Walthamstow - 21/09/07

Wow!

Turned up at 16:00 and went to the causeway, weather was a bit muggy and a mild warm wind blowing along the bank from the West. As I set up a group of fish were rising around half a fly line out.

I hastily set up and then it pissed down. I took shelter and when I came back the action began.

My set up was a Dial Bach on a dropper and Green CDC #15 on the point. Straight away I had action casting to rising fish.
I worked my way up the bank to the corner and had 6 fish all on the CDC. The first were targeted and the last 2 took blind.

The action lasted for around 1.5 hours then a cold wind came along with black cloud and the fish went of.

I had 2 more offers to the CDC, and switched tactics to 3 flies, CDC top droppper, with a GRHE middle and a buzzer on the point. I was hoping to fish bung style with the CDC as a float. This failed and the last 2 hours so no action at all!

Just when you think you have cracked it, the conditions change and the fishing responds so dramatically! Thats fishing!

6 - 0 -0

Walthamstow - Last couple of months August to September '07

There wasn't to much to write home about.

All in all, I tryed my new rod and broke it on its second or third visit. Although I did christen it with a rainbow on one occasion from #4 and the follwing visit a brown from #5.

I had 7 visits and only caught the 2 fish mentioned above. When I blanked, I completly blanked, meaning I did not even get a pull!

Both fish took a CDC buzzer.

2 - 0 - 0

flyforums.co.uk - Forum meet at Farmoor 15/09/07

Had agreat time and only my 2nd visit this year to Farmoor 2.

My first ever social and a really nice day with a great bunch of people, and wicked BBQ done by the Pitsford Pirate.

The thread from flyforums is HERE.

My write up:

We had a great one.

Was really nice to meet all the bunch and catch up on the footy during the BBQ. Top man Stewart for giving my burgers extra time!

I know we were a bit unsociable being in a boat, and it was a shame we missed a lot of the crack.

We had a few fish in the afternoon on floating lines and found the fish only a couple of feet down even though there was bright sunshine, dial bachs, buzzers and silver invictas all taking fish. Most of the fish had been feeding on daphnia and small black buzzers.

Come 6:00 pm all hell broke loose, when the sun had dropped back. We went to start a new drift by number 4 buoy and noticed that there were a few rising and the closer we got to the buoy the more fish there were.We cut the engine and without a doubt there must have been at least 20 fish showing on the surface from then on at any one time.

As you saw one fish and you started to cast to it, all of a sudden another one would come up, then you'd change direction, then another..... Thing was I tangled a couple of times and it was unbelievable experience. Even cast out and had 3 flies hanging in the surface as one fish approached from the left, one from the right and my flies in between them and would have put my mortgage on a fish taken, but to my suprise nothing happened.They were on small black buzzers around a size 16, and believe it or not they prefered a sunk daddy to a size 16 black hopper.So it turned in to the 'Day of the daddies -part 2' for us, and I'm glad I tied a couple as they got plenty of action.

Shame we had to leave Mark (Starsky) on the bank till we left, and asuumed that he was getting similar action, but unfortunatley it didn't happen where he was.If I could I would have tryed to get back this evening!

Thanks for organising it Charlie, great day!

Me 10 Marco 11

Rod Completion!!!

I finally managed to finish the rod, bought a rod turner of ebay for £25 and this made the epoxy finishing a lot better. Also ordered a decal from Decal Connection in the States, took less than a week to arrive and ws under £3! I was really pleased with the finish of the rod, although I had a few 'fish eyes' on the decal as I must have got a bit of grease on it somehow. Contemplating trying to remove it and the epoxy and redoing the decal again. Dont know if it its possible.

Also bought a nice aluminium bar stock reel for it from China, less than £30 delivered, took about 10 days and have seen the exact reeel on a certain rod makers web site for £130, although it has a logo etched on it. CLF56 on ebay.

Down to the business of actually getting to cast it. Loaded up the reel on a saturday afternoon, and sat the apprehensive in front of the telly, itching like a junkie craving some scag. Mel finally looked over and said go on then.... That was it, got on the tube and within an hour was at last wetting the line on my new rod. Action was nice, although the rod made a bit of noice as due to the resistance of the line through the eyes. I think this may be due to the tiptop having quite a small diameter, will change this as it wont be to hard as I used hot melt glue.

Once the line was wet, it went out nicely, although I had to get used to the lighter line weight and the shorter rod.

