With the shop busy and Sandy working so hard on publishing books, coupled with the atrocious weather, I haven’t been out fishing much this year but I felt that I just had to go fishing to restore my fragile sanity.
It was just after the August Bank Holiday weekend with the customary rainfall when I arrived at the Exe to fish the lower reaches of the river, courtesy of my friend Mr. Cooper, with the river was running high and coloured.
As I hadn’t got the key to fish the secure weir pool area, I went further downstream to fish the wider area where I hoped that feeding a line of smelly offerings would attract the fish. The first thing that it did attract was a grass snake which swam across the river straight to my feet although once it was in the grass I lost all sight of it.
So I set myself up and fed a line with smelly offerings but with no success for over an hour until I had a firm pull on my touch legered spam. I was taken aback to catch an eel that weighed nearly a pound. I am not a lover of catching eels, but it was good to see one as the population has declined dramatically over the last decade. The fish was carefully returned.
I tried other baits including corn and bread with no joy. This wasn’t unexpected as they don’t have too much odour, so I switched back to spam and caught a succession of eels, all around the 12oz mark. Enough to ensure that there is proper food for the otters when they return. At least it is a sign that the river is healthy and I had a pleasant day out watching the wildlife in a tranquil environment.
I find it so necessary to fish a river to restore my mental balance; so people do yoga but fishing works for me. Restored I returned to the shop planning my next trips.