• Home
• About Us
• News
• Links
• Show Schedule
• Paul's Diary
• Currency
• Basket
• Checkout
• Ordering Details
• Contact Us!

Friday 27th August 2010 A wet August has kept levels up in the river. I've had a few sessions, finding lots of small sewin of a pound or less; I think the bigger fish have all pushed up into the hills by now. There ought to be a salmon or two about, but I haven't seen any.
I've spent the last week clearing a houseful of mouldy old books. Unfortunately the owners were opposed to all of my interests so there was not a single sporting book in the place. It is still great fun going through an extensive library that has barely been touched for fifty years.
Today we are off to the East, taking my new edition of Fowler's Moon to show to the mouchers, fowlers and gypsies of the Fens.

Sunday 15th August 2010 OFFA met at the Talybont lakes on Thursday. Most of the OFs stayed at Llyn Conach so I headed off to Penrheiadr on my own. A cold north wind on a very warm lake was not conducive to success and all I caught were three perch. After sandwiches with the OFs I went to Llyn Nant-y-Cagal where it was still difficult but I started picking up a few little trout. Then it warmed up a little and I saw a sedge or two; then lost three surprisingly good trout, one after the other on sedgy patterns - a Dunkeld on the point and a small muddler on the top dropper.
The north wind veered just enough into the East for me to venture out in my bigger inflatable on Saturday. Outside the bar was pretty lumpy so I had to creep slowly up to the reef, where a wall of white water put paid to my ideas of bass fishing. Instead I anchored just short of the reef and caught some very nice bream until high water slack when everything stopped. I wasn't really enjoying sitting at anchor being thrown all over the place, so we drifted back past Tywyn catching plenty of good-sized mackerel and a few small gurnard. Back at the Aberdyfi Bar we anchored again but all I caught were half a dozen greater weevers; big ones all well over a pound. Minus head and poisonous dorsal spines, they were still big enough to make a good meal. A remarkably easy landing at Aberdyfi at low water rounded off a hassle-free and successful day.
Well, almost. I still had a couple of hours of cleaning, filleting and cooking, plus making a crock full of gravad mackerel, and brining a pile for smoking today.
Lots of gannets staying at Caeheulon this weekend so all came for a feeding frenzy at lunch-time today.

Saturday 7th August 2010 I should have been bass fishing in May and June because the weather has hardly been fit for it since. These wet and windy conditions are better for the river. I stayed out until one a.m. one night and surprised myself with an equally surprised three-pounder, then yesterday I went out in a gale, just catching a solitary sewin. So, nothing spectacular but at least I'm catching something every time, and there is always something interesting to see. A few sewin were jumping at the top of the Bridge Flats yesterday afternoon. Then, as I fished up towards them, a cormorant appeared, diving among them. You might imagine him chasing the sewin around the pool, but he surfaced with a flounder. Lots of kingfishers around but no otters this time. 
I give Jess a work-out some time every day, giving me an excuse to search for mushrooms and bilberries. The trouble with ceps (and mackerel, and mushrooms) is that it is feast or famine. At least ceps are easy to preserve. Unfortunately I'm also busy working so we just eat 'em.

Sunday 1st August 2010 Well, I got really wet on Friday night. At first I hooked sea trout smolts at every cast - thirty or forty of them I should think. A good sign for the future, although I was surprised to catch so many this late in the year. I usually see lots in the Spring. Once the light went, and I was thoroughly soaked, the smolts went off and I started catching small sewin - or finnock - or herling. I had half a dozen or so and kept the best two, packing up about eleven pm. Never touched anything bigger, but then I only took a floating line so I never dredged the pools. Every one of the sewin took a black seal's fur gold-head on the dropper - must get more of them!
To Llandeilo today, to collect a new dog, an already trained lab bitch called Jess. It's a shame to miss all the puppy stuff, but time is short and, if all goes well, I'll have two dogs working this season. This evening all  three dogs are in the run together, wondering what is going on.
On our way home we found masses of brilliant ceps. I'm going to have to spend time out with Jess, so I'll make sure I take my mushroom basket.

Friday 30th July 2010 The Game Fair was great as usual. Loads to see, loads of customers to talk to, lots of bacon sandwiches and beer, several jolly author-signings, a few new books to pick up (including Robert Bucknell's new Foxing book), two nice collections of antiquarian books collected, and we all got home safe with a pocketful of money to bank. Our site at Ragley was, as I had anticipated, superb.
After a couple of days unloading and recuperating I tried an hour on the river on Wednesday afternoon. Trout and parr continually splashed at the little muddler on the dropper, but a satisfyingly fat two-pounder took the slim stoat's tail on the point so I was happy enough - again!
Yesterday afternoon Dewi had to go fishing so we headed for the estuary. Arrived at Ynyslas just in time to watch the bomb disposal squad blowing up an (until then) unexploded bomb. Found just a few tiny shrimps among the baby turbots, then went home with parasol mushrooms and samphire for tea.
Tonight it is really wet. Friday is "members only" so the river will be quiet. I think I'll brave the rain and give it a try into the dusk.

Sunday 18th July 2010 Well - despite being busy preparing for the Game Fair I have managed to wet a line every other day. On Sunday it was just a quick evening session, trying my small inflateable with my little 2hp engine. It proved adequate, but not fast enough to catch up with the gannets that were dive-bombing a mile or so out.
On Tuesday and Thursday I was summoned by the OFs, first to Aberystwyth where we found a few bream and plenty of mackerel, then to Lake Vyrnwy. Despite a wet and windy forecast, it proved to be a splendid and very civilised day, starting at 10am with bacon sandwiches, breaking at one for a long and sociable lunch, then sleeping it off in the boat for the afternoon. No, that's not true. I was wide awake and winkled out fish throughout the day; half a dozen rainbows, a handful of wild brownies and a solitary chub. The lake fished just as I remembered from last time I was there, almost thirty years ago! I fished a short, short line, flicking it against the stones on the rocky shore, and the fish took the small natural muddler on the top dropper every time.
Back home over the high and misty Bwlch y Groes, the mountain rivulets were gushing and I had hopes of sea-trout for the morrow.
Friday saw a brown, dirty spate so it was Saturday morning before I ventured out. I caught the fining flood perfectly and, spinning an artificial minnow, hit sea-trout almost immediately. In an hour I hooked six; three came off, I returned two and I kept one of just over three pounds. Then I was joined by a family of otters who played and gambolled upstream towards me until they were pretty much around my feet. It was either two families or one large one, because two of them cleared off downriver, while three remained close to me for an hour, working upstream with me as I headed back to the car. What a morning!
Today it's pouring again (fishing Monday?) but I'm off to Ragley to deliver the first installment of stock to my stand at the CLA.

Thursday 8th July 2010 Home from the hills, still laden with books. We did sell some cheap stuff but the better books were taken for a thousand-mile ride and are safely home again. Let's hope that they find kind owners when we take them to our splendid stand at the CLA Game Fair at Ragley. After years of enduring my complaints the CLA management have at last seen sense, and have designed the whole Game Fair centred around my stand. It was really the obvious solution - like a spider's web with Coch-y-Bonddu Books at the centre and the rows, gunmaker's, fisherman's, etc., all radiating out.
Ben and I had great weather for our excursion and ventured as far north as bonny Peterhead in search of the £1000 mackerel. It provided a fillet apiece and made the whole trip worthwhile.
Apart from preparing for the CLA - which is going to involve buying a new vehicle - there is some urgency for me to edit our translation of Plu Stiniog - Trout Flies for North Wales. It is a sad state of affairs when I can't go fishing because I have got to spend my time writing about it.

Tuesday 22nd June 2010 Glorious summer and I could be full-time in the garden; planting, potting, watering and harvesting. Of course, we can't actually see the garden for the flotilla of redundant boats.
I have just managed one sun-baked expedition to Clywedog where Mr B of Ludlow thrashed me with his cane rod and silk line.
The Welsh Game Fair was fine; sociable and we sold a few books. We're off later in the week to Northern Ireland and then on to the Scottish Game Fair at Scone, so there'll be no more news until July. Then I'm going to catch some bass!

Friday 11th June 2010 No mackerel in Aberystwyth. Or, at least, not enough for smoking, pickling, sushi-ing and barbecuing. Just enough for bait to catch a few black bream. Actually it was a very nice day with a wide range of species of fish to keep us entertained- from octopus and spider crab to bull huss and codling. Expecting mackerel, I had invited my mother to tea. Luckily I was rescued by a nice fat codling.
Last evening I ventured onto the moors after a trout. A useful point fly for the hill lakes is a small red-tagged stick-fly. On this occasion every trout took the point fly well below the surface, ignoring the juicy palmers on the droppers; so much so that I put another red tag on the top dropper. I had no idea why until I got home and cleaned my fish; all were full of daphnia. So, that bright spot of red must be the trigger. I would have bet on a palmer working, imitating sedges or moths, so my choice of point fly was a stroke of luck that paid off.

Saturday 5th June 2010 That bloody rib! It didn't bother me until I got to Holland but then deteriorated severely. Luckily I drove home before the worst of it, but it is quite a nuisance now, curtailing my sleep and my fishing.
Holland was lots of fun. The fair was at a lovely new riverside site and the company was as convivial as ever. No fishing but watched lots of hares, waders, waterfowl and a few roe deer. I saw a feeding frenzy of cormorants that was worthy of an Okavango barbel-run; let's hope it was bream they were chasing. I wonder if the underwater predators were as active below the surface as the birds were above?
I've missed the best of the sedge on the hill lakes, and great weather and tides for bass and black bream. But I do have another OFFA trip scheduled for Tuesday, out of Aberystwyth with Dave Taylor, so I'm determined to be rested and cured by then.
In the meantime I am using my enforced inactivity to produce a second edition of the 2010 catalogue, and doing some editing of our autumn titles. And supervising Ceri doing the vegetable garden. If I'm not fit to go fishing, I'm certainly not fit to plant leeks!
Today I've been entertained by a fledging family of mistle thrushes in the ivy tree beside my greenhouse, all now too big for the nest, but still sitting around waiting to be fed. The parents bring a beakful of insects, then top them up with ivy-berries from around their nest-site.

