For this old dog the journey's just beginning.....

I've spent a considerable amount of hours fishing over the years, from those childhood days spent float fishing with my father, grandfather and uncle on the local canal and various fenland drains, through to the origin of my fly fishing with trips to Grafham and Packington with my father in the late 70’s early 80’s and then finally onto dabbling in 'Big Carp' fishing in the late 80's early 90's. However, over the last ten years I've drifted away from my fishing only occasionally dusting down the fly gear for a day out on some of the local fisheries or the odd special day out on Llyn Clywedog.

I have to say I've missed my time at the water’s edge, not just the fishing but also being out there seeing those wonderful sites that nature has to offer for those of us that spend time in her playground. So this year with that deep rooted yearn to be out fishing bubbling away I’ve vowed to re-kindle my passion for the art that is fly fishing but not just my pursuit of Trout!

After reading a few Blogs and articles by Dominic Garnett, then picking up a copy of his excellent book Fly Fishing for Coarse Fish, I’ve decided I’d like to broaden my horizons and attempt to catch a few coarse fish on the fly, setting my sights on trying to tempt, hook and land Pike, Perch, Zander and Carp on the fly during 2015. I’m not sure how I’m going to get on with this challenge especially as I’ve chosen to make the main focus of this new adventure the mostly uncharted waters (for me) of my local canal, I do know that the canal in question holds all of my target species to a decent size but it is a very murky water with a fair amount of boat traffic so I may have bitten off more than I can chew!

With this being such a new and intriguing fishing challenge for me and as I enjoy reading the blogs from the likes of Dominic Garnett (Crooked Lines), Jeff Hatt (Idler's Quest) and Ian Barnett (Wildscribbler) I thought I’d try and put my canal fishing experience during this next year into my first ever Blog, a small nod in appreciation of these great writers. It certainly won’t be anywhere near as informative or eloquent as some of the other Blogs out there but hopefully it will be an interesting read for anyone stumbling across it.

Here we are then, it’s late February with the promise of at least one dry day this weekend so it’s time I took that first step on my Lurcherfly Canal Peregrination......