Brothers James and Michael had struggled to redeem the fly fishing voucher purchased for them by their wives, but eventually after 2 postponements, it was all booked. The river Dee would again be unkind to us but as they had a full weekend of activities planned anyway, we were going to carry on regardless of…

As I pulled on my waders in the car park by the river Goyt today, I was struck by how many people were around. Over the last few years I’ve watched this area of New Mills get steadily busier as a housing estate was built just above the river. Those long summer afternoons spent picking…

The hideous weather continues to cause disruption to not only my guiding but also my personal Grayling fishing, so I was forced to take extreme action.   In the past I have dabbled with long trotting for Grayling, a classic way of targeting autumn Grayling that’s particularly effective in high water conditions. Whilst this entails…

Those of us that join clubs often ask ourselves if it’s worth renewing the membership, usually around the time that the reminder drops through the door. Those balmy summer afternoons on the river are dim and distant memories by the time the subs are due again.   Chris invited me over to help him assess…

Today was Day 3 of my quest for one last good Urban Trout of this season.   When I arrived at the river today it looked promising. The level had dropped 20 cms and the clarity was good. The sun was shining and early mornings rain appeared to have made little impact.   After a…

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…