Big Salmon - Attempt No 3 (River Wye, Rectory Beat)

River: Wye
Beat: Rectory
Air Temp: 33.4 Deg C
Level: 0 on Gauge B
Barometer: Steady at 1006 HPa

My best man and Tulchan fishing gang member has been suggesting that we try somewhere closer to home for salmon and the Wye looks the best bet to get some good fishing without breaking the bank.

Access is controlled by the Wye and Usk Foundation, which is a charitable organisation.  In theory, it's a piece of cake to book some fishing but after studying the catch returns and trying to book onto one of the most productive beats, it's clear that the relatively low cost (for salmon fishing...) means that people book all the best beats way in advance, even in high summer.

After trawling through the dates, I finally found a single rod (out of six) free on the Rectory beat, which is pretty famous and thought I'd just go down and scope it out, while picking up some work related business in mid Wales.

Unfortunately, as regards fishing, I picked one of the hottest days of the year and with the river down to it's bones, there was just no way that the salmon rod was going to make it out of the car.  Interestingly, the other five rods booked never showed all day which suggests to me that the low cost is encouraging some selfish practices........ie. book all the best weeks and if conditions are good fish the beat and if not, then so what, it's not big money.  Might I suggest to the foundation that either rods have to confirm 48 hours before (so the rods can be offered to other people if they are to be free) or a no show on the day cancels all other bookings that year?

Anyhow, enough Victor Meldew chat, the beat is beautiful and the low water and high temperature actually made it easy to find the fish.  Oxygenated necks were the order of the day and a bonanza ensued.  Fishing a team of spiders, sometimes with a small double on the point to drop the flies a few inches, somewhere over 50 fish came to the net over the day.  Although plenty were parr, there was also plenty of good grayling to 1.5lbs and brown trout to the same weight.

Building on my multi-fish experiences on the Teviot, I somehow managed to get two parr, a grayling and the best brownie of the day on a single cast which is one to tell my girls about when they are a bit older.  Around tea time, a switch to the chub rod produced a 4lb fish first cast to anchored crust in Ty Mawr Pool, where I saw my one and only salmon of the day roll in the seam of the main current.  As you can see, I use a highly technical rig and rod set-up for my river Chub fishing these days...

So, not even close to a salmon today but a truly great day's sport.  One final observation though, something particularly big did follow me through the woods at dusk at the bottom of the beat, which got my cold fish blood racing a bit(!).  I'm hoping it was a sheep but I'm not sure that they pant....

Mr Fish          

Big Salmon - Attempt No 2 (River Spey - Tulchan)

TULCHAN 13

Day One

I can hardly believe that I'm saying this on the diaries but the weather has been wonderful and before driving up to Speyside for our second Tulchan Estate three day fishing trip, we were actually wanting to see some rain to liven up the resident fish if not bring some new fish into the river.

A call earlier in the week with top ghillie Rob Mitchell confirmed that there had been no rain for over two weeks and the smallest versions of the usual patterns (Silver Stoat, Monro Killer and Ally Shrimp) were the order of the day on size 10 or even 12 doubles.  We'd relieved John Norris of nearly their whole stock of "Wee doubles" on the way up only to arrive Sunday night to find the river now two feet up on summer levels and still rising...

Fearing the worst outcome, after a six hour drive to a rained off river, we nervously arrive at the famous Tulchan hut to find Rob smiling widely and saying that although carrying some colour conditions were actually sock on.  I must admit I was a bit sceptical thinking that Wednesday or maybe Tuesday at a push could deliver results but Rob knows his onions and after agreeing that we would fish like loons till dark every day my 14ft 9wt Hardy Uniqua (the crappest rod ever made by Hardy say the blogs...) is matched with a sea fly reel (Gold Cup) I bought in the States a few years ago loaded with a Rio Speymaster 9/10 to work the stiff rod to it's potential.  The line is fluoro orange which again the blogs say won't work but, with my level of casting, success will always have to be down to bit of river guile rather than Scott Mackenzie casting and delicate presentation.

