one or two waistcoats at an amazing price

It surprised me for two reasons; firstly I didn’t have Mike down as being such a keen trout fisherman that he would venture out in the winter; secondly because I would have imagined that, as someone who is retired, he would chose a day to go with great care. He drove all of the way to Devon, when most people were happy to heed the advice being broadcast, that journeys should only be undertaken if they were essential. Is that keen? For much of the day Mike failed to get even the remotest sign of a take, but in the afternoon he moved his position slightly and proceeded to catch five trout in twenty minutes. I have often read that the fish are shoaled up somewhat in the cold weather – this seems to back that up!I spoke at length to Pete De Kremer on New Year’s Day. Although he hasn’t been out fishing, his regular fishing companion Nigel, who has relations living virtually on the banks of Rutland, has kept up his visits. He informed me that the fishing has been very good, and that there were good fish being banked right up to Christmas. It seems that with Rutland in winter, if you hit the right conditions, you can indeed have a very good day’s fishing. Where have I heard that before? Maybe somewhere along the lines of Rutland in the summer!With all this talk of fishing, I would like to be able to tell you that it inspired me to get out with my trout gear. No such story! I will happily go down to the river and fish for chub (that is when the river gets back within its banks!), or try for a pike or two, but I just cannot get any enthusiasm for trout fishing at this time of the year.What these telephone calls have done to me though, is kindle my enthusiasm to get my gear up together for the coming season. So to this end I have been to all of the local tackle shops to see what they have to offer in the sales. There are some great fly line bargains going at Veals in Bristol, and one or two of their rods are at a real knockdown price.There is a new Orvis shop in Bath, they too have some bargains – one or two waistcoats at an amazing price – but they did look like “specials” for the sale, rather than their standard range of gear. However, I happily whiled away a good half-hour just browsing. You should also look in the angling magazines for bargains; most of the big mail order firms have been having an end of year clearout. I spoke to my New Zealand friend Rene Vaz, who is at present working for Sportfish in Reading. He told me that their special “Christmas list” virtually sold out within two days! I must admit to being disappointed at missing a couple of the offers there myself!

I am going to carry on looking around – even though I don’t really want much – apart from that new rod, the new waistcoat, that landing net that I have been thinking about, and what about that lovely new vice that I have been promising myself…?