Tuesday 25th May 2010 I resisted the lakes but succumbed to the sea, joining the OF's on a boat trip from Rhyl yesterday. The heat-weave abated and we donned all our spare clothes as we bumped our way out of the rivermouth. Out amongst the wind-farms we were busy all day hauling in gurnards, dabs and whitings, mostly too small to keep but a few better ones, and some lovely big mackerel.
As I leaned over the rail at the end of the day I felt a rib crack! Or at least click. I don't suppose it's serious but will be an inconvenience today as I run up and down stairs with boxes of books for Holland.

Friday 21st May 2010 Summer is here and there are not enough hours to do everything. My beans are in and tomatoes and cucumbers are mostly in position. We are eating nothing but salads. But I have to produce a new catalogue, and to prepare for the Dutch Flyfishing Fair next week. With this warm weather the sedge will be on the lakes. Can I resist the temptation?
Today I have to make space for four pallets of books from America. The greater quantity are copies of Fred Buller's Giant Salmon book. I'm very pleased to have them.

Tuesday 19th May 2010 Up early yesterday and took the rubber duck for a troll around the reef. I couldn't find the bass, although I know they are around. The couple of small pollack I caught on the troll served as bait when I anchored on the bream grounds. No bream (or mackerel) but I was pestered by a big tope that tried to grab a sea-scorpion as I was lifting it from the water, then took the next small fish that I hooked and made my reel sing. I returned one more small codling before heading back up the river.
So, nothing in the bag but still a reasonably successful maiden voyage.
I needed a siesta before returning to work!

Monday 17th May 2010 Further meetings last week led to good progress being made on Plu Eryri, Plu 'Stiniog, Nigel and Corona and Fowler's Moon. I managed to tie one in with Porthmadog and came home with my new small inflatable.
I put it all together this evening and piled the lot into the back of the van. It fitted perfectly! So tomorrow morning I'll christen it (her?) on the estuary and try her with my two different outboards. Might even take a rod.

Tuesday 11th May 2010 Skunked again. A successful meeting on "Plu Eryri", then, as Porthmadog is postponed I thought I'd try three new lakes in Ardudwy. When I got to the first, Llyn y Fedw, the north wind blew cold, the rain lashed down, and I saw nothing. It would have been foolish to continue to the other lakes so I gave up. As I left, the cloud lifted to reveal the most magnificent view, with Portmeirion and Porthmadog below, then Criccieth and the whole of the Lleyn Peninsular.
As a consolation I went down to Llanbedr and found Cook's Dam or Llyn Cwm Nantcol.What a contrast! A dam across a steep wooded valley forms a small dark, tree-girt, pool. Nowhere to cast a fly, it is used as an any-method stocked fishery for the village. Interesting; but not for me.

Sunday 9th May 2010 Clywedog skunked me! I was led astray by the odd rising fish, and the sight of a World Champion fishfisher drifting ahead of me and pulling them in like mackerel. I should have gone back to my car for a heavier rod and sinking line rather than keeping on trying to cover rises. One of the OFs caught a monster - a brownie of eight pounds - fishing deep near the cages.
Think I might go back this week and fish seriously.
Meetings in North Wales tomorrow- though I might put a rod in the car. And I hope to be distracted by a visit to the boatyard in Porthmadog.

Thursday 6th May 2010 I tried for an April bass last week but the weather was rough and miserable. First cast from the rocks and I got a wave over my head and was soaked despite waders and waterproofs. So I went home and ate my bait. Well, prawns aren't so bad.
The Falconers' Fair at the weekend was low-key. The severe drop in temperature didn't help.
Today I have to answer the call to OFFA again, this time not so far away; boats are booked at Llyn Clywedog.

Tuesday 27th April 2010 The Old Fart's Fishing Association met at Llyn Cwm Dulyn. It was very windy - which I didn't mind, and the bottom was lousy for wading - which I did mind. I caught a few troutlings and had a pleasant sociable morning with the OF's. Then, seeing the afternoon free, I dashed down to Llanbedr to buy my permit and drove up to Llyn Bodlyn. Bright and windy there, with no fish moving, but I had four lovely trout of six ounces apiece. Still plenty of time so I climbed the hill to Llyn Dulyn (another Dulyn) fishing up the stream as I went. I caught a few from the stream but very small. Dulyn was dour on my last visit over twenty years ago, and it wasn't much different this time. Half way around the lake was a comfortable rock to sit on, so I rested a while and let my flies sink, resulting in one six-inch trout. Not the half-pounders that Gallichan and Ward promised me. Ravens and a lizard were my company. Perhaps I'll go back in September.

Monday 26th April 2010 Yesterday I celebrated the end of the sunny spell by making my first visit to the hill lakes. It was pretty cold and nothing moved on the surface, despite a hatch of olives on Coch Hwyad. Coch Hwyad was very low, reducing the fishable area by about half and concentrating the fish so that every cast produced a perch. Keeping my flies close to the surface I had three trout- good enough considering the conditions.
I tried an hour on Gwyddior late in the afternoon. No fly-life there, but by letting a goldhead sink down over the drop-off I winkled out two Gwyddior trout, weighing three pounds the brace.
To North Wales tomorrow for a very important OFFA meeting. I will report back.                 

Sunday April 18th 2010 I'd wouldn't last five minutes sitting in a bivvy. I tried an early prospect for prawns and bass on Thursday. There were prawns aplenty so I tried one under a float for a bass. Ten minutes was enough to persuade me that the bass weren't there yet, so I went chasing more prawns.
Earlier in the week I made my annual visit to Llyn Clywedog. A cool breeze with bright sunshine didn't help much, but I caught a couple of trouts. I lost two others because the flies that have lived in my cap for the past ten years must be starting to rust beneath their dressings. Luke-from-the-shop came along and caught his first rainbow trout. Swallows and sand martins were hawking fruitlessly - there were no insects and no fish moved.
To London this morning to the International Book Fair.

Wednesday 24th March 2010 No sport in March, so I've immersed myself in bibliography. Extending Hampton's work to include the important coarse fishing books of the 1960s has taken all my spare time.
I walked around the garden with my new garden-gun yesterday, but still no excuse to try it out. I haven't seen a rat for months, the squirrels have all been run over, and the magpies sit, out of range, at the top of the bare poplar tree across the road, where they can watch the comings and goings of the blackbirds and collared doves, marking their nest-sites.
Off to the east today - delivering Ceri to the airport for Nantes before turning northward to visit authors and booksellers.

Monday 1st March 2010 March! Almost time for trout fishing.
I had one more flight before the season finished. I never fired a shot this time - it is different every time you go to the estuary.
A big, big tide today so I thought I'd pop down there again, this time for mussels for dinner. I was disappointed- no infuriated- to find a gang of about twenty people working with rakes, nets and quad bikes, clearing the Aberdyfi mussel beds. There's nothing I can do about it, so I found a small rocky headland further up river and collected a few. I wouldn't mind a bit if these were locals but I didn't recognise any of them and they left the beds bare.
I was in Newark for the Shooting Show at the weekend. Luckily I realised how close I was to the Gorkha Square Nepalese restaurant at Grantham and raided it for wonderful scallops and flaming Lamb Ran. The shooters didn't pay much attention to my books. We'll have to see whether the flyfishers are any better next week. At least I'll have an excuse to try something else from the Gorkha menu.
This morning I decided that I need to sell more books so I called the organisers of The West Country Game Fair and offered my services. So, straight after the Spring Flyfair I'll be off to Somerset.

Saturday 13th February 2010 I had two very different flights on the estuary this week. On Tuesday I was out on the sands an hour before dusk. High water was at dusk but it was a really small tide so I knew that I wouldn't have to move. We seldom see grey geese on the Dyfi, but they were everywhere on Tuesday. A small group of greylags passed me within range almost immediately, then two packs of whitefronts appeared high in the southern sky, whiffling down to land not far from where I was lying. Later, a huge skein of geese, possibly pinkfeet - it is unusual to see any of the others in such numbers - passed over the estuary from south to north without stopping. We do not shoot grey geese here so all passed unsaluted. However, throughout all this groups of Canadas were moving about, flying low despite the bright still afternoon. Then, when it was pretty dark, a lot of Canadas flighted all around me. They sounded close in the clear conditions, but none came right over my head and I walked off the marsh empty-handed.
Last night was a bigger tide, topping at 7.30 - just about when I would be coming off, so to be on the safe side I wore my heavy chest-waders. The weather was still calm and frosty so I was hoping that the teal would have moved off the hill lakes, and down to the saltwater. I went early enough to walk half the length of the bog, crossing the channels at right-angles to get a chance at jumping birds hidden below the high banks. The teal were there, all together in a huge flock on the Afon Ddu. An easy stalk before they jumped resulted in three in the bag. Walking a big circle in an area riddled with small channels resulted in three wigeon and a mallard drake before I settled down with a bar of chocolate around five o'clock to await the flight. As always, that last hour, sitting facing the settling sun and Aberdyfi across the water, is glorious and it doesn't really matter if nothing comes. There is always something going on to hold my attention. Well, last night it wasn't ducks or geese, so I sat watching the tide race in until it reached my feet and I had to move.

Sunday 7th February 2010 Modesty prevents me from describing the last two days at the birds in Llanbrynmair. I will just say that I contributed considerably to both days' bags, and now everyone refers to me as "Poacher Morgan."
Yesterday was spent with the chainsaw rather than the gun, and in shirt-sleeves. It was great to be out in the sun and I was able to give my pyromaniac tendencies full rein, but the aches and pains were considerably greater than those following a day's shooting.
The forecast promises the possibility of a foreshore duck so I'm not desk-bound yet.

