No, my title doesn't mean the gypsies have moved in, although they have been camped on Hudson's field, hence the Woodford Valley has seen an increase in poaching over the last few weeks. No, in this instance I'm referring to the fact that Pike fishing season started on the 15th September. This and the lovely cold foggy mornings meant that I got a call suggesting a visit to the Avon after the toothy buggers.

With fingers of mist rolling around the Avon I set out in the early morning, accompanied by a lost Kiwi that appears to have adopted the Wiltshire rivers as his second home (hey Mark!).

After so many months of tying size 16-18 flies onto 6x tippet at the maximum and fishing lightly it comes as a real shock to break out the 10# rod and flies that are the size of many of the trout I'd been catching over the summer. That said we had a thoroughly pleasant few hours wading the stretches of the Avon just upstream of Salisbury centre. The technique was wade into the river about a rod's length from the reed beds/snags and cast a good distance downstream/across. Then jerk the fly past the reeds/snags a bit and watch for the sharking takes. I only managed to land a lonely 2-3lb jack pike, but missed a fair few and missed something pretty damn big 3 times in the same spot (I'll be back for you!). Mark had a bit more success with a few different sizes from Jack's up to something I'm guessing was 6-7lb-ish. The photo below is one of the smaller ones, but this one actually deigned to hold still long enough to get a photo, the others refused to participate.

The trout season may not have quite finished yet, but I've had to give the pike another go since Mark's visit. Faired a bit better but still no monsters to report. The winter's looking promising!

Some of you, if there is indeed any 'you' out there, will notice that I got rid of the first page on the site. I've been looking at what pages people visit and, well, that old home page didn't really do much so it's gone the way of the dodo.

Despite the temperatures being considerably down on the last month now and the tendrils of autumn steadily creeping their way in I've spent a bit of the last week, in between work, fishing. Mostly on the Nadder here in Wilton as it's so close. With yellowing leaves falling like snow around you (although if it was yellow snow falling around you it's time to get indoors) and our fishy friends stocking up ahead of the leaner winter months it really is a splendid time to get out on the water. Much as the middle of the day is the time to fish, from say 11 until 3, it's the morning that is most magical. There's something otherworldly about the light on the river before breakfast, greens are brighter, browns more earthy and subdued. Spiders webs glistening like pearls on gossamer threads and perhaps something that comes from moving with the slow deliberate care of the fisherman combined with the eye of a photographer, nature being less aware of your presence. This morning I saw voles, an otter, a heron and plenty of fish. One of these days I'll invest in a zoom lens so that I can get photos of these morning encounters, until then you'll just have to take my word for it, it's a great way to set you up for the day.





I was flicking through the TV last night, aimlessly looking for something other than a property, cooking or reality TV show when it struck me. Phil and bloody Kirsty have a lot to answer for. Relocation Relocation Relocation my arse. If I see one more show where smug city dwellers who's property values have tripled in 4 years decide they want a city pad and a country home I'm going to go postal and head out with a scalding latte and a toasted panini and smack any of the posh arses I can find. If Phil and Kirsty want a real challenge why don't they try to find a young couple who work in the local market town on a joint salary of around £25k (an arbitrary figure but it's got to be about right for many people) and find them a house in the country? Why not? Because it's bloody impossible, that's why not. Now I've had my argument with people over the years about incomers and the money they bring to the countryside but I'm afraid to say I think that's a big pile of horse poo. Half of these houses become weekend homes, or worse, holiday homes and the fleet of range rovers coming down the M3 loaded up with Waitrose bags from Battersea is testament to how little money these people actually bring to the rural economy.

So, you and your girlfiend/wife work maybe in Plumbase, or in town in Boots, what can you afford to buy in Wiltshire?


Ahhh living the rural Idyl...

We've had our first whiff of autumn this week. No, I don't mean that manure being spread on the fields as they give up their golden hues and return to freshly plowed brown, although thinking about it, it really does pong if you drive along Devizes road out of Salisbury at the moment - Poooh, quite literally. What I'm talking about is the single digit morning temperatures, the fog lingering until about 9am, cobwebs glistening in the dew. Even though by 11am it's back being summer again, for those few hours you can picture wooly hats, big jumpers and sunday pub lunches sitting by a roaring fire.

As a snowboarder this time of year is always marked by looking longingly at Burton snowboards catalogue, hushed conversations with friends about how you can get away to the mountains as many times as possible and daydreams of last frontier heli-ski. Maybe it's the drop in temperature, maybe it's the leaves starting to turn, but there is something in the air that makes you begin to prepare for Winter.

Another short update for me today, working too much as I'm in the last two weeks of my old job now. Off to pastures new (well, pretty old actually as I'm joining the National Trust) on the 1st of October. Somewhat daunting after nearly eight and-a-half years at the Building Research Establishment but I'm really starting to get excited now.

Photo's below are from a brief walk along the Nadder at Wilton this morning.















~ malcolm

Next year I really must remember to forget about fishing mayfly time. I always get excited in late May, but invariably it seems, the weather turns and duffers fortnight trickles into a fickle fishing, cold, soggy early summer instead. Late summer though. Ahhh, to my mind it's always the best fishing of the year. Particularly on the Nadder. The water is running crystal clear, there's a good flow this year (although still down on the LTA - see rainfall and flow info), the weed is gently wafting in the current and the weather has been really good for a couple of weeks. I've gotten a fair bit of fishing in over the last few weeks, in fact I spent an hour or two the other day lying in the vegetation on the river bank, letting a pool rest as it had just been fished, just watching the world and letting it all sink in; The cows munching in the field, the kingfishers swooping past, swallows (or swifts, I'm no twitcher I'm afraid) wheeling overhead like some avian battle of Britain display, the light catching the flies as they buzz the waters surface casting reflections like natures own disco ball. It all seeps into your conscious, replacing what we mistakenly think of as the real world; Mortgages, jobs, relationships, smashed wingmirrors (bloody yobs!).



I'm by no way obsessed with the subject of time although I do seem to think and write about it more than occasionally. I read an article on BBC News the other day, OK, quite a few days ago now, but it's remained in my thoughts. (here) There's allot of self help, management mumbojumbo that I really don't agree with, some that shows a huge ignorance of Einstein's work but inside all that is a real nugget of an idea that fishermen, I think will really get. We've all noticed that time on the riverbank disappears in a flash. What you think of as a quick hour spent fishing is all too often actually four hours in 'real' time. Holidays as a child were full of discovery and experience, focussing on seeing and doing, much as when fishing you are focussed on the environment;

What are the fish doing? What sort of fish is that? What sort of fly is that coming off? What's the weather doing? How far away is that line eating tree behind me? Can I get this piece of fur and feathers 15m upstream, under a bush without snagging on the branch or spooking the lovely brownie you spotted sitting in the shadows?

Your mind is full of the world, you are observing the minutiae of life. No longer thinking about all those mundane 'real world' issues. If you follow the theory you are slowing time by being more aware of everything in your surroundings.

So what else has been happening here apart from my meandering thoughts about the nature of time? Well, it's been a good summer for me and Joe. Lot's of play, lot's of outdoors, lot's of scrapes and bruises (but isn't that what little boys are supposed to do?). A couple photo's can replace a few more thousand words of waffle from me, so here goes!









Incidentally, I snapped my favorite little 6' Orvis rod the other day. A quick phone call to the nice chaps at Orvis in Andover, 20 minutes in the car and I had a nice shiney replacement. Although they don't make the 6' one anymore I just wanted to use these few words to say thank you. Great customer service as always. ~ Malcolm