Forecast was for rain. The winter fish spawn but they sit tight to the bottom, and a fresh brings on the bite. I live in hope!

Nice day for driving. Watched a child's sport, then set off. Arrived with an hour of light left and hit the river. Holiday weekend, so there were people about. As is the way of the North Island of NZ and a popular fishery.

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The River Dee didn't really play ball for Chris and Nick's visit to North Wales at the weekend.  Although the level was good and the weather was nice I had a slight sinking feeling when we turned up to the beat to see very little in the way of fly life and nothing rising.  I will admit that where we fished wasn't my first choice, as when we arrived there, another angler was making his way across the field to the river.  I didn't feel it was appropriate for the four of us to join him, even though it was quite a long beat, so we got back in the car and went elsewhere.  I probably need to confess it was my fault we were a little late; the previous evening was quite heavy on the red wine and this led on to competitive knot testing which continued until about 2am.  Thus when my alarm went in readiness for getting out of the house at 8am I ignored it in favour of another half hour or so of recovery time.  Nick and Chris were, of course, ready for the allotted time, but then had to wait for me to have a coffee etc.  

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This week I thought I'd look at flatwings. Obviously this is more of a prototypical pattern than a specific dressing. But that's a good thing because it means you can mess around with them to suit your specific situatio

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Monday was season opening here. Rivers are open and ready to fish. Monday was rainy day and Tuesday and Wednesday we were building new fences. Weather has been still cold as nights around 4 celsius and days barely +8 celsius.

And all this is good news. We had extremely low water levels after winter and short heat wave in end of May was increasing water temps already around 15 celsius. And it was not even summer yet. So with some heavy rains and cold days, water levels raise and temperature went down. Now rivers are 8 celsius and will be perfect for fishing on coming weekend with sun and warm days. Slowly temps will go up to 18 degrees... Hopefully there will be some heavy rains now and then.

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Dandelions and fly casting goes  together, right? The fly line seems to love them at least. If there is a dandelion in the vicinity of the fly line it will find it and get stuck in it. Extra helpful that the dandelions grow really quickly even if the lawn has been mowed. 

They have a good use though. At the end of the lifecycle they are perfect to find the wind direction. The slightest movement of the air will be reviled by the little parachutes of the seed. That can be really useful some days when you are casting and cannot understand why the distance casting isn’t going as you expected. The leader won’t turn over as expected. Or you can be pleasantly surprised when you realise that you are casting quite well considering the current conditions. 

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This is another organ recital so I’ll keep it short. I’m going a little nuts, generally sidelined for the week by my pinky-fix. I'm unable to shower (TMI?),wearing a rigid dressing, fixed at maybe 105 degree angle. It’s also challenging my ability to use a knife and fork. I can use chopsticks and otherwise eat one-handed.  I did manage a casting practice in Riverside Park - right hand only, no hauls. So with my left arm in a sling and my HT4 over lined with the SA Trout WF5F, I tried to replicate the slowed down pace and resultant rod action experienced while casting streamers last week in Wyoming. I failed. I couldn’t feel it and couldn’t see it. Bummer. I’ll have to explore this after I lose the bandages and return to LA. 

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