Happy and Sad.

 

I have not posted for a while. Well I have not had chance to fish with my great mates until recently.

The weather has been terrible. We have had three outings; all on Blithfield.

Although we did not fail to catch on our first two visits, I have to say the cold conditions did defeat us. We did not stay as long as we would have. Leaking waders did not help and I felt the pain of being really cold.

The third visit last week is filled with mixed emotion.

 

Sunday 07/04/13

Steve Parton RIP.

 

When I heard  the news I was terribly saddened. I used to visit him regularly at his unit in Long Eaton.

He helped me so much in the few years I knew him. From the off he made it clear that I either listen or bugger off. He did not suffer fools. So listen I did.

He made me 4 fine rods.

He sold me lots of super fly tying stuff at prices that I knew were well below what he normally sold them.

He'd make me a cup of tea, play the gob iron while sitting at his PC in only his boxer shorts and shirt.

His floor was his ash tray.

How this place never went up in smoke (quickly) is a mystery!

We had interesting chats about all sorts of things. As I progressed to being more interested in river fishing, the more we chatted even though  his heart was on the reservoirs. There was always something we chatted about and we put the world to rights on several occassions.
I can always remember his views on the sad demise of British manufacturing and if you use crap Chinese hooks you deserve what you get.

 He always asked with genuine interest to what I was going to do with the materials he sold to me.
He rang me a few times with offers of prototype rods, and no, he didn't 'see me coming' as £14 for a test rod ain't bad is it?
I know many folk never got on with him and indeed, I can understand why. But we just hit it off. I feel he felt sort of sorry for me, having no previous knowledge but because I listened and showed a bit of respect to an obvious expert in his field, he accepted me. I will miss him.

DAY THREE BLITHFIELD

So after the bad news, The Tamers decided to have another day on Blithfield.
10/04/13
Bone, Jon and me.
Well they were not on buzzers even though it was warmer. Two fish in total off the bank in flat calm conditions in two hours. Not good for The Tamers.
I had a coffee and watched a bloke having some success on a lure. But what lure?
Stuff it! Out of respect? Or because his death was on my mind? I found an outragous orange lure that I had tied a couple of years ago from a pattern out of Steve Parton's book.
The fish were suicidal.
I had five in 30 minutes. Then take after take with no hook ups in the next 30 minutes. I checked my lure... No hook!
Cheap Chinese hook? I don't know.
I only had one of the orange ones so  tied on something else. I had a few more but nothing like the action with the broken fly.
Maybe Steve was laughing!

I have since tied many more of the simple orange fly that did the damage. I have used a quality hook.

Thanks Steve Parton