They come in threes

Date fished  9/3/2024

7am until 1pm

A final Tees flourish before another closed season. I do quite "like" the closed season. Time for nature to recover, replenish and rewild. I definitely think it should be regional though. Even on our little island there is substantial regional variation, so the closed should reflect that. 

Anyway, Ellis and I fished a club stretch for the final time this river season, actually I have only fished three times with Ellis since June 2023! 

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I met Ellis and we unloaded the cars. Ellis suddenly looked pale, he had forgotten something. Fortunately he found the lost item and we carried on. Nothing major, just his reels!! Not sure how he would of fished with none. 

We walked to the river, I got my ledger rod out of the bag. Suddenly I looked pale, I had forgotten something. Nothing major, just the ledger rod. I had brought a 13 ft waggler rod and ledger gear!! Not perturbed, I tackled up anyway and cast in. 

We are great at this fishing malarkey!!

No fish here, but a big fish jumped mid river, it was enough to give us five more minutes. When that was over we headed upstream. 

The John Wilson ledger rod was first to get action. As we chatted, literally mid sentence, Ellis's rod hooped over. He played the cheesepaste munching culprit to the net. A lovely chub. Not Ellis, the fish, Ellis is a slim! 

We decided to put a number on it, I guessed 3lb 2oz. It went 3lb 4oz. 

We fished on but with no more luck, we moved on. The cold wind was now joined with freezing rain, not enough to stop us. Gloves now on, we carried on. 

We found another swim.  I was downstream when Ellis caught his chub, so I went upstream this time. A few knocks on the John Wilson ledger rod. Ellis waited patiently and it happened. His rod hooped over and he was in again. This time I guessed 3lb 9oz and it was 3lb 7oz. Two cracking chub.

Ellis wanted his hatrick, so again we gave it a few more minutes, but nothing came back. Well, not to my cheesepaste. Ellis had a few more knocks. We put our location to "what three words", only the 256m accuracy though, brilliant!?!

A windy swim followed with no interest. One last swim, more out of comfort than anything else. We could sit next to eachother and have a natter. I wasn't feeling chubby, again I mean the fish not Ellis!! So, we packed up and headed home. 

My dad would always say bad luck or the like came in threes. We nearly had no reel for Ellis, I had the wrong rod. So had we had avoided the third curse? As we said our goodbyes, Ellis walked to his car door.

"Are you not taking your chair Ellis?" I asked, as I saw it still leaning against his wheel arch. 

2-1 to you Ellis!!