Had two sessions on the River Glane. The first I've already mentioned on the previous thread and yesterday I took my mate Terry Two-Barns up to the river.
I graciously let him have first pick of any of the tackle in the cupboard ranging from a 5 foot telescopic whip to a 5.5lb tc catfish rod and he chose the little Dawsons River Don Special quiver rod I had used the other day - Barsteward! I wanted that
So I plumped for a 10 foot cane Avon and Trudex and rigged it up for some float fishing. When I questioned him as to why he had picked the 5 foot fibreglass rod his reply didn't come as a surprise. It was less to do with fishing and more to avoidbeing killed in the electrical storms that we get daily at this time of year. Same reason I picked a wooden rod
Terry has never caught a ruffe and is more of a gudgeon specialist so I put him in a swim that contained both and he soon set to work bringing roach and gudgeon to hand using half red worm on an 18. I struggled to get a bite on the float just upstream of him and so swapped to a similar rig to his but had to touch ledger owning to a lack of quiver tip. A young French lad came to watch the crazy Anglais, one with half a rod and the other with a wooden rod and drum reel. His eyes were like a cats watching me cast across the river. He's never seen a centrepin like that and couldn't get over how far it could cast. Usually the French use tiny centrepins on 20 foot rods and the reels are just line stores as in the old line drawings of Isaac Walton.
I got a roach while Terry picked up a bonus perch from under the lilies on the far side. Then bites dried up so we moved to another, faster swim where he did everything he could to preserve his lead;- casting over my line, resting his rod on mine, etc
Third swim I took advantage of his mishap in losing a hook. He wears prescription sunglasses but they are not bifocal and when tying hooks his arms are a foot shorter than his eyesight
During this performance I hooked a fluky perch while winding in a chafer grub putting me back in the running for our species challenge.
But it was not to be. The bream and carp didn't show and I was more able to deal with either than he given the rod he was using so I couldn't catch him. The session ended 3 species to him and 2 to me. Until we got home that is. When I checked my mole trap next to the driveway I'd caught the new arrival and so it ended up 3:3. My house - my rules :w
