‘Here we are again’ I thought to myself as I drove down from Ingleton to Ribchester and it didn’t seem like there had been nearly two years layoff since the last fish-in.
As usual, we all met at the Black Bull Pub in Ribchester for the 9th Ribble Winter Chub Fish-in. This year we had an excellent turn out with about 20 fishing with 16 staying over for the night. On the last fish-in only 13 anglers turned up to fish, 12 of whom stayed the night in the bunkhouse.
As per the normal convention, we spent the first hour and half dividing into small groups, discussing tactics, and catching up on recent gossip. By 12:30 there were 20 or so anglers in small groups ready to hit the river. Wol as usual had gone straight to the river with Gary to get a flying start.
Martin Womble
The weather was a bit of an anathema, with the river temperature dropping over the last few days and hovering around 6C throughout the session, along with a north wind, all be it a light one, it didn’t look very good. However, the river level was OK at 0.22M above normal summer level and we had an overcast day with no moon at dusk.
Most of the lads packed in between 6 and 7-o-clock and made their way back to the pub for the evening meal. In the past, this meal has been a la carte, however, with the pub closing down at the end of November and the landlord running his stock down he had to improvise. His wife made two very large trays of something between a Sheppard’s Pipe and a Lasagna both having a number of mystery ingredients (very tasty ones though) and along with plenty of chips, bread, pickled red cabbage and onions it all went down very well.
Wiktor with a nice fish
So how did the fishing go? It’s quite remiss of me but I have to rely on remembering what the lads tell me in the pub and what they post on the Ribble Fish-in thread when they get home. To be quite honest there’s no chance of me remembering what they told me in the pub after half a dozen pints of Thwaite’s Dark Smooth and Wiktor’s Polish vodka. However, it looks like at least half of us caught a wide selection of species, namely: – Chub, Barbel, Eel, Grayling, Brown Trout and Sea Trout with Chub being the predominant species.
The catch of the day went to the ‘The Bad One’ with six Chub: – 4lb-3oz, 3lb-15oz, 4lb-8oz, 3lb-14oz, 4lb-2oz and 5lb-2oz. The first three came to maggot during daylight hours, the other three after dark to bread.
After the meal the evening passed very quickly and it wasn’t long before those that were staying over retired to the Bunk House. At this point I would normally cut and paste extracts from the Ribble Fish-in thread for example: –
Corkey posted the following:- Here’s a quote noted from the evening in the pub:-
‘The Absynth doesn’t seem to have had an effect on me’ – Richard (Wictor’s mate)….But later that night…
THUD! ‘aargh…f***..groan…’ – [imagine the sound off a p*** head falling off the top bunk] The DEMONS were obviously hiding in the corner behind my bunk because he spent some time trying to get them before disappearing to the bogs for half an hour (after he worked which way to go to get to them).
5lb 2oz chub for The Bad One
The DEMONS returned later that night. The voices in his head kept making him swear in his sleep ALL F****G NIGHT!
Absynthe, a drink with a long and controversial history, enjoyed its greatest popularity in late 19th century Paris, when Vincent Van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Verlaine, Ernest Hemmingway and Oscar Wilde were among its most ardent fans. It was an inseparable part of artistic life during that period of time. It is said to have inspired fine literature and great paintings. Although it’s not yet been mentioned on the thread I seem to remember Andy getting Wol to tell us about their fishing friends experiences in toilet matters whilst fishing, diarrhea and one-piece suit’s springs to mind.
However, I’ll leave you to read about all the goings on in the pub and bunkhouse between the lads on the FM Ribble fish-in thread.
In the pub
How things are going to turn out for the next fish-in? Well we’ll have to see. I will contact the Bull in the New Year and see if the new landlord, if there is one, is up for another fish-in in late Feb early March. Whatever happens I’ll think of something.
Finally I would like to thank you all for making the 9th Ribble Winter Chub Fish-in a very memorable one and I look forward to seeing you all again soon
