Shaking off the cobwebs!

It has been an interesting couple of months, I find myself thinking remarkable un-urban thoughts such as where can I get firewood and don’t the stars look nice without their usual haze of urban street lighting. Because of all this I was thinking of re-branding the blog again, not that I won’t be fishing urban but because I have moved out the city. I would welcome your thoughts on that little conundrum, although it is a state of mind dammit!

Living outside the city is weird, there is surprisingly little litter and everyone has a dog, and there are more breeds than the standard Rottweiler or other miscellaneous devil dog. I really do feel as if I am kind of settling in.

On my own fishing front I appear to be spoilt for choice – I now have 4 rivers within striking distance with the big loch and a number of small lochs stuffed with Pike.  I was even walking through my local woods (I now have a gate at the bottom of my garden into some woods) and noticed some olives flying around, I think they came from a nearby burn which sadly look devoid of trout.

On the fishing front we had the opening day on the River Kelvin, it was a most grand day out with lovely bacon/sausage rolls, free whiskey and Paul Young kindly agreed to have the first cast on the river. For those foreigners and strange people that do not know who he is, Paul Young is the host of pretty much the only fishing show that everyone agrees on has the best format for a show where fishing is the focus – basically a guy goes fishing and catches fish! Who would have thought something like that would be universally accepted as the best format for a fishing show. You can catch some of them on the good old YouTube if you fancy it.

Alas, I did not get to cast a fly due to my Vice Chair duties ensuring that everything ran smoothly, to be fair I did not have to do much. I am trying to get the video sorted out however have put some pictures up on facebook if anyone is interested.

In other news I had my first bash at public speaking a week or so ago. Mark Caffrey over at Antermony Rise wrote a very nice write up over at his blog entitled The Urban Fly Fisher Loses his Cherry which leaves out the bits about alcohol fueled rantings and getting pulled down before I finally gave someone my view on Independence for Scotland (the chap who asked me to speak at the night knows my views so brought the hook out). Still, all in all it was an interesting experience which left me knowing I would be joining their most excellent club  if I lived a bit closer. After the talk their was a most excellent buffet with a fantastic quizz and raffle. Nobody even guarded the prizes like at the Kelvin AGM – it was great!

I received my life jacket today for using the float tube, I had read many various people on the internet saying you do not need one however I decided that for the sake of of a few pounds it would be a handy thing to have and if it saved the old life then that would be a bonus. I ended up buying the [amazon_link id=”B003AMJIQ2″ target=”_blank” ]Bluewave 150N Navy Manual Gas Lifejacket[/amazon_link] and it fits like a glove.

[amazon_image id=”B003AMJIQ2″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Bluewave 150N Navy Manual Gas Lifejacket[/amazon_image]

At the end of my talk to the Caurnie Angling club I rambled a bit about the chap that died last season on the Kelvin and asked everyone to look after themselves for the sake of their families. I reckon that this was another reason for me taking a plunge and buying a life vest – someone (one of my pals) unkindly told me I should have bought a stab proof vest instead!

This weekend all going well it should be a trip out on the tube after the Pike – hope you guys are having a great start to the season!