Another spring bank holiday, this time with amber heat warnings and a threat of record temperatures at levels once rarely seen in this country even in August. The kind of weather in which you want to sit quietly beneath the shade of a tree. Instead most people, especially the petrolheads, prefer to burn fuel on the roads, sports cars and convoys of helmets creating a deafening roar, and not only on the main routes. I’ve written before how the narrow byways of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales are turned into homages to the internal combustion engine and illegal exhausts. Riverbanks are no sanctuary either. Blokes in shapeless shorts and printed T-shirts waddle along with little dogs, the aptly name shih tszus (correct spelling shitsu) and cockerpoounderyourshoes, yappy untrained pooches that jump up at you when not pissing on the pavements or crapping on the wild verges.
Where can the angler yearning for the peace of the waterside go? Not to the beach. The waters of the English Channel are usually too clear for daytime fishing. Besides, they are crowded with those who do love to be beside the seaside and give beach casters little room to swing a five-ounce lead. Then there are the floating versions of motorbikes, the jetskis ridden by tattooed lobsters with shaven heads, ignoring the local beach bylaws and boosting the skin cancer figures.
The coarse angler can seek out the deep gravel pits where the tench can seek out the cool depths. With a bit of luck there will be a tree to fish under. But even then you may not get a bite till evening brings some relief from the heat.
The fly fisherman has few options. There are the big reservoirs if you like that sort of thing but rivers are hot work and the trout don’t like warming water. At this rate the southern streams will be too warm to fish before we get to summer proper. Too many reaches now attract bathers and paddleboarders, rock-throwers and flea-treated dog washers, whether they’re allowed or not. No place for the delicate art of the dry fly.
Instead of fishing I went to watch fish from the footbridge over my local river. I spotted a pair of trout holding in the current, moving to the side every so often, sometimes coming to the surface. I can happily watch fish for ages. In this weather it seems the right thing to do to leave them alone. We all need a bit of peace.
The Secret Angler 