I did have some intention of having a few hours late on at Hendre, just to prove that I am an obstinate bastard. Or perhaps just to test a theory that the Bream are hogging the island for some reason, something Richey Candy mentioned he’d seen a few years back and seemed to be borne out by Dave Healey having to chuck 110 turns to the island yesterday to get bites. But I decided I’d better keep an eye on the weather because it had turned quite oppressive, and sure enough late afternoon saw a heavy thundery shower, so I was probably right to hold back.
In the event I busied myself with setting up my light/medium feeder rods and then spooling up and setting up most of my float rods in preparation for the impending river season, so all quite exciting really, definitely a time of year that I look forward to with keen anticipation. Quite how it looks and what I’ll be doing for the first few months though is still a bit up in the air. I’ve already been tipped off that two of the early RF qualifiers have been cancelled or postponed, which doesn’t directly impact me but does make me wonder if there may be more of the same yet to come. My first qualifier is on the Weaver, but I’d need to stay over on the 3rd of July and as I read it hospitality in England may be re-opening the next day!!! 170 miles each way, a good 3 hours plus trek. I think I’ll have to cancel that one, which is a shame because I would have liked to go and have a looksee.
I’ve dropped out of this year’s Severn Float League. The ongoing lockdown poses an obvious issue and is the stated reason for deferring my entry until next year. There are other issues where I feel as if the league has drifted too far from its original concept both in terms of timings and in terms of whether competitors are actually participating in the true spirit of it being a float-only event.
So I’ve signed up for a couple of July rounds of the Superleague in the hope that travel lockdown and other events will move on and allow for a safe and more-normal match fishing experience, and force myself to accept that this Summer may not end up being anything like what I had hoped for, but that is a minor niggle really given the impact the pandemic has already had on so many families, and the future impact to come from the economic fall-out. Although this may inevitably come across as a political viewpoint, it isn’t. I am just deeply saddened that the United Kingdom has ended up with such a high death toll and also be facing the worst economic downturn, it feels as if we got it badly wrong on more than one occasion.
26 Year ITCH 