THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

For me Ffestiniog was one such an occasion. In the first six casts from the rocks just below where water
coming down the mountain entered the lake, I took five fish on a silver mepps spinner from a peg,
which while it was chosen at random, couldn't have been better suited to finding early season diploid
fish which running water always seems to attract.
Not exactly the most auspicious start to what would evolve into quite an avid fly fishing career, but a
launching pad none the less that would soon have me learning to cast, studying freshwater invertebrate
biology, and travelling the country to fish many trout fisheries both large and small.
This included all the big midland reservoirs, plus the gin clear chalk stream fed fisheries of Hampshire
such as Dever Springs and Avington with Graeme Pullen to shoot a couple of trout fishing video's for
YouTube, where I was introduced to the art of selectively stalking individual big fish.
My intention here is not to explore the various facets and techniques generally of fly fishing for rainbow
trout. There are many excellent books and video's out there done by real experts that will make a far
better job of it than I could ever hope to do. That's not what this book is all about.
My mission here is to recount specific experiences, observations, and personal opinions on a take them
or leave them basis, offered as an unapologetic bout of self-indulgence, and as such, my next piece of
recall involves an encounter with Birmingham angler/tackle dealer Terry Eustace, followed by an
angling visit to Esthwaite near Hawkshead in Cumbria.
Terry was doing a promotional talk pushing Berkley tackle which he was importing from the USA at
the time. Amongst a wide variety of Berkley products handed out at the end of the presentation, I
remember in particular being given two items. One was a floating fly line, which I have to say, having
owned and tried pretty much all the big name brands up to that time, was the best I have ever used.
You could screw it up in your hand and immediately it went straight again like soft string. It had
absolutely no memory at all. Perfect for keeping a tight line rather than having a series of kinks across
the water surface as is so often the case when using a figure eight retrieve.
In complete contrast, the other handout goodie was a small
jar of synthetically produced bright orange 'plasticine' like
dough called Power Bait, which Terry made me promise I
would use and report back on, otherwise I wasn't going to
be allowed to take it away.
Not so much with Power Bait in mind as just fancying an
easy day trout fishing on the tail end of a long, cold, hard
winter's cod fishing, Dave Devine and I decided to take a
run up to Esthwaite, which at that time was an any method
fishery where we could just laze about on a small headland
next to the car, bait fishing with our little cooker producing
hot brews and bacon butties. A nice relaxing day out.
We were legering worm tipped off with sweetcorn popped
up just off the bottom in conjunction with monkey-climber
bite indicators, and very quickly, we each had our limit and
were at the stage of putting fish back, when I came across
the Berkley Power Bait in the bottom of my bag.
Despite my earlier promises to Terry Eustace, subconsciously
I think, I'd been avoiding using it. It looked
ridiculous, it was artificial, and to my mind it was never
going to catch fish. But, a promise is a promise. So I buried
Phill Williams, nocturnal Rainbows
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