Guiding Paul, Nick and Rob H.Avon and D.Stour

Nick and his Dad Rob had booked a days guiding on the D.Stour. Eventually the day arrived.

We Met on the banks at about 7.30am as they needed to pick up some maggots. Our first plan of attack was to fish red maggots on a short hooklink feeder rig. The river had just about the right colour and things looked very good. I suggested that we should get a few plucks and pulls and then we should start to catch. WRONG!

Although Nick did catch a bull head and a pb for him. He had never known of them before.

After 3 hours I suggested we move downstream to a very nice pool that normally produces some good chub. So first I bait dropped about half a pint of reds.

Now Rob and Nick don’t fish often, however they knew enough. They were constantly asking great questions which had me thinking about how I need to get the information across to clients. Do you use hemp, what size hooks how often to feed etc. They were sucking knowledge out of me. Not that I minded.

Rob was the first to get a bite and the rod rattled and hooped over. He was quickly into the chub. Now these pull back in the strong flow. He did really well to land the fish as there were snags on both sides of the swim.

Rob with his 4lbs 14oz chub

He was really pleased with the result a fine 4lbs 14oz chub. Nick kept calling it 5lbs however jokingly I had to put him right a few times during the day. All in good humor.

From then on the only fish we caught were minnows and there were plenty of those. Then Nick hit another bite and this fish jumped, which I thought strange for a chub. Sure enough a lovely sea trout lay in the net. A first for him again.

Nick with a nice sea trout

Then things went very quiet. So to keep interest going we moved to a swim upstream and started to trot. It was a difficult swim and I thought it would be quite tough for them. However I shouldn’t have worried Nick took to the method really well and was soon playing and landing a nice roach of about 1lb. Next it was Robs turn.

Nice roach of about 1lb

They hadn’t used such a long rod as the Hardy Marksman 15ft before. Line control was always going to be an issue however both of them showed improvement as the session continued.

Then Rob hooked a chub which had the rod bent double. You could see he was enjoying the fight very much and Nick was ready with the net.

Rob playing a chub

Rob did a great job of playing the fish to the net and son Nick did a great job of netting it.

It wasn’t the largest of chub but at 2,5lbs still good enough to have Rob buzzing with excitement.

I was so pleased with this and so were they.

Float caught chub

Soon after the light was fading and we had the mother of all tangles so we retreated back to the feeder swim and guess what more minnows and little else. So the day drew to an end however I think both enjoyed the session. I was disappointed with the number of fish caught, however pleased that both picked up so much information and tips plus the float fishing and trotting technique was very good come the end. Sure enough they could return and practice again.

The most important thing for me is to see smiling faces.