So we're off and perhaps more full of enthusiasm than expectation of catching I'm working a big Ally's Shrimp through Head of Wood and Tail of Wood which is racing through.  To be fair, my inability to cast over half way is probably a good thing, as I would guess the fish are either running or lying in the inside line, rather than trying to battle  a heavy mid-water current.  As usual, team orders are to throw the kitchen sink at the river effort-wise to make up for our inexperience and to try to get value for money - no matter how you look at it, it's not cheap putting a line into an iconic Scottish Salmon beat. 

The rod reel line combo is actually working really well and a move up to a 9/10 wt line rather than a 9 wt has made a huge difference to both the feel of the rod and the range of cast without having to continually fight the set-up.  A big thanks to big Vic Knight (vicknight@blueyonder) the master fly casting instructor of the Midlands for that.  Sadly, the odds were stacked against him and in reality he had no chance of fixing my awful casting in a day but at least did sort me out with a line that actually matched my rod - top man....

Nothing at all by 12.00 and I've only seen one fish.  I move up to my favourite pool, Boat Pool, to try something new prior to lunch but changes to both fly and leader (10ft medium sink polyleader) don't produce anything and casting a long poly-leader is proving clumsy even on my better balanced set-up.  After psyching myself up for one last run through the best bit at 1pm, I switch to a 5 ft fast sink leader to at least make the casting pleasurable and try to compensate (in terms of fishing depth of fly) by putting on a Cone Head Silver Stoats Tail variant. 

The short leader make a huge difference and the first cast sails out 75 ft and the leader straightens out perfectly with the fly swimming on landing.  It moves round 30 degrees and there's a very gentle jolt before the reel set on a very slack drag starts to give line.  A slow lift and I'm into a fish in the same pool that produced my PB sea trout last year.  It's a steady rather than spectacular fight but netting my first salmon on my own is a rather tense experience before a relatively fresh hen fish of about 8 lbs is in the net.  Whilst I normally put all fish save stocked rainbows back it's a great smoking size and I'm sorely tempted to do the cavemen hunter gatherer bit and administer the last rites but the Tulchan rules save her with all hen fish (rightly) to be returned.  Spot the deliberate camera taking technique mistake (!) below and probably more importantly from a fishing perspective the tea coloured water...

Thankfully, I took the polished shots above because the boys refused to believe that I'd nicked one out just before lunch at the hut/palace (if you're from peasant stock like me).  Rob is pleased as it's been tough with the low river and despite the big pep talk I suspect deep down thought Wednesday was a better bet than Monday.  It's worth noting that I went through the pool with four different flies before getting a take - I suppose the question to ponder is was it the fly change or slight depth change from 5ft from 10ft polyleader that produced?  All I know is that this is now the set-up for the next 3 days.

It's a pretty quiet afternoon but my confidence is up and I just get a feeling when working through Tail of Wood that something is about to happen.  And so began one of those all too rare red letter few hours of fishing....

5.25pm - subtle take on the inside line but a surging first run.  It takes 25 minutes to land a more coloured male fish which battles all the way to the net and is probably 10-11 lbs.  The atmospheric pressure has changed and it feels just right somehow.

7-8.30pm - Dinner at the pub and quite a bit of gentle ribbing - the two other boys are pull-less.

9pm - a big brownie of at least 2 lbs hammers the cone head in the Hut Pool.

9.15pm - next cast another brownie of a similar size does the same.

9.45pm - after walking back up the pool and working my way down, another more subtle take in exactly the same spot but this time it's not a brown trout.  The fight is again of epic proportions with long surging runs across the deep pool and it's a full 20 minutes before my third salmon of the day is in the net.  Three salmon in one day!!!!  You could knock me down with a feather - I'd ever only caught six in the UK before and two of those were at Tulchan last year.

