Putting Ian Mays ‘Oak’ F&B embellished rod stand to good use, many descended upon Bossington Estate last weekend for a charity Event organised by Gilly Bate amongst others in support of The Wessex Haven Appeal.

In the presence of some esteemed guests, volunteers and supporters, the day was to be filled with fishing demonstrations, falconry, shooting and many other countryside activities to keep them active.

Howard Taylor and Bill Latham early morning ready for the onslaught… (Note the word DRY)

Matt McHugh from Fly Odyssey extoling the virtues of fishing abroad for exotic species…

Jon Beer ready with his ingenious fly selector thingy!…

For those with deep pockets there was many a 4×4, painting or impressive bronze to be obtained so as to have pride of place in the North, South, East or West wing of your palatial estate.

The clock struck 10.50am and as forecast all but the clouds fell out of the sky, for the next nine hours or more there was literally no let up… the rain just kept coming, sometimes horizontally when accompanied by the howling winds.

It did sadly put a dampener on the joy of being outdoors. Many that had donned appropriate clothing to experience the fishing guided by a number of attending instructors enjoyed a great day, especially on the lake. Those slightly under prepared did what comes naturally at such events, take root in the hospitality tents and get ‘smashed’. Not quite what we all had in mind of course.

Never the less, the important reason for them being there was to raise money. There’s an upside to having lots of merry people in a marquee at the start of an auction for all the goodies supplied by so many great people, companies and folk throughout the UK.

In total and after all costs, £41,000 was raised for the charity which was astonishing given the day. Congratulations to all, and especially those that put in such hard work leading up to and on the day of the actual event, thanks Gilly for the invite.

The following day and in need of some solitude and less rain, friend Warren and I meet up with George and his son to drool over a mesmerising stretch of chalkstream at the bottom of his garden.

What a coincidence that we’d both arrived with fishing gear. Not needing to be asked twice whether we’d like to fish it… we did, even though the previous days rain ‘et al’ Bossington had applied here also… we cared not a jot for the colour.

Meandering through the valley…

…until reaching a likable spot to fish, that meant pretty much everywhere then. Tucking into several fish of which were no bigger than 4 inches or so, the place was truly stunning.

I wish this could say more about how it looked even on a miserable day!. Which leads nicely onto…

…yesterday, we hired the services of photographic expert Andy from Going Digital.

I’m a keen photographer all be it with many limitations. I have a decent but humble camera, I get and understand the terminology and technical stuff: ISO, SS, AV, P, EV and so on and so forth. But!…

…I didn’t have the wear-with-all to put them together or know what went with what to shoot ‘X’

Andy was superb, he dispelled many a myth and in such a way so as to make it easy to understand.

Composition, shutter speeds, ISO’s, flash use, matrix, spotting, macro, wildlife and landscapes to name but a few… in a word awesome. We extol to many a would be angler to seek guidance from a professional, if you want to know your camera and how to use it then do the same – you won’t regret it… I wish I’d done it years ago.

The only problem now is resisting the temptation to spend a shed load of money on a better camera and lenses, it’s becoming overwhelmingly difficult… I’ve a birthday in May.

Oh yes! my pictures on this blog or anywhere else for that matter, are they going to improve? errr… No (Just thought I’d manage expectations). It just means I’ve now got the skill to capture what I do already in the camera rather than having to post edit in Photoshop.

This one’s just for Fiona (Warren’s good lady)… Gorgeous ‘Fi’ thank you.

I might even get a chance to get out on the river shortly… they’re looking stunningly healthy, just need the tornado like conditions to wander elsewhere.

Good fishing all ~ Jim

Found: 1 rather large Sun, apparently lost way back when in August 2012… I found it but a mere 93,020,000 miles from the river, quite heavy at about two nonillion kilograms and approximately 4.60 billion feet wide… I was surprised to stumble on it, how lucky am I?

Would the owner please come and claim it, I think it belongs to someone in the tropics!

It was a finding and a prerequisite to a fantastic day on the river, the first of this season actually… all be it that such only started on the 1st April.

I was due to spend today with Simon Grimwade travelling across from Cardiff, unfortunately 15 minutes away from his first days fly fishing his car went into melt down. Spending the weekend in the area with his beloved – it wasn’t a great start, with a need to get it sorted we postponed the day for a future date.

Not wishing to put such a lovely day to waste I took the opportunity to wet a line for a wee while.

Even with a bright blue sky the early morning temperature barely got above 2d/c, made bearable in the absence of the wind which has been so harsh of late. Nothing much in the way of activity dictated a nymphing start.

The water was crystal clear… as seen from the river bed (up).

A non too ‘blingy’ fly therefor the food of choice… Warren’s superb Olive quill with a CDC hackle.

From a wading perspective the water was mirror like, speculating likely lies proved fruitful almost from the off.

Unfortunately as with trout post their season, the grayling hadn’t read the script.

They were nailing the fly with vigour and not a care for their own well being… nothing spectacular in terms of girth but crikey!, it was carnage.

11.12am registered the first Dark Olive, and the hope of something top side to come.

Sadly not, it was still far too early for the evasive trout. Fishing on into the early afternoon, the temperature rising throughout, activity at last. The first rise I see, it’s 1.15pm… another some 20 minutes later, followed by another, then another without lull.

Now tempted and happy that they’re more consistent… tis to an olive CDC imitation I am bound.

It took a while to get into the accuracy zone having spent many months extoling the fly fishermans version of ledgering… but once there, the fish were on song and not a grayling to follow, just a heady number of trout.

The sky may have a warming glow but the waters still ruddy cold… a couple of seconds and the fingers were done for.

Blessed be the start of a prosperous season, not wishing it to be a Red Letter Day, I hope yours is as much enjoyable as mine was today… and hopefully tomorrow.