Yup, that’s right folks! Not long left until the 2008 trout season begins!

The date for the river Taff (as it is with many rivers in Wales) is the glorious date of March 3rd!

Counting down the days? Me?? No!

With the new trout season so close, you can actually feel the anticipation of anglers throughout the UK.

The start of trout season for the river Taff is March 3rd, although unfortunately, this is a Monday…and I’ll be working. However, I’m planning to leave the dungeon…I mean office an hour earlier than normal one day next week so that I can at least get an hours fishing in. I can’t wait to step into my favourite waters for the first time this year, something I’ve been unable to do since last October.

However, what I’m really looking forward to this season, is small streams and small wild fish. So much so in fact that I’ve been replenishing my dry fly collection for most of the off season; stocking up on my usual favourites…which really isn’t that many. Various colours and sizes of Klinkhammers, CDC & Elk, Adams, Deer Hair Emerger, and CDC duns are about the only dries I ever use. I may use large mayfly and Wulff style patterns for special occasions, but I find my favourite five dries will cover just about any dun/spinner/emerger.

I’m so looking forward to fishing dries, it’ll be a nice change from the Czech nymphing I’ve been doing for the last few months.

Come on summer months…

Anyway, back to this season…To kick things off every March, myself and a few friends normally make a day trip to Usk reservoir. Plans so far include a very early start (I’m going to have to dig my still water rod out of it’s cupboard), a drive around to pick everyone up, then start the 30 odd mile drive (bacon and egg rolls picked up on the way of course!).

Even though Usk reservoir is a rainbow stocked still water and not really my cup of tea, my mission for the day is to track down a nice wild brown trout. It’s also a truly beautiful reservoir. Miles from anywhere, the only sounds being the wildlife, to start the season off with a day there is always pretty sweet.

So, with the new season only a few days away, I wish you all the very best for the 2008 season, tight lines, and I hope you all enjoy your much awaited open days!

For those of you whose rivers/still waters don’t open until a little later…sorry to rub it in, but I’m off fishing!

Some very unfortunate news regarding the river Wye, let’s hope the damage is minimal:

BBC News reports:

Twenty thousand litres of buttermilk has spilled into the River Wye near Rhayader following a tanker crash, the Environment Agency has said.

The tanker was damaged when it went out of control and overturned on the A470 between Rhayader and Llangurig.

Environment Agency officials have been called in to monitor the situation and to assess the affect of the buttermilk on wildlife and habitats.

The driver of the tanker escaped serious injury.

The Environment Agency said it was concerned about the effect on the water quality in the River Wye after the buttermilk spill.

It said it was working closely with the fire service to clear up the spill and it has asked Welsh Water to release more water from the Elan Valley reservoirs to try and dilute the spillage.

A spokesman said: “This could potentially have a serious impact on the river’s water quality and many fish could be killed.”

I’ll keep you updated.

A venture on a new river this Sunday saw me fishing with Mike, a devout follower of all things fly fishing, and a generally nice guy.

Mike invited me to an introduction of a rather special South Wales valley for a few hours; although which specific beats…I’ve been sworn to secrecy!

So, after a Saturday of car problems, rugby, and trying to make fajitas when someone’s accidentally put the tortillas in the microwave for 5 minutes (making fajitas with ‘popadoms’ is um…interesting, but still very nice ), I was awakened Sunday morning to a beautiful scene. Grass and trees sprinkled white with frost, blue skies and a lovely crisp winter feel to the air equated to a generally ‘good’ feeling to the day. It was looking like perfect grayling weather.

25 minutes late thanks to a little traffic and a slight detour due to directional problems, I eventually parked up next to the river Rhymney, exactly where Mike had told me there’d be room. After a quick scan of the river I spotted Mike casting upstream to the far bank.

After a brief chat as I tackled up, we got down to business, into the river, and on with the fishing.

The Rhymney, a post industrial river, is so similar to my home sections of the river Taff that you could have believed that they were one and the same. Widths and depths of the river were almost identical, as was the litter problem, although the Rhymney has more overhanging trees than the Taff. These seemed to love my nymph rigs.

After a slight personal ‘Watch your bloody back cast Lewis!’ learning curve, I found the river a beauty. A true deep valley secret; one which is understandably kept as such. Casts were mainly short flicks into deep runs at the far banks, allowing them to glide underneath overhanging foliage (foliage which I bet must be a nightmare in the summer months!)

