Having last week procured a wee small stretch of the river Wylye, Warren and I looked forward to an afternoon of some much needed graft as a precursor to fishing it for the very first time.

What an absolute calamity, I chose an entry route through an access field down to the river, stuck it in 4X4 ultra low drive and immediately grounded my vehicle on a pile of rocks and s**t (for want of a better description). So twas to shovel some s**t we went… for all of about an hour.

At last – down at the rivers edge

All tooled up, strimmers, saws, loppers and other implements with which to do ourselves harm

Some work to do both in and out of the water

Oops… not quite the right oil to petrol mixture me thinks… cough!

With Warren using my strimmer due to his having gone caput!… I go all Grim Reaper and scythe

We’re engulfed by strong, sweet smelling wild Garlic so prolific along this river bank… mmmm!

With a silt like river bed I anticipate good hatches of fly life from the burrowers

No Not these… tut!

these… our first Mayfly

Canopy slightly trimmed as the growth of foliage makes for weighty low hanging branches

She’s looking pretty, prim & proper… and oh so inviting, here’s looking to our first fish on Thursday

I’m hoping for a little less of the wet stuff so this stretch can drop a little and clear up to make its inhabitants that much easier to see… if there are any that is.