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Almost the New Season

 New season kicks off at Draycote on the 1st and Eyebrook on the 3rd, not sure I'll be able to get to either on the first weekend but in my mind have pencilled in the 2nd weekend of March for my first trip of 2023.

This year am looking to go a couple of times a month but this really will be weather dependant as I have no wish to be out on the water in 20 mile an hour winds, I will also be slightly favouring Eyebrook over Draycote as it has no sailing boats which can get quite irritating on Draycote (I am sure they find the anglers equally irritating!)

I will also try and fit in at least a couple of trips to LLyn Brenig once the weather has warmed up.

Setup has changed a bit since the start of last season, I then had one large bag (Wychwood Flow Extremis) with a 50 litre capacity, this got pretty heavy by the time all reels, flies,food,liquid etc were loaded in and with the expansion of the number of lines and flyboxes I now have just having them all in a large compartment wasn't ideal

Therefore have invested in 2 smaller bags

  • Vision Hardgear Bag which has numerous moveable inner dividers and some useful pockets in a divider and the lid, this holds all my fly lines, spools of tippet, hat, suncream etc
  • Snowbee Classic Large Trout Bag which holds everything else, mainly flies, liquids and food

Also changed my reels, had Wychwood Trufly SLA reels at the beginning of last season but found the spool changing to be a nightmare (since discovered that may have been a result of the line being on too tigthly which given the locking method seems plausible) which culminated in a really frustrating day where I couldn't change the spools on either of the reels and was stuck with a DI7 and DI5.

Immediately went out and bought Hardy Ultradisc Cassette reels and am immensley impressed with the ease of spool changing, expensive but worth it in my opinion

My old 30 year old sea trout rod has also been retired and replaced (currently) with a 10ft 7 weight Vision Onki which is an absolute revelation compared to my old John Norris 10ft 3inch, I say currently as I am also looking to try out the Vision 10ft 7 weight Stillmaniac before the season starts - several times last season I was thinking I should try a different line for a short while but did not as laziness set in, having two rods set up with different lines should hopefully reduce this tendency.

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