10.00pm - After sorting out the return of the fish I don't bother to walk back top the top of the run and a final cast before packing up in the near dark goes out pretty well for a man with shoulders that feel like a busy hod carriers'.  I'm texting Mrs Fish one handed on my phone when I can scarcely believe my eyes - the fluoro orange (fish scarer) line is moving steadily off the big sea reel spool again.  It's a real tough more heavy fight this time with the fish using the strong current and diving into the deeper holes in the pool.  It's a slightly shorter fight in terms of time though as my red letter day encourages me to fight the fish harder before the net goes under a heavier looking fish.    It's 13 lbs and a new PB by 2 lbs.  Who needs Russian salmon fishing  - one of the most memorable day's fishing ever in a truly stunning setting. 

For those who fish Tulchan, or who want to, the gauge was 2ft over summer level at the start of the day falling to 1ft over by the end of fishing whilst air pressure rose from 1016 HPa to 1023 HPa over the day.

Day Two

The boys have caught nothing (not even a Parr) despite using the same sink tips, so the breakfast chat is that it must be the fly.  As good long standing mates, they obviously totally refute any suggestion whatsoever that I may be getting quite good at this, or even that my efforts could be marginally better focused than their admittedly more beautiful casting.  It's luck or the fly, nothing else....

I'm a bit slower off the blocks after 12 hours of casting on day one and meander down to Tail of Wood to try the new super fly in the water which looked great yesterday but did not produce in this run.  The 30lber on the wall of the hut came from Tail of Wood and I'm starting to think that this could be my one big chance to nail a real biggie in the UK.  The water has held at 1ft over as has the air pressure.  Many more fish are showing today.

I feel the casting needs to be a little further today with less mid-water flow so I try to really take my time to get the full Spey line out straight in those spots which look the part.  I'm less fussy in the other areas but once I'm into an "Oily" water section I try to slow it down a touch.  There's nothing doing until I start casting down towards a massive boulder in the river.  First three casts nothing but it looks too good to be fished through.  Fourth cast and four feet of line shoots out and I strike like I'm trying to hit the fastest of Crucian Carp bites.  The one big no no of salmon fishing as I understand it and I bump the fish.  I hope Hugh Falkus wasn't watching upstairs or there would have been a fair bit of tut tutting.

Four fish the day before does soften the disappointment (slightly) but I'm guessing these conditions are all too rare so I don't move a muscle and start working the line out as carefully as I can, longer and longer until the final sweep and dangle is just my side of the boulder.  Five full casts and a big fish rolls on the surface mid river upstream of my position.

One more cast then before shifting 20 yards upstream and working down to the other fish.  This time I decide to give it 2-3 more yards to fish just past the rock and two thirds the way round a more gentle knock is felt on my index finger pad before the line starts to steadily leave the spool.  Second chance and there's no strike, just a steady lift into a really heavy feeling fish.  The first runs are quite short at 10-15 yards but very hairy, being towards the big boulder, before a fast 30 yard boring run up into the current helpfully gets the fish above me and I can tire it out in the heavy flow.  The polaroids give an early indication that I'm not in the league of the hut monster but I know it's going to be my biggest salmon by some distance.         

Only one small problem, Rob is miles away at the top of the beat, the banks are steep with no place to beach the fish and there is no net; so I'm going to have to tail my first ever salmon waist deep in fast flowing water while also knowing full well it's my biggest ever.  My heart is racing as I bodge the first two attempts with the fish going crazy when I touch it.  A serious talking to myself and after five more minutes of playing it further out a grizzly bear like lunge gets my free hand on the tail.  Woohoo!

Rob responds to the phone call for a photo call and a chunky 16 lbs hen fish is my new PB by quite some distance!

I spend the afternoon trying to snare a daytime sea trout on the spiders and land one of 3lbs and lose another with a second stupid Billy the Kid style strike.  After a lunch when the long debated question is how my crap casting must be swimming the fly deeper (Cheers boys!), they take off to the tackle shop to buy exactly the same fly!!

Thankfully Damian catches a grilse that very afternoon (later to our embarrassment identified as a sea trout) and then he's into something proper.  A long 30mins plus fight in strong water in the hut pool delivers a cracking fish of 15-16 lbs netted by yours truly.  It's a belting fish to go with the "Grilse"- both caught on Silver Stoat Cone Heads butchered with scissors/tweezers to become direct copies of mine.