After about an hour I christened it with a 2lb rainbow, and gave the rod a kiss!

Have used it about 2 times now and really liking it, can quite reguarlly cast all the line out to the backing. When i get a few quid together will look at getting another kit and making another one.

New Fisherman has joined the Family!

Welcome to Daniel Vincent King - Born 1st August 2007, weighing in at 8lb 1oz!

Mick Bell - Bloke (JOKE) Rod Course

I feel I need to enlighten anyone who has the mis fortune to be treated like a C*UNT by Mr Bell.

Below is extractions of PM's i sent to a Mate on Flyforums as I told him what was going on, and feel I should no longer keep it to myself.

22/07/07
I have just come back from Mick Bells house with a half built rod. To say I have been messed around is putting it lightly. I am completly gutted with the way he has messed me around. I have taken at least 4 days of work to finish the rod for him to let me down, and today was the last straw.

I took friday of work to finish my rod, tried to ring him on his mobile all Thursday and Friday and no answer. Got an email form him in the evenig asking if I was coming round (was sent at 11:00am). I phoned him and this time his phone was on but he was well pissed. We arranged to do it today and I would phone him Saturday evening to confirm a time. Guess what his phone was off and finally got an answer at 2:30 and I have now had enough and picked my rod up from his wife and he didn't even leave the eyes with her to finish it of with.

This has been going on for months like this, he is truly a remakable fisherman, but is a complete let down. I'm really easy going but could not handle it anymore. He seemed keen to take the £300 that I paid in January twice (as he lost the original cheques).

I am going to have to see if someone on the forum would be kind enough to help me finish it off, he didn't even leave it with a rod bag.

I think when the other people dropped out he lost interest and he should have refunded me the money there and then. He's all matey on the phone, and he has got a quality bit of kit, but in all my fishing career, I have never been messed around by anyone so much.

I'm going to delete all my posts about the trip to Scotland and not post any bad words, just I dont want to influenece anyone else to try a trip/course incase they get lumbered like me.

All in all, I must have wasted 6 days of annual leave that I could of spent better either fishing or with my family. No doubt I would have got it done eventually, but you can only have so much patience.

Just thought I would let you know in case you may still be thinking of a trip next year, go for it but keep your options open.

Sorry about the winge!

All the bestVince

24/07/07

Hiya ******,

I've calmed down a bit today!

I phoned Mick up yesterday and he's unblievable. He was all matey on the phone and talked me through the process of finishing the rod for a good 20 minutes. He said he would get the rings, some varnish and a rod case of to me in the post and he even took my address (I was waiting to see if he would ask for it!), so I'm hoping the gear shoud turn up today or tomorrow. I will have a go at finishing it myself hopefully soon, and am up for some Paternity leave any minute/day now.

I took 2 days leave for the original course (25-28/05/07) and emailed him from different accounts, pm'd him and he just never replied. Eventually I got hold of his mobile number from his website (I should have done it ages ago), and finally managed to talk to him. I was really angry with him and had a rant for a few minutes, I told him I wanted my money back, he then said that the 2 others had dropped and that he was of to Japan during the original date. He was very apologetic and I calmed down and gave him the benefit of the doubt. I suggested that we build the rod in Surrey where he normally lives and when it was convinient we could go to Scotland, as he visits there quite often with groups and clients.

Well we made a date (I think the first date was cancelled) and I started to build my rod, he really does know what he's talking about, and I learnt loads and we went of to a restruant and had lunch and quite a few beers. He wasn't able to carry on with the rod when we got back because he had drank a skinful and lost the steadiness in his hands.I left and he said he would be in touch with a date for the fishing. Well guess what? He never got back to me, and I phoned him and put pressure on him as Mel was getting near full term pregnancy. Eventually he made a date a couple of weeks ago, and we actually went. A fishing friend of his was also meant to be going, but he pulled out last minute, which was a shame.

Anyway, we made it there and fished as I posted on the forums. On the Sunday we went of to the loch early afternoon. While fishing I asked Mick what time were we leaving on the Monday and he said we're not, we're leaving in an hour because his wife could not get the Monday of work, it would have been good if I had known this before hand! To top it all, they were aware that there car had a flat tyre and I pointed out that it was partly bald as well. They pumped it up and we had a blowout going about 100 mph on the way home.

