP9cXfe8_TmIQTDdj7PNpFolFObOGfe-5GLPV0/s200/001.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David with a drag free drift on the dry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The anticipated improvements in the weather throughout April have been a long time coming I'm afraid, with bitter winds and low water temperatures really holding things up, we have certainly been up against it from a fishing point of view, and although there has been several salmon caught on the river, some being recorded over twenty pounds, the fishing has still been relatively slow. That said, we only need to look back as far as last season and given the right water conditions some of the best salmon fishing of the season occurred in May and June, so time will tell.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcQ4msSNQIj7wYJY_XsCMtQRjQOXiHmS8MQH3WHXrwSxz5Yjv9EaRXXeoyNCOqY4CVgUGEO2ubWHp0E6G1Vgoa8MWIYSaOReDxL2uGhzr5lIsn2s2e9791jafM-0LrJ4t4zkyhokSYv4/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1155" data-original-width="1600" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcQ4msSNQIj7wYJY_XsCMtQRjQOXiHmS8MQH3WHXrwSxz5Yjv9EaRXXeoyNCOqY4CVgUGEO2ubWHp0E6G1Vgoa8MWIYSaOReDxL2uGhzr5lIsn2s2e9791jafM-0LrJ4t4zkyhokSYv4/s200/002.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David with a small trout on the Nymph</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The insect life has also been slow, thus effecting the numbers of trout being caught, especially on the dry fly, and it has to be said, that up to now at least, there hasn't been the usual early season enthusiasm we often see from </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the trout given </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">our sub surface offerings either. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However it was noticeable that as we approached the end of April we were beginning to pick up one or two more fish off the surface as better numbers of Large Dark Olives begun to appear along with the odd Late March Brown too. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was also noticeable that there were some relatively decent hatches of Grannom Sedge in attendance, although definitely not in the numbers we have encountered in years gone by.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMa2eYTxyYBfa7Jrbv6SWKzCcdLqA7fcXiFSE10NKivcniiKPovvhRzsvYqEfcQcQh_0I9YfuqIf10HVXyPEPiJFT4YJkV5kI48waIZvbZeuY_2XTwvIjZDOGxWt-_JUn2Kde9gSYMkZM/s1600/004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1055" data-original-width="1600" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMa2eYTxyYBfa7Jrbv6SWKzCcdLqA7fcXiFSE10NKivcniiKPovvhRzsvYqEfcQcQh_0I9YfuqIf10HVXyPEPiJFT4YJkV5kI48waIZvbZeuY_2XTwvIjZDOGxWt-_JUn2Kde9gSYMkZM/s200/004.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simon with his first trout on the Dry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So although things are a little behind this year, the usual signs of potential improvement are all there and with the last few days of April being a little warmer in Cumbria, despite those persistent winds, an improvement in the dry fly fishing is definitely on the cards for May. I am sure many of you will agree when I say, that despite the fact we can, and do, target these magnificent fish with a variety of flies, fished at all levels in the water, there is still something </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">very exciting </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">about the visual experience of catching a trout on a dry fly!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxOyToE3d0biR-3mdP4cy3URSUq-5XkrQn7G87Hvhy8oFuRpV7mCxwBvC6jGykk80abfA6XSlOE4IcJEnhVBRHJ2B6_d1SM8LUANUWVME_a0Wg09u0K2f1GPV092hbaEzl_aYfdD9zvpw/s1600/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxOyToE3d0biR-3mdP4cy3URSUq-5XkrQn7G87Hvhy8oFuRpV7mCxwBvC6jGykk80abfA6XSlOE4IcJEnhVBRHJ2B6_d1SM8LUANUWVME_a0Wg09u0K2f1GPV092hbaEzl_aYfdD9zvpw/s200/003.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ian's first trout on the nymph</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With water levels as they are at the present time, and given the obvious probability of better temperatures ahead, we should be looking forward to some good dry fly action as we move into May, but we will surely need an influx of fresh water for some of the middle and upper beats of the river to see an improvement in the salmon fishing. However it is still early days yet and with many of you having already been for casting tuition in April I am sure you are itching to put it into practice and get at them.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Clive Mitchelhillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00952852941455066496noreply@blogger.com