Vera and I attended a meeting of the North West Casting Club at Oak Royal Golf Club, Withnell today along with other like minded anglers interested in casting. We all had great fun trying out many different rods, lines  and casts which varied from presentation to various Spey Casts. It was certainly different casting a heavy line on a powerful pike rod and then trying out a small 7` brook rod. Totally different casting styles and power applications needed to ensure decent casts with both outfits and I`m sure we all had a great time testing and casting the rods.

Here we are in Autumn and we wonder whether we live on the same planet as the weather people. Throughout the year on the news all we heard of was the record hot dry Spring and Autumn heatwave temperatures etc.

In South Cumbria we had a cold, wet and windy Spring apart from a few sunny days around Easter and the rest of the year so far has been wet and mainly very windy. In the so called Summer months we had an occasional odd two or three days where it was warmer and we had some sun. It certainly has not been good fly fishing year in this area but hey who knows we may get a drier , less windy spell soon

We have just spent an enjoyable day acting as two of the controllers for the Junior Talent Pathway whereby  talented  teams of young  fly anglers from the North East and from the North West competed against each other.

Conditions were not good with a strong, blustery wind and virtually non stop rain throughout the event. This tended to put the fish down but it certainly did not dampen the spirits of the competitors who all fished hard despite the awkward wind. Many an adult would have packed in and gone home but these younsters gave it their best to the very end which was very pleasing to see and some nice Trout were caught.

6 very enthusiast lady fly fishers from the North West visited Cocklakes Fishery Nr Penrith today where Vee & I taught them how to cast with the fly rod.  They had a fantastic time in glorious sunshine and learned about the fly fishing equipment, how to assemble the tackle, managed to do the pick and lay down cast with great success and progressed to shooting line, false casting and also  were taught the roll cast.  Their nimble fingers managed the knot tying with ease and after four hours they had progressed so well that no trout in this county will be safe.  We found the ladies very attentive and keen to learn and they are now ready to join in the fun when the NW Lady Fly Fishers go fishing at Bigland Hall Fly Fishery in October.

Wow !!  What can we say.  The ladies had a fantastic session and one lady even hooked a carp on her first cast.  The weather and fish cooperated and we ended the day with a total of 11 fish netted and released, the largest common carp just short of the magical 10lbs.

The carp were a good mix of Mirror, Common and Koi and looking at the grin factor we know the ladies had a super day out.

 

 

On Sunday, 31 July a group of 15 ladies from the North West spent an enjoyable day fly fishing at Bank House Fishery, Caton. They had exclusive use of the fishery and despite the weather being too warm and bright 9 Rainbow and Blue Trout were landed and most of the ladies had offers. It was great to see so many ladies fishing together and enjoying each others company and all are looking forward to future events which will include Carp days, tuition days, river fishing, fly dressing and more still water days.

The programme until January  2012 is almost complete and will be published here very soon.

In May Vera and I attended the Game Angling Instructors Association professional development day which included a workshop on catching Carp with flies.

Today was a nice day so we decided to put to the test all we had learned in May and we visited a local lake which we knew held Carp and we had a blast. First off Bob took a splendid Koi Carp on a klinkhammer and then Vera took a superb Mirror Carp.

We took several and missed many opportunities – real adrenalin rush stuff and Vera took the best Carp of the session which was a scale perfect Common Carp of 10lb 3oz. A double at her first ever try at catching the Carp on the fly.

Well worth a shot if we eventually get warm sunny weather which the Trout don`t like. Thats the weather Carp love and to watch them take a fly from the surface is exhilerating and they also fight well.