Well the picture above sums up the start of the year for me, bad weather, river levels high at first, then they were great but I could not get to the river because of the snow!!!!! Snow melt meant I was able to drive however when it gets into the river system it destroys the fishing for a few days!! Boy is this weather ever going to give fishermen a break.
So no fishing for a bit so what else could I do. First Bearleft and I had to wrap up some projects that we had outstanding from last year.
My house was turned into a TV studio and we finished all the fly tying and some teck clips we had to do for the New Era Fly rod range from Daiwa. If you have a chance go and have a cast with these rods available soon at your nearest Daiwa dealer, you will be amazed by their performance.
Well I finally got out on the river and was joined by Norri and Darren from Daiwa for a fishing day on the Dee in North Wales. Weather was ok but the river was a little high but fish-able in the back eddies and slack water. Above is Nori catching his first ever welsh Grayling. Not to be out done Darren latter on tried out the Daiwa Tenkara rod that he had sent over from Japan and by the smile on his face he was quite happy with its performance.
A nice fish on the 4 meter tenkara rod!
After a few days fishing it was time to pack and do our annual trip to Angling Ireland Expo in Dublin. This year Daiwa had a big stand to support all their Irish dealers and we had a stand tagged onto the end of that.
The Morgan girls manning the stand just before the show opened. In previous years the show had been accused of having too much for the game angler and not enough for the other disciplines. This time Mara Media had made sure that every aspect of fishing was covered. The seminar was packed with Sea- Game and Coarse fishing talks. New names at this years show were Bob Nudd MBE, Henny Gillby and Mike Thrussell all of whom proved very popular. Jim Clohessy and Marry Gavin Hughes's talks were again very well supported. On the casting pool we had Peter O Rilley, Glend Powell, Stevy Munn and Tom Dock from the House of Hardy. Oh yea we did our bit as well with Yasmin and Tanya impressing everybody with the standard to their casting. I did a bait casting demo for the first time in years and when there is a hoop on the water it does put a lot of pressure on you but even if I say it myself I was very accurate!!!! The one stand that always impresses me is Dublin Angling Initiative who run quizzes, questionnaires and a load of other stuff for the kids to enjoy. Once again a great show and big thank you to everybody who came and watched the demos and came to have a chat.
Well after coming home it was time for the Ospreys AGM which was a great excuse for a few of us to spend a few days up in Llangollen fishing the river Dee. Look closely at the pic above as this fish would not stay still at all for a pic. We had a great few days and Paul will be doing a little video with some of the highlights of the trip. Have a look at www.troutwatch.com as the clips will be posted there.
Ok its time to pack again as I am getting ready for my spring trip up North for the Glasgow Open Weekend which keeps getting better and better every year. If you are coming please come and say high. We will have the full range of New Era rods for you to try out.
Tight Lines
