We had a fair drop of rain last night so the river is up a touch this morning and should be just about fishable on most beats.  The morning has dawned breezy with broken cloud and a fair bit of blue sky, but it looks showery and the persistent easterly breeze will complicate casting and make the Tarn choppy.  Still, At least the breeze is deterring the midges from becoming too much of a pest.  This past week has seen a fair few of the wee beasties beginning to feed as witnessed by the growing number of itchy bumps on my arms.

The Orvis Zero Gravity rod that I advertised for a member has now been sold.  It really is a beautiful piece of work and begs the question how our American cousins can craft something so perfectly designed and engineered yet their automotive industry turns out the most diabolical dogs on the planet.

Now a plea.  If anyone has a high powered air rifle or pistol (.22 calibre) that they wish to sell then I would like to hear from them.  My old .177 Webley is now too asthmatic to deal effectively with mink of which we seem to have a few at present that desperately need removing before they eat their way through our entire wild fish population.

Ian