Poor old Allan is still hammering away though, with not one pull despite casting exquisitely and undoubtedly covering the most water of all of us.  His copy of the super fly has not delivered and is swapped for a Red Frances in desperation at twilight as the two other team members have a drink and shout encouragement/boo from the hut, as he manfully keeps on trucking into near darkness.  Fair play to Mr Wilson, he's followed team orders to a tee and kept going.  A missed take almost causes a fatal (for the) rod throwing incident but 2-3 casts later a nice 8-9 lb fish takes the Red Frances and it's back to the hut for tea and medals with us all now in the money.

Day Three   

Whilst we're all running out of casting gas, it's a short day today as we have to drive back to the respective families in the North West.  There's deer (Fallow I think but forgive me Bill Odie/John Craven if they were actually Zebra!) everywhere in the morning and we make the drive down to the hut and pick which beats to focus on. 

I'm totally goosed and while the boys being renewed by yesterday's catches jog to the most productive pools, I try out a rod which Rob is interested in selling.  After being told it's the easiest rod to cast that he's literally ever used in being a ghillie for nigh on 500 years, a swing of the hands and a snappy shoulder roll spey casts a Monroe Killer effortlessly 35-40 yards which practically fishes the biggest pool of Beat D in a single cast.  After 5-6 more mammoth casts, the rod is passed to your truly to really put it through it's paces.  Now, if you've read other salmon pages in the diaries previously you'll know that Scott Mackenzie I am not but the rod feels great as I lift, form a huge D-loop and bam out she goes....    

Rob is clearly not a Big Fish Diary reader and is staring at the same point of the pool 40 yards away where his fly landed looking, confused as to why he can't even see a fly line; let alone a beautifully tuned over size 10 double swimming steadily over the prime lies of the pool.  The exchange that ensued was probably a bit surreal for both of us:-

"Och wee man, wat's that in yer face"
"That'll be the fly Rob"
"Yer bleedin...."
"Yep"
"Och, why did yer do that?"
Silence as I use forceps to rip the fly (which is embedded over the bards in my left cheek) out.  No tears - farmers sons have this gene removed at birth.
"It's bleeding a lot"
"Yep,..... I'll take the rod"
"Magic, I'll get the case"

Clearly, despite somehow bagging a few fish I am still a casting imbecile. 

However (!), after racking and packing the newly acquired secret weapon, the old outfit is back in action and a run through Craggenmore pool produces the most violent take I've ever had on any freshwater rod.  After a few really heavy head shakes and lunges the fish goes totally mad and within literally seconds the whole fluoro orange long belly spey fly line is gone and I'm down to the backing. 

Rob is watching closely from the hut and I can do absolutely nothing with the fish.  After a grand tour around the pool, the fish zooms towards the tail and the rapids beyond.  I fail to stop it and as I start to run down the bank after it, I see Rob rowing over the head of the pool with the weigh net, the "Tulchan 20" weigh net!!" 

Panic grips me as I run after the fish for 100 yards until I'm opposite Allan fishing the belly of Tail of Wood, the next pool down.  He drops his rod and photos this crazy man chasing an orange line down the river.  The fish runs straight through the pool without stopping at all and hell bent on going back to Greenland goes through the next set of rapids.  I can't think I can get away with a fish going through two sets of white-water without either the leader parting or the hook pulling but somehow I did - Fulling Mill Fluorocarbon 12 lbs please take a bow....

The adrenaline is going mad now as it just must be a 20 lber.  I'm into the tail of the next pool when panting and having taken a couple of semi dunkings in the margins on the way down, I'm starting to get some control.  The next rapids are not negotiable on my bank so the drag is cranked up to the max and the fish finally turns upstream.  Fifteen dogged minutes later and Damian, up to his waist, lunges and gets the fish into the net.  It's a good fish but nowhere near a 20.  The hook falls out when netting the fish and the staff scale says it's roughly 13 lbs.  Damian thinks it was foul hooked which may explain the merry dance but the head shakes of the early fight suggest not.  Could the hook have slipped, was it hooked in the dorsal? 

