A LAW fly reel by Lawrence Waldron to warm your cockles.

The Barder Rod Co, care of Ice Station Zebra.

It’s hard to safely heat a workshop full of combustible materials. Bamboo, varnish, fat post-Christmas humans. Only the hard work we do for you brings warmth to our gnarled fingers. In the summer, our post is addressed to Sea View. We’re seasonally adjusted.

Here’s something to put a spring in the step of your neoprene clad feet- a LAW fly reel made by Lawrence Waldron.

Most of you will be aware that the legendary LAW fly tying vices, the best ever, change hands for up to £5,000. Worth every penny too. Less well known are his equally superb reels. Lawrence Waldron, a supremely thoughtful and skilled designer and engineer, devised his reels with the same genius and rigour that he applied to his vices and, last time I spoke with him, saxophone mouthpieces. Clever bloke.

We have for sale a sensational 2¾” wide drum disc drag anti-reverse model in unused condition. Without one of these, your best fly rod is positively naked.

I know, I know. You’re hoping for a typically idiosyncratic Barder Rod Co New Year story. Can’t do it. It’s so cold in here I’m losing the feeling in my fingers and I may have to chuck a stack of Alistair MacLean paperbacks on the stove to unthaw the place.

Wear wool, mull some wine, shoot a January cock pheasant, catch a grayling and be of good cheer. The sun’s shining.

With best wishes from Edward, Colin and Alfie