It's been a while since I last mentioned W C Stewart and his 1857 masterpiece The Practical Angler, but many interruptions have made this a rather slower journey to the end of the book than I anticipated.  What has struck me is how observant the man was, how much he thought deeply about the 'whys' of what he saw and how relevant his observations and advice are today.  Clearly he spent hours experimenting with techniques, trying to discover how a particular method worked and if it did so in a range of conditions and on differing waters.  The strong message that comes across from his writing is that if we are to succeed as anglers then we must be prepared to cast aside pedantic reliance on favoured methods and be prepared to fish to the conditions prevailing at the time by varying every aspect of our approach.  Obviously the tackle he used would now be considered antiquated.  I know of no angler who uses gut even though some may well prefer to continue with split cane rods, but his methods seem to me to need only minor modification to take account of advances in rod, reel and line technology and modern materials should make his methods simpler to achieve.

What has changed is attitude.  His was to basket as many fish as practicably possible in the time available, volume of catch was the measure of a successful day and the only evidence of success was a long line of silver bodies laid out side by side at the close of play.  How now do we measure our success?  I guess that it's more subjective and more deeply personal.  Each member of the MAA I talk to enthuses about different pleasures from a day spent walking a rod with little piscine success, but a wealth of observations of nature and a sense of calm having spent time out of the rat race through those who land the one perfect fish in hours of toil to those who land and return what Stewart would regard as a reasonable basket (even though he would bite his sporran to see these fish returned to the water).  Perhaps that's the joy of modern angling, no one is under pressure to impress, it's simply done to satisfy some inner personal goal or pleasure and leave the day a happier individual.

We have some sun this morning which makes a nice change.  The river was in full spate yesterday so will take a few hours to fall and clear.  I guess that by this afternoon we should have near perfect conditions here at Horton.

No blog for the next couple of days as I am in London for a family gathering so see you again on Tuesday.

Ian