TIDES

New waders, barbed wire fence…it had to happen

High water for October and November.

One time when I was fishing for sea-trout on a Scottish river, I hit into a good specimen. Since I was fishing fairly light, I was following the fish along the bank in my brand new waders.

Eventually, I came to a piece of barbed wire that was fastened to a short post. As I stepped over the wire I caught the inside of the right boot, which cut a V shape through the rubber.

Eventually, the fish threw the hook, which didn’t leave me in a very good mood after damaging my lovely new waders. They’d cost a few bob too!

Now, where I lived in Newcastle there was a garage about 50 yards away, and I knew all the lads who worked in it. I took the damaged waders into the garage and spoke to the foreman. I asked him if he could “galvanise my wader for me please”.

He looked at me in a quizzical manner and said: “Yes, but you won’t be able to walk in it”.

It must have been about 10 minutes later when the penny dropped. I realised that I should have said ‘vulcanise’, not ‘galvanise’.

As you can imagine, the chaps in the garage had a good laugh at my expense. When I went back to the garage shortly afterwards I got a huge cheer from all the staff.

I accepted the mickey-taking with good grace and, because they’d had such a good laugh at my expense, I wasn’t charged for the repair job. A good result!

I’m still annoyed, though, that I let that fish get away! ■