Des Taylor’s
Diary of a Countryman
IT’S been a lovely week. I’ve caught fish in great company, with the added bonus of seeing masses of fantastic wildlife.
A session in the company of good friends in beautiful surroundings takes some beating, even if it is cold enough out there to freeze brass monkeys!
Here’s how my week went…
WEDNESDAY
Down to a local commercial to fish for perch on worm and prawns, and on the biggest prawn in my tin I had a take from a perch not much bigger than the prawn itself!
I stopped until a hour into dark and was getting really cold when at 5.30pm I had a nice slow take on prawn. I was just thinking ‘big perch’ when I realised the fish was a carp, and a decent one at that.
In the end I landed a common of about 15lb, in great condition with hardly a hook mark in its mouth. It goes to show that even on some of the most pressurised waters there are fish learning to keep out the way by feeding at night, no matter how low the temperature.
THURSDAY
Travelled down to Chew Valley Lake to fish on a boat for the day with my friend John Chester.
We’d both found it hard to sleep with the thoughts of fishing this opening day for a monster pike!
In the end, using every form of sea bait imaginable, we ended up with seven pike to around 16lb, and John took the lion’s share.
One of my mates asked if I was disappointed because I could have caught a 16-pounder a lot closer to home, but I explained I could not have had a take from a 45lb pike on my doorstep. Every time the float goes under at Chew that’s what goes through your mind. Your heart races – you are paying for that chance of a lifetime!
I regret not fishing Chew more over the years because it is a water surrounded by beautiful countryside with an abundance of birdlife. Like myself, John is a lover of the countryside and often we spend much of the day discussing what we have seen in between our sessions together.
We saw so many different species of bird today, but the highlight had to be a peregrine.
SUNDAY
A complete change of species and something I just don’t do enough of these days – trout fishing!
Over the years I have done a lot of stillwater trouting with some lovely sport on the likes of Draycote and Blagdon and also the smaller waters for really big fish.
I have been lucky enough to have caught well over 100 double-figure trout, including five over 20lb, but of late I have been caught up in coarse fishing at the expense of everything else. I will be changing all that with more sea and game fishing trips.
Today I had been invited to a very private water owned by my friend Andrew Taylor. Now, any day with Andrew involves fine food and the odd tipple of the very best whisky, and today was no exception.
Andrew’s father Bob, who also fished on the day, had prepared a honey roasted joint of gammon for lunch and he also presented me with a smoked trout for me to take home for my wife Margaret. A proper do!
The lake, on the land near Andrew’s house, is delightful, and on arrival we strolled around it with a mug of coffee. The fishing
was quite hard in the cold easterly wind but I did manage three trout to 6lb and lost a much bigger rainbow because I was standing on the line when it decided to make a long run for freedom! It broke 8lb line like cotton.
I very rarely get broken by a fish but, let’s be honest, it’s a mistake we have all made – it certainly showed up my lack of practice at this game. I ended up catching my trout on a large slow-sinking buzzer fished under a sight bob.
I really need to spend more time honing my skills rather than just trying to get trophy photos! Like a lot of anglers, I say things like: “Oh yes, I can cast a nice fly line, trot a stick float properly and cast a tournament lead 175 yards,” when in reality I have not done these things for so long that I am far from being up to speed.
I was very rusty at first today and it showed, with the number of wind knots and tangles, but after a few hours I was looking as though I might have done it before. I have spent too many hours waiting for a rod to bend over with a self-hooked barbel or a buzzer to sound with the run of a self-hooked stillwater fish, and I have forgotten my all-round skills.
A long list of big fish does not necessarily make you a good angler, it just means in a lot of cases you have fished a lot of good waters.
At lunchtime we sat by the lake with crusty bread, proper butter and honey-coated gammon with a coffee and a tot of Blue Label whisky. I thought back to my first day’s fishing on the cut when I was 11 years of age, going after stone loach, and I was grateful that I had taken up this wonderful sport. I finished at 1.30pm so I could watch England thrash Italy at Rugby back home. Margaret was chuffed with her smoked trout and life was good.