Thursday 28th January 2010 Yesterday afternoon was probably our last chance at Tom's birds. I got stuck in a fierce thicket of clear-felled spruces, head-high in brambles, where all the woodcocks in the county seemed to have gathered. I came out of the other end with four 'cock and a pheasant, but must have seen or heard twenty or thirty more woodcock getting up. Copper did wonderfully well in the impenetrable cover; flushing some and fighting the brambles to find the few that I killed. Ben and I finished the day with five woodcock and five cock pheasants and I spent the evening (after my pheasant suet pudding) with Ceri digging thorns out of my head.

Sunday 24th January 2010 The last two Saturdays in Llanbrynmair I've had lots of sport. Now that we are spending less time standing on pegs and more walking the boundaries and dogging-in odd bits of rough we are getting more opportunities for an odd shot at a snipe or a woodcock. Even when I have stood on a peg the birds seem to have headed straight for me and I've even been hitting a few of them. My companions are vying to stand next to me. Except for the taxidermist who is in deep disgrace for murdering Emyr's Reeves pheasant.
Yesterday was a great day to be out. There was thick cloud or fog in the valleys but I was able to walk the high ground in the sunshine, often out of sight of the guns standing in the chilly mist below. We brought to bag a few of those wily birds that had been sneaking off up the hills. Later in the day we lost the sun and I stood in a Gothic dusk on the last drive as woodcock flitted about the tops of the trees, but never offering a safe shot.
Ben and I visited Tom on Thursday. The worst of the snow had gone and the birds had returned. We had to hunt every one, but finished up with a fine bag - half a dozen pheasants, a couple of woodcock and a rabbit.

Wednesday 20th January 2010 I revisited the estuary on Monday in calm mild conditions. I was lucky to jump a drake mallard off a creek because nothing moved at flight-time. The geese came after dark so I could hear them but see nothing. Sound carries so clearly on a still night that the few birds I heard were probably far away. I wasted an hour by stupidly missing my way and heading the wrong way along the railway for half a mile or so, before realising that I was going in the wrong direction. Never done that before! It shows how easy a stranger could get into trouble. Perhaps I should carry my GPS. For the odd occasion when it is foggy, or as in this case, pitch dark, it could prove really useful.

Thursday 14th January 2010 As temperatures rose my 4x4 decided to start working again so we ventured over the Montgomeryshire hills to see Tom. The world was much whiter there and we trudged around for an hour or two in lots of snow. The snow covering had driven away the birds but it made rabbits more visible. I put one rabbit in the bag, and an old cock pheasant, and spared a couple of hares, before sliding off home.
BASC don't seem to have a clue what to do when the weather gets hard. We had several days when they asked for restraint, then they asked the local wildfowling club not to issue permits despite saying that the ban was still voluntary. All responsible fowlers show restraint, and anyway there is a legal ban after prolonged hard weather, but BASC are so nervous that, as soon as we get some proper fowling weather they start to interfere. It would be much better if they acted firmly based on actual conditions, leaving us alone until a ban becomes necessary. Welsh estuaries have a mild climate and lots of food, and birds seldom lose condition. The teal and wigeon that I shot last week were fat, as were the two canada geese that I have been given. I dressed one last night - weighing ten pounds and full of fat. The other weighs thirteen pounds and may be a candidate for a curry.

Sunday 10th January 2010 I tried the estuary again next evening- a mile or so further upstream. This time there was lots going on, especially at flight-time. I saw and heard a lot of geese - greys and canadas, and mallards, but most stayed out of range. Even so I came home with half a dozen teal and a wigeon.
Extreme cold stopped the new 4x4 starting at the end of the week, so the ducks were left in peace. On Saturday we had a beautiful day in Llanbrynmair, the trees laden with snow and woodcock flitting everywhere. There were far fewer pheasants than a few weeks ago but a very worthwhile day. The frozen rivers were spectacular.

Wednesday 6th January 2010 Driving home from Shrewsbury at 5am on the morning that Dad died, the Range Rover overheated and expired. I'm not sure whether it is worth a new engine so, while I think about it, I've bought a cheap Ford Explorer. Already, in this hard weather, it is proving worthwhile as a four wheel drive.
I didn't feel well last week so I missed a spectacular snowy day at Llanbrynmair with the High Drive showing its best birds ever, and lots of woodcock.
Yesterday I ventured onto the estuary in the afternoon. Someone was having some sport further upstream but little moved where I was. Then, about 5.30 someone started a firework display on Ynyslas, only half a mile away! The sky was lit up and it sounded like the Somme. I heard the roar of a host of wigeon clearing off, but saw nothing.

Thursday 23rd December 2009 I'm back! Actually, I haven't been anywhere. Lousy weather, a busy time in the shop, and my father's final illness all conspired to keep me desk-bound and with little thought for sport.
On the good side, we seem to have managed to send out all your Christmas books with few delays or problems. I managed a couple of very wet days in Llanbrynmair early in the month, bringing a few pheasants home. The current weather, despite almost disrupting Dad's funeral, and making it pretty hard for my staff to get to work, should have pushed some woodcock in, and, if I'm quick, I might get to the estuary before the hill lakes thaw and the duck all disappear again.

Thursday 19th November 2009 I missed our first shoot day in Llanbrynmair as I was at the Flyfair. The day turned out so rotten that they abandoned it half-way through and arranged an extra day last Saturday. That day, too, was pretty miserable but there were a lot of birds about. We chivvied them around a bit, teaching them to fly. There were quite a few woodcock in the thick stuff but they just flicked deeper into the woods and none were shot.
I had planned a foray for shellfish yesterday but a huge flood closed most of the roads in and out of Machynlleth. The builders chose a good week to work on my chimneys. Hywel, sitting on the roof, turned to speak to me and his hat took off - up and away and still going as far as we know! I expect he'll put it on the bill.
We have excavated both fireplaces and now have two inglenooks and a brace of new woodstoves to warm them. I've got wood for this winter but I'd better get cracking on next year's supplies.

Tuesday 10th November 2009 Still dealing with the aftermath of the Flyfair at the weekend. We had a terrific time! The de luxe Masterclasses were delivered by the binders as promised. The binding with the stonefly nymphs inset were stunning! We sold a number at the show - so many that we now have only one copy left of the edition of twenty "signature flies". All of our new books did very well, but Mike Harding's new book on North Country Flies did brilliantly. Mike was on my stand all weekend and did not let a punter past without buying a copy. We sold out on Saturday, but, thanks to Andrew the painter, managed to have the rest of our stock delivered for Sunday. Oliver and Malcolm entertained their groupies and signed books and it was a delight to be joined by Roger Fogg on Saturday, and to be able to introduce him to some of his many readers. Harding and Lou tried to drink me under the table on Saturday night but I think that I was last man standing. Actually I was last to bed in the hotel, spending half the night reminiscing with Gwilym Hughes who has just published a book of his angling memoirs - The Angle of the Cast. (Look for it here in the next day or two). Gwilym is a professional on the Welsh Dee, an ex-bailiff and policeman. I worked on the River Board with his father, Guto Bach, so we had much to talk about.
Back here yesterday, I took delivery of my new editions of The Rabbitskin Cap and I Walked By Night. As I had hoped, they look wonderful. I am really pleased with them. Our new catalogues have arrived at their destinations so don't bother trying to phone me.

Wednesday 4th November 2009 With Ceri to Winchester last weekend to the Grayling Society Symposium. En route I picked up new Flyfisher's Classic Library editions of Ollie's Masterclass, Stewart and Carter Platts' Grayling Fishing from the binders. On Sunday, when we were to fish, the weather broke. I had a lovely hour on the Itchen in a howling gale and pouring rain. Not typical chalkstream fishing but I did winkle out a couple of grayling from a deep hole before heading home soaked to the skin. Now I'm busy packing books for the BFFI at the weekend. The de luxe editions of Masterclass are due from the binders on Friday afternoon - just to keep me on my toes.

Saturday 24th October 2009 Low water on a big tide a day or two ago came at dusk so I had a go from the shore. Despite lovely weather inland, there was still a heavy swell running, colouring the surf. I tried a few casts with big surface plugs on the causeway and at the mouth of the river. No sign of bass, but a great way to end the day. I'm tempted to do more of it - perhaps go back to whiting fishing on frosty winter nights. We'll see.
Duncan had been chasing me to go grayling fishing, so yesterday mid-morning we nipped off to the Dee at Llandderfel. I hadn't fished there since I used to shoot at Bodwenni, probably twenty years ago. We fished a beautiful stretch as clouds of leaves fell and covered the water. Dunc persevered with dries and only tempted tiddlers, while I shortlined nymphs and picked up a few better fish. I creeled a couple, close to a pound apiece, so if its dry at lunchtime I'll have them in the smoker.

Thursday 15th October 2009 A couple more brief sessions on the river, but levels are still dropping so it looks as though my season has finished. Yesterday, as the stress of imminent books and catalogue built up, I dropped everything and headed for the sea. We launched off the beach and found a few mackerel near the reef. Then, armed with bait, we drifted for an hour off Tywyn, catching dabs and whiting. While we were out a heavy swell built so we had some fun landing- but that is nothing unusual.
Good stuff arriving from the printers every day. My new paperbound edition of Stewart's Practical Angler is in and looks terrific. Nick Fenwick's translation of an old Welsh book about Machynlleth has arrived; we launch it on Saturday evening at the William Condry literary festival in the town. Today I have seen dummies of our new spiral-bound edition of Oliver Edwards' Flytyer's Masterclass, and again it looks brilliant. We seem set to launch a whole range of new books at the British Fly Fair in November. Touch wood!

Monday 12th October 2009 I've been tied to the computer from pre-dawn to post-dusk all week, trying to get a catalogue produced. On Saturday I gave up mid-afternoon and went for a look at the river. Every good run had an angler on it, so I went to the Bridge Flats, the most public spot on the river. Despite dog-walkers and kids throwing stones, as I fished down the run I was accompanied by an otter on the opposite bank, who kept on popping out of the roots for a look at me. I fished until dusk, when I was so cold that I could hardly get out of the river. One small sea-trout and the sight of a few salmon turning were my reward.

