The longest gap in my blog 5 weeks!

It’s been one of the strangest month for me December 2014.

First off we celebrated my Father-in-laws 90th birthday at the end of November. What a great age to get to. However his health had been in decline for quite sometime however he was still able to look after himself in his apartment. Unfortunately his ill health rapidly took over and for the first two weeks in December we were running him in and out of E&A often. Having the hospital phoning us up at 9pm at night saying that his blood tests showed he needed emergency treatment. Poor old fella didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Me and Mrs.P didn’t know either.

We finally lost him midway through the month. Thankfully he died peacefully with us all there sharing his last moments.

Then there is the funeral arrangements plus all the documentation that goes with death. Plus me and Mrs.P went down with colds.

Lucky for the family we managed to have the funeral before Xmas so that was something in our favour. Got to say at the funeral the eulogy was rather long, however if you have lived for 90 years then you must have done many things as he had done.

So as you can imagine it left Xmas hollow.

Mrs. P’s cold got better mine got steadily worst and now I’ve got another medical condition which I’m seeing a consultant next week in an effort to identify what it is and hopefully treat it.

Got to say my energy levels have been very low for the last two weeks and fishing has taken the back seat. I even had to postpone a few guiding trips where things just were not good.

Then came along a great friend John Osbourne. He was down from London and was staying local and wondered if I could help. I had promised him a days guiding on the H.Avon and he asked whether I could perhaps help him beat his PB. So we agreed a date for half a days fishing as that was about all I could manage.

The day approached and so did the cold weather. I looked at the temperatures down Ringwood way and they said -8c. Well that should cool the river! The evening before our day session the forecast was for -7c. This would be bloody cold.

We made arrangements to fish the afternoon session on the float hoping that the temps would increase above zero to allow the line to pass through the rod rings.

I arrived a little early to find the temp at -2.5c at 11am. It was cold however with little wind the scenery was beautiful. Apparently the previous day fog had gathered during the day and frost hung from the trees. What a winter land I was in now. My heart lifted by the sight.

Inevitably out came the camera and I wandered taking some stunning photo’s. I was not alone as there were several other keen people taking the opportunity to record the sight.

 

I met John at 11.30am and we wandered down through the Avon valley to our chosen spot. Here we float fished running the float down the crease and up against the tree branches. It was a difficult trot however John being an ex match angler soon had the float going through it’s paces. However after an hour so and with one small grayling to his name it was time to move to swim two. Here again the float needed to be presented close to the tree branch dangling into the river.

John would trot and I would feed the red maggots in. After about an hour the float buried under the surface and John struck and played a small chub of about 3lbs to the net. I was hoping for perhaps something larger as fish to 6lbs 15oz have come out this season. However John was pleased about this fish meaning he didn’t blank.

We tried again for a while but nothing came along. The sun was now shinning down from a bright blue winters sky. It was warm and so different from the morning.

I suggested we go for a walk so that I could point out other swims that would be worth considering. However with the bright sun being low in the sky trotting and looking into the glistening river would make it difficult to spot bites. So we made our way just a few hundred yds back to the swim we had left. By this time a was breathing heavy and felt knackered.

Time was ticking by and I left John fishing the float through while I moved back to the original swim. Plan B was to bait drop about 1/4 pint of reds into the swim leave it for 30 mins or so then return and spend the last 1,5 hr fishing there this time on the feeder.

With nothing much happening on the float for once I conceded defeat and we moved to one where I had put the bait in. I said to John I thought we might get three chub from here within 9o mins. I felt really confident!

Out went a 50g black cap feeder and using the Korum 12ft Quiver rod and 6lb line with a 4lb hooklink. I said to John that you can tell when the chub are in the swim feeding by the taps on the quiver where the tails are hitting the line. Sure enough we had a few tell, tell signs with the rod tip bouncing around. I told John to get ready and within 2 mins the tip flew around and John lifted into a chub. With this swim you can move backwards into the field pulling the chub away from the tree branches. He did this superbly bring the fish into mid stream and walking downstream to net it. I always get excited when you get that first glimpse of the fish. This one looked above 5lbs and as John’s pb was 5lbs 9oz I thought it to be close. With the fish going straight into the net I lifted it up and sure enough I though a good 5lber here.

On the scale she went exactly 6lbs not an oz larger or smaller. John was like a dog with two tails. He said he wanted to jump up and down, but didn’t want to scare the fish.

With the photo’s taken it was time for another cast.

In fact it took 2 more casts before once again the rod top nodded a couple of times. This time John was on a high state of alertness. Bingo the rod tip bent over and John lifted into his 2nd chub. He didn’t see it but it made an almighty swirl on the river surface as it felt the rod top. John instantly thought it was larger. Again John soon had the fish in mid river and the battle was won. However for no reason the hook came out. For sure it wasn’t the amount of pressure on the line or hooklink. However it must have been hooked very lightly. So that was chance 2. I still thought we had one more chub to catch.

Out went the feeder again it was just starting to get darker. His phone went and it was his wife who was waiting for him in the car park. By this time it was starting to freeze again. The landing net was solid. I think John would have liked to have stayed however it was very close to packing up time. The chub were swirling in the swim and I’m sure if we had stayed then we might just might have had one more.

A perfect afternoon for John and a great time for me to be out in the fresh air once more.

The next day was still cold at first then the cloud came over and another friend fishing downstream had a real red letter day on the float with the largest fish being 6lbs 7oz. Perhaps today they wanted it on the river bed and didn’t want to chase around! We will never know because that’s fishing.