| Monday: | Paul Arden |
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| Tuesday: | Graeme Christie |
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| Wednesday: | Tracy&James |
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| Thursday: | Martyn White |
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| Friday: | Mika Lappalainen |
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| Saturday: | Rickard Gustafsson |
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| Sunday: | David Siskind |
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Debarbed
Monday, 6 July 2026
It’s been a great weekend for me. I grew up playing rugby which means I’ll always love the game. That’s how that works. Fantastic match between NZ and France. South Africa are just a machine. So skilled and hard up front. And I enjoyed watching Fiji. Great to see the Australians look better. Not sure what England’s direction is.
Ultimately, what it shows, I think, is that that you need depth. And, in the case of England, a complete reset. England has depth, flair and invention, but they don’t currently play that way.
NZ Winter Water at 450 Cumecs
Tuesday, 7 July 2026
In the South Island many rivers close for winter. Some of the big ones stay open all year. They're not the famous rivers. Often they're quite modified for power generation and water use, carrying the high rainfall of the southern mountains down to the coast. They hold very good trout numbers, and winter spawning movements put fish where you can find them.
A friend of mine does search and rescue on the lakes and winter rivers. His stories all start with someone who was sure they'd be fine. The big river was running at 450 cumecs, 200 cumecs higher than last year, slightly murky, which for fishing is often ideal. The river deserved respect, so Ronan Creane and I picked our water carefully and kept the wading conservative. The flow shut off access to some stretches, but that's winter. Snow was forecast. We got rain instead, at 2 to 3 degrees, so off we went.
Scottish Game Fair Casting Champion 2026
Wednesday, 8 July 2026
Tracy and I are both recovering from a very busy weekend at the Scottish Game Fair. Tracy chose to recover by going back to work in Scotland, whereas I managed to cadge a lift back to Wales from Chris so we could go fishing on the Elwy and the Dee. Before I start rambling I should begin with a huge 'thank you' to the team that helped us with the competitions at the weekend; Chris, Stewart and Jill gave up their weekend to work as volunteers. A new group were organising the fishing area this year and there were some 'hand over' issues between the old team and the new, this meant that the call for additional volunteers to help with the fly casting comps was overlooked, hence the BFCC crew had to work all three days without a break. It was tough!
More Sand Eels!
Thursday, 9 July 2026
This week I thought I’d share another sand eel, or sand lance, pattern. There are plenty of them around, some of them a lot more complicated than they need to be.
Price to pay
Friday, 10 July 2026
Silage is done, it was busy busy week. Saturday it was rainy and I had some cutted hay. I moved ready bales and had rest. Sunday was full day still with silage. I came out as winner from that week. We basically have all the bales we need for next winter already.
So now I can turn my head for fishing, and other life also. Monday and Wednesday was heavy rain, which was basically day off and handling some running things which has been forgotten for weeks. Wednesday was funny as I put human clothes on and had town day... I felt like human again, it was uncomfortable.
Walking and life
Saturday, 4 July 2026
Last week I shared my thoughts about strength and a bit of mobility and flexibility. That can seem a bit daunting. So I will share some ideas about something less daunting.
BOOM
Sunday, 5 July 2026
I’ve been back in LA since the wee hours Monday. I spent time Friday morning at the park - as the fourth approached - “where is everybody?” On holiday apparently. I took my recently repaired (don’t ask) HT8 out for a drive stringing it up with my WF5F SA Trout. I went to explore power application by experimenting with the maximum end of the scale.