Wednesday 7th October 2009 My reader tells me that Wylie is weally Wylye. That looks better.
My Devon host kindly offered me a guest permit on the Wylye, so I rushed eastwards, arriving mid-afternoon to find a cold blustery downstream wind. I'd fished in sandals on the Test, so I thought that Wellington boots would be fine. Anyway, I crept along the margins throwing a tiny damp CDC fly ahead of me, and landed a couple of nice brownies and a grayling before darkness fell and we retired to the Swan.
This afternoon I crept (more creeping!) out of the shop and down to the river. Yesterday's filth had gone, leaving it clear but still full of leaves. Sea-trout are now out-of-season here, so of course I caught a couple of fresh sewin as well as seeing a much larger one jump and throw the hooks. No salmon, but it does look as though we'll have reasonable water to end the season, so I'll persevere.

Tuesday 6th October 2009 Back at the computer after a week of wandering. Publishing meetings on the beautiful River Test are a great idea. Mrs Morgan soaked up the sun outside the magnificent fishing hut while I largely avoided the portly rainbows by fishing tiny dries for grayling. I had some fun when a giant brown ate one of my grayling, but he eventually let go. We travelled west to Cornwall where I saw more salmon and sea-trout than I've seen for ages, many of them visible from the kitchen window of Nick's magnificent mill-house. We filled the Range Rover to the roof with sets of bird books from several elderly and retiring authors, visited Flyfisher's Cath on yet another riverbank, and lunched on crab sandwiches most days. On our last day we returned to the chalkstreams for an afternoon on the delightful River Wylie. We stayed with good friends throughout our trip and had a lovely time.
Tonight I had a look at the river after work. It was full of leaves, many of them still attached to trees. Ten minutes and a soaking were all I needed to drive me home.

Sunday September 27th 2009 Great weather for the Midland Game Fair ensured an easy end to the outdoor game fair season. However weather and tides have not been so cooperative for fishing. I did get into the estuary for an afternoon when it was far too rough to go close to the bar. I fished little ragworms in the South Swash, losing the only decent bass that I hooked, then catching loads of little ones. I was hoping for flatties but they wouldn't play.
Away this week to the deep south of England, then the even deeper south-west of Cornwall. A day on the Test is on the cards. I'll have to sort out my posh wellies.

Monday 14th September 2009 Summer at last! I had a couple of short sessions on the Dyfi early in the week, as the water fined down, just catching one small sewin. It looks as though the pulses of fish have raced through on the continual high water.
Then I took the dinghy down the estuary one evening. I inched across a very choppy bar, to no avail. There were no mackerel to be found. Back inside the bar at dusk I found plenty of small bass but nothing big enough to take home.
Small tides are always unproductive but I was loath to waste such perfect weather, so despite the lack of a companion (or assistant) I took the new inflatable off the beach on Saturday. Boat and engine performed splendidly but the fish didn't really play. I finished up with a small mixed bag of mackerel, pollack, gurnard and a dab. Struggling to trailer the boat alone I snapped off the trailer-winch, so I can't use that until I have fixed or replaced it.
Next morning I had promised Ben a trip. We compromised by launching the small dinghy on the reef, hoping for bass. Such a small tide was no good for bass and all we caught on the reef were a couple of small pollack. Using pollack for bait we added a few bream to the bag before heading off to haul the boat back up the river.
No mackerel anywhere. Can the bay just have too much fresh water, keeping them out?
Now I must do some work- preparing for the Midland Game Fair next weekend.

Sunday 6th September 2009 I spent most of the day working on the books that I've promised to publish by November. Late in the afternoon I escaped to the gorges of the Twymyn. A persistent sea-trout followed my lure three times, twice at a Mepps and once at a Toby; each time I ran out of water in the narrow pool. That encouraged me to keep at it, and eventually I found one that held on. Came home with a three-pound sea-trout and a bagful of apples and Slippery Jacks plus a few ceps.

Saturday 5th September 2009

Friday 4th September 2009 Had a first of September teal for dinner, probably the first ever, following a kind invitation to flight a mountain pond on opening night. Swallows, bats and a hovering barn owl entertained me while invisible teal zipped about. Wild old Copper kept racing off, then redeemed herself by finding the up the only bird down.
Just had one early-morning session on the Quy Water. Nothing on a plug, then half a dozen pikelets and a couple of nice perch when I tried a small jig. A hobby overhead was a treat, and as usual there was game all around. Fenland folk flocked to the fair, even if most of them went home early to buy books on eBay.

Sunday 23rd August 2009 All quiet here. Feeding the grandson is taking all my time; all small game- shrimps and prawns, bilberries, a few chanterelles and ceps. It hasn't been fit to chase mackerel and the river has been quiet. I did try a worm in the gorges of the Twymyn one afternoon, but all I caught were trouts.
I got excited about a 4m inflatable with engine and trailer on eBay last weekend, and was astounded when it fetched more than the price of a new outfit. That spurred me into buying much the same thing, second-hand, from Aberdyfi for less than half the price. So, now I am the owner of a blow-up boat with a twenty-horse motor on the back. If this weather ever settles down I will be using it to chase the gannets and the bass. Oh, for an Indian Summer!

Sunday 8th August 2009 Had a couple of lovely sessions on the river this week- mild evenings with a good pull on the water. Unfortunately the sea trout have gone - away to the hills - and the salmon are few and widely spread. A trip over the bar in the dinghy was equally fruitless - one mackerel and some baby whiting resulted.
The French contingent joined us on an attack on Borth's shellfish yesterday. I took my full arsenal of shrimping and prawn nets and we made great inroads on the stocks of Cardigan Bay. However, dinner last night and soup today has emptied the pantry so we'll have to start again.

Monday 3rd August 2009 Summoned to control woodpigeons on Herefordshire pea-fields yesterday. I had a pleasant day sitting in a hedge, having a shot every five minutes or so. I was shooting in a tee-shirt and taking the odd awkward shot over my head so I finished up with a black and blue shoulder. Anyway, three of us shot thirty-odd each. All went well until I went back to the car and found two MOD policemen snooping around it. We wasted two hours while they summoned the local police then checked each of our shotgun certificates, checked the vehicles out and confirmed with the landowner that we were OK. That'll teach us not to go shooting within a stones throw of the SAS Barracks!

Thursday 30th July 2009 That's the game fairs out of the way for a week or two. Belvoir was fine - perhaps not quite as busy as previously but we did plenty of business and the weather held for us. On Sunday evening we popped out for food and happened on the splendid Gorkha Square Nepalese restaurant in Grantham where we were served with wonderful food, beautifully presented. What good luck!
This afternoon I took to the river in heavy clear water. I haven't caught a salmon for years, yet I lost two good ones today- one of them a big beautiful blue and silver monster that thrashed on the surface, giving me a good look, before running downstream under a bush. I was fishing the minnow down and across, like a fly, and both took on the dangle. So that's how to catch salmon! Came home with one small sewin- most of the sea trout have fled upstream on the floods, and to escape the packs of seals which are said to be living in the Middle Reaches.

Thursday 16th July 2009 Busy between fairs so I'm having to close my eyes to the fresh water in the river. Yesterday evening would have been OK but I was summoned to work on the pheasant pens in Llanbrynmair. Off to Ludlow this morning to meet with designer, photographer and binder to make the last tweaks to Oliver Edwards' Flytyer's Masterclass. I hope that will go to the printers tomorrow.
I'm already collecting stock for the CLA Game Fair. This year we have a terrific location between Fisherman's Row and the toilets, and close to the main ring and to Gunmaker's Row. There will be less bookseller's there than in the past, so I'll be taking plenty of good books!

Tuesday 7th July 2009 Great weather made our trip to Ireland and Scotland quite comfortable. Back home to restock with falconry books for the International Falconry Festival this weekend.
Little sport while away. We tried, with limited success, for mackerel at Torr Head in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Whithorn in Galloway. I waded a mile-long flat on Lough Neagh, filled with the waving tails of spawning bream. After foul-hooking fish on each of my first three casts I left them to it.
It's been wetter here and the garden is unrecognisable. Publishing stuff is busy: my paperback edition of Brook & River Trouting has arrived from the printer and looks great. John Humphreys' review of Three in Norway in Shooting Times has led to a welcome surge in sales. Unfortunately the printers are saying that a reprint will be both slower and more expensive than they had previously promised.

Wednesday 24th June 2009 I'm into my short season of game fairs- off tomorrow morning to Shanes Castle in Antrim, then a short hop to Galloway and Wigtown en route for the Scottish Fair at Scone Palace. In pre-Internet days I used to buy a lot of books on this trip. This time I'll probably just go fishing.
Lots of gardening but little sport this past week, until last night when I realised that there was  useful tide for the Dysynni. It was a lovely evening but the little boat couldn't catch up with the gannets so we had to make do with enough mackerel for supper, just one of them on the flyrod.
Reports of seatrout piling into the rivers will have to be ignored until the floods of August.

