Month by Month Highlights

 January was a slow start

February was gloomy 

March no fishing fly tying , walks and work parties 

April season start but no trout only grayling 

May my favourite month 

Flaming June 

July low rivers 

August not much fishing 

September trout season closes 

October , Grayling starts 

November more grayling 

December much needed rain and then it bit more foreign sun….. but just had the word that next year I will be fishing a new Yorkshire chalk stream…..

 Happy new year everyone 

2022 I was hoping for a lot better

 

Well following Covid I was hoping that 2022 would provide a welcome return to normality.  But I guess catching nothing but Grayling on the first day of the trout season , and pretty much all on dries as well should have warned me it was going to be a strange year .  The season started slowly and then went downhill from there , one of the worst droughts on record hammered my local rivers .  Creating the lowest levels in living memory .  What fish there were certainly weren`t rising , all in all a dismal season .  It started to improve a couple of months ago when the first rains arrived and the Grayling responded with enthusiasm providing some good sport .  One local river seems to have more Grayling than trout these days ,  A three hour session with a friend a few weeks ago resulted in over 40 fish between us.

Perhaps the year could finish on a high I foolishly thought . But then three weeks ago I received the very sad news that my friend Peter Kay had passed away suddenly .  Not only a friend and fishing buddy he and I ran a local fly fishing club together me as Chairman and he as Secretary.  So of course he did all the work as Secretaries do.  Actually he loved it and refused all help .  Pete was always firmly of the belief that his way was of course the right way .  I have lost a friend and the club has lost its driving force.  It will of course continue . It has been going since 1890 .  But a chapter has finished and someone else will pick it up and move it forward .  For the time being that someone is me.   I was asked to speak at his funeral ,  something I was pleased to do .  listening to the other speakers and talking to his widow since his death has also made me realise how little I knew about Pete and his past , he was a very private person. It is to late to get to know Peter but I hope I endeavour to understand and get to know people more in the future.  I do know that speaking as the new secretary his will be  a tough act to follow .