Bookended by rainbows

I got out of the charabanc and thought it felt 5 degrees warmer than at home and a lot brighter but wisely donned the big coat just in case. Go to the stile by the Noddy Train bridge and glanced upstream. This didn't bode well... it came swooping down the river, mean stingy rain, almost hail and mainly horