It seemed as though we had only just got back from Portugal than our next trip within the UK was upon us. Lee, our son based in Scotland had flown down for a week so we picked him up from Exeter airport and headed to Reading. The Chub Study Group had launched their new book entitled Chevin at the Land’s End pub. The great and good were there and we picked up our allocation of books and met some old friends; Bob Buteux who had written a contribution to the new title, Len Arbery, with his wife June, who brought along his landing net that he manufacturers and proudly displayed it to all interesting parties, and Chris Ball about to be transformed into Biggles for the Goodwood race meeting.
We also met new people; Sue Stone, Peter’s widow was there, as was Terry Lampard which gave me the chance to talk about the roach he caught featured in “Catching the Impossible”, and Kevin Grozier who had brought along some of his books “Avon days and Stour Ways” which he had thoughtfully signed for us. It was a very pleasant day out in a friendly atmosphere, and a good day for the Chub Study Group selling most of their titles.
The following day we visited the Berkshire County Show on the Newbury Showground just off the M4. We had been told that this may be a good place to have a stand in future years and went to meet our friend Chris Elliott, the taxidermist and to look things over. It was great to meet Chris again and his partner Jenny, we had spent time in India with them and they are a great couple. Chris is an outstanding craftsman, having been trained by Roland Ward and is probably the best fish taxidermist in the country. We are talking about putting some of his work in the shop so that people in the South West can see the standard of work that can be done.
We had an enjoyable day in a relaxed atmosphere although we spent too long and too much in the food tent. We do have great produce in the UK, but you have tp look past the supermarkets to find some of the best.
As we were travelling, Lee and I had also booked a days fishing on Michael, our friends lake just outside Leamington Spa. We met Michael several years ago fishing on the River Wye and he lets us fish it regularly. There is a specimen lake with large carp and pike, but we prefer the “House” lake because it is such a picturesque setting.
We started on another lake other the road scanning for perch, but only saw medium sized carp which we stalked fishing freeline with worms and prawns. We got bored with that and returned to floatfishing the “House” lake which we thoroughly enjoyed, catching roach, rudd, bream and a mixture of hybrids interspersed with the odd carp. Sport was continuous all day. As dusk fell, Lee started catching more carp and I decided to plug across the specimen lake with a floating plug. After a few casts, the plug stopped and then slowly powered down the lake. As I held on the line ran from the reel and then Lee, having heard the commotion, arrived just in time to see the plug become free and come flying back to me, before he rolled about laughing. His best pike is 18lb but mine is only 14lb, and after losing a good fish in Hereford the month previously, he knew that his fish would remain the biggest we had caught. (He caught his best there a few years previously on a Mepps. The pool is also where I caught my first 20lb carp stalking with floating crust)
So no big fish this time, but that didn’t reduce the pleasure that we gleaned from fishing such an idyllic setting – many thanks again to Michael.
As dusk fell we retired for the night and then back to work in the shop on the morrow.