The saxon mill billy!!!

Once again I returned to the barren wastelands of the mill.

After last weeks non event I had planned to go armed with my 15ft float rod and fish a wire stem stick float down one of the pacey glides at the top end of the woods upstream.The river is perfect for long trotting and a comfortable depth .I felt that I could of chipped away at the challenge chart with roach ,dace and maybe perch .

The weather on the other hand had other ideas and after alot of overnight rain my plan was scuppered.Never the less I still wanted to fish and felt that lobworms would be favourite in the coloured dirty water of the Avon .

I made my way up through the woods above the pub and out to the right of some fencing at the bottom of the meadow.At this point the river begins to straighten out and is pacey with lots of creases and near bank features.I set up low to the water my favourite way of sitting and flicked a whole lobworm out in to the middle of the river .Fishing just two AA on a paternoster the rod is the placed in the rest and the worm is allowed to bounce across in to the slack water of the near bank thus creating the effect of being washed there naturally.

After some ten minutes and a couple of turns of the reel handle the rod tip wobbled in to life bringing me to my senses immediatley .Eventually the tip pulled around slowly and I lifted into a fish.
The air was filled with joyous expletives and the net was placed under a small chub of around 1lb.I unhooked the fish and reached in to my bag for the camera.Alas the camera was not there and was indeed residing in my float tackle bag ,placed there previously during the week.

Still not to worry it was not an earth shattering fish and should I catch a better sample then i had my phone with its BOND type camera.I slipped back the fish and re cast .Now brimming with confidence after recent dry days on this stretch I settled back and watched in amazement as the tip signalled another touch.

Then it went WRONG.......
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something fluorescent heading upstream towards my nearside feature .......UNBELIEVABLE ...a river Terrorist !!!!! here in the middle of no where (well compared to Stratford town centre).I looked down stream towards the terrorist and lifted up my green balaclava to reveal an expression of shock and deep deppression to the canoeist .

He saw me eventually and moved out slightly to the middle of the river .As he got level with me he decided to engage me in converstion and to do so began to tread water with his paddle.

"Are the fish biting today ?" he asked
"yes !" came my retort, "what species do you catch here?","CHUB I replied".

"Do they taste earthy ????"

I did not reply and he went on his merry way.My confidence was now shot to bits and I decided a move up the meadow was on the cards .I fished all my usual haunts back down to where i had started and eventually settled down again .I had a slight pull on the tip and began to feel positive again .UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! I muttered as Fred Dibnahs twin brother mooched his way along side my near bank towards me .The next ten minutes I was then hit with a flurry of questions on the river ,the club etc before matey boy then mooched of back along my near bank on the skyline pausing occasionaly to peer into my run of river .

At this point I decided to call it a day and do the walk of shame back to the car .

On the way back I once again happened upon the largest cormorant I have ever seen and I now beleieve to be a white breasted cormorant .

I have seen it several times and when I do I make as much noise as possible in the hope that it sticks in its memeory next time it fancies a few pound of Saxon mill roach .

Back out tomorrow and I am now all prepared for my new job start on Monday so can go fishing with even more relaxed confidence.

Baz