3ft Twitches

After the September break we had a couple of nice days fishing . On one of them Sue had a 4 fish in a morning session, on a stretch where only she is a member , so I just guilly for her. This entails baiting the swim , climbing tree,s , and making the tea , passing it to her as she concentrates . In the first swim she hooks a fish that really give,s it the big one , bolting for the far tree cover, letting the rod do the work it swings out into the open water , then just fell off !!, not a happy woman . We then move to a nice swim behind a stumpy willow , with the x-line going strait down to the rig in a few feet of water. The bites like this are funny , with the rod top just bouncing as the lead follows the fish down past the rod, and Sue hangs on for a 8lb+ fish , happy now .
We then move a few miles downstream so I can have a go . Passing a lay by catering van , we stop for an all day breaky sarnie , the best we have ever had , and set us up for a long walk to the swims . We dropped in half a dozen , and had 5 between us. The lamprey bags working a treat , putting only just enough in to get a bite, then moving on .What we did though was to fish under used swims , and in fact made a couple while we were there .

Another day in the valley see us change the way we fished a stretch . It would have been easy to go back to the swims we were in most of the season , so we looked at a fairly long bit that we had hardly fished , perhaps once , and even then , not the swims we wanted to try out . We started in a swim Me and Sue had made last season , but had grown over again , not much room for a rod over head , a bit tight all round . Bait was lowered off the rod tip , with the barbel under the cover tight to the bank we hoped .We sat watching buzzards , kingfishers etc , when out of the blue the rod wraps round 3 foot !!, Sue hung on , like a dog on a lead , in the net it went . This was to be the way the day went , with every bite being the same , no liners , no warning , just full test curve. We were in contact with the club secretary all day , winding him up on how they were feeding , and he was stuck at home !!. At one point I had just bundled a fish in the net when Dave Mason called to see how we were getting on , " funny enough Dave iv just got one in the net , about 8lb", he laughed and said , " what on! " , " your lamprey " enough said.

It is nice to contrast the way we fish compared to the club sec. He keeps accurate records of every thing, and knows what we caught, and they are not so far apart. Him working swims , and as my mate says , us stealing a bite . The main difference is he can pick the best time to nip out , where as we go no matter what the conditions are.Where we have to take what is given , but Im not moaning you understand!!!.

Hotel Vectra , with Sue doing the b+b.Many a night spent in the car park on the luxury double air bed , we did a two nigh stay , but any more than that , and lamprey flavor would have nothing on us .

Nearly up to date , Hatterbarbel