Since my last blog mid February it feels like my feet haven’t really touched the ground, in more ways than one it’s probably true. Sarah and I are privileged to be able to fly over to Canada in February of each year to participate in the Canadian Challenge with ‘Team Taylor’ and travelling cohorts.
A long haul flight and even longer drive from Rocky Mountain House to Prince Albert is where the all consuming chaos transforms into a well oiled four legged machine.
Jillian’s on the move… mile zero… only another 320 miles to go.
Geared to the hilt with head cams, sled cams and all else I could get across the pond… I’ve hours worth of footage to scan and edit into something that looks something near plausible. Here’s a quick 11 minutes I put together whilst out there to capture some of the ‘trail’ and ‘tribulations’
During the Northern loop from La Ronge to Grand Mothers Bay we get to pass scenes like this… in melt the river Churchill has awesome power and presence. I’d love to put a fly through here!
Saskatchewan – I’ve yet to visit a place, in a time, where everything looked so crisp and clear, and with air that’s so clean, you felt healthy just breathing it. Even with temperatures plummeting to –29 d/c, there’s no summer holiday destination I’d ever swap for this.
That being said, I’m for ever finding my self trekking across frozen rivers that I’d truly love to fish. Winter holidays here make that otherwise impossible. I have however been invited back for a Team Taylor wedding in September, the Indian summer that has descended upon them for the past two years beckons again, and I get to do some fishing either side of the big day… River Red Deer and Bull trout here we come!
Returning to blighty it was then straight out on to the water for 3 days with fellow Vision WT member Tony Riley and all round great guy Albert who’d both journeyed down from Cumbria… some pleasure and Vision stuff would therefore ensue with the help of Ian May who took care of the photography and video.
Playing in fair weather we managed to tuck into some not so co-operative fish who took more convincing to come to the fly than we’d anticipated.
Albert changes to a more tempting morsel… one hopes.
One of his delectable shrimps was just to irresistible.
Tony meanwhile mixes it up, hopping between both dry and nymph as we fish on through.
Mixed fortunes throughout… all welcome admittedly
… but some were preferred
Following on from a great few days with the guys and having made sure they’d returned across the border and back North, I managed to snatch a day out with Warren. If you’re a follower of ESF you’ll know Warren from the many superb fly tutorials he’s published.
Using a nymph he’d concocted from another successful pattern, we fished the Nadders pocket waters and weirs with some ludicrous amounts shot, not to just sink the fly I might add but more to slow the whole system down…
Kersplosh!… you know the stone that downed Goliath?… Warren’s just cast it.
Warren’s thinking out of the box, success came for both of us. Nothing much bigger, we were sure we’d hit upon a particular generation of grayling.
Come midday I have the headache of all headaches (and I don’t get them ever!), instigated from a bout of man flew I picked up on the plane home from Canada in a cabin full of coughing, spluttering lepers… sniffle sniffle
Just going through the motions… 3, 2, 1 and stuff it, that’s me done and the season finished.
The grayling season is but for a week at an end, for some the trout season has already started. On most of my home waters however we have to wait until the 1st April.
Until then I’ll not regret some free time to catch up with a few guys, do some articles for the next ESF ezine, photography for the Vision website and spend part of next week in Cockermouth assessing at our next AAPGAI get together… did I say free time?
Tight lines all if your up and running, patience otherwise for those that aren’t. What ever stage you’re at be assured your fishing will not be affected through any lack of water which is more than can be said for last year… so if nowt else I’m definitely thankful for that.
Until we meet… Jim
