27/06/2019 - New Season on the River Beult
Tony with tench
Day 2 on the Beult
Yesterday I described the fishing Tony Booker, Brendan Ince, Paul Elliott and myself enjoyed on the River Beult on June 16th, Today the weather is similar to the previous day with lots of cloud cover, an odd light shower and sunshine, Brendan, Paul and myself arrived on the river around 1000 hrs to find it still well coloured, Brendan, spent the day float fishing with centre pin reel matched to his 14 foot Otter brand rod, which is a great tool when fishing the deep water of the river Beult for catching roach but hoping for a tench, he did hook a good fish which I though was probably a tench, he also caught lots of roach and rudd, Paul in between taking photographs float fished with his Sowerbutt pole catching some nice roach along with a few good rudd, as mentioned in chapter 1. Paul is a very experienced pole angler. Tony spent the morning fishing with the pole, then switched over to float fishing during the afternoon with the Avocet rod matched with his dads centre pin reel both proved ideal for the Beult roach. I chose to fish the same swim as the previous day in the hope of connecting with a tench, this didn’t happen but I caught a lot of roach with two fish of 13 inches both taken on punched bread. The pike were very active often taking a fish off as I was drawing it to the net, nothing big probably between 6 and 8lbs, damsel flies were about in profusion especially the Common blue damselfly, often one would perch on the float, several times during the day a Kestrel would hover close to the river bank, but every time I got my camera out for a picture it flew off. Several times during the day a kingfisher flew up or down the river, on one occasion a kingfisher perched on a nearby branch then dived returning with a small fish. During the afternoon I walked from one end of the fishery to the other, I didn’t see another angler. We also had several brews where we chatted about the various birds we had seen, there was also a family of swans that glided up and down river creating a delightful peaceful scene. Overhead we had a flying display from the Spitfire which certainly made my day complete In the evening we had the barn owl put in an appearance. As we walked back to the car park we stopped to admire the beautiful sky with its various shades of pink and orange. Back in the cottage Paul set about making a curry, certainly tasty meal cooked to perfection, well done Paul. Dinner over I washed and dried the dishes etc, this was followed by mugs of tea with lager for Brendan, then around midnight it was off to bed the end of another good day.
Day 3 on the River Beult
I didn’t go off with the other boys today as I was very unsteady on my legs, the river bank certainly wasn’t the best place to be so I stayed behind in the cottage. I had two books I wanted to read but I’d left my magnifying glass at home, around 1300 hrs I called Brendan to come and collect me as I couldn’t spend another hour in the cottage twiddling my thumbs, I rather be on the riverbank, if I fell in so be it. As we drove down to the car park Tony was leaving after the usual pleasantries I wished him a safe trip home, Brendan then helped me to a swim close to the car so very little walking, all I had to do was sit on my basket and hopefully catch some fish, we had the river to ourselves, not that it would have been a problem if there had been several anglers as there are plenty of good swims to choose from, the first thing I noticed was some of the colour had gone out of the water, there was duck weed in some areas which shouldn’t cause any problems. While I had been away both Brendan and Paul had been catching roach. After an hour we had a brew, to my surprise Paul had been off to the shop returning with some cakes one of which was a fruit cake, now what more could I want with my mug of tea, it was delightful, thank you Paul.
I was told Tony Booker spent the morning throwing plastic lures for the pike which he is very good at, it proved successful session. And a good choice to make, having seen many pike striking at the roach, I regretted not having my lure fishing kit. Brendan and Paul both float fished for the roach being successful in the process, the fishing was certainly good as the floats kept disappearing, I doubt if there is anything better than watching a float keep submerging
During the afternoon I caught my share of roach also some rudd but only around 8 ounces, but still nice to catch, I also had a couple of pike along with an eel on float fished worm, but they put a good bend in the stick and pulled the string so I was happy, we also had a few more brews with another slice of fruit cake. We fished on until around 2000hrs as we were packing up the barn owl appeared on the opposite bank then flew across the river to quarter the field we were on, then left for the cottage, another nice session at the waterside, also we were once again rewarded with seeing the barn owl.
Brendan float watching
A hook up
Family of swans
Tony pole fishing
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