Wednesday 17th June 2009 An extraordinary evening on the great red sedge on Tuesday. On the way up I saw a goshawk stoop down the side of the hill and strike its quarry in the way of a peregrine. I didn't see the victim, a brown bundle of feathers, a thrush or a lark, until it was tumbling down into the gloom of the spruce plantation below. The gos, together with two passing crows dived in after it.
As I waited for the rise I was entertained by a few trout that were patrolling the extreme shallows where minnows were spawning. I could see them coming a long way off, but were pretty spooky in six inches of water, and I only managed a couple of follows and a take. I caught a couple on sedge pupae around 9.45 before the sedges really started moving at 10pm. Then I changed to two dry sedges, a lot smaller than those I tried last week. That made all the difference and the trout took them boldly. A gentle breeze kept the midges at bay and gave a nice ripple-edge where the trout were ambushing the skating sedges, an easy cast from the shore. I took four fish on the sedges, all the same size. One pound twelve ounces apiece. I never carry a net, always beaching my fish. The last one was hooked on the dropper and was a yard or two from the edge when the point-fly caught on a stone. I reached down and freed the fly, the trout gave a last surge and neatly pulled the hook into my thumb.
Embedded up to the bend in what the doctor later called gristle, in the quick at the side of my right thumbnail. I spent half an hour worrying at it by the lakeside, then drove home and spent another hour with needles, razor blades and knives before I decided that I needed an anaesthetic and drove to Aberystwyth, over twenty miles away. The doctors there would not believe me when I told them that the best way would just be to yank it out. They insisted on an hour of injections and cutting away with scalpels. Home at 4am to a beautiful dawn.

Friday 12th June 2009 Tuesday evening was a good one for the garden. First I shot a rat, then a rabbit and then sold Ruby. She never even got her bottom wet last year, so I was glad to see her disappear down the road. I might use the few pence that I got for her towards buying a small fast inflatable. Not until after the Game Fair, though.
Last night I went looking for the great red sedge. I foolishly persevered with the biggest dry muddler that I could find. I rose about twenty fish - great slashes in the dusk - but missed almost all of them.

Thursday 4th June 2009 New Hampshire continued damp and fishy. We caught a few nice brookies from the fast water below dams on the Contoocook. When they refused my nice little nymphs I threw a dead canary at them and they ate that.
I was meat-hunting on my last day, and brought home a nice mess of crappies and bluegills. I missed or lost the only bass that rose to my poppers.
Back home, I tried Llanbrynmair yesterday evening. Warm - almost hot - water, coupled with a cold East wind proved difficult until, as usual at this time of year, the light faded and the sedges appeared. Then, in half an hour of frantic action I landed four fish including one of just over two pounds.
I need twice as many hours in the day from now on. The garden is only half dug and the greenhouses take an hour a day. It is light until ten o'clock so I have no excuse to sit down. The sea-trout are in the river, the sedges and coch-y-bonddu are on the lakes, the bass are in the estuary, and I've just run out of catalogues so I am going to have to produce a new one over the weekend. Think I'll restrict my fishing to an hour either side of dusk, and do the gardening first thing in the morning.
Oh, I forgot. The builders have returned and are replacing doors and windows, and rendering the outside of the house. I'm keeping out of their way!

Thursday 28th May 2009 Paddling a canoe around in the rain catching bluegills and crappies. Yesterday we visited the American Museum of Flyfishing and bought some monster deerhair bass bugs so tomorrow I will be specimen hunting. Still no moose.

Tuesday 26th May 2009 I've escaped the cold Spring to tropical New Hampshire. Last evening I was fishing in a trout stream that felt as warm as a bath. I think that the trout were waiting for dark before doing much, but I did catch a little brownie in the dusk and a few chubs and a baby smallmouth earlier. Earlier in the day we joined the sunbathers on Plum Island and prospected for places to fish for striped bass.

Monday 18th May 2009 Still too cold for the hill lakes. On Friday DB accompanied me on an exploration of the Ardudwy lakes. Llyn Tecwyn Uchaf yielded nothing so we moved to scenic Bodlyn. Unfortunately the cloud never lifted so David never saw much more than the length of his fly-line. We heard a couple of distant splashes but saw neither trout nor the rugged mountain that overshadows the lake.
Also on Friday we took delivery of the first copies of our new Flyfisher's Classic Library edition of Edmonds & Lee's Brook and River Trouting. They look really good and I am immensly pleased to have made such a great book available.
The Dyfi is brown at the moment but the cold rain doesn't encourage me to prospect for an early sea-trout.

Wednesday 13th May 2009 May is when I was going to go fishing, but the cold East wind has kept me at the computer apart from book-buying sprees. Donald Downs' books went to auction on Saturday and I came home with a van-full of souvenirs of that great character.
The closest I've been to fish was canal-dipping for snails and tadpoles for my green-house pond. The resident shoal of minnows and a lonely goldfish were being engulfed by algae and weed so I've introduced a few grazers. An albino grass-carp and a handful of giant pond snails and a few ramshorns have cleared the algae and are working on the weed. I hope that the frog and toad tadpoles will populate the greenhouse with insectivores and slug-eaters.

Wednesday 6th May 2009 Last Tuesday I mounted a pre-dawn raid on the bass rocks but without success. It looks as though the colour of the water has a big affect on float-fishing (and flyfishing) for bass.
Since then I've been preoccupied with the Falconry Fair. The first day was successful with good sales of the new Imprint Accipiter II. The second day was wet and miserable, as was I, having foolishly sampled a glass of dodgy cider in the beer-tent the previous evening.
I fished a team of flies down a windy flat just above the tide on the Dyfi last night. The river was cold and lifeless - I'll let things warm up before I try again.

Monday April 27th 2009 Found the prawns back in force on Saturday. They kept me so occupied that the tide was well on the turn before I realised that the bass were there too. Another angler had several but I only managed one small bass before the tide pushed me off the rocks. I did miss a  lot of bites, most of which resulted in a headless prawn. I was using huge prawns and I guess that if I'd used smaller ones I would have hooked more fish, but that they would have been small. I tried again on Sunday but the wind had veered South and the water was coloured - no bass but enough prawns for tea.

Saturday April 25th 2009 Inspired by my Danish flounder and hoping for an early bass, I ventured a paddle in the South Swash yesterday afternoon. Nothing to report except a big flattie trodden on and shoals of sand-eels. I really ought to devise a way of catching them before the summer. Maybe I can buy a fine-mesh cast-net when I'm in the US next month.
Back at the shop, I opened my Falconer's Magazine and realised that I was advertising the new Falconry Books UK website, but that it was not yet live! I quickly chased Nigel and we made the site available. It will be a day or two before it is completed but at least it is visible and working.

Thursday 23rd April 2009 Thursday 23rd April 2009. Back from the Danish sea-trout El Dorado! Actually all the action was between 6.00 and 6.15 each morning- then I did book stuff and watched birds. There were some sea-trout about and I also fluked a flounder. The sea- and marsh-birds were spectacular and made the pre-dawn starts well worthwhile. After the (jolly and successful) Flyfair I headed north to drink beer with old friends Sarath and Anne Marie Seneratne, then had a delightful last day exploring the West Coast. In a series of happy and accidental discoveries I found an excellent antiquarian bookshop, roadside flocks of barnacle geese and golden plover, and then stumbled on the herring run at the mouth of the fjord at Torsminde. After an hour of studying the herring fishers I managed to nip into the only place in the harbour where I could find room to roll out a fly on a sinking line, so was able to add salted herring to my brimming tub of gravad sea-trout. The weather was glorious and I would have been happy to stop for another week! At Hvide Sande just down the coast they were also hauling out herring and were preparing for a Herring Festival this weekend. Let's hope that the next Danish Flyfair coincides with the herring run.

Sunday 12th April 2009 How nice not to be at a game fair for Easter weekend! I'm cleaning the greenhouse, potting on plants, getting the mower out- all the things normal people do.
The Range Rover let me down yesterday. I took it for an MOT test before going to Denmark, and a leaking oil cooler was discovered- too late to get a new one before Wednesday's ferry. I've changed my booking so that I can take the van. It may have done me a good turn really 'cos I can drive to the shore each evening and fish for sea-trout before sleeping in the van. Click here for a nice green blog.

Wednesday 8th April Travelling down the Wye valley to pick up a fishing collection from Chepstow, I saw one lone swallow over the Usk and the first bluebells and apple blossom along the lower Wye. Lunched in a walled garden in a Herefordshire vineyard then collected yet more FFCL books from the binder.
We have so many good falconry books these days, many of them unique to us, that I am launching a new website and am busy working on a new falconry book catalogue - all before the Falconry Fair at the beginning of May. So, I'm saving my casting-arm until I get to Denmark next week.

Friday 3rd April 2009 The big, big tide wasn't quite as big, big as I had hoped it would be. I guess I should have been there in February. The only spoots I saw were too fast for me and I came home with an empty bucket. I chanced upon a netsman with a small haul of turbots plus a couple of bass and mullet- inspiration for the coming season.
Yesterday I also came home with an empty bucket. Following in William Roberts' footsteps, Dunc and I took a look at Dyffryn Ogwen- too high and cold for trout fishing yet- nothing to be seen but goats and orange-plumaged hikers. So, we descended to sea-level and had a cast on Llyn Coron, another lake on Roberts's list. Too cold here, too, but fun to fish somewhere so different, with a sandy bottom and swan mussels, snails and hog-lice. Wildfowl abounded and I enjoyed watching shovelers and grey geese, neither of which I see at home. It's a good job I took Duncan 'cos he hooked a fish briefly, and he saw two seatrout jump. My only contribution was to find a wind-dried dead perch of about a pound. I noted the lack of piscivorous birds- no cormorants, divers or grebes, herons or egrets- and guess that means that what fish there are here are pretty big. The lone local that we came across- not fishing, of course- said that we were a month too early and should return when the hawthorn fly is on the water. So that's what we'll do.

Sunday March 29th 2009 What a lovely day! There was a hard frost and everywhere is white,  but it's going to be bright and warm. This is the time of year that I carry trays of tomato plants into the greenhouse in the day and back to the house at night. Maybe after today they can stay out.
Big, big tides today. I collected a bucket of huge clean mussels yesterday so we feasted last night. The clocks have changed to I might get time this afternoon to try for spoots.
I've got another bucketful of mussels to cook before lunch. Then, should we have Friday's venison stew tonight, or cook the mallard I got out of the freezer yesterday, or make a soup with the mussels? Too much food!
Busy this week making more office-space for the Flyfisher's Classic Library, shifting mountains of books and increasing the range of the office computer network. Despite threatening to buy less books, I have bought a vast quantity of remainders this week including Buckland and Oglesby's Guide to Salmon Flies and Fly Casting with Lefty Kreh, both of which will be popular at less than half-price.

