January 2013

Monday January 21st 

River Bain 

You could probably tell by the last the instalment that my interest in getting out there was waning. I needed some inspiration and it came the strangest of places- facebook. A precession of pictures of anglers holding Chub in the snow were posted. It seemed to be de- rigueur and I needed to be part of it. One venue sprang to mind. I had walked a short section of the river Bain with the dogs in the summer and seen a few small shoals of Chub. Nothing big but I just wanted a catch picture in the snow. 

I peered out of the window to see snow eight inches deep in the garden. That'll do I thought. "What you doing today?" asked Mrs P. "I'm going fishing," I replied. "Be careful.......have you got full charge on your phone in case something happens?". She soon changed her tune when I raided some cheese from the fridge along with the last few slices of bread. I shot out of the door and headed to the river.

Turning of the main road I parked up and headed towards the bridge. It looked stunning, 

This was where I had seen most fish in the summer and I settled behind that big tree on the left and cast down into the tail end of the pool. That is my rod lent against the post. You might not be able to make it out as it is my new Mach 2 tip rod and it is super slim!

I had a few casts with bread to no avail so I tried a piece of cheese, again with no success. After around half an hour I wandered downstream but couldn't find any likely looking spots. I returned to the bridge, passing a friendly dog walker on the way and decided to go upstream. It was hard going in the snow so I dumped my tackle bag and rod tube in the car. The snow was untouched on this stretch and I walked for about half a mile until I came to a big sluice gate which had an inviting run below it with some slack areas.

I started off with the bread again with nothing to show for my first two casts. I recently downloaded some editions of desert island discs on my phone so I decided to cue one up. Sitting there surrounded by pure white landscape with the radio for company was bliss. I didn't even notice the cold.

Third cast, this time with cheese, was plonked under my feet in a slack area off the main flow. I was daydreaming when the bite came. A tentative affair I waited for as long as I dare before striking and then all hell broke loose. I was amazed that I had hooked anything at all let alone something so substantial. A few heart stopping moments were endured before I netted my prize. A Chub, big one too. How big I will never know as my scales were in my tackle bag in the car. Hey ho. I still had my new camera to try out.

A week prior to my outing I had purchased a camera adaptor that meant I could screw it into a bank stick. This coupled with the Cameras self timer meant I could now take picture of myself. As I seemingly have no friends this may be £3 well spent! Anyway here are the results including one of the many dodgy ones as my camera takes ten shots at a time (must look in the manual).

Till next time.................