Snow Joke! Your Majesty

This weekend I joined Alex Swann who was kind enough to offer me a trip down memory lane with both of us fishing from Dovedale to Ilam Rock in search for those huge ladies lurking about. Although entering the car park was a bit scary with sheet ice running right next to the river, I was pleased to find us the only folk mad enough to be there. The snow was deep and the temperature holding -8 didn't bother either of us, the most vital ingredient was already assured, today promised to be very quiet. This venue is spectacular when snow covered and at worst sharing such a wonderful location with genuine hardcore walkers is always a pleasure. Her Majesty was running clear and full and while working my way upstream above the stones I took some time looking around the improvements carried out by LADFFA which has created huge benefits to the stretch already.

Halfway upstream i got a little over zealous when hooking a tree and tish! my rod snapped. Well not being able to face an early bath we began digging around our pockets looking to adapt, improvise and overcome. The only sticky thing we had was Alex's foam indicators so we decided to cut the edge of the sheet and snugly filled the gap while pushing the sections together. Then I used some 6lb tippet to bind it all together and to be honest it became the strongest part of the rod, lasting the rest of the day with no problems. Below shows the craftsmanship that can be achieved on the riverbank and we're considering going into business selling rod repair kits on ebay lol.

We tried really hard to produce a fish but it just wasn't going to happen for either of us and after exploring all the likely pools we decided on a job and knock, quickly making our way back to the car park with a few half hearted flicks for good measure.

You can't win them all and after the extreme weather of late I believe the Ladies could be shying away much earlier this winter, mind you I'll still try like a barsteward to catch them, its just in my blood and make up, even when I know I'll probably fail. I really enjoyed my day with plenty of laughs and best of all I got my customary visit from a Dovedale robin, landing on a branch just a few feet away. I've shard many a winters day with these fat little beauties bouncing along behind me, jumping from tree to tree for miles as I move along. With neither of us catching, it was easier to suffer my first blank of 2010 and at least it wasn't just me that's crap, ah ah!