Earlier this month I met mother and son team Nicola and father and son team Mathew and John and Nicholas for their first lesson and enjoyed working with them very much. I taught them how to use the whip in conjunction with a pole float and they all did very well. On Saturday we met again for the second lesson and I introduced them to the waggler float and explained how to use it to defeat suface drift.

The Twynersh roach were very obliging first thing in the morning and the boys caught lots of them.

Mathew with a small roach

Nicholas with a small roach

Nicholas caught a few more than Mathew because he was loose feeding more accurately and more often and he caught the best fish of the day.

Nicholas with a roach of about a pound

This fish would have weighed about a pound and caused quite a lot of excitement in the group. The fish stopped feeding so enthusiastically as the morning wore on and as the river Bourne (which flows through the fishery) was fining down* after the previous day’s rain, I decided to introduce them to the joys of river fishing. The Bourne is a small stream that can fish well with a bit of colour in the water and was located just behind where I was holding the lesson. This meant that I was able to take one person at a time and show them how to trot a float and still keep an eyey on the others.

* Fining down means that the river is beginning to recover from a flood.

I set up a four metre whip with a pole float and after feeding with hemp and maggots for half an hour each student was taught the basics of trotting a float. All caught fish and I think I have four budding river anglers on my hands. They were surprised how the river fish fought harder in the current.

John with his first river fish

Nicola with her first river fish

Both families have booked for a pike handling course later this month. Their enthusiasm is most infectious and this always adds to my enjoyment of coaching.

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