The celebrations of the new year seem like a distant memory and now that we’ve managed to sweat the holiday hangover in terms of work malaise out the system, it’s time to start planning your 2022 leisure calendar. Finding the time is always the challenge, as we juggle work pressure with family commitments and our children’s various academic years that seems completely at odds with each other. Fish understandably are a lot simpler, with climate […]
Author Archives: Gareth
The Last Cast
Why ten pounds is the benchmark for many fresh-water fish in terms of angling accolades is a bit of a mystery. The imperial yardstick and it being double digits would be my best guess. Admittedly this aspiration is what now drives my journey to rivers and lakes with a fly rod in hand. We start off just wanting to catch a single fish (the label of ‘Billy Blank’ from your best fishing mates being a […]
Count Out
I’ve never considered fly fishing to be a competitive sport, amongst anglers that is. It’s the fish you have to battle with after all, so another fly fisher can only really be considered company on the water. Hence, the TOPS Corporate Challenge has never been about fishing, despite some 24 000 Trout having been caught and released over the last 20 years. This benchmark fly fishing festival is all about the time you spend […]
Snowmen
It’s not often that you see anglers return from the water with very little to say, especially if they have even less to show for their efforts. To say the fly fishing was tough in the 3rd leg of the TOPS Corporate Challenge would be like describing this world-wide pandemic as a mild head cold. Wind is reviled by anyone trying to throw a line and having to deal with a howling NE sucking into […]
Fair Weather Fisherman
For once the naysayers, me included, got it completely wrong. We always watch any incoming weather with trepidation and automatically assume the worst especially when we see a front looming. And we had every right to be worried this last weekend, a max of 3 degrees predicted, with winds up to 7 meters a second, definite rain, sleet and probable snow, it was an anglers worst nightmare. Fishing to a backdrop of snowcapped mountains is […]