The perpetual flooding of the rivers in Devon has been frustrating so when Lee decided to come down from Edinburgh for a bit if fishing, we were delighted to be able to accept Dave Steuart's offer of a day trotting on his stretch on the River Test.
Those of a senior nature reading this will remember that Dave's regular articles in Angling in the 1960's and 70's were required reading. he also wrote an early carp fishing book in the "How to catch them series".
So we arrived to find, as had happened last year, that it was the coldest day of the year so fishing would be tough.
I tackled up with my latest weapon of choice, a Hardy Perfection Roach cane rod, Lee used his Allcock's Benny Ashurst rod and flick'em reel.
Second run through I caught a small grayling on double maggot and that set the tone for the day with a bad of fish coming to the net up to the pound and a quarter size with a couple of parr and minnows. The heaviest fish were the trout but their splashing and leaping antics do disturb the swim.
Lee fished a lower, slower stretch and found fish hard to come by initially fishing too light, but when he added weight to the float set up, he too caught a couple of grayling but then struck into chub and the solitary roach of the day.
Dave, as usual was very quick to take the mickey about our lack of talent, and we returned the jokes about his height. A great days fishing with really enjoyable company and really worth travelling such a distance for a day like that.