Teacher Knows best!

Date fished 2/1/2020
8.30am until 2.30pm

Today was a little different, I took my friend Tom aka 'The Tyrant of Hexham pubs' to the Tees to see if I could teach him a few things about trotting. Tom fished years ago and is getting back into it, and as a teacher he is always keen to be taught!

We were going to fish at a commercial as he wants to catch a carp, but after the cold snap, I suggested the river instead. He had never caught a Grayling, so that was our target. The carp will wait till the spring, they ain't going anywhere!

Armed with float rods and maggots we headed to Broken Scar. A quick stop to lay some pipe at the Durham services, alot of nice new buildings being built around there, and we arrived at the River about 8.30.

Tom set up his loafer float and was ready to go. I gave him a brief lesson in trotting and feeding and set him on his way. We fished two swims where I have caught many times before, so I was hopeful for an A*.

We swapped swims and carried on the feeding and trotting. About half an hour went by with nothing, so I was thinking of a move when I heard Tom shout "fish on".
I got to the net and quickly netted his first ever Grayling, and at 1lb 2oz it was a cracking fish. I warned him how hard they are to hold, being lean, eel like and strong and he learnt well for some great pics. Ooops!!

What a start. Chuffed to bits, we fished on.
Soon it was time to move on, we headed downstream to a deep pool section. I had never fished it, the conditions always didn't look right. But teacher knew best and the pool was to be fished!
Firing out some maggots in the catapult kept him happy while I fished on. Eventually a Grayling for me, but only a small one. They are much easier to hold when small. Ooops!

I missed a few bites, but not Tom. He was casting to the right spot every time, feeding with the catapult. It was looking great. Suddenly his float buried, he hit the bite and was in. His first wild trout lay in the net!

The dinner bell rang and we stopped for food. 

Getting back to it, Tom was soon into more fish. Finishing on 2 trout and 2 Grayling from this pool alone!! Not to mention the first one! 

The second trout being a great leaper, coming clear of the water several times.

Sadly it was time to move on for next lesson. We went to explore another deep fast bend further downstream. As we left the loafer hanging from a tree, we made our way to another swim. This was a different class, the water was faster here and harder to control the float. We gave it a good go, but no fish were caught here.

Walking back towards the car, we had another quick go in the first swim. Ever hopeful for another big Grayling. Unfortunately the wind had picked up and was blowing upstream so hard that even on the faster water the float did not travel down but was being blown upstream!! Trotting was impossible here.

Happy that we had caught some fish, we decided to head home and give ourselves a merit point, I mean pint! 

What a great day teacher had, and I was glad I could say "I taught him everything I know".