A dry net and wet polaroids...

Despite making three trips to the river over the course of the weekend, I failed to show my net to a single trout. And on Friday night I managed to lose my polaroids in the river...

On the whole I practise catch and release, so I don't mind leaving empty handed, but to come away with less tackle than I started with is hardly worthy of congratulation. The weren't exactly expensive glasses (OK, I got them free when I bought the Comfort Zone waders and boots from Airflo - don't start, I know, I know...) but they did the trick. And now since starting to find out a little more about the decent brands available, I've started to spend an indecent amount of time typing the phrases 'Maui Jim' and 'Bolle Boomslangs' into Google. Still, in this hot spell, it's probably more worthwhile then standing in a river holding a fishing rod.

'Ha ha', said the trout. 'Look at the difficult lie I'm in. Just try and get a cast in here!... Oh look, he's going to try a bow and arrow cast... this'll be good...'

But a trip without fish is rarely a trip without reward. On Friday I saw a kingfisher on the river, briefly landing on a branch before darting off again. And on Saturday there was entertainment watching an energetic trout busily rising to a hatch of something or other in a completely unfishable spot. Under a canopy of bushes, even a side cast was out of the question. I tried a bow and arrow cast a few times, but soon gave up. It was a real pleasure just watching a small trout go about his business, largely unhindered by a blundering angler (without glasses). And then on Sunday a trout lunged at the fly as it landed in an unlikely pocket of tumbling water. He was on for a second but had detached himself before I knew much about it.

The flora on the upper Cam - useful if you need to lose flies and break fine tippets...

They say that it will be cooler soon, but I'm getting married next weekend, and somehow I think I'll have trouble getting an extension on my fishing visa. I haven't quite worked out how the catching (or the attempt to catch) small trout contributes towards the wedding preparations... yet.