So another lovely day duly attended by our stalwarts has come and gone again.
The weather was darned awful with a bitter easterly wind and the only way to catch trout in quantity was with bungs, “buzzers” and blobs, or a combination of all three. Mind you, Mac Wallet’s buzzers looked more like baby dead parrots of the Norwegian Blue variety (lovely plumage).
It didn’t do me any good of course; all I caught was a cold. Mind you all I had were 3 casts and one pull. The rest of the time I was ordered to the tying bench to produce blobs.
There is no doubt that this “fly” has taken over where the Dog Nobbler and booby have left off. To those who knew how to fish it, it is truly devastating, yet when I gave the rest of the crowd my rates: £5.00 each, minimum order 10, I got some very strange looks and no orders at all.
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| Gary (Barney) Knowles landing a fine trout |
My favourite blob incorporates hot orange cactus chenille with a hot orange marabou tail. I decided to try one of these fished a few days ago and it produced me 4 trout to 3 ½ lbs in double quick succession, fished dry would you believe. I wonder what would happen if I cast one of these horrors well ginked up on the hallowed Test.
But I digress, back to our fly-fishing day.
I had decided to try something different on this day and rather than have a match where the usual faces win, I decided to award the Andy Wright Trophy to who I considered to be the most improved of our trout fishing group.
A few years ago, a number of people totally new to fly-fishing attended this fish in. But this year, one thing I did notice was the absence of raw beginners.
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| Winner – Ed Bibby |
About 4 or 5 years ago, I spent a lot of time with Ed Bibby who was a complete novice in this aspect of our sport. He couldn’t get a line out much beyond his feet. But after some basic tuition, he was, I reckon, schooled enough in the basics; all that was required now was practice.
And to be honest, Ed obviously had practiced. Not only was he casting a line like a seasoned fly fisher, he was catching trout too. So the Andy Wright Trophy went to Ed!
However prior to me awarding this trophy, it didn’t prevent the sort of Gerrymandering we have recently witnessed from our politicians. A certain Mr. Shelob, because he had won the trophy last year, and without me being around, thought he could walk in and command top dog again!
And unelected would you believe?
Sounds like the sort of thing only politicians would stoop to!!
Graham Marsden (fore) and Ed Bibby fishing ….. with Graham in inset
But overall we all had a good day. I’m looking forward to next year.
But not to paying £4.00 for a glass of mediocre lager!
Lee Swords with a nice rainbow and Ed shows Ron his gratitude in the usual Liverpool fashion.