Monday 23rd March 2009 The West Country Game Fair was busy, but hardly enough to cover the very high cost. The pubs and restaurants were a disaster, too, so perhaps I'll stay at home next year.
Llyn Clywedog opened on Wednesday. Although I used to take a season permit there, I had not fished there at all for over ten years. On Thursday the sunshine forced me outside so I headed over the mountain. I dredged a few holes with lead-heads, catching one and losing several fish, before heading off on a long hike along one of the less-frequented arms of the lake. Lots of otter signs there, and flocks of mallard and teal and noisy geese. When the sun dropped I found moving fish in a small bay. A small pheasant-tail on the point and a #14 black cruncher on the top dropper pulled a fish every cast. Bright stockies provided good sport for March and fodder for the smoker for a Mother's Day barbecue.

Monday, 9th March 2009

I started this diary on my website in September 2003. This week my sneaky colleague Matthew Kirk took advantage of my absence, while visiting the bookbinders, to convert my occasional notes into a blog. (Click here to see the pretty illustrated version). I'm not sure what the difference is, or whether it really matters.

Little sport this early in March, but we can all feel the sap rising and it won't be many weeks before we cast a fly.

I've been tinkering with William Roberts' Llawlyfr Y Pysgotwr, a Welsh booklet of trout fly patterns for North Wales rivers and lakes, written in 1899. I intend publishing a bilingual version of it later this year- Flies for Snowdonia - Plu Eryri. Reading about Llyn Idwal and Ogwen was getting me excited so I took it off to Aberystwyth this morning to show it to Uncle Moc. He got quite excited too, and offered to write an introduction for it.

I have to load up for the West Country Game Fair this week so will not have any more time for sport, publishing or blogging.

Sunday 22nd February. Home from the banks of the Loire where I feasted on lamprey. Menus there also still include eel dishes; are eels not in decline in Europe?
The lamprey was the big migratory sea lamprey and it tasted about as one might expect. After a tureen of fish soup, then a bowl of lamprey stew, I was about fished out, and looked enviously at my neighbour's wood-grilled sausages.
Just a week until the Spring Flyfair. This year they are simultaneously holding a Shooting Show, but I am sticking to my view of it as a fly-tying event and will just take fishing books. If you want anything else bringing along, just ask.

Saturday 14th February.

Sport is at an end for a week or two. Sowed salad stuff in the cold-frames and tomatoes in the house this afternoon. Tomorrow we're off to Nantes for a few days.

Thursday 5th February.

I am obviously an expert at finding Giant Canada geese. The BTO website gives the weight range for a male Canada as 7lb to 11lb. The two that I shot this evening weighed just over eleven pounds and just over fourteen pounds. The BTO site also says "they are reputedly amongst the most inedible of birds".
I had hardly started walking onto the estuary when what looked like the whole Dyfi population headed straight for me. I dropped to my knees in six inches of water and they came right over my head giving me a chance for an easy right and left. Leaving my geese in the grass I went down to the main channel to wait for the duck-flight that never materialised. Then I spent half an hour in the dark searching for my geese! In the end I had to send Copper to look for them.
This morning I had boasted to Ben that there was no problem using shot birds as decoys, as I did on Tuesday, because Copper would never bother to pick up birds that she had already retrieved earlier. Luckily she proved me wrong tonight and retrieved both geese a second time.

Wednesday 4th February

The real fowling weather didn't last long. I got out on the snowy night and found the estuary full of life. I sat out on the sands until after seven, listening to all the commotion but unable to see a thing, hoping that the moon, waxing gibbous, would give me some light. There were lots of wigeon about, whistling and splashing all around me, but most were invisible. Four wigeon in the bag and I walked off the marsh surrounded by the squawking of wildfowl pushed off the hills by the snow.
I tried again last night, but the hard weather, and most of the ducks, had gone. Seven wigeon for four shots was pretty good considering there wasn't really a flight. A stalk at a pack and then three singles were all I saw.
No geese came near either night. I shan't go again unless we get another good spell of frost.
Copper has had a great season considering that I thought she was slowing down last year. She worked well on the pheasants and rough shooting but excelled on the estuary; creeping behind me when stalking, sitting quietly when flighting, then off like a rocket gathering the slain and the runners after a shot. Experience counts when trying to gather a winged diving duck in a fast-running creek or far out on the river.

Saturday 31st January

My bones are aching after the last long day at pheasants. There were still enough birds to give us the runaround all day. Now the forecast is for hard weather so I might not have finished shooting yet. I can feel the pull of the foreshore again!
The posh driven day was spectacular. We drove above the mist to shoot the highest drives in bright sunshine. There were hordes of birds of the highest calibre, and on one drive, the stunning "seven-twenty", up against a 700 foot waterfall, my barrels got as hot as they have ever been.
Next evening three of us flighted a hilltop pond for a brace of mallard each. I'm not sure which day was the more memorable.

Tuesday 27th January

Shooting on alternate days gives the dog, and my hips and knees, a rest. Nothing spectacular; the woodcock thinned out after the thaw, and the ducks disappeared from the estuary, but the pheasants have stayed around and the syndicate shoots have been excellent. Last Saturday I missed two woodcock but put every pheasant that I fired at in the bag- eight or ten birds towards a total bag of sixty. Tomorrow, with some trepidation, I'm joining the big guns on a posh driven shoot at the Brigands Inn. They will be high birds and lots of them. Let's hope no-one is watching!

Friday 9th January 2009.

The hard weather seems to be coming to an end, but has provided some excellent sport. I spent the first day of 2009 on the estuary, struggling to carry off a great bag of wigeon and teal plus a Canada goose. I made a couple more visits later in the week, sitting into the dark amongst ice-floes and surrounded by the calls of mallards, wigeon and geese. The mallard must have been frozen off the inland ponds and made a welcome addition to the bag. One night a pack of wigeon tried to land on top of us, mistaking the silhouettes of our heads (Copper's and mine) for ducks. The next night a short-eared owl kept swooping low over us. Midge was with us, curled up in a ball on top of the creek-edge, so perhaps she was the bait.
Inland there have been plenty of woodcock and pheasants around and we've had a couple of lovely days in the hills.
The game pie (Fallow venison, hare, rabbit, squirrel and woodpigeon) was a great success, and the gamebirds have been in great condition so I've been plucking and dressing every night.
Walking the hills, or the bog, every day (carrying heavy bags of game!) has led to a deterioration in various of my joints. I'm fine all day, but crippled at night. So, it looks as though I'm going to give it a rest for two or three days in the hope that I recover sufficiently to enjoy some serious sport for the last couple of weeks of the season.

Wednesday 31st December.

At last the rains have gone. After a week of frost we can walk the hills dry-shod in search of game. Yesterday Ben and I wore ourselves out for four pheasants, a woodcock and a pigeon. And a squirrel which will be the excuse for a game pie.
This evening I sat in the dusk by the river and was surprised by a cock pheasant flying past, up to the woods to roost. He never made it. Woodcock flitted about but none came close, and the duck never flighted. I'll start the New Year on the estuary before dawn. If I wake up.

Monday 21st December The daily pheasant cull has been curtailed by the arrival of the French contingent. Looks as though we have to feast on Christmas Eve as well as Christmas Day. No oysters so I'll have to dig into the permafrost to see if we've got a trout or two.

Monday 15th December

That's the worst of the Christmas rush out of the way. Time for me to poke my head outside and see what is happening in the world. On Saturday I dusted off the gun, and the dogs, and had a mouch about with Uncle Emyr. Not much came my way, but we did finish up with a couple of pheasants, a woodcock and a mallard.
Yesterday I filled the van with seaweed for the garden, and filled a bucket with fat mussels, while being entertained by the whistling of a pack of wigeon in the Leri mouth, opposite.

Friday 5th December. Of course the rain did follow me. Roads in Moremi were impassible so I dumped the car in Maun and hopped around the Delta by plane. Not much fishing but I followed wild dogs and lions on the Kwando River. Then, chickening out of miles of soft sand in the Kalahari, I headed west until I hit soft sand at Walvis Bay on the cold Atlantic. Finally, I spent a day fishing in a dam near Windhoek, catching beautiful wild carp on dry flies and, casting to tilapia, hooked a brute of a catfish that took so long to land that I got the backs of my knees sunburned.

Thursday 13th November

I'm trying not to mention the weather. Where have I been? Well not fishing or shooting, anyway. Our first day's pheasant shooting clashed with the always excellent British Flyfair and our next day's pheasant shooting will clash with me getting off a plane in a South-West African desert. In between I've been busy selling books and having some fun with publishing. Our first Flyfisher's Classic Library edition, Three In Norway, is at the printers right now, and the second edition of Hampton's Angling Bibliography, sixty years in the making, was delivered this afternoon.
Tomorrow I spend the day on the train with a case full of books- the only time I ever get to read! An overnight flight then before heading west from Windhoek to attempt a round-trip taking in the Okavango Delta, Chobe and the upper Zambezi. Two weeks to do it in and I'm hoping the rain does not follow me. If it does I might just turn off into the Kalahari and drink beer.

Wednesday 29th October I've been using the rotton weather to produce and mail my catalogue, and to start to lick the Flyfisher's Classic Library into shape. Even mushrooming has been quiet and in the garden I'm preparing for winter. Tomatoes are almost at an end, but I have found something to extend their season and will record it here as a reminder to myself for next year. I bought a couple of plants of a variety called Cherry Fox, and later struck a couple of cuttings from their sideshoots. None of the plants suffered from the blackening or dying off that overtakes my main crops of Shirley and Gardener's Delight with the onset of winter. They made long vines and are still green and growing with healthy trusses of fruit. Let's hope I can find some next year.

