No doubt some enthusiasts will have been at it from dawn on English rivers and perhaps we may hear of the first fish later on today.  Some fish have been seen on lower beats but in very small numbers and given the current river conditions this is likely to be where any recent fish are holed up.

Things still seem in a state of flux in Wales with Angling Trust trying still to get some clarification from Welsh Government  Gook luck with that.
There was conflicting information yesterday where it seemed you could fish if you could walk to your fish but not drive.  Madness but everyone seems mad in Government these days.
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LATEST  Is this the first of the season?  Spinning.   Stan Turner, Quarry Pool. Aramstone.  Well done Stan

Or is this the first  Caught on a small fly am this morning  12lbs from Ross.

Or there again is it the one caught at Wyebank this morning by Dennis Corcoran
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In case you have not seen it the below article appeared in Trout and Salmon recently.  Written by a Tay Gilllie it sets out absolutely the situation we are facing.  The Tay still at the moment has a hatchery with a million eggs.  How much better are they in there rather than having been washed away by huge winter floods which they experienced too. 
They still have to battle with the Scottish Government to keep going and continue to fight for their rivers stock of salmon.  Same down here in Wales.  An obvious threat of a complete wipe out of salmon from our river with the,methods that have been tried at great cost and have failed.  The 'scientists' who have overseen the situation for decades are producing yet another salmon action plan when previous ones have failed.    As for Gillies loosing there jobs lets not even go there as there are less than a handful and only one or two full time.
We are denied any form of stocking even though the volunteers and some cash are out there and of course they nipped the WSA initiative in the bud.   The last paragraph says it all really and its WSA
who are the only ones fighting our corner it seems to me..  If you have not joined us yet perhaps you should.  They are the only ones seeking strong and urgent actions and representing the actual anglers on this river.  Go to WSA.co.uk and please join.

                                               HOOKED UP!


We all know of the dangers posed by a misdirected fly when fishing and once at Draycote reservoir I saw a guy come from the fishing lodge, on his way to hospital, with a size 8 lure smack in the eyeballwhich really brought home the danger.

Eye protection is essential and although never had one in my head I have experienced a couple of 'hookups' shall we say and the odd fly around my head or IN the middle of my back when gilleing in a boat.
However one day I was fishing with Mr Kennedy Brown, one of the guys who got Chew Valley fishery up and running.   We crossed over the river in the boat and things were not good with very w few fish about and we were not expecting much. The net was left in the boat.
Anyway he hooked a fish, a nice clean one of about 8lbs but we had nowhere to beach it whatsoever so I waded in knee deep and said I would tail the fish.  I probably tried before it was really done so apart from the tail grip I slipped my finger under its gill cover.   Big mistake.   Next thing was I was well and truly hooked up with fly in the gap between my thumb and forefinger and still in the fishes scissors.  Next couple of minutes were mayhem and extremely painful trying to stop the fish from thrashing around.  Eventually we got the hook out of the fishes mouth but my hand was a different proposition.   We cut the fly off the line, made our way back to the boat and returned to the lodge.
I was advised to go to hospital but spent a painful hour wiggling away at the hook and eventually I  got it free.
Mr Kennedy Brown was a nice old guy and one day I did a stupid thing.  He was fishing a very fast neck of rushing water and I walked up behind him and spoke but he never heard me so, and please don't do this to anyone, I tapped him on the shoulder.   He reacted as if the devil himself had touched him, nearly went in and spent several minutes recovering his composure which I don't really think he did for the rest of the day.

My other hook up was fishing for pike. Usual wire trace, two trebles and a dace as bait.  Went to cast out when there was a foul up on the bale arm as I cast.  The bait whipped around behind my head and clubbed me on thy right ear.  There I was with a hook in my ear, the other one in the collar of my Barbout jacket.   Managed to cut the wire trace and get the hook out of my jacket but not my ear.  This time it was a hospital job.  Builth Hospital was still in existence then and with a few grins and sniggers a doctor and nurse eventually did the job. Embarrassing as well as painful.  Be careful-  wear glasses,