Meanwhile I am wondering about learning to fly fish, assuming there's at least some fly fishing gear to be found in the garage. The thinking seems clear enough. I'm growing a bit tired carting large amounts of coarse gear around and fishing in a pretty much stereotyped fashion. Flyfishing means a lighter apprach, more roaming around and spotting or sensing a quarry to cast to.
So I am reading this introductory book by John Bailey. I remember being impressed by one of his coarse fishing books, particularly a chapter where he talked of systematically tracking down and snaring some huge roach on the River Wensum.
Up to now it's a bit inconclusive. Fly fishing is about the sort of things I think I want but there are an awful lot of subtleties to it and a lot of jargon, some of which Bailey for all his enthusiasm does not always explain well. So much stuff about different kinds of flies, leaders, and lines. It will need a lot of time and effort to get anywhere with it.
Obviously the first thing I would need to do is learn to cast. So the plan is to try some practice casting on the field at the top of the street.
One thing I did forget to mention was a non-birdwatching visit to Low Newton in Northumberland on Sunday. A couple of folk with binoculars reported the sighting of a yellow-browed warbler behind the pub twenty minutes earlier.
ReplyDeleteSeveral dogwalking hours later, we were in the pub, so sort of a near miss! Presumably a passage migrant.