Angler’s Mail – July 09, 2019

anglersmail.com 9 JULY | 21

on the taimen’s head like a
cannonball, and it took off like
a rocket towards Siberia. The
Chuckle Brothers could not
have done it better.
I remember Ratters falling
into the Wensum twice a few
years back, in his eagerness to
get a bait to some very visible,
very big summer chub.
He underscored the lesson
here. No matter how tense
and thrilling the scenario, you

should settle, breathe and take

your time. It’s classic hare and

tortoise. More haste, more

cock-ups.

Lack of preparation

I’d driven 40 miles to a Suffolk

carp lake, got my gear out and

found I’d packed two bottom

sections and two completely

different top sections.

I don’t know how it had

happened, but I simply had to

turn back to Norfolk again. Now

I always assemble rods before

loading them into the car.

Last winter I netted a super

roach for Malcolm, only to see it

drop through a massive hole in

the mesh and swim off. Rats in

the garage.

It was almost as bad as the

time when I lost a 31 lb pike, in

1990. I put it in my sack whilst I
      went for my camera. When I got
      back, it had gone. On inspection,
      rats had chomped half the net
      clean away.
      Message? Check and double-
      check everything, always.

They are plenty of amusing

examples of laziness. This one is

not. In 1994, at the height of my

Scottish ferox trout obsession, I

took a group of four friends out

onto a ten-mile-long loch.

The boat was designed

for three, not fi ve, and it was

leaking, the engine was dodgy,

I had no oars, we had no

lifejackets, and the wind was

force 4, rising to storm 6.

We got away with it, but

we might very well not have

done. My madness could have

After the huge Mongolian

taimen cock-up, Pingers went

onto to get his biggie.

Ten years back, while guiding on the Wye, I tied on a hook, an angler
hooked a barbel and lost it. My knot had failed. It was the only fi sh of
A few years ago Ragi hooked a carp, so we took the decision to go out the day. Freddie’s fi sh here stayed put till the net.
on a dodgy platform to land it. I can still hear the creak of timber as
it cracked and collapsed, throwing us into 15 ft of water. We survived,
landed the fi sh and Ragi even salvaged the camera that had been
around my neck. But it could have ended differently. Never take risks.

Continued over››