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Early autumn break


Vagabond

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Like BB, took " The White Road Westwards" to visit my old mate Cliff the Cartoonist (occasionally posts on here) Visiting Cliff entails two things, good food eaten in good company, and one of my rare incursions into barbel fishing.

 

Having disposed of an enormous seafood pie (Alaskan wild salmon, smoked haddock and tiger prawns included) washed down with a good Savignon Blanc, down to the Priest's Hole for a barbel.

 

Normally this entails casting upstream into a deep pool that is inaccessible from the side by reason of several trees. Possible, but slightly awkward to fish for two anglers as only one bait can be dropped in the best place, whereas Cliff and I often fish side by side like a couple of schoolboys. This time, however, the river was low, and a gravel spit above the pool meant it could be fished by casting straight downstream and two anglers could fish it together. Whilst Cliff went shopping for yet more food, Norma and I fished it.

 

Unfortunately I was soon reminded of a piece of elementary geology that I had overlooked - the Priest's Hole was deeper than elsewhere for a reason. The reason was that underwater there was a slaty cliff ledge overhanging softer shale underneath, Retrieving leads or feeders meant the line caught on the "cliff" whilst the feeder was washed underneath by a vertical eddy. Four lost feeders later, I decided enough was enough, and we went back to our usual spot, and cast upstream as before.

 

That was a lesson forgotten and re-learned at a cost. Grrrr!

 

One thing the adventure confirmed was the configuration of an underwater shelf with an eddy underneath it - ideal, in theory, as a barbel-holding spot, as barbel buffs will know already.

 

Anyway, by now Cliff had returned with more comestibles, and Norma wound in and went back to our campervan to prepare supper, and Cliff slung a bait out next to mine. Presently I had a tearaway bite, which yielded this barbel, expertly netted by Cliff (it involved scrambling down a near-vertical bank, assisted by a stout rope previously tied to a tree - not easy)

 

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By now Norma was back with a ham and vegetable pasta in tomato and garlic sauce, served hot in your swim - washed down with Cotes de Rhone - perfect.

Edited by Vagabond
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RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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A lovely coloured barbel!

Yes, and I saw another (smaller) barbel jump with even redder fins, and a twenty-pound salmon leapt, and crashed back into the water like a bullock falling in - even I heard it !

 

Went on into Wales after that, and spent three days catching and eating trout whilst watching kingfishers, grey wagtails and dippers going about their business. Here is a nice trout pool

 

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and here is a view from the breakfast-room window, from which you can eat trout for breakfast simultaneously with watching dippers catch their breakfast underwater.

 

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Its also the bedroom window, the dining room window, the sitting room window, the library window and the study window in our travelling stately home.

 

The end of the trout season is nigh, and this evening we dined upon the first rabbit of the season.

 

Marinaded in cider, then....

 

Roast, with bacon, mushrooms, potatoes, onions and carrots. Served with blackberry sauce and chestnut puree. The last of the chestnut puree - which was made last October, so we await the new chestnut crop available in two or three week's time.

Edited by Vagabond
  • Like 2

 

 

RNLI Governor

 

World species 471 : UK species 105 : English species 95 .

Certhia's world species - 215

Eclectic "husband and wife combined" world species 501

 

"Nothing matters very much, few things matter at all" - Plato

...only things like fresh bait and cold beer...

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