The gauges on all my local rivers showed spikes due to last nights heavy rain but this mornings beautiful sunshine convinced me that they might all be wrong. Sadly, they weren’t.   Back to chocolate brown after yesterday’s brief respite, the Goyt was angry and vocal. I opted for wellies over waders and explored the…

According to the gauge, the river Goyt was dropping but according to the forecast, there would be heavy rain again overnight. With the trout season ebbing away, this could be my last chance to target them.   The first hour was fruitless and even though I was able (for the first time in weeks) to…

As we slip ever closer towards the winter, I’ve again had to cancel this weeks river guiding in Wales due to the amount of water in the Dee.   To console myself, I headed an hour and a half in the other direction into deepest Stockport where the river Goyt was slowly but surely dropping….

I’ve had to reschedule several river days recently so when I contacted Mark to advise him of the predicted rain, I was half expecting another postponement. To his credit, he chose to forge ahead stating that he was more concerned with improving his skills than catching loads of fish. He also added that as a…

As you will know, I said goodbye to a very special friend last week. Together we caught some of the the best Trout and Grayling to ever grace my net and we did it in some very unlikely places i.e. the industrial urban rivers of the North West.   These environments tend to take their…

The above picture is of the weight forward, floating line I use on small urban streams and rivers. You can see it’s seen better days but we’ve had some amazing fishing adventures together. It’s been trodden on, trapped and cut. It’s also been tangled around several objects including rocks, branches and a small dog that…

The lack of fishing was starting to get to me. The rivers were still running high but the coming week was set to be another busy one so I had to take the chance. As usual, the smaller rivers offered a better opportunity so I headed for the the closest.   The Alyn proved to…

Two years ago, we joined the Bradford City Angling Association as previously, we have purchased day tickets to fish when we’ve been up visiting North Yorkshire. The BCAA have stretches on some of the classic Yorkshire rivers, namely the Aire, the Wharfe, the Ure, the Swale and the Ribble and it’s all available for the…

Theres been precious little to report recently due to the river being up and down like ‘a scarlet ladies undergarments’ so I took the chance to do some outstanding jobs. A new floor in my office, a much needed repair and upgrade of my computer and a huge tidy up of fishing gear filled some…

With the river Dee still not settled and the unpredictable weather causing the postponement of several guiding trips, I took the opportunity to explore some more of the river Alyn near Wrexham. There was a stiff breeze and rain was forecast for mid afternoon so it would be a brief session but very welcome none…