We have had a Yorkshire monsoon here since about half five this morning and it's still raining hard at eight thirty so the river will be high and coloured later today.  It's forecast to be an unsettled week so it's going to be a question of taking it day by day as far as river fishing is concerned.  The Tarn is fishing well since the last stocking, but not last night. 

I took the Romanian Chef from the Crown up to the Tarn last evening.  He is a nice chap and a keen angler, but never done any fly fishing and was anxious to have a go.  I saw him contemplating the river with a rod a few days ago and a supervised couple of hours at the Tarn when it was quiet seemed a good way of satisfying his curiosity and dissuading him from poaching.  Young Steven came up to give a few casting lessons as my casting is rubbish. The wind was a bit wicked so I had little hope of any success and his technique to begin with seemed to be more of the thrash the water to a foam rather than the gentle kiss of fly on meniscus.  After a bit of tuition he slowed things down a lot, but the fish were reluctant to rise in the choppy conditions.  Much to my surprise and that of Mike H who had arrived to fish he got into a decent sized rainbow which unfortunately he lost as a result of trying to haul it vertically from the water.  Fortunately the hook straightened and came out so no damage done and he now has a much better idea about the gentle art which he can apply down at the Helwith Bridge fishery.  So, a fairly happy Romanian and one less potential threat to the river trout I need to watch.

Ian