Tracy&James | Thursday, 19 July 2018
Tracy and I had a very pleasant evening’s fishing on the Dee in Corwen at the weekend, due to the very hot daytime temperatures we didn’t leave our home until 6pm but our new proximity to the river meant we were tackling up by 6:30. We headed for a spot where I’d seen rises on my previous visit and, sure enough, there was numerous tell-tale dimplings to indicate that there were still fish in the same location.
I set up with a small klink and Tracy chose to fish an equally small F-fly. Takes came thick and fast for me, but less so for Tracy who had lost her original fly in a tree. By the time we met up again for a chat I must have had in excess of 20 takes with numerous small trout and grayling landed in comparison to 4 missed takes for Tracy. After losing her fly she’d replaced it with a klink identical to mine just a size bigger and I’m pretty sure that made all the difference to our respective catch rates. Once she’d downsized, this time to a balloon caddis, the number of takes to her outfit dramatically improved.
One slight downside to the evening was observing the actions of a group of youths who were also out enjoying the evening sunshine, having a few beers and perhaps a barbeque (or maybe just a fire as I couldn’t make out any delicious aromas floating downstream). What I did notice floating downstream was empty bottles of Corona though. When the first one went passed me, popped up perfectly like a waggler float, I didn’t think much of it. But then there was a second and a third, until I’d witnessed their whole supermarket box of 24 bottles go sailing by.
If the Dee was an easier wade I’d of tried to get in position to net them. Also, if I’d have been 8 inches taller and double the weight I would have probably marched up the bank and delivered the bottles back to them. As it was, I could only despair that they think it’s acceptable to dump their rubbish in a river.
It seems to me that there’s no shortage of education these days, both in schools and on the internet, about man-made pollution into the environment, and if anything today’s youth seem the most militant about protecting it, perhaps as you’d expect – it’s their future. However for all the militant words there are an awful lot of instances where they don’t live up to the standards they champion, you only have to look at the state of the grounds where various concerts, festivals and live events have been held after the crowds have left to see this. It’s time for all of us to walk-the-walk not just talk-the-talk.
Have a great weekend,
James.
