This was a day that was perfect, some would say too perfect. After a few hours most people had finished with only those that had been deliberately going slow so as to stretch out the fishing – perhaps with a barbless hook.

The day was warm, cloudy with the rare glimpse of the sun and a gentle breeze.

The setting is in a nice beautiful green valley with lots of trees around (not that they got in the way). There were two lakes with islands in the middle, one lake being larger than the other (much smaller than Lechlade).

The fish, especially on the smaller, clearer lake were rising continually and so several anglers started on dry fly. Others were using buzzer type flies on/near the top – the water was not exceptionally deep. The odd angler tried a slow sink or sink tip but in general it was a day and water for floaters and small flies (a maximum size limit of size 10 hook, one hook only).

Although the fin quality of the fish was generally poor (stock fish), at an average of 3lbs to 4lbs they put up a good fight.

At noon we all settled down to lunch – wine included.

An enjoyable day was had by all, including the two guests.