Lovely ladies......................

New Years eve saw me meeting up with the Tarnished Tail Club to defend my title that was rather embarrassingly won last year with a small Grayling.

An early start, a rendezvous with a couple of others in the lay-by on the A4 and we where on the fishery around 7.30am eager and ready to fish. The fishery is an excellent place to catch Grayling and lots of trout and I was feeling confident that we where going to catch a few between us, but my money was on the dark horse match man from the Midlands.

A shaky I-phone picture.

Tackling up with gossamer fine lines in poor light was difficult to say the least, lots of course language and a few missed eyes here and there but we managed eventually and headed off in different directions to find the fish. I decided to use my Okuma pin for the day, it is about time I learned how to use it and to be honest I enjoyed using it for the day, yes a few tangles and some impossible knots where endured but I soon got the hang of it.

I managed to catch quite a few Grayling and couple of roach, I lost a great looking perch and was smashed up on more that a few occasions by trout, I was using a 1.5lbs hook link! I did manage to catch a stunning little brown trout, around four inches long, it flipped out of my hand and back into the river before I could get a picture, such a pretty little fish.

Smallest fish of the day.

After a brief break for a cooked breakfast we fished on for a few hours and more fish where caught and my reign as trophy holder was over, a very worthy Lutonian caught the fish of the day, well done Mark and many thanks to Colin for organising the day out again.

Today I fished another section of the same river again with the pin and again I really enjoyed it, I am slowly getting the hang of this pin lark………….!

I fished with a good friend who managed to land a couple of trout; I had a couple of bites but never managed to connect with any of them.

Maybe next time.