A day at Blithfield Reservoir proved to be an extraordinary day with lots of wildlife to be seen, large flocks of both Canada and Grey Lagged Geese and lots of Terns working the margins for the fry. It was also nice to see that the British Swan Mussel was their in abundance. As for the fishing it was tantalising and different. I ended up with 2 bronze bream weighing in at about 4lbs each, a couple of roach, 1 perch, 8 rainbow trout and an exquisite brown trout that weighed in at approximately 4 lbs. All in all an awesome day. All fish came to small wet patterns on a floating line. Great day's sport.

An early morning on The River Churnet produced some wonderful wild brown trout fishing. All fish came to the dries with lots of insect life on the water.

And May's and Spinners were the order of the afternoon when a few of us met up at a local reservoir under social distancing guidelines to have a play on the rainbow trout. Most of the fish fell to dry Mayfly patterns. As you can see by the photo Alan Mould was into another hard fighting fit as a fiddle rainbow trout of around 2.1/2 pound mark.

An afternoon out on the River Churnet with Rob Hartley Chairman of The Grayling Society. A very productive afternoon with some beautiful wild brown trout taken on dries and spiders on a Cane Rod with a silk line. We also had a few Grayling, that of course are out of season. These were a by-catch. May fly, Olives and Yellow Sally's were coming off for most of the late afternoon.

Images by Karl Humphries

Kingfisher, Dippers, Blackcap, Goldcrest, Sparrow Hawk, Peregrine... The day was complete before we'd even started to fish. The insect life was in abundance... A massive Grannom hatch was taking place with quite a few olives coming off too. Neil Darling was my fishing partner for the afternoon session, and he managed to bring two beautiful hard fighting rainbows to the net.

We had a total of four rainbow trout for the afternoon's session but who cares it was the first time out after lockdown with sanitizer at the ready.

(Images by Karl Humphries)

A few more flies I have been dressing, just to keep my hand in.
Hopefully having a day out fishing for some wild brown trout, cane rod, silk line tomorrow.

Cars washed, grass cut and edged, pointing done so it was time to tie a few more bling spiders.
It's all about occupying your time while we serve our time in solitary confinement.

With the Government locking us down for another 3 weeks due to COVID 19 its given fly tyers around the Country time to fill up their fly boxes in anticipation that not too far into the distant future we will be able to start fishing again.... River God's Willing.
I have spent the last few weeks topping up my fly boxes. Here are a few examples.

Full dressed Salmon Fly Green Highlander.