It's been a while since I've had a day out at Barnsfold so decided on a trip one (what turned out to be sunny) Sunday afternoon.
The fishing was very tricky, with not much happening all day! With a slight hangover I soldiered on but managed only a few tugs and lost two fish to sloppy knots, not my best effort!
My two fishing buddies had more luck than me, fishing on opposite sides of the water our Dunc managed to bag 3 fish, with Daz managing to land 6 throughout the day.
It was towards the end of the day when Daz had come to laugh at my bad luck that something odd happened. I cast out from the small platform near the lodge and began my retrieve when my line tightened up, not in the way when you get a take, but in the way it does when you're snagged on the bottom!
"That just about sums my day up! I've just put that fly on and it's a goner!!!" I said.
As I slowly tugged on my rod I felt whatever I was snagged on begin to move, very slowly towards the surface. "Ah, it's maybe a branch or something?" I thought.
As I started to reel it in slowly, my line suddenly began to move in a very slow direction towards my right. There was some confusion here as I still could not feel the tell tale `tug` of a fish swimming, so it was a moment or two before I realised it was indeed a fish!
This is it we thought, this thing felt HUGE! A fish of a lifetime I think one of us may have metioned (obviously getting very carried away at this point).
As we brought it close (which did take some time) there was the odd, what I still swear was a silver flash under the water. Ever nervous, I gently brought it home, aware that my line might break at any moment!
Then, we could see it, in all its alien glory when it did finally surface. The biggest, ugliest, creepiest creature I have ever seen!
I had managed to foul hook an Eel! The little beggar was unhooked in the net and safely returned. I'm still not sure if I was excited or not about this catch, on the one hand I thought it waas a huge trout! On the other, it was nice to say I was able to land such a fish after quite a long and intense fight. At least my knots held, which was something to say for the day!
At least some of us had some success, here is our Dunc with a nice brownie caught towards the end of the day. Just before we were about to pack up! Still a great day out!
Fishing is a good hobby
ReplyDeleteshaddockfishing