Paul Krugvold fishing with guide John Kumiski had a fly

Talking with many farmers up and down the country, in my job as an environmental correspondent, it seems we might not get any fishing on our rivers or streams at all this season because of foot and mouth disease. Many still waters are closed. Those that are open, the weather hasn’t been so good and fishing imitative patterns has often been poor. Some anglers fishing lures have enjoyed good sport but it’s not for me. As I write this column in early May, the ocean fishing hasn’t yet come to life for bass, mullet and flounders. Yes, there are a few bass and flounders with the odd mullet to be caught, but until the end of May it’s probably a waste of time targeting these fish. Hopefully as you read this we will have had some warm weather to lift the ocean water temperatures and the fish will have become aggressive. Sadly, several of the better ocean fishing venues are out of bounds because of F&M. What’s annoyed me about this foot and mouth are some of the silly restrictions. On the banks of the river Aire at Keighly you can play golf but you cannot cast a fly. I am in agreement with no fishing but I feel many of the golf courses should also be closed where sheep graze on the other side of the fence. At this time of the year, apart from spending a lot of the time at the waters edge fly fishing, I also spend a considerable amount of time clearing up when the fish are not feeding. Clearing away all the plastic bags etc from the riverside and the trees and bushes that have been dumped by farmers and general public. This year it cannot be cleared away. Habitat work has come to a full stop. Bradford City AA fly fishing section members had been working all through the winter and just when they were coming to the end of their project everything was put on hold. I needed some fishing and stillwater fishing wasn’t at its best with the cold blustery weather. What could I do? You can only tie so many flies and pick up so much litter from the country lanes. The weather wasn’t even good enough for playing a round of golf. I didn’t want to write another letter, having already written dozens of letters to various Government Ministers and MP’s about the dangers in the use of disinfectant and the burying of cattle and sheep. Then, over the Easter break, I had a call from my friend Brandon asking about the fishing in the UK and wanting to come and visit. I told him the truth. The countryside was out of bounds. We couldn’t go fishing. I was honest, unlike our Government Ministers and spokespersons. The Tourism Minister Mrs Anderson on BBC Radio 5 breakfast programme in March said “The countryside is open, you can go fishing, swimming and sailing”. That just goes to show these people don’t know what is going on. I immediately sent an E-mail to the breakfast show presenter saying that there was no fishing on rivers and streams, and most stillwaters were closed. Who wanted to go swimming at this time of the year and, besides, many sailing venues were also out of bounds. The countryside wasn’t open! Thankfully the presenter read the E-mail out on the programme. I have since sent a letter to Mrs Anderson at the House of Commons asking her why she made these remarks without first checking her facts. No reply from the woman. But I wasn’t surprised. She will get a surprise when, during the coming General Election debate, I will attend one of her election meetings in Lancashire and pose the question in person, then watch her squirm and, no doubt, waffle. My friend Brandon then suggested I should go across to the States and do some fishing. Within ten minutes we had sorted out some dates and venues. We would spend a few days in Maryland then take a flight down to Titusville on the east coast of Florida where we would fish for snook, redfish, seatrout and perhaps get the chance of catching some cobia. Last month Chester angler John Sheekey had a cobia of 46lbs which took an hour forty minutes to land. The seatrout run big too: Paul Krugvold fishing with guide John Kumiski had a fly-caught fish of nine and a half pounds. Next day I called my travel agent and got some flights sorted out, Manchester to Baltimore changing in Newark, New Jersey. That would do for me. A few days before the trip Brandon called me and said “We have had a big fall of snow and the fish have moved offshore. Before the snow we had stripers to 28lbs on the fly but don’t worry we will probably find a few fish” I was a bit gutted at this news but hopefully it would turn out OK. Then some 12 hours before I was to fly out from Manchester I had an E-mail from Brandon saying:

“I hate to deliver some bad news, the flats are terrible. I am going to leave the decision up to you whether or not you come, but the fishing has been below poor. All the guides are cancelling and I am now at home. I have decided it’s not worth even giving it a try. The problem is we have been getting a lot of rain and the Susquehanna has been flowing strong, bringing mud down the river. The high flow rate on the river is back up again today and we do not see it getting any better for at least a week. It’s possible there might be a good chance of better fishing at the end of next week. There is a dam above the river where the gates have been open for the past week. Everyone here is quite upset about the whole thing. In addition we got a cold spell and it is going to be in the 20’s tonight; we had ice yesterday. Mud on top of that will shut these fish down, not that it can get any worse. I have been looking forward to having you for some time now, but to make such a long trip for terrible fishing is not really worth it in my opinion. Let me know what you think”. >