Tuesday 14th October

What Indian Summer? If it comes now it will be too late for the mackerel, and maybe for the bass. I've used the lousy weather to get on with my catalogue so there is now a chance that you will receive one before Christmas. On Sunday afternoon the wind dropped for long enough for me to mouch down the estuary in the dinghy, but there were no signs of bass. Maybe still too much fresh water in the river? I finished up with a handful of little whiting from just outside the bar.
On days when it has been dry enough I've had a few late girolles and the first of the winter chanterelles.
All my friends to seem to be catching salmon. I suppose I can't complain about not catching them if I don't fish for them.

Tuesday 30th September

No zander. I had a mouch along the Severn as I passed through on Friday, slipped on the bank and strained my knee, and failed to catch any minnows for zander-bait. Anyway, by the time I'd spent a day buying and selling pike books I'd had enough.
Went shrimping on Sunday and found whitebait and bass. By the time I returned with a rod a westerly gale made the rocks unreachable. Rotten weather now- time to work on my catalogue.

Thursday 25th September  I took Jon and Philip to the Llanbrynmair lakes on Tuesday evening. The cold easterly made Coch Hwyad dour but we found a bit of a rise in the lee on Gwyddior in the dusk and Philip took a big-headed two-and-a-half-pounder. Just a bit bigger than the biggest that I have ever caught there!
Next day the wind was still wrong; the Ardudwy lakes would all have been flat calm. Eventually we plumped for Nant-y-moch where we caught a few trout before searching fairly fruitlessly for fungi. A capful of hedgehogs and a couple of boletes were just about enough to fry up with the trout. I'll be less rash with my promises in future!
I did spot a lot of oyster mushrooms halfway up a beech tree, but they'll have to wait until I can borrow the warehouse ladder after the P.A.C. Conference. They pikeys meet in zander country; I won't have time in the daylight but I might try to poach one after dark. Small fish for bait might be a problem- can I use my prawn-net in the canal?

Tuesday 23rd September

Fantastic weather and crowds at the Midland brought the outdoor game fair season to an end.
I have friends coming to fish today, so I prospected the estuary in the dinghy last night. The north-easterly breeze was a cold wind once I got outside the bar, and on such a small slack tide I failed to find any fish apart from lesser weevers. So, we won't be going there. There are plenty of bass around, but they are feeding on whitebait out on the reef at the moment. Looks as though, despite the bright sunshine and easterly wind, we might be trout fishing.

Tuesday 16th September Last week family stuff took us to the Marches where we found drifts of chanterelles, but few ceps. We usually find lots there a little later in the season but we saw so many old and rotten specimens that there must have been a good flush as early as August.
Inspired, I pinched an hour one afternoon and checked a favourite plantation, finding enough hedgehogs and chanterelles for a good feed.
Ceri and I spent the weekend in London, looking for food, books and culture. We managed to combine all three in visits to Borough Market, the Globe Theatre, innumerable food stalls on the South Bank, and several bookfairs. A Chesapeake Bay soft-shell crab sandwich in a gay pub in Soho impressed me. Actually, all of the food impressed me.
What were we doing in a gay pub in Soho? Well we were just walking the streets reading menus and that was the one that drew us in.
Off to Weston tomorrow to inspect our pitch for the Midland Game Fair this weekend.

Some time in early September The savage jackdaw is taking chunks out of my ankles while the girls eat breakfast with their feet tucked up under them. We are despairing of summer; I'm considering towing Ruby down to the tip and leaving her there; and I've booked a hire/camper/4x4 in Namibia so that I can dry myself out in November.
The river is running bank-high; too high for me to flyfish with my puny tackle. I've spent a few short sessions fishing with various plugs and minnows (I can't bring myself to say spin-fishing), but after an hour of continuously hurling a lure my shoulders tell me to stop. Fortunately, after only twenty-four hours, the pain abates.
Chatsworth Country Fair is a day out for hordes of townies. I was quite glad when a rainstorm sent them all home and, for the first time ever, I closed the stand early and drove home in the daylight.

Some time at the end of August. Just back from the Fens and about to leave for Derbyshire. Quy Water produced a few small pike and perch and a bagful of mushrooms, and the Fenfolk rallied around as usual, buying bagsful of Tales of the Old Molecatchers and How to Smoke your Hedgehog. Let's hope that summer starts after Chatsworth.

Friday 15th August Lowther was as good as expected- two days in a sea of mud and the third day cancelled.
Back home to find sea trout in the river; small ones but lots of them. I get it wrong almost every day; if I take the flyrod I find the river brown and rising, when I took my spinning rod I had sewin darting at my swivels all the time.
Yesterday morning I went out prepared to flyfish but had to abort and go to work instead. I'm going to try again this morning.
Yesterday evening I took Jim to Llyn Bodlyn. I intended to bypass Bodlyn and head up to Llyn Dulyn, farther up the mountain. However, there was a good hatch of sedges that I couldn't ignore, and plenty of little trout were rising. Jim, who had never caught a trout on the fly before, caught two on a nymph and slow sinking line. Fishing a team of flies on a floater, I rose a few but only landed one. Yann came with us but had to make do with wet feet and midges. As a consolation we watched peregrines and a barn owl, then I raced back and caught the Red Lion in Dinas just before last orders.
The year is getting more and more frantic. I'm buying books at an undiminished rate; selling them pretty fast, too; trying to fit in in all the family stuff, and going fishing twice a day, as well as dashing around the country to game fairs. Think I'll give up sleeping.

Wednesday 6th August Nipping out in the evenings for an hour on the river, I seem to be catching a sewin each time, but all small. Last night, as soon as I started wading down the middle of Cerrig Cochion, an otter porpoised upstream towards me. He posed close to me for the camera that I wasn't carrying, then carried on past. I'm not seeing any fish moving and it seems to me that the sea trout are pretty thinly spread. I was going out tonight but right now it is hammering down. Serious rain. Lowther tomorrow. I remember that red mud.

Sunday 3rd August I'm still here but with little to report. The CLA came and went. We stayed dry, but it was too hot for people to carry bags full of books. Ruby has had an overhaul and is awaiting a gap in the game fair schedule and an improvement in the weather before getting her bottom wet. I took Jon on the Dyfi one day but, despite lovely fly water, we failed to find sea trout. There are a few around but they are not at all widespread.
This afternoon I should be building shelters for pheasant poults.

Monday 21st July French friends, Laurent and his family, have been camping in Corris for two weeks of almost incessant rain. Hopes of boating for bass, or even mooching for shrimps and prawns, have been washed away. Now they are heading back to France, the sun is shining, and we are packing the vehicles for our wagon-train to Blenheim.
Two evenings I braved the rain for three sewin and a basketful of mountain trout.

Wednesday July 9th Got home from Scotland to find that all my nectarines have fallen and Ceri has scoffed them all. I spotted a few ospreys, bought good books from Mr Leakey in Inverness, and spent several pleasant sociable evenings sheltering from the rain.
Fished a minnow down the Bwtri Run at dusk last night. The water was lower and clearer than I expected; just one sewin in the bag and one lost. Plenty of rain today bodes well for the river.

Sunday June 29th An injured hand has cost me two days fishing and possibly a sea trout or two. It improved enough for me to accompany Mr B to the hills this morning. Cloud and rain dogged us and only a few very small fish came to hand. Then, mid-afternoon, the cloud lifted and a few olives started coming off. I finished with four fish from Coch Hwyad averaging close to a pound- the best I've caught from there for a year or two. My trout, together with my creelful of small perch, filled the smoker tonight.
Packing for Scotland tomorrow so no more news for a week or so.

Thursday June 26th We travelled home from Ireland via Birmingham to pick up my new (old) Range Rover. Last night was grey and stormy so I headed for Ardudwy after dinner. I got to Llyn Bodlyn about 9pm, wreathed in cloud. Initially I only rose tiny trout but as the light faded more and more fish grabbed the little muddler-minnow on the point. By dusk they were fighting over the flies and I had caught enough for a fry-up. The walk back around the lake in the dark was interesting and it was after midnight before I got home to clean my fish.

Wednesday June 25th Just back from Northern Ireland and a stormy wet game fair. Ben and I returned to Carrick-a-Rede after ten years to find National Trust car-parks and coachloads of tourists. The rock-fishing was just as good as it used to be and we had a spectacular couple of hours. As I was reeling in a full-house of three small coalfish a big pollack twice tried to grab them at the surface. Changing to a rubber shad I hooked and eventually landed two of the biggest pollack that I've ever caught from the shore. Then changing to bait I caught a wonderfully colourful wrasse. On leaving we discovered that the NT had locked the iron gate in the wall at the top of the cliff at the end of the rope bridge. After half an hour of cursing and calculating I robbed a hand-rail rope and, safely roped-up, we effected an escape worthy of Zorro.

Wednesday June 11th Took Yann down the estuary in the small dinghy last night. We both lost garfish on the troll, then I drifted on the making tide and caught a few small bass on fly. We witnessed a shipwreck when the only other boat out, a local fisherman with three other anglers on board, who was fishing the white water on the bar, bumped bottom, shipped a wave over the side and filled with water. I couldn't help much in my tiny boat but stood by until the lifeboat took the the four of them off to Aberdyfi, leaving their boat. Then I chugged home upriver in a flat calm.

Sunday June 8th.

We have a houseful of visitors for my father's eightieth birthday party. All are now abed while I'm pot-watching the second of four huge spider-crabs, which will never come to the boil while I watch.

I met the editor and The Doctor at the Brenig on Friday. We each caught a couple of nice stockies, while I lost fish, one after the other, all day. I was interested and depressed by my experiences in the evening when I fished down the bank towards a group of three anglers. All three rods were on the ground but periodically a fish would leap out of the water in front of them. At this, one of them would rush to his rod, strike like a cod-basher, and reel in a three-pound trout. One of them caught five in the hour or so that I was there, while I missed a couple of rises and caught one fish on a small muddler. This, then, I assume, is fishing the booby. I hate to sound elitist but this certainly was not flyfishing and I found it slightly depressing.

