FM fish-in Saturday July 23rd 2016

July 25, 2016

So as I sat beside a lifeless rod for most of the day I was missing out on the action, most of which came from upstream where the flow was stronger and fresher on this sizzler of a day. As it happened no monsters were caught though rods were bent frequently enough to make the day’s fishing a mild success. Regular sightings of leaping salmon were a spectacular bonus for us all, the larger fish crashing-down and rocking the sedate lower river like concrete posts dropped from a great height.

Dave Sperry brings in a chublet

Breakfast at Graham and Jane Elliott’s delightful cottage was a great opportunity for me and others to put faces to some familiar names and pseudonyms: Neil (with whom I’d fished before at a notably insalubrious chalk pit in Essex) Ray Clarke, James and Roger Hill, Dave Sperry, Ian ‘It’s fishing not catching’, ‘Sagalout’, Skippy’, ‘Edsurf’, Barbelboi…..great to see them all, and great that Graham was able to gift a local charity with the fifty quid we had left over.

Ray Clarke with Skippy at the top of the stretch

Those who stayed in Ross overnight returned to the river but this time in the rain beneath a leaden sky – bingo! Roger, Jimmy and Neil made up for the previous day’s barbel deficit with twenty fish to over 8lbs. Pictures to come with any luck!