Last season had been memorable but I felt fished-out by the end of October. The early November holiday on Dartmoor was very relaxing and after returning home, I wasn’t minded to catch any more trout. I had fished three times a week throughout the season plus there were other occasions when I visited the river and lakes without fishing.

The Estate records revealed that I had fished on 77 occasions. I’d had a great time in the glorious Sussex countryside but I’d over cooked it. In 2019 I would cut down on the number of visits to the river and lakes and try to make more of the evenings.

I had returned every fish to the river and only retained 11 fish from the lakes. The catch and release experiment at Little Bognor had been a great success. It had been agreed to extend the trial to the other lakes until the weather warmed up. This would enable me to fish all of the waters without killing unwanted fish. I would no longer have to dump trout on my neighbours or the landlady at the pub.

The refurbishment of the Farlows rod I found in a jumble sale meant that I had two suitable split cane rods in my armoury. I will take the latest acquisition to the lakes as soon as the season opens and christen it with a couple of fish. The action of the cane rods will slow me down and their weight will force me to stop casting and rest for longer periods, no bad thing.

I delivered my 2018 diary to Otter Bookbinding at Midhurst yesterday and will collect it in a few weeks. It will be interesting to consult my notes from the last three years and compare the results with 2019. The winter weather so far has been mild and dry. The lawns already need cutting. I hope that we get rain during February and March and that the summer is not as hot as last year.

 

I am researching and planning my week fishing on the Derwent in Cumbria during early April. The fly boxes are filling up with replacements for the flies left in the bushes and trees along the river. I will need a good selection of heavily weighted flies. Without beads. I will use traditional flies, beads would ruin my holiday.

I have already made an entry in the calendar for Saturday 15 June so that I can celebrate ‘Fishing with Elgar’ at Little Bognor. I made a detour around Riverhill on the way to Midhurst yesterday and was shocked to see that the gnomes at Little Bognor were under attack. A digger and chainsaw shattered the tranquility of the valley. The guys from the Estate were amazed when I introduced them to the gnomes and they promised to be careful with the digger.