I have been away from my blog for a while busy with the odd day’s salmon fishing, off road driving, fly fair at Stoke, GAIA agm at Caer Beris, and becoming their chairman so where do I start.
Let’s try salmon fishing my last day of the season was Kinkell Bridge on the river Earn. It had been a while since I was last there and it turned out to be a pleasant day, no fish but a good day nevertheless. I fished the Murray’s and March pools in the morning and Machny in the afternoon. These are great bits of fly water but sadly no fish were responding to my flies. Saw a few moving but suspect that the water was a bit too high for the fly, at least it gave me to practice some casting left hand up.
I was a guest of Douglas Goodwin if Petrus and as always Douglas made a great lunch this time it was Simon Howie pies and claret, well done Douglas!
Off road driving, I had never tried it before and as Susie had a new Freelander we got a half day at the Land Rover place in Dunkeld so we all went up, it was half term and Lyle came to. The experience was superb I had never imagined that these cars did what we did. I drove a Discovery with Lyle in the back and Susie stayed at the Dunkeld House Hotel and relaxed.
We drove up and down very steep muddy hills, motored on an angle with the car leaning over incredibly, grounded the vehicle on a hillock and drove through water. I loved every minute of it if a little scared at times driving a £50,000 vehicle through some tight gaps in trees on slippery slopes. Now the good news the day was booked for a Freelander when we got there, there was not one available so they gave us another return visit for the Freelander so I am looking forward to that.
Stoke Fly Fair 2010, it had been a number of years since I had been there and loved it. Caught up with a number of old friends and saw some great demos, Paul Little as always great value and I managed to learn something from him about jay feathers. I bought some materials, a cape from Lakeland flies and bug bond from David Edwards, great value just for the uv torch.
How far have I got? Next is the GAIA assessments, CPD day and AGM, what a busy weekend. I have bagged some more assessments this time in a support role on my journey towards becoming a full blown assessor with GAIA. I still need to have a support role with a few more and it looks like it will take me another year or so to complete my apprenticeship.
I had a 1-2-1 with Mike Marshall whilst I was there and what an eye opener it turned out to be. What that man can do with distance and loops is amazing it was a delight to have been in his company.
CPD day was great a superb job by Philip Maher on the 5 essentials with a number of other demos including a couple from the BFCC by Mike Marshall and Mike Heritage, what great guys. The BFCC will be in Glasgow on the 11th September 2011 which should be fun.
The AGM well what can I say I am GAIA’s new Chairman so let’s see if I can make a difference.