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will hopefully realise how much I love the Taff. My home river (one which I’ve spent a fanatical amount of time on over the past couple of years) is a beauty, especially around the underrated Merthyr Valley stretches. I am truly passionate about it. Unfortunately, fishing ceases in October due to there being no grayling, however, this allows the trout to spawn peacefully.

So, to be on a river which is almost identical to the Taff had me, at moments, grinning like a Cheshire cat! Also, to be fishing on a similar river out of trout season was a privilege.

According to Mike, the Rhymney would have been in perfect condition if the levels were a little lower, as it was running a little fast. We also had a very bright day with cloudless skies to contend with, so, it wouldn’t be the easiest of outings.

Heavy weighted/tungsten nymphs were used throughout the day, with Mike catching a couple of grayling before I arrived as well as a few grayling and brownies as we fished together.

I managed to hook into a couple of fish, but I just couldn’t seem to set the hook properly on this outing. One of the fish which managed to jump the hook nearly bent my rod double! There are some good fish in that river!

So in conclusion? For a river that I had only ever heard of, is only 20 minutes from home and still one which I had never known the exact location of; I was blown away.

I will be back VERY soon. Especially to catch that rod bending grayling!

Thanks for an awesome day Mike!

I was asked a strange question tonight…’what is fishing?’ ‘What is fishing?”? Surely the mere question is answerable in itself? Then again, the fact that someone can ask such a question surely proves that it is not?

As an individual who works in IT I (as I imagine many in the same industry) sometimes forget that not everyone appreciates how the advantages of the .NET framework has revolutionised the older style of static HTML; how today’s internet has greater, more advanced mechanisms than the older, more antique and military envisioned ARPANET days…we sometimes forget how many view IT…as a tool to live with, but not understand.

In this sense, fishing is generally seen as a pleasure hobby, a pastime, a sport, or (to some) an outright harm to wild animals for personal pleasure. But generally, something which will be allowed to continue as a tradition in the background of modern life without truly interacting or understanding. As fly fisher men and women, we forget how to convey the answers to core questions such as ‘what is fishing?’ as some individuals would forget how to convey the answers to questions such as ‘what is a network device’? Both questions have answers which can be both highly detailed and varied, neither having a simple answer.

With constant research into ‘presenting a true drag-free dry fly’, ‘traditional upstream nymphing’, ‘what is the best leader? Furled, tapered etc?’, or, ‘the correct way to tie a dropper’, have we started disabling ourselves to answering these core questions of what fishing is really about? Or maybe, are we getting closer?

Do we really know the answer? More likely, we have a more personal answer to the question; one which, for non-fisher-folk (or, as in my profession, towards non-IT folk), is impossible to comprehend.

Again, as a member of the IT community, answering IT queries to co-workers and colleagues, I am sometimes looked at as being condescending. Not that I mean to be, not in the slightest, but because sometimes (with constant liaising with like minded IT bodies) I forget some of the audiences I am speaking to have a lesser degree of knowledge of IT (or, in this case, fishing) than myself. Even this statement in itself sounds disgustingly condescending!

Walking home from a ‘leaving party’ with the boys; a cold misty morning at 4:30am (surely way too late/early for such deep philosophy!) I thought to myself ‘do I actually know the answer to original question?’ I can try and answer it I suppose, but then I would usually come up with the same convoluted crap that I would first think of in my head when confronted with an IT orientated issue.

So with ‘keeping it simple’ in mind…what is fishing?

Some people fish to catch fish. Some people fish to catch big fish. Some people fish to catch VERY big fish. By worm, maggot, spinner, whatever.

To me, fishing is the pursuit of personal reflection, concentration, and discipline, and along the way, catching a wild trout or two in beautiful surroundings. By fly fishing I am purposely going out of my way to make things hard for myself in catching my quarry with little more than fluff on a hook…and why? Well, why not?

Fishing has hooked me. Since I was 15 years old.

To be in a river at 8:00am, loaded with a #3 weight rod, with the intention of hunting wild trout, casting a small dry fly to a rise one foot above an over hanging branch with a chance of hooking a small, wild brownie, is what it’s all about…even if I’ve taken 30 minutes to stalk the bugger through nettles and brambles!

What is fishing? Find a river, gaze at it for ten minutes. If after the 10 mintes you’re asking yourself more questions as well as the original, grab a rod. If you aren’t, hopefully there’ll be a pub nearby…grab a pint, enjoy the view.

Then again…I could be talking absolute bollocks and have not been able to get my point across one bit, and you should forget every word that I’ve written, maybe I’m even going mad!

But then…it’s nice to think about these things…