Fisherman's Tale

Date fished 27/8/2020
7am until 12pm


Today's trip was a lot different from any of my other trips. To start with I was fishing with a non fisher, an old school friend, Dwix. Secondly it was down South, and lastly and the most strange point of all, we got to the venue on the London Underground and we were in zone 3!
Doing the prep the night before was a little bit different....

Earlier in the week we had tried to obtain a licence for Dwix on the "Take a friend fishing" campaign but unfortunately the website never sent us a confirmation e mail and we chased them a few times on the online help but no-one replied, so Dwix paid £6 for a one day licence. Quite frustrated that no one replied, it's not the money, it's the point of having, what I think is a really good scheme, but it didn't work!

Setting the alarm for 5am, we were up and ready promptly. Getting on the Tube it was just over an hour to our venue. A few changes and we arrived. Coming out of the underground it struck me how urban it was. I was defo not going to be bothered by cows today!
There was a petrol station, Sainsbury's and Burger king a cast away from the bit of river we were to fish. The river, however looked spot on. There was plenty of streamer weed, stones and far bank cover. The water was so clear too, it had to be good for an urban Barbel!

Tackling up a rod, Dwix was soon fishing under a bush, my first cast a little too zealous and I  was in the bush!! Because we didn't know the stretch, we were going to fish a few swims and keep walking. Noting any fish or spots to fish again on the way back. We fished a good few spots by a weir, around streamer weed but no fish yet. Dwix by now was a proficient caster and a master catcher of sticks!

Finally we came to a reed lined deeper area by a bridge. I cast my pellet in and spotted a fish slowly swimming away. At least we knew fish were here. Dwix sat waiting patiently but then declared,
"There does not seem to be a fish on my hook".
No sooner as he finished the k, his rod wrapped round and a (very?) large fish had picked up his pellet. He picked up his rod and immediately the 8lb hooklink snapped. We will never know what the one that got away was.

We fished a few more swims upstream but to no avail. Our alcohol fuelled tummies were now calling for stodge. We turned around and headed back downstream. We stopped for 10 minutes in the "one that got away" swim. Well, who wouldn't?!? But sadly no luck or unluck this time.

We finally packed up the gear and headed to find the golden arches.
Back at the supermarket area, it was now a bustling high street. I chatted to a couple of security guys who were interested to know about the fish. We looked down over the bridge and saw a large Koi Carp swimming about in the flow.

We said our goodbyes and headed off. I was glad to have shared my passion with an old friend, and I am glad we had some action of sorts. I was supposed to meet a fellow blogger, Brian, on the bank. He had told me of the venue but sadly we missed eachother. Next time we will make firm plans Brian, and Thanks for the venue advice!

I taught Dwix how to cast, what to do when a fish takes your bait and how to play a fish. But the best lesson he learnt, which he picked up quickly was as follows.
I just told him, as he went off for a nap, that I was going to write my blog and he replied,
"Make sure you don't under estimate the size of the fish I lost".
That my dear friend is the fisherman's tale.