A days chucking fluff.

Saturday I found myself accompanying my father-in-law Sid on the 30 acre Great Pool at the Packington Estates trout fishery near Meriden where he is a member. It was a well over due belated birthday present and as Sid is an accomplished fluff chucker and willing to teach a novice I was looking forward to the day, The late Labrador, Ruddles used to be his boat partner so I had a lot to live up to.

I'm a novice to the apparent 'noble art',the basics I know but more theory than practice.In-fact the last time I fished for trout was probably about over 30 years ago when I fished a day ticket trout farm with my Dad when we were on holiday. A day ticket for Packington for example buys me a years membership for Warwick and District Angling Association so it does price some people out of the market, then again the annual membership would still be far less than a season ticket for a premiership football team and it's diving prima donna's.

You pays your money and takes your choice and all that however if you think about it, once you have the tackle I bet you wouldn't spend anything like you would do on coarse fishing tackle, rods and bait. It's my hobby and every man needs one but I dread to think how much I spend every year, just don't tell the Wife.

Elitist ? maybe the issue is available waters, apart from the odd stream and river that are stocked with trout via fly fishing clubs and the small amount of dedicated fisheries and reservoirs, living within Warwickshire you're a bit limited where you can fish for them. I prefer fishing flowing water, pools, lakes and canals I can give or take so if I could find a river within half an hour where I could fish in the coarse close season for wild brownies rather than fishing for non-native Zander in a dirty canal I'd be there like a shot. 

 

It's quite an exposed pool so chillier than I thought, a good day though. I won't go in to any details but I learnt loads and we ended up with 4 fish the biggest 3lb or so. The water was gin clear and it was nice to play the fish and being able to see the fight, I'm looking forward to the next time, just need to try and find a space in the father-in-laws stupidly busy diary. Cheers Sid.