The weekend’s fishing trip was hampered slightly by high winds, heavy rain, and snow, and as a consequence, not many fish were caught, but that did nothing to spoil the high spirits and fun enjoyed by all attendees.

A fantastic craic, with all the usual pi$$taking and drinking that comes as standard during these events, but with the added bonus of Bill’s now legendary cooking.

A huge personal thank you to Bill for organising yet another fantastic social and a firm two finger salute to the weather as, try as it did to spoil things, the social was enjoyed hugely by everyone.

Thanks to all who attended, drank, fished, and tied…and thanks also for the comments that will surely follow this post regarding my involuntary swim in a flooded river Elan!

See you all again next year!

If you can’t fish, get the vice out…and the whiskey, wine, beer and, of course, a box of Quality Street!

Click here to view the full gallery.

You book a long weekend off work, travel for five hours down to Brighton for a romantic weekend with your beautiful girlfriend and what happens? The rain hammers down in Biblical proportions and the wind howls at you with hateful 50mph gusts.

Still, our weekend’s visit to Brighton was unhampered by the weather, we visited a horrendous amount of bars had a lovely time viewing the sites, and I’m now fully refreshed (after only 3 days in work) for the fishing trip that I’m about to embark on in less than eight hours. Game on.

See you suckers soon, but for now, enjoy a few views of a weather-battered Brighton.

When half of the country is underwater ten idiots dedicated anglers decide to go fishing. The idea was for three full days of grayling fishing above mid-Wales, however the weather we’ve had over the last month has been horrific, to say the least.

Mother Nature, she’s been a moany old bitch nightmare for the last four weeks, but it’s finally stopped raining and so weather forecasts and river gauge levels are now being checked on an almost minute by minute basis. The weather is (I dare to say it) starting to look up for the weekend, but the rivers are in a bad way, although dropping ever so slightly. If it comes to it and we’re washed off, hell, we’ll just have to fish a rather nice local still water. Either way, we’re still going fishing.

Three full days of (hopefully) fishing, chin wagging with other similarly deranged fanatics, with a beer or three and Bill’s now legendary ‘Oggies‘; I’m rather looking forward to it.

I need to start packing…where’s my 7 weight…

Normal levels for the below gauge is 0″…the gauge is over 3′ tall…

The below information was sent to me via email and details a series of events where the Environment Agency will be running a series of workshops regarding the Wild Fishing Wales initiative.

If you have your own thoughts on the topic and would like to pop along to air any of your views/thoughts, or to find out how the work is carried out, etc, the below may be of some interest.

An opportunity you cant afford to miss

The Environment Agency Wales are running a series of workshops aimed at promoting the Wild Fishing Wales project and explaining the opportunities for fisheries, angling clubs and local community groups to benefit and get involved.

What is Wild fishing Wales?

Wild Fishing Wales is a £2.6 million project which aims to achieve sustained and measurable benefits for Wales by enhancing environmental quality and improving access to a network of river and still water fisheries throughout the Convergence Area of Wales.

The objective of the Wild Fishing Wales Project is to develop and make more accessible a network of river fishing beats and still waters by helping local communities, fisheries, angling clubs, landowners and rivers trusts to deliver access and habitat improvement projects. The project will also support the development of an accredited training course for angling guides and the introduction of guides to the network of improved sites.

What’s happening?

On Nov 24th – 26th the EA will host six, two and a half hour long seminars at different venues across the convergence area of Wales. The EA want to provide you with a chance find out how the project will work, how you can benefit and get involved and with an opportunity to ask the project team any question you may have.

• What is Wild Fishing Wales?
• Marketing in Wild fishing Wales
• How to get involved
• Improvement Projects – what’s eligible & what’s not.
• Who can help deliver the project…the Wild Trout Trust will be on hand to offer advice
• Q&A and 1 to 1 sessions with the project team…your chance to ask the question you want answered.

Where and When?

The six events will be held on these dates at the at the following venues:

24th Nov
2:00pm Oriel Hotel Upper Denbigh Road, St Asaph, LL17 0LW
7:00pm The Wild Pheasant Hotel, Berwyn Road, Llangollen, LL20 8AD

25th Nov
9:30am Royal Ship Hotel, Llys Owain, Dolgellau, LL40
2:30pm Falcondale Hotel, Falcondale Drive, Lampeter, SA48 7RX

26th Nov
10:00am Merthyr Tydfil – Bessemer Hotel, Hermon Close, Dowlais, CF48 3DP
7:00pm The Hailwell Centre, Trinity University College, Carmarthen, SA31 3EP

What do I do now?

If you wish to attend, please confirm your attendance by emailing the Environment Agency via wildfishingwales@environment-agency.gov.uk.

If, like me, you’re still smiling at the thought of this year’s British Fly Fair International, linger retrospectively no longer, as Sky Sport’s Tightlines channel now has a lovely seven minutes of coverage of the event which features Charles Jardine, Chris Sandford, Gwilym Hughes and the near legendary Ulf Hagstrom.