No way of telling but who cares, a truly memorable experience and one to savour for a very long time.  Cone head Silver Stoat tube again by the way!  

Tight lines

Mr Fish
 

Big Salmon - Attempt No 2 (Upper Roxburgh, River Teviot)

Back to the River Teviot to try to replicate a really good couple of days last year when our group had 5-6 salmon and there was fish literally everywhere and all for about 70 quid a day, very modest in UK salmon fishing terms.

We are staying again at a friend of a friends flat in Kelso but the chat in the pub is that unfortunately while the Rolls Royce beats are delivering huge numbers of salmon (35 in a single day on one beat that week!), there's very little water in the Teviot and it looks like fish have either pushed through on the last spate or are sitting in the junction pool waiting for water.  At over £1,000 per rod per day on the Hendersides and Upper Lees of this world, it seems that this year we may be a bit priced out of where the fish are stacked up...

The change in the river is stark compared to last year, with very low water showing the bare bones of the river bed and virtually no fish showing at all.  The barometer is falling rapidly as well - hardly the best conditions.  The four man team manfully throws the kitchen sink at the river for 4-5 hours though but the only highlight is my work colleague and mate Jimmy finding out that a mouse in his garage had chewed through his waders about 3/4 up the legs .  Fortunately, in terms of entertainment value for the rest of us, he didn't find out until chest deep in a fast run so took a full soaker!

The afternoon produces one pull between us and I resorted to the trout road with a three fly spider set up to try to catch one of the large grayling which the river is famous for.  Only a 5-6 ins specimen and a salmon parr co-operate though and late afternoon decide upon one final throw of the dice for the day through by switching back to the salmon set-up with a small size 10 silver stoats tail double, a size that had worked well at Tulchan, Speyside in the summer.  It's amazing the casting benefits that can quickly accrue from just having a rest from the double-hander and finally my snake roll is more serpentine than sausage roll, with the leader turning over and straightening nicely as I work through a long pool.

About 5th or 6th cast and there's a fierce jolting take with about 4-5 yards of line being stripped off the reel; but then it all goes very odd.  There's definitely a fish on but the fight is very erratic with short jangly bursts then nothing, then the rod tip bouncing like a perch.  It's a short fight before the culprit is swimming round my legs - a decent grayling with the stoats tail firmly in the scissors.  He looks to be close to a pb and a quick weigh in the net reads 1lb 8oz, which would you believe it is my third fish at exactly that PB weight...!

It's another manic night in Kelso that evening (not really), with one local group in the White Swan absolutely tonto'd by 7pm and drunk sober by 10.30pm in the curry house....

Day two and whilst the barometer has settled back up at 1017 from a low of 1014 when we packed up the night before, it's a cold bright day and none of us are particularly confident.  We spend quite a bit of time admiring a great trout statue in the Kelso Orvis shop to delay our arrival at the river - there's some thick heads and everyone knows it's probably going to be tough until it warms up a bit.

Even though I'm off the grog at the moment, the night's rest seems to have caused total muscle memory loss and I'm casting like a total arse, with a fly in the back of head, quickly followed by a ripped shirt during an aborted double spey; and finally a real personal highlight of embedding both barbs of the double silver stoats tail in my cheek and having to rip it out with the forceps while up to my chest mid river.  It's tough fishing as well with no fish showing at all and I really should get a casting lesson....

A couple of the lads pack in at lunch to make the drive back to the North West but around 2.30pm a single fresh fish shows and I go for plan C, which is an attempt at the Gorogan, a big deep black holding pool on the beat, which is the size of Loch Ness and must be home to some fish, even if they are probably big wily browns that only eat haggis.  It's a real schlep through brambles to get into the pool which has virtually nil flow to bring the fly round, but whilst an hour of effectively stillwater fishing produces nought there is at least a few fish (salmon) showing in there to keep the spirits up. 

