Fly Blog

Sean, Peter and I fished Hanningfield first, and apart from the concrete, and Peter catching all the fish, it was a great day. I fell asleep at one point of course, having discussed flyrod mechanics all night with Bernd. But eventually we found an interesting spot where two currents came together exactly where Peter was fishing. And so he caught them all.

Actually he didn’t, as the photos prove, instead he caught 5, Sean 1 and I caught the two biggest fish in the lake.

Sean had to go home that night, I’m not sure why exactly, but I think Peter’s socks had something to do with it. And so Peter and I went to Rutland. Rutland is one of my favourite fisheries and it’s always interesting. This time was no exception, fish were close to the banks over weedbeds and I have a really cool rabbit cat’s whisker – the Bunny Cat – which has a very enticing, perhaps even sexy, wiggle.

And the results reversed exactly. I managed to catch 5 to Peter’s 2. Peter has since committed suicide and broken his rod, so no fishing tomorrow.

Some very nice moments, excellent takes (always is, watching a white fly on the retrieve) and tremendous fights. These fish remind me very much of NZ back-end fish. If I lived in England this is where I would live.

Couple of shots of Bernd, the first one preparing himself for the Masters with a colourful umbrella. The second post Masters relaxing on a tiger skin couch (with dog and Palinka).

1 Asp! OK the river has come up and the water is bloody cold, and maybe I imagined the whole thing of course.

Will have a look for a fish or two tomorrow. Nice to be back even if I am digging for Africa.

Quite unusually for me, I managed a couple of Asp while fishing the Danube. Actually it’s not all that unusual, despite what everyone thinks (well Akos anyway), but there certainly was a long spell of nothing on the Drava. But since I’ve started expecting fish then they come and indeed tomorrow I expect many more, maybe a whole truck load in fact. What was unusual however was the lack of surface activity. Still beggars can’t be choosers…

My bath at Latohegy is fantastic and I’m really clean now.

Oh and the other thing is I caught these Asp on a Cat’s Whisker. I always thought this fly should work with Asp, but this is the first time it actually has! What I’m not very happy about is that there was a little bit of blood from both these fish.

Here is the best fish from the trip – a 4kg Snakehead. I have many other photos to shift through and will get these up later today.

Here are a few shots from last weekend in Norway – OK not very many I know!

Lena translated for Lars and I in Ukraine earlier this year. And here are her first fish on fly – Grayling! I think I recognise this river as the one where I caught my first shoe. Fantastic, Lena! Well done!!

Just a few shots from our five day sailing trip around the Balaton. Sailed from Keszthely to Tihany, Sofok, and then back to Keszthely. Some casting, a little fishing, lots of sailing. This is Ria. Ria is my distance casting coach and Hungarian teacher.

Sailing week.

JW and Cliff’s first outing at trout fishing. Bill says, “I was in the water for five days and did not catch a trout.  They caught over 100 with a 15 -16 inch average.  I think they are hooked.”

That’s fantastic, Bill. Congratulations to the three of you!