Rivers again :-)

Managed another river trip at the weekend.

Started on the River Ecclesbourne, this is a very overgrown river with the catching of tree trout a constant issue, however after crawling through the bushes got to a weir and managed to have a number of fish rising to a dry, but not taking, I could not convince them to take the fly either which was annoying.

Continued to crawl up river, and it was a shame to see so much overgrown with Bolsam....

Caught a few tree trout, but no real ones

In the end got sick of the trees so went to the dove, where I had a lot more luck, managed 3 lovely wild browns, all to dries on a day with little rising. Gave me a good run around for their size too.

All nicely warmed up for the DAM now

Beautiful Trout

Managed to visit Willersley Castle a few days ago, and whilst the day was tough it was good to get back out on the river again.

Tried many different dries, but getting takes and finding rising fish was a real challenge. However after seeing a lovely trout rise every 5 minutes or so, I chanced my luck and cast a fly over its head.....then the pleasing sight of a golden bar slowly rising and engulfing the fly....the fish gave me the run around up and down the river, and then once in the net I found the prettiest fish I have ever caught.

Video of Battle Trout 2011

Smoking Inspiration

After taking up fly fishing I discovered a problem experienced by many bitten by the bug.....what do you do with the fish you catch? Cook it? Eat it? Sell it? Bin it? After a while you get sick of eating it, your friends get sick of eating it and you dont want to keep throwing a good food source away. In the end I decided to build a small smoker.

This was a simple box with attached smoke generator. I bought some smoking pellets and thought this would be easy, however failed miserably with the smoker not producing enough smoke, and not brining the fish beforehand. The only thing I ever managed to do well were 2 chicken breasts which were simply yummy. The journey towards smoked food heaven had begun....

Being a thoughtful type my wife to be bought me a Smoky Jo course for Christmas 2010, which was just what I needed to learn a bit from the masters (mistresses does not seem quite right). I took the course in May 2011, and that is where the love story / smoking addiction began. Following the course we hot smoked some fish and vegetables, and also cold smoked some trout to great success in a snowbee with a cold smoke generator.

However the addiction got worse and the words still ring true from the missus, "If I had known it was going to cause this much hassle I would not have bought you the present" Her objections are not with the food, but with the new addition to our family:

Franchesca!

Born on a quite sunday in a back garden in Warwick, Fran lives outdoors next to the vegetable patch, and comes complete with working chimney.

Franchesca was put to the test for my birthday BBQ, where we smoked 2 sides of a 13lb Trout, sausages, garlic, bacon, peppers, cashew nuts and pistachio nuts. All were met with universal approval from guests! And the leftover trout still graces our scrambled egg breakfast.

It has been a great experience after the Smoky Jo course with 2 particular triumphs in the smoking department:

1) Smoked Beef Goulash - made in the same way as normal goulash but I cold smoked the beef for 4 hrs beforehand. Just make sure you cook it slowly. Also leaving it in the pan and eating it the next day infuses the paprika and smoky beef in better.

2) Smoked Chicken Caesar Salad - Added an extra edge to a classic.....lovely!!

Thanks to Smoky Jo and Georgina for the inspiration, the adventure continues.

Record Breaker

 
 
 

First time at lechlade this year, and the cold weather with an east wind did not bode well.

Still it was mission brownie, met up with Dusty and Brownie Basher, the terrible three reunited fishing for the first time in well over 12 months. Wives, Wives to be and babies do get in the way!

Not much was happening initially, however we set up camp on a bay at the bottom of the lake, full of trees and roots....superb brownie territory. BB was into one first, a definite double, then after a number of follows the tell tale heavy line was felt and my rod went over. A pretty large fight ensued, and eventually I got it to the net, 13lb 6oz, superb condition and my best ever trout :-)

Awesome.

Then true to form BB had another and lechlade being what she is, went off the boil like a light. Saw nothing for 3 hours and left for home. BB and dusty were still there so they may have had some luck later on.