Trudging back at 3.45-4pm to pack up, a glance down at the river shows there a big hatch of olives and in an amazing turnaround smaller fish are now rising freely throughout the whole beat.  A quick switch to the trout set-up produces and immediate response with 9 brown trout to a pound (would you believe it); 2 more decent grayling and parr galore, obliging virtually every cast for 40  mins until when playing a small browney the reel sings and it feels like a bigger fish has taken him.  It's no pike or hook jawed male salmon though  - a bigger brown trout has taken another of the spiders on the cast and the strangest fight ever, I finally land two in the same net!

Hitting rises with a short flick cast brings more grayling and after catching 17 reasonable fish in double quick time, I call it a day after plenty of late action but sadly not one pull from a salmon in two days....         

Big Salmon - Attempt No1 (River Teviot, Kelso, Scotland)

It’s been a really long time since I’ve fished a Scottish salmon river. I think I was 24/25 (ie. 15 years ago) when the River Spey last witnessed the Indiana Jones whip cast technique, with any potential taking salmon running for cover as the water was whipped to foam in front of me. Unbelievably, I still managed to bag my second ever salmon on that trip which, being honest, was much more to do with my old flat mate putting me in to the best pools of one of the stronger beats of the lower Spey than any salmon fishing knowledge or talent at that time.

That fish (returned) was modest, weighing about 5lbs and taken on an Ally Shrimp in the pool where the Fiddich River of Glenfiddich whisky fame joins the Spey; but I can still remember it like yesterday. The gillie, Willie, a former cooper at the distillery, offering a rare compliment (my fault not his that more were not offered) as for once a Spey cast sailed out towards the Fiddich mouth with the leader turning over and the shrimp fly dropping down in a position I would have chosen to place the fly by hand. No need for an upstream mend and only a third through the cast the line straightened and we were off…

Enough nostalgia, my salmon PB is 7lbs 8oz and it’s the River Teviot this time on the Upper Roxburgh beat about 1.5 miles upstream of the famous Tweed/Teviot pool at Kelso. I won two days salmon fishing from a work colleague, Jimmy, on a bet three years ago in an airport in Alaska and amazingly he’s finally honoured the bet. A mate of Jimmy’s has fortunately done the homework for us over many years and has worked out that this beat has a lot of bang for it’s buck if the levels are right and in any case I’m not going to get £1,000 a day on Lees or Upper Hendersyde past the high commander at home any time soon. However, with a ton of rain on the Sunday before driving up and 41 (yes, forty one and salmon fishing is apparently goosed in the UK) fish coming off the Lees beat on the Saturday I confess did start to doubt the tactics of fishing a relatively cheap beat which is very rain sensitive.

My worry was misplaced though, as Monday morning delivered a steady level of 1ft 6ins above summer levels, which our man Neil said was spot on. The rain at Hawick dictates river levels on the Teviot at Kelso and the rain had been pushed further north by the high winds – magic, game on. I bought a 14ft Hardy Uniqua 9 wt double handed fly rod about a year ago to try on the Welsh Dee and this matched with my Hardy Zane 8/9 sea reel and a Rio multi-tip spey line with the floater and a 10ft intermediate polyleader were the weapons of choice. My only two salmon have come on a Monroe Killer and an Ally Shrimp so whilst “anything as long as it’s a cascade” was the advice on flies received on went the MK.

The morning showcased terrible casting, even my overhead was rubbish, but the river was full of fish and despite my lack of distance, control AND finesse, I was definitely managing to cover fish. I get one bump after switching to a very sparse 1.5ins silver stoats tail tube and at lunch the gang has nailed two nice fish of 6-8lbs, both on shrimp patterns tied on trebles rather than tubes. Neil has invited the former U. Hendersyde gillie, Kenny, to join us and with 40 years’ experience on that beat alone is a man to listen to. A full floater with a 5ft sinking polyleader is the set-up that has already delivered him a fish this morning on a Cascade treble to 15lbs maxima green leader. Not a twitch for me in the afternoon in the upper sections of the beat but the casting is much improved and the guys have had three more, with our guest star Kenny taking three in the day – not too shabby given he hasn’t fished the beat for 30 years…

A few sherbets in the Queens Head hotel in Kelso that night and the chat is that we’ve had as many fish as any of the mega beats, including Chris Tarrant and pals on the junction. Not bad for £75 per day.

