Merry fly fisher: July 2014

Tuesday, 29 July 2014

Trusty old fujifilm

I've wanted a DSLR camera for a long time now, but its always been just a bit too expensive to treat myself too. So, as an effort to prove to myself it would be a good investment (ha!) I've been playing around with my old fujifilm, which although it's not a DSLR, at the time of purchase it was a pretty decent substitute. The only down side is it requires 4xAA batteries, and the memory card it uses is obsolete which means I can only take 26 pictures in a day (a whooping 128mb card...)

Also, before purchasing a brand new DSLR then immediately dropping it in the river, I thought I'd get practice using a camera on the river which wouldn't break my heart if it took a swim. Couple this with a few days out on the local beck and the River Swale, below are some of my amateur efforts.

Bank of the River Swale

Cream bodied nymph streamside

My attempt at shutter speed alteration

Macro crane fly

Edited to give a warmer feel

Red-legged Partridge

Macro flower

Beck trout

Easingwold countryside

CDC and Deer hair

Same trout different pose

Cream nymph again

Nothing spectacular but I'm quite happy with the outcome. I have edited a few with iPhoto, which offers all I need (or can get my head around!) at the moment.

Slovenia 2014

After the high success of the trip to Slovenia in September 2013, I decided to go again with Stuart Minnikin plus two others, Neil and Stuart J.

We stayed at Tilnik farm again, which is an amazing place. Remote, beautiful, excellent hosts in Kate and Brett plus some friendly pups.

It was another absolutely stonking trip. I had purchased a new Hardy 7'6 Jet with the CC reel especially for the trip (and beck fishing in the UK) on which I caught my biggest ever trout, a 3 1/2lb Rainbow which tore through three consecutive pools while I chased after it, before finally netting.

Revisited a beautiful mountain stream and had some very interesting hiking to get to the fishing spots! Never sweated as much in my life.

Had some fantastic food and wine, visited a local marble trout farm and had the pleasure of a guided day with Gregor Novak again.

Caught plenty of fish including nice marbles and rainbows, but still no elusive grayling (unlike Neil).

Already planning the next trip!