An old glass fly rod that was given to me by a neighbour of my mums, and a Hardy reel I purchased for seven quid in an antique shop in Hay on Wye was to have a good airing this morning up in the wilds of the Elenydd . I was undecided as to the location to be honest , but all the lakes are within spitting distance of my home really , so with the pokey westerly wind, that had a decided chill in it , I headed for an old favourite, the top end of Craig Goch reservoir ……
I was like a big kid at Christmas as I tackled up with the rod and reel ….. probably been sat in a garage gathering dust for years and years, well today these cookies were my weapons of choice, and I fished them as tactically and as precise as I would normally my Orvis or Sage rods. The action was very tippy, but surprisingly pleasant to cast, almost addictive in its motion !!!! The clicking of the Hardy reel was music to my ears, that quality British engineering , sadly becoming a thing of the past now, so it seems ….. Anyway , the good bit, my first fish , which took the Clan Chief variant, nailed it hard and it was lovely playing him on the old rod …. She was back to life !!!!! ….. and enjoying her voyage out in the Cambrian Mountains !!!! I worked along the Westerly shore, and there wasn’t a need to cast far, just three or four rod lengths out , bang plenty of hits , seven of them stuck this morning and made it to the net ….. fun fun fun !!! My combination of old tackle was revving up nicely …. Takes were either to my Clan chief on the point, or the Zulu on the dropper. Incidentally my dropper tag was very short because of the strength of the wind, I did only have a couple of snarl ups, which, considering it was blowing a hoolie wasn’t bad ……
A fun mornings sport , and lovely to get these old timers back in action. I’ll use these two veterans again next time I’m working a team of small wet flies along the shoreline of Craig Goch reservoir. As I write this the old fly rod which has its place with a few others in the corner of my lounge, now has a distinct ambience about her….. I often wonder with old rods and reels , what stories they could tell …. Anyway , this story is coming to a close for today , an excellent few hours with my new friends, and a few lovely brownies as well, can’t be bad 😉😉😉😉🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣
