Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, I hope that Santa brought you all what you wanted, and those resolutions that you promised to keep are still in place.

It’s the 20th March now and the season’s underway, the weather outside is still freezing and blowing a gale. I`m waiting patiently for a couple of nice warm and bright days so I can give my boat a spot of TLC.

I have a question here, does anyone else have a problem with enthusiasm, application and attention to fine detail to do the work required on your boat and other fishing related `things to do over the winter` projects in the same manner as you would have to paint the hallway, bedrooms, and not to mention the tiling of the bathroom. My wife seems to think I have, as it just never seems the appropriate time to start those intricate jobs around the house for one reason or another. Can I help it if there’s a sudden cold snap which would seriously affect the paint drying, and dampness is absolutely a no no when it comes to the grouting, and then there’s that old back injury which seems to be getting worse.

Anyway, back to more important things, have you, like me been checking out your tackle, come on now, I mean your Rods, Reels, Toby’s and Rapala’s. Well, this is the time to make sure your nylon is in good order and not needing replaced, your reels are greased and not going to seize at the wrong time, as what happened to Mr Craig Stevenson a number of years ago.

I remember it well, it was in mid June in 1989 and he was trolling in front of me along the Pilot Bank when he hooked into a good fish which stripped off line at a fair rate of knots. I saw the fish, a beauty of about 12lbs, leap out of the water about 100yds behind and to the left of his boat. The next thing I heard was a shout of dismay by Mr Stevenson, well it was a couple of four letter words with a six letter word intermingled. I think we’ve all been there. I followed Craig ashore to find out what had happened and was told that the reel had jammed, and pinged the 18lb nylon as if it was thread. When he eventually got the spool from the reel he found the workings to be bone dry and encrusted in sand and grit. So there’s a lesson to us all. Another thing is make sure your hook points are sharp, if not either replace them or hone them with a stone, lets face it the fish are hard to come by, so by doing these little things it lessens the chance of something going wrong when you do connect with a fish. It also gives you something to do when your back’s aching or there’s a cold snap approaching.

I haven’t heard of any reports of fish being caught yet, except for a 3lb Sea Trout which was caught and returned by two new members to the Association, who for years now have been coming up here to fish for Pike, but have decided this year to join the Association, and give the Game fish a go for a change.

So for the moment Tight Lines for the Season 2004.

In the picture you see that the loch’s frozen over. Well, it’s quiz time, who can name the postman on the cycle delivering the mail to the farm on Inchfad.