It has been a long time, in blogging terms, since this fisherman and most humble of correspondents has posted anything, either of note or otherwise. There is a reason for this - I tend to....well.....blog as I do and, I am sad to say, due to a heady concatenation of circumstances, I simply haven't done. Anything. At all.
Because of my illness last year, when I couldn't fish, and because of my unbridled enthusiasm for spending time with my family, when I could, I missed almost an entire season bar the couple of days at either end. These two facts and a few other less news worthy happenings meant that I didn't use many flies and so negated the need to tie any this winter and, as I don't really do small stillwaters I had nothing much to impart unto you, my reader (or possibly readers - if you haven't gone elsewhere for honey - as my father rather inexplicably is wont to say) - I certainly wasn't going to bore you with an opinion on "how to do" a certain something or other and there is little to report otherwise, for the Izzard family live a quiet life.
This season however there will be plenty of meat on the writing bone as it were, for I am going to fish. It has been a long winter but now the Exe is open for salmon (as of 14th Feb) and fish are being caught. It's only a few days until the Taw and Torridge also start giving up - and then having returned to them - their silvery bounty. On the 15th the trout season opens on our rivers and all the reservoirs are open by the end of March. All I can say is a massive whoop whoop to that.............................with bells on.
Advice wise there is only this, and here I am on safe ground as it is more of a reminder really; make sure all your kit is up together and working properly. Wash and condition those lines (or, if like me you can't be arsed then buy new ones!), oil and clean those reels and if you use an old freind of a rod maybe apply a little candle wax to the ferrules to aid their future reliability. Actually I was laughed at recently for suggesting the latter, but the old spiggott type ferrules really do grip better and wear less with a quick waxing every now and then. (It is not usually necessary on the overfit type.) Make sure too that your tippet and leader materials are not brittle and that your flies haven't been attacked by moths or mites or some other fur and feather munching thingy-ma-jig.
I've done all of the above every week since October last year so I reckon I am ready to go.
TIGHT LINES all.
