Tracy&James | Wednesday, 6 August 2025
Last weekend I had my first proper fishing trip since returning from the Bahamas. This was the day before the BFCC casting event in Derbyshire, where Tracy and myself were treated to a day's fishing on the river Wye by Don. Don knows the Wye like the back of his hand and is a very keen entomologist, so fishing with him is always an education. Actually rather than fish himself, he chose to guide the pair of us, which I was very thankful for as the day progressed.
As I've detailed in previous FPs, I've been doing some casting practice since my injury,predominately left handed but more recently trying to reintroduce my right. I've had to make adjustments due to my lack of mobility in my fingers, mainly to my grip where I've switched to an index-finger-on-top hold just so I can use it to push the rod in order to rotate it. With my normal grip I was finding that I could not generate much in the way of rotational force because I cannot yet get my last two fingers to make contact with the rod handle. As an aside, my #5 left handed PB is now up to 112ft, set in the evening at the Game Fair a couple of weeks ago. I'm still intending to keep practising until I've hit 120ft with my left.
The day's fishing on the Wye didn't get off to a great start for me – my right hand went completely numb whilst carrying the #3 rod from the car up the beat to where we intended to start fishing. This was where Don stepped up to full ghillie mode and tied all my knots for me for the remainder of the day – actually I'm finding tying knots difficult even when my hand isn't numb – I simply can't make a fist that allows me to hold the leader to control it when performing such tasks.
The river itself was as low as it gets according to Don, who mentioned that they haven't had a significant rainfall in the area since spring. The temperature of the water was ok though at a steady 16 degrees C. Because of the conditions Don suggested that we concentrated on the deeper pools that were shaded by overhanging trees. There wasn't much in the way of hatching fly life however Don was confident that the trout would be looking up for unfortunate terrestrials falling out of the trees and armed us with floating beetle patterns.
My first take of the day was from rainbow (the Wye is the only river in the UK with a wild population) that was hard up against the far bank. My strike was extremely clumsy though, probably from a combination of lack of practice (last time I fished I was strip striking) and the fact my hand was numb. Theinevitable result was a broken tippet. My clumsiness continued throughout the day though I did get lucky on a number of occasions, landing a number of nice brown trout plus a lovely little rainbow (see pic of the day). Tracy fished with a lot more skill than me and was rewarded with one of the best days river fishing she's had – thanks Don!
At the casting competition the next day I think I did ok. The accuracy event was the hardest for me as I was still suffering from the previous day's exertions as far as my hand went. I lacked the fine control needed and struggled on the longest target. That said, it obviously wasn't a day for big scores and perhaps the swirly breeze was having more of an effect than my dodgy hand. With regards to the distance events, things are progressing. In the #5 I managed a cast over 120ft and I was pleasantly surprised by my 138ft cast with the #7. Hopefully I can continue to make progress before the next BFCC day.
Talking about distance casting, I have some prototype Celestial lines to try out this week. I'm really quite exited to get out and test these lines because I've got a feeling they are going to be really good – I had two casts with one immediately after the BFCC competition had finished and managed to beat Nick's winning #5 cast of 127ft with it. I just need to wait for the high winds we're having at the moment to subside, in order to get out and do a thorough assessment. I'll let you know how I go.
Hope you're having a good week,
James.