wet wet wet!

Tuesday was touch and go but the right decision was made to go ahead with some electro fishing on the middle Frome, lots of lovely wild Brown Trout, Grayling, a few Pike to 17lbs and more Dace than usual, and a big thank you to Scott and George from "Kingcombe Aquacare", more weed cutting in the evening and a supper of smoked escape Rainbow Trout.

Happy days...

Wednesday we got so wet that even my make shift carrier bag socks filled with RAIN water!

I neglected to take any pictures due to the rain, and my thanks go out to all involved with the extreme strimming and yet more weed cutting going on into the evening.

Today I was guiding for "Fishing Breaks" lots of Mayfly and a similar amount of fish to 3lbs 8 oz a great day!

Picture by Tony King..

When I set off to Hampshire at 6.30am I swung in at Bockhampton to check the Frome and it was well up and certainly not fishable, by my return at 8.30pm it was similar to yesterday, lots of Mayfly spinners, and looking good for tomorrow, crack on!!

Female Mayfly and chuck on my waders.

Bank Holiday RAIN

I should have gone fishing Friday evening, the Mayfly were pouring off where we were working, but I had some paper work to finish.

Snoozing after supper, a knock at the door and there's Ashley on his "fishing bike" and with him tales of a fantastic evening rise, one or two released fish, and the hard truth, that it is cheaper to cycle to the river than to take the school run 4 wheel drive!

Ashleys new "fishing bike"

Saturday was great, we managed a few miles mowing, but due to overnight rain running into Sunday we cancelled all further mowing! Then by after lunch it turned out nice, typical!

We had well over an inch or rain last night, and in torrential rain at 7.00am I set off for the River Nadder in Wiltshire to guide for "Fishing Breaks" only to arrive at a quickly rising River, good old UK weather, said my hello's and goodbuy's then headed south to find the Frome also colouring up, this could scupper our electro fishing plans for the morning.....

In between everything, I tried to resolve an on going duck weed problem!

I might struggle to sleep tonight....

19.49 update, Frome looks slightly coloured, good Mayfly hatch, lots of rising fish, could be OK tomorrow as long as the nights forcasted rain misses the Frome catchment....

Lovely...

Willow weaving

Firstly, I have to express my gratitude to my understanding family for their respect of my love for Chalk Streams, as always this time of year is really busy, I seem to be working seven days a week !!

Sleep seems to be last on the agenda, up early, out on the river, home, out again, dinner, paper work and blog!

Tomorrow we are again working on the Frome at Dorchester the whole team out en mass, catching up on all their beats, then if we have time some tree work on the Bere Stream.

We have spent a couple of days working at Little Wrackleford on a revetment project, amongst other things....

Long handled chainsaw fab......

Live Willow we love it....

Gentle day mowing

Great, sunshine, the Riverworks team out stocking various beats of the upper Frome with fine fish from Hooke Springs Trout farm, lots of mowing on some of the best fishing the River Frome has to offer, lots of anglers out making the most of the first Mayfly, I feel that next week we could be well and truly be into duffers fortnight!

We advise and assist with all stocking...

I even managed an hours fishing on the fabulous River Frome with my friend, tree surgeon Ashlea Cannon, who only started fly fishing eight weeks ago, he is doing really well, casting like a pro!
And he has a little fishing on the Frome that's new to me...

I love Dorset...

We need more time, it goes to fast, enjoy.....

Busy May....

What a frantic May, lots of river work, getting all our beats up together prior to Mayfly, then off to the Florida Keys for what turned into the fishing holiday of a life time!

Scott Rice from Kingcombe Aquacare, myself and Henry Gilbey (check out his fab diary), flew out to Miami, collected our rather fine hire car and sped off down to Marathon Key to meet up with Rodney Goodship who runs the ultimate sport fishing company "Fish the Dream" within hours of arriving we found ourselves at the famous "Seven Mile Bridge" and shortly found myself connected to a 150lb TARPON a dream come true.

Tarpon taming tackle...

Better pop this one back....

Scott and Henry Permit spotting

Scott and Rodney with Scotts 100lb Tarpon, then back for breakfast....

We had five days fishing with Henry, what a blast we had, fish of a life time, times many!

This guys photography is second to none, as is his company.....

The rest of our stay was nothing short of excellent, we eventually got on top of the fish, including an 80lb Grouper on a fly rod, fantastic fishing, weather and company a massive thanks to all involved!!!!!! till next time.........

A little light shopping before we left for the UK!

Back the UK a quick check of my beloved river Frome then off to the River Test for two days guiding for the superb company "Fishing Breaks".

The River Test....

None stop, dinner for 10 Saturday night and out fishing on Top Cat on Sunday.

And relax.....

Please just give me a mower and a gentle day by the River.......

Its Tarpon time

I can't remember the first time I dreamt about fishing for Tarpon, but it was a long time ago ... Dreams back then, but somehow with a little careful life planning and an understanding family, I have managed to turn that dream into reality.

I released my first Tarpon in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2004, which was sadly eaten by a massive Hammerhead only yards from the boat. I released three Tarpon on that trip the largest being 170 pounds, and lost another 14 !.

On one of those days I was constantly being pestered by a particularly large Shark, so on went a whole Mackerel and after a bit of a tussle we released a Bull Shark of between 700 and a thousand pounds ! I then found out that the IGFA record back then was a couple of pounds short of 700lbs.

So that was how the seed was sown. An obsession uncovered, my daughter has even insisted on calling one of her Guinea pigs "Tarpon" ....

Just tying up a few loose ends here, all our river beats are up to scratch, and were off for a few days to fish for the Silver King down in the Keys, "bring it on" as Henry would say ....

Oops, thats big.....