The Urban Fly Fisher

I decided to have a morning off of thinking about essay stuff and headed out for a couple of hours down the canal for Pike again. As usual, the weather all week has been fine – nice temps, no wind and generally good for the fly, however today the forecast was for rain and gales. [...]

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Hmmm, obsession. Scott shows us how it is done by sending this photo of a rather nice looking Pike. It fell to a roach deadbait and muses that it would be a lot of fun if caught on a fly rod…

I bet you it would !
It reminds me of my own personal best [...]

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Woke up - 8am - already things are not going well as I have slept in. I get my shit together and head out - the day is not looking good - pretty wild weather with a smattering of light rain. Still, I have been looking forward to this all week. It does not matter [...]

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I was starting to think my recent unsuccessful attempts at Pike were to do with pure technique and possibly choice of flies. I was glad then to hear other people have been struggling down on the Forth n Clyde as well - a recent commenter (Scott) has been struggling as well.
Still the tide (as they [...]

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Well, two sessions after Pike the last two weekends - result - nil points!
I took peoples advice and on the deeper sections (the canal basins) I used a fast sinking leader - it got the fly down deeper but did not manage to raise a Pike from the depths. After a couple of hours I [...]

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My wife was on nightshift – the plan was as soon as she got home I was going to have a morning Piking down at the Forth n Clyde canal. Unfortunately I had not factored in the neighbours BBQ, copious amounts of alcohol and a young chap from Bosnia who encouraged me to sample his [...]

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So the season is ended and now thoughts have turned to other matters – fly tying, grayling and Pike, although not necessarily in that order.

Usually by the end of the season most people are quite glad for the rest but somehow this year I remain restless. The plans made last year only seem half completed [...]

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