If everybody is going to post their catches for all to see then what's going to be left for me to write about ?
Don't complain, that's saved you the task ! I wasn't going to post but send you a brief summary*, but seeing as everyone else has posted then I will chuck in my tuppeny worth....
* NB.The use of the word "brief" is not necessarily accurate..... :wh
Dishonourable libelist !
For once I arrived (nearly) on time and didn't leave til start of dusk....
Anyway, on with the summary.
I would have been a bit earlier but hadn't been able to get my hands on any bait during the previous few days, as working unexpectedly late, so my day started with a visit to the fantastic facility that is the Apollo Angling shop at Marsh Farm in Milford. That wasted a further fifteen minutes perusing the serried ranks of beautiful tackle with my tongue hanging out and investing in some brilliant Gamakatsu hooks (free plug - fantastic beasties) which certainly did the biz during the day.
Made it through the gateway at about 9.15 after driving through the most awful cats and dogs downpour on the Motorway. Thankfully it turned out that this had already been over / was coming from the fishery and the rest of the day was grey but with only occasional spots of light rain. Two years in a row with reasonably decent weather ? Have the Gods forgiven me at last
????
Said hello to Aebitim and the young lady expertly fishing the weir flow, and then made my way up to the very top end of the fishery, just short of the white warning boards before the trout syndicate fly only beats after a friendly tip off by the Bailiff, top man that :thumbs:. Also with memories of the reported success of Windmill Maidment up there this time last trip...
I then spent a very profitable two hours fishing from the top down into the reverse current in the left hand bend under the trees. The way the main current came through, hit the bank and then split both up and downstream makes for a very handy deep cut channel and slack next to the bank just there. Looking down into the almost gin clear water you can see the tiny little fry facing downstream into the upstream current !
This session gave me a new PB for grayling twice, early on a 1 lb'er which chuffed me to bits, amongst a nice fun run of more normal half to three-quarter pounders, followed by a gorgeous 1 3/4 lber
. Lovely fish but with a cormorant mark on the flank.
Hooked him about two feet away from my right foot almost under the bank in the reverse flow. Although he put his big sail up in the current it didn't help him, as the reverse current carried him upstream towards me and my waiting net
. If he'd gone sideways into the main current then I am pretty sure he'd have been gone and away, particularly given my (lack of) proficiency with my recently acquired centrepin. But he didn't and my luck and hook held. A nerve racking five minutes, heart thumping away and the flush of relief once in the net.
That killed the swim and it was by now mid-day. While I generally like and prefer to fish on my own the knowledge that there was a (mildly) damp legion of friendly FM'ers downstream (and the very welcome social element to these fish-ins)) led me to move. So I made my way back down into the clutches of Barbelboi, Skippy, the Ginger tickler and others....
Then spent a most enjoyable afternoon trickling down the nearside of the long straight run above the fishing hut, immediately above BBoi (feeding his swim for him.... and they say us Welsh are mean
) and into a consistent series of welcome grayling, most in the half pound to three quarter pound mark, plus two of a better stamp of a pound or so. Lovely fish that would have been my new PB if not for my luck earlier !
The only irritation was that as I had forgotten my bait waist waiter I had to put my maggot box on the ground beside me. And managed to stick my damned foot in it not once, not twice, but three times
mg:. More damned bait escaping into the marginal reeds than in the river
.
Never had the luck to hook a tourist traveller, or any proper spotties myself (apart from an over optimistic three inch fingerling).
By 3.30 it was time for me to pack up, light dimming, back killing me after all that standing up all day, dodgy knee complaining as well, and - the deciding factor - a lot more heavy weed started coming downriver. There had been weed coming down all day, but now it really started to get a bit heavier and whole bushels of the stuff at a time.
And so to car and home to a nice warm bath and to reflect on my best ever day ever on LIF :w.
From Grayling virgin to a PB day when I lost count of the fish caught in five (or is it six ?) years. Thank you FM and thank you BBoi and all those who have organised these fish-ins over the years.
Much and deeply appreciated.
Sooooo..... anyone else up for a second helping in January or Feb next year when the weed has really properly been swept away
?