Paragraph deleted

There has now been a few days that I have taken leave and then not been able to get in touch with him eitherside of starting the rod or finishing it. Plus the first trip where I had taken 2 days off.

He is definately eccentric, a bit of an a****, a fishing genius and a charmer! If it wasn't for the quality of his fishing gear and his astounding knowledge I would have told him to **** off yonks ago.

One thing that I should have gave him a right hander for was on the Friday just gone. When I phoned him in the evening, it was around 10:00pm. he made excuses about his phone not working cos it had not switched from China back to UK since the Tuesday. He was pissed and came out with a question about whether Mel had dropped or not, and this is what he actaully said when I told him she hadn't: 'Tell the C*** to get on the floor an push the f***er out then'. I had walked in to the kitchen, and lucky enough Mel was out of ear shot and I supressed my temper and thought just tolerate this idiot as he was well oiled. If Mel had heard him she would of gone round and scratched his eyeballs out of his head.

Also, I dropped a bunch of flowers of to him on the Monday after the trip to give to his wife for doing the cooking. When I picked up the rod she never mentioned them and never even said hello or goodbye to me, just said OK.

I just have to put it all down to experience, and if I order or buy anything from him again, I will go around to his door and pass the cash over when/if I get the goods.

I'm sorry to throw all this crap your way, but I could post this on the forum and it could get in to a slagging match and I would hate to have that. I've been a member of the forum for about a year and have gained so much from it, there is no way I would want to stir up anything. Plus Mick has an alligence of support and agents on it, I would be wasting my time, but who know's there may have been people in a similar posistion as me?

If I do mess my rod up, I'm sure he will help me, but I wouldn't arrange a date with, just phone him on spec. I think I should be Ok though.

26/07/07

Hiya ****,

Thanks for reading, I know it does sound like a carry on film!

I did receive a package from Mick yesterday, and eagerly opened it..... rod rings, varnish, decal, rod bag.

First, checked the rod rings.... bollocks, the tip ring is missing.

Second, checked the decal..... 'Bloke XL 9' #6', shit he's sent me the wrong one, I was making a 4 piece 10' #7.

Third, rod bad.... Big gold letters 'Bloke XL 9' #6'.Unbelievable, when I spoke to Mick originally, I told him which rod I would like to make, and f*** me I have been making the wrong rod all of this time!

My next buy or make was going to be a 10' #5 or #6, so this rod will sort of fit the purpose, but I wanted 10' #7 as I already have a 3 piece one and wanted the same but in 4 pieces for travelling on the tube.

Just saw a post from Riverboy, saying he was retiring from the forum, and one of the reasons is an argument he had with a well know rod manufacturer on the forum, I done a search to see whom the problem was with. Mick shows his true colours in this post: Post #57 onwards http://www.flyforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10371&page=6

I think I may paste some of these PM's on my blog without all the personal bits in them.

Anyway to move on I have phoned up a rod building company. I found out I also need another snake ring as I was 1 short, and have to order a couple of tip rings because I cannot be accurate in the tip size, so have to order a range to be sure.

Cheers

Vince

Walthamstow - Mid July

11/07/07

Had 2, one on a CDC Buzzer, other on a yellow Invicta. Wind was blowing from the West. Odd fish showing now and then.

2-2-1

16/07/07

Caught one early on, CDC Buzzer. Wind in same direction.

1-1-1

18/07/07

Again all 3 came to CDC Buzzer, wind still coming from the West. Fish were showing along the causeway, I was fishing in to #4. In the end there was a huge hatch of green buzzers, around a size 12 hook. Hatch started around 8:00pm and you had very little chance of a fish taken your pattern when it was surrounded by 1000's of the real thing. Only saw 1 fish caught unitl fishing ended. Covering plenty of fish, never got a tug. Unblievable hatch!

3-3-1

23/07/07

Wind had swung roung to the NE and there was alight rain. Fish were showing along the railway bank on #4. Suddenly the wind swung to the N and a heavy (cold) persistent shower appeared. the fish switched off, I got soaked through and gave up after a few hours!

0-0-0

25/07/07

Wind was back in the South and very breezy. Went to the water works end on #5. A few people fishing and a few fish having a gander at CDC Buzzers but not confident enough to take them. I fished towards the tower and I'm sure ther was no fish in front of me. Conditions were not favourable for trying somewhere else so stayed put.

Saw 4 fish caught all in 5 minutes and nothing eles. That was it, I never had an offer.

0-0-0