Day two and to be original I’m set up exactly as Kenny was the day before, all the way down to a shiny new Cascade Shrimp fly on a treble. The river is up 2 ins and carrying a bit more colour which together with none of us getting even a twitch all morning doesn’t dent my confidence. I can feel that something is going to happen today.

I fish with my mate Damian in the afternoon choosing as novices to run through the pools pretty closely together with different flies and line set ups to encourage each other and see if depth or fly makes a difference. Some fallow deer playing on the far bank are an early distraction but we’re both quickly punching the casts out as well as can be expected and taking 1-2 steps down the run after each cast. Nothing for two hours and then a good pull for me and within a minute Damian has hooked one within 30 yards of my position. He’s been getting used to a new shooting head set-up and has bunches of line in his left hand which he sub consciously drops on the take and just can’t make the ground back as the fish runs straight towards him. Slack lined for a moment the treble must move and come loose when he finally reconnects. I’m gutted for him particularly as it would have been his first salmon…

We fish the run out and then move pools to where three of the fish caught by the team have been taken and to cheer ourselves up by cutting in front of Jimmy on the main pool, who richly deserves it being the most boastful, selfish angler in the UK, which is a title he revels in(!). We were told at lunch that the fish run along the far bank in this pool and that a wade to halfway and a full cast to within inches of the far bank is required to cover the best lies. The casting is getting there now and with the fly landing within feet of far bank rushes I’m still confident, though it’s 4.30pm and we’re due to pack up at 5pm.

A better overhead cast of more 60 degrees rather than the classic 45 degrees flies shoots out to within inches of the far bank rushes and a third of the way round the line jolts and jags out straight off the reel at a rate of knots. I’m a bit shocked and very slow to react; finally lifting into a fish which has already taken 20 yards and jumps clear of the water almost landing in the far bank rushes. It’s a coloured fish but jeez, it looks an absolute horse and I am not the one in control in quite fast water 40 yards from the bank with no net. Damian is off as soon as he sees the fish, sprinting back to the car to get my salmon net and the green Hardy is bent double with line piling off the reel still as the fish surges upstream. The drag is set quite hard but it makes no difference so I back it off a bit not to push too much pressure on the hook hold as I start the long wade back towards my bank.

After 10 minutes, I’m 10 yards from the bank and whilst the fish is far from beaten I’m feeling a lot more confident with Damian in thigh deep downstream of me ready with the net and the rod and reel working well to match the strong runs. Jimmy has ascertained my set-up and has started wading out to where I took the fish…you can't keep a good man down.

I’m desperate to land this fish, as it’s a PB by a mile, but it is coloured so I don’t want it to be left with no gas when I return it; so I gamble and turn it the heat on the drag. After a number of missed heartbeats and netting attempts he’s in the net – yes!!!! - I’ve horsed the big boy in a bit towards the end of the fight but better that than a dead breeding fish. I nip the leader in the net and remove the Cascade shrimp treble in the net. The tail of the fish is massive and the big hooked jaw makes him look a mean customer who’ll definitely get the birds when they join him in the spawning grounds.

The fish goes less on the scales built in to the net than expected at 11lbs dead (he’s lost 2-3lbs in my estimation while hanging about in the river waiting for the girl fish to arrive) and with a quick snap taken he’s fully revived over 5 minutes before swimming off strongly. At one point, the fish sits on the bottom in 2ft deep fast water motionless without the need to move it’s tail to hold position. Amazing. We tell Jimmy it’s gone 14lbs 8oz on the scales so is 2lbs bigger than his the day before and I am delighted to report that he caught nothing more.

Well, I’ve only gone and done it (!). The only fish to come off the beat today and a PB by 3.5lbs in a true smash and grab raid. Brilliant. All I need now is Wales to smash the French in the RWC on Saturday…

Cheers

Mr Fish