Tuesday June 3rd

Took a day off on Friday and accompanied Mr Burnett to the hills. Llanbrynmair was said to be crowded so we headed for Talybont and Llyn Penrhaeadr. The road has deteriorated on the twenty-five years since my last visit, but we only got seriously stuck once; nothing that a pile of rocks and a jack couldn't sort out. It was a little too calm but but a lovely rise to olives was going on when we arrived. I caught a good half-pounder immediately but the trout were very selective and we didn't catch the basketful that I expected. Half a dozen troutlings each, then we left for a tour of the other Talybont lakes; New Pool, Nant-y-cagl, Dwfn and Conach.

Last night I made my first visit of the year to Llanbrynmair. It was a wet, misty, night with lousy visibility. I had not anticipated the midges, but they obviously knew that I was coming. It was after 10pm that the sedges appeared and the midges slackened their efforts slightly. First a small trout, them two good Coch Hwyad fish of a pound and a half each grabbed my big palmered sedge. It was all over by 10.30.
To avoid disturbing the farm late at night I took a previously untravelled route off the moorland. It wasn't such a good idea on such a foggy night and I had a hair-raising half-hour before eventually reaching a tarred road about five miles from where I expected to emerge.

Tuesday May 27th  A week ago today found me adrift on Grafham Water. A rash promise in January led to a three-day visit to the inland seas of the East Midlands. It took me a day and a half to work out how to catch rainbow trout cruising through swarms of daphnia twenty feet below the surface. I watched the experts and eventually managed to present my epoxy buzzers stationary at great depth. So, the first day I blanked and the second day I caught eight fish up to six pounds. On the third day we decamped to Rutland Water where similar tactics, but in shallower water, accounted for some beautiful fish including a couple of four-pounders, a seven pound pike and a nice perch.
On Thursday night I left my companions and drove through the night to Kent, then by ferry to Ostend and via the traffic-jams of Antwerpen to Breda where the Dutch Flyfair had been resurrected. It had been six years since the last Dutch fair in Zwolle so it was great to meet all of my old friends. Much beer was drunk and we had several memorable international dinners.
Somehow I managed to come home with a bagful of flies and yet another travel rod. I popped out this evening around nine o'clock to try a line on the new rod. I hadn't fished the little reservoir for about ten years; surrounded by forestry, it is always sheltered and glassy, and its small wild trout hard to deceive. First flick under the nearest bush with one of Marc Petitjean's wiggly nymphs and I hooked a trout that immediately weeded me and I was lucky to land. Then the midges descended, or ascended, in great force and I had given up by ten o'clock. Eleven ounces, he weighed, including the inevitable newt.

Tuesday May 13th I picked a bucketful of good peeler crabs about a week ago. I gave them a good try on the middle estuary, but without success, and a session in the Leri produced a baby bass at every cast.
Last night I took the small dinghy to the estuary to finish the crabs off. I ignored the gulls working far upstream - the bass are safe there anyway - and headed down to the bar. It was too choppy to anchor the little boat on the drop-off so I sat just inside the mouth. I straightaway foul-hooked a large sandeel on a Toby lure, so the crabs had a reprieve. Despite fishing for an hour into the dusk with the sandeel for bait, no bass materialised; just one big dogfish that had me fooled for a while. A few gannets were working and prospects look good.

Sunday April 27th The website crisis was overcome but leaves an aftermath. It will be some time before I can access this diary page.
It is almost May and the bass are piling into the estuary and the lakes are calling. My greenhouse and much of the garden is planted so I am thinking about fishing.

Tuesday April 22nd Hackers have been attacking my website over the weekend. I have Naughtymutt, Zetnet, and my friend, Deri, working flat-out to sort it out, and to protect me, and you, from internet nasties. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours behind a rotovator, tilling the garden. This afternoon I escaped from website trauma to spend a couple of hours behind my new big shrimp net. It proved too large for working around the rocks- I would have caught more prawns with the smaller net. Nevertheless I finished up with a fine haul of shrimps, prawns and odds and ends. Today's by-catch were flounders, small mullet and a couple of nice soft crabs. Time for bass-fishing!

Saturday April 19th Rushed back from Belgium to pick up a collection of shooting books from Brighton, arriving in the middle of the night. Then one day at home before we headed for Ellesmere to hand over the manuscript of the revised Hampton Bibliography to the third beard of the Three Beards Press. On Saturday we travelled up to Ardudwy to collect books. While there I bought a season permit to fish the hill lakes that Gallichan frequented, so I'll have to go back. I used that as an excuse to drive up to the lovely Llyn Bodlyn. Not quite so lovely today in the cold east wind.
Bodlyn has the most southerly population of char in Britain. I had not heard of any being caught since the days of out-of-season poaching with maggots, over thirty years ago. A recent survey has discovered that they are still there, despite global warming. Where can I get some maggots?

Friday April11th I picked Ken up from Heathrow en route for Ghent and Hunting Belgium. Last night we joined Bruno and other Flemish friends for their informal fly-tying get-together and a splendid meal. Today was very quiet, with almost as many VAT inspectors as customers. Hunting stands from all over Europe have brought together a great array of taxidermy and art, guns and clothing; most of it pretty exotic to me. Wild boar and roe deer are the main quarry here, pursued with a wide range of hairy and noisy dogs.

Tuesday April 9th

The Brittany shore, despite the hoards of foragers, was productive. We found plenty of good oysters and I christened my new 1.2 metre shrimping net. It's a bit early for shrimps but I caught a few. The by-catch is always interesting, but especially so here on a foreign shore; little spidery spider-crabs, a few other crabs new to me, and baby mullet. The bigger oysters were good raw but we had plenty left over to make a big pan of seafood stew with the shrimps, limpets, whelksand winkles.

Friday April 4th Arctic conditions at Kelmarsh were pretty miserable. Three inches of snow on the first morning kept sensible punters at home. Fortunately we were not camping but staying in the very comfortable Bull's Head at nearby Arthingworth. Last night we had a three-hour Fruits de Mer on the banks of the Loire; and that was just the first course. Ha. This French keyboard is denying me an exlamation mark. That will kurb my enthusiasm- until I find it. Today - peche à pied. Why is there no English word for working the shore for mussels and wild oysters, shrimps and prawns?

Sunday 9th March

Little sport in February. Once the visitors left I had to dash off to Devon to buy the Flyfisher's Classic Library. I made two trips with van and trailer while my staff were making space for the FFCL stock. Now we have a dedicated FFCL room above the shop and another at the warehouse. More important, we have acquired a respected publishing firm with all the opportunities that offers.

I'm also well into the season of fairs; Spring Fly Fair last week and the West Country Game Fair next week, so little time to devote to FFCL plans.

Wednesday 13th February Dewi Morgan Lucas brought all of his French family to Machynlleth for his christening and five days of feasting. I didn't have a fatted calf but managed a decent sea-trout, a fat bass, a Canada goose and plenty of game. The weather has allowed drinks and barbecuing outside in the sunshine, making life reasonably easy. This is the last night for most of the French contingent so we are off to a restaurant for a grand finale.

Tuesday 5th February I've deliberately spared you the gory details of the last week of January. Copper and I were out on five of the last seven days. She is about the same age, in dog-years, as I am in human years. We both got stiffer and lamer as the days progressed; fine during the day but seizing up in the evening. We saw good sport with lots of walked-up pheasants, a few rabbits and at least one woodcock each day. One evening we waited by a flooded field and I shot a fine mallard while Copper coursed, and very nearly caught, a fox. Least pleasant event of the week was coming across a fallow buck with a horribly injured jaw, presumably the result of a road accident, and having to finish him off. Thank goodness I had a gun with me to do the job efficiently and humanely.
I've got a month before starting shows and eight staff to keep occupied. Four of us are doing little but catalogue old books, but the piles do not seem to diminish.

Sunday 20th January

Yesterday I had to act the gent when invited to shoot by a neighbour, about as close to home as I could be, within a rifle-shot of the shop. I didn't find myself under the turkeys when they broke out, but I did hit almost every pheasant that came my way, and then finished the day with a fine woodcock. It was followed two or three seconds later by another but by then I had broken my gun to reload and missed my chance at a right-and-left. The pheasants were all melanistics, and made a fine sight. The hospitality of my host and the fine company made it a splendid day.

Today we braved the floods - or rather avoided the floods by driving over the hills - to meet up with old fishing friends for a dinner near Welshpool.

Wednesday 16th January A few of us had a lovely walk around the hills bordering the shoot in Llanbrynmair. I had a chance at a right-and-left at a white stoat and a woodcock, but I left the ermine to be sure of the woodcock. Came home with a brace each each of woodcocks and pheasants, and a fat winter rabbit.

Saturday 12th January Still picking up birds at Llanbrynmair, the bag helped by a few snipe and woodcock. At the only drive at which I stood at a peg, I was entertained by long-tailed tits and a pair of lesser spotted woodpeckers. Altough we have the large woodpeckers on the feeders at home, I can't remember the last time I saw the small ones. I suppose they spend most of their time high in the trees and are less noticeable.

Friday 11th January Managed a double session on the estuary - last night and this morning. I'm not getting much at flight-time - maybe because my eyes are not as good as they were. Two wigeon were enough last night, then I had a mallard and a teal this morning. I stayed out through the big tide but the rafts of geese and wigeon stayed well out on the water and little moved apart from snipe, curlews, and a water-rail pushed out of the rushes by the rising water which crept around my feet before hiding in the stones of the railway embankment. The dawn was full of the chatter of mallards and wigeon out on the fields, but there they stayed. Both of today's duck involved long hunts and a lot of swimming for Copper before they could be retrieved. Good experience for Copper, reinforced by her eventual success with both birds.

Saturday 5th January Worked the outlying woods and found lots of woodcock. On one drive I saw dozens but few presented safe shots. Nevertheless I had a chance at two, which I shot. I also dropped a few spectacularly high pheasants to make a memorable day.