In spite of the snow still streaking the fells-sides there is warmth in the sun and on some days its actually felt a bit like summer….Mind you other days have been cold, horrible and hard fishing. If it is any consolation it’s not only fishing in the lake District that has been hard going. Last week I was down on the hallowed waters of Chew reservoir on my annual visit with the Chew valley Pikers – a bunch of scientific and fishery mega brains ( and me! ) who happen to love pike on the fly and we had a real hard time of it again. First two days we struggled to manage more than a few jacks but after finally working it out and fishing very slowly with a figure of eight and a tug tug retrieve we found some bigger fish. In one fabulous morning Ian and Alistair had a 26 each and Keith managed a 23. I had to be content with a fabulous pair of chew beasts which pulled the scales to 27 and 28lbs in a great hours fishing. Commiserations to Stuart Clough who shared the boat with me and lost two that just came unstuckl. Nice to get a real bend in the trusty LPXE fly rod though.

Incidentally if anyone is thinking of getting into the fly fishing for pike you must try the Guideline intermediate/sink 3 line. It really is the best out there for bite detection, turning over biggish flies and long casting with ease. Even John Horsey is singing their praises- check out the blog on his web site.. Meanwhile back home, the fishing in the Lake District is picking up and we also have a few salmon around…both Eden and Derwent are producing fish with two 25lb salmon off the Derwent last week and an evening rise on the Eden so things are looking up and I’m off out to find a few fish. I’ll keep you posted ,

Tarra, eric

First one -28lbs

Meanwhile ..on Derwentwater….winter returns

Then this one twenty minutes later