New Fishy House

New Fishy House

Tracy&James | Thursday, 21 June 2018

Apologies for missing last week’s FP, Tracy and I were in the middle of completing a house purchase and sorting things out got in the way. This purchase is hopefully going to result in some significant changes to our lives with fishing taking more of a top priority. We’re moving to St.Asaph in North Wales, a very small city (second smallest in the UK) that is on the banks of the river Elwy. The Elwy has a population of small brown trout (some of which I was watching rising to some unseen flies from the main road bridge just last weekend) and a run of sea trout if there’s sufficient water. Currently there’s not; it’s been very dry in N.Wales for quite a while now so the rivers in the region are presently very low.

We won’t be just relying on the Elwy though.  I’m looking forward to exploring the coast looking for bass and anything else that will take a fly.  I may even dust off my beach casting gear for winter fishing for whiting, codling and flat fish.  I’ll try and avoid the urge to resume pendulum casting practice and my unfulfilled ambition to cast a 5 ounce weight over 200 metres. 

There’s also the river Dee, I fished this on Sunday with Zhongxiang, Mark and Dylan.  TC (team China) and I fished one beat with Mark and Dylan heading downstream of us.  Meeting up at the Corwen bridge afterwards confirmed we all had a good day, certainly TC and I seemed to pick up fish pretty much all day, nothing big, but fun none the less.  The 35 minute drive back to our new house made me smile also (TC has proof that I smile occasionally); I’m certainly going to get to know the Dee a lot better given its proximity.

Our ‘moving in’ to St.Asaph consisted of putting two mugs, two breakfast bowls and a borrowed kettle in the kitchen.  This was because the car was jam-packed with BFCC equipment and fishing gear, ready for the Oswestry casting event and the Dee trip.  The casting was marred slightly by an un-mowed pitch but all the competitors did their best to counter the inevitable scruffy pick-ups and ticks.  I managed a couple of wins, in the #7 and T38, plus the overall event 1st place (the full results are on the FB page).  Interestingly the top 3 places in the world championship events that the BFCC run, the #5, ST27 and S55g, were all taken by casters who will be competing in Cumbria in August, members of the UK, Chinese and Japanese teams.

I think this weekend will see us after carp again plus some casting practice for me.  Tracy needs to take some time off due to an ongoing elbow injury – she should have come to the river Dee with me on Sunday instead of doing all that gardening at the new house.

Have a great weekend, James.

P.s. I’m hoping that some of our fishing friends will come and visit us in St.Asaph for fishing on the Dee or wherever.

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