Des Taylor’s
Diary of a Countryman
THE weather is spot-on, so it’s all hands to the pumps. I can’t stop catching fish, so here’s how my last week of the river season went. It was a good one!
THURSDAY
Guiding for pike with Mark Willerton from Hampshire. Mark has done a lot of fishing and has caught some very large carp in his time, but he wanted to learn about catching and handling pike, with maybe a quick crash course of drop shotting for perch thrown in.
With my usual river spots out of sorts I asked my friend Steve Greenway if he could help me show Mark the way of the pike angler on a local stillwater. It went really well. Mark caught a number of small pike and then a personal best at a little over 14lb on a small livebait. Steve showed him how to unhook the pike and I explained drop shotting, which he would be using for perch on the Midlands canals where he has a narrowboat moored.
Mark is an interesting guy who was shot in the head when he was in the Army and lived to tell the tale. I’m sure we will fish together again in the future.
I enjoy all my guiding days but somehow this was special. It was with a guy who knew how lucky he was to be alive and was living his gift of life to the full.
FRIDAY
Met Nash Tackle’s Alan Blair at 6.30am on the Warwickshire Avon for a day’s zander fishing.
Alan had spent the night on the water after barbel and, sure enough, he had caught a sevenpounder. My good friend Wayne Langston had offered to take us in his boat and we were soon at a spot where he knew there were some big zander. However, after four hours we’d not had a single run so he decided to take us to a spot where he and I had caught some a few weeks before.
That moved worked, with Alan catching fish from the off on small livebaits – good zander to 8lb 7oz. Within a short time Alan caught six and I’d had one. There are very few zander in Essex, so it was good that he had the lion’s share.
He was giving a talk the next day at a carp show, so he made his way home mid-afternoon before Wayne and I put some boilies into a swim for barbel that night.
We then made our way back to the zander swim and I caught another four fish to about 6lb, this time all on deadbaits. Fishing changes so quickly!
As darkness fell we settled into the barbel swim but Wayne caught nothing and went home around midnight. I stayed till morning because that’s when Alan caught his barbel but again, no bites. I got home Saturday morning a very tired man, to say the least.
SUNDAY
Ray Cutler and I headed to the Trent for the last few days of the river season. After travelling 140 miles, we were disappointed to find the banks were busier than Blackpool on a bank holiday – bivvies everywhere, some with TV aerials, others in groups of three like a camping site with huge pods and a battery of rods in front of them. This wasn’t for us, so we headed back upstream to another spot – but it was the same again, with almost every peg taken.
We had to spend the night somewhere to regroup so we quickly set up camp, cast two rods out, had a bite to eat and went to sleep. In the morning we reeled in and all our rods were snagged – an absolute nightmare. We had to make a decision and I suggested we head for the Warwickshire Avon, to the area where Alan Blair had caught his fish.
By midday we were set up in our new swims on the Avon. Wayne Langston came down to see us and was his usual confident self. “You’ll catch here today, that’s for certain!” he said. We baited with soaked pellets and boilies, set up for the night and cast in. After only 10 minutes I had a line bite and after about 20 minutes the tip bent over and I was into a big barbel!
Ray came with the net and soon we were looking at a lovely fish of 13lb 8oz. Photos taken, I recast and straight away had another take. It was another good fish but this time it ran into a snag and cut me off very close to the Nash Twister hook. As you can imagine, I was gutted.
The rest of the day was quiet but then, just on dark, Ray’s rod went over and he soon netted a nice double at 11lb 7oz. While Ray went for the camera I unhooked the fish and guess what? There, next to Ray’s hook, was my Nash Twister!
I was over the moon for Ray because we’d put a lot of effort into this trip. He’d driven 300 miles and to have a double each was repayment for all that effort.
And the night was not over – Ray had another fish of 8lb 8oz and I made it two doubles at 10lb 7oz.
What an end to the season!