Warming up nicely

As the title says it’s warming up nicely.  Which as the central heating suffered a catastrophic failure a few weeks ageo  is actually a very good thing. Then the February short very mild spell was a bit of a false dawn and the amorous frogs appearing in the pond disappeared just as quick  as they were definitely a couple of weeks or so early in their noisy nuptials. Things are starting to happen though. These are often some of the first flies to appear around here . Just two more weeks to go. then there will be something decent to write about...

But I do love these days of lengthening hours and the rising sense of piscatorial anticipation that comes with it.  February was the month of fishing club bills landing on the mat, of annual general meetings and particularly my local clubs AGM and annual duck dinner.  A great night of renewing friendships, banter, fishing stories (some tall and some real) and reminiscences.  Also as club chairman an evening when I can pretend I know what I am talking about.  All topped off with the annual fund raising raffle. 

last month also saw me attend for the first time the annual BFFI (British fly fair international) a grand gathering of fly fishing and fly tying businesses wares and a tiers row of over 50 fly tiers from all over the place giving live demonstrations.  I spent a good few hours there and quite a lot of money on fur feather and tools.  Tools wise after watching Swiss Mark Petitjean demonstrating his CDC magic tools and having the chance to talk to him I bought the magic tool clips etc.   Once I get to grips with them I am hoping it will increase the range of CDC patterns I tie, (Initial results are promising).  Also this season I intend to fish a lot more for salmon and sea trout than ever before and have joined another syndicate to pursue that, so suitable materials and hooks had to be purchased.  It was great to be able to actually get your hands on the stuff you’re buying instead of the usual internet experience that so much materials buying has become.

I remember with fondness when a local fishing and shooting shop (now long gone) where I used to buy all my tying stuff. A couple of times a year they used to get in a huge box of cock capes pretty much direct from India, local anglers all tried to get there first to sort through them and select the most promising capes. This was long before the internet and before genetic capes appeared here.  Thinking back to the tiny selection of materials I managed with back in the 70s and 80s it’s amazing how things have developed.  I remember that for quite a few years all my tools and equipment managed to fit in a box the size of a couple of shoe boxes.  Now I seem to occupy a fair amount of a room and the shoe boxes have turned into a roll top desk and cupboards full to the brim.

Recently I had a bit of a tackle check and overhaul before the season starts.   How an earth I have managed to collect so much gear is beyond me.  Dozens of rods and myriads of fly boxes.  After a big sort out I seem to have 6 fly boxes holding probably a 1000 flies and whats the betting on my first trip I wont be able to find the fly I want. So a very late new years resolution is to thin it out the rods and reels .  Trouble is after creating a spread sheet cataloguing all the rods and reels I can find a reason to keep every one of them. Yet I probably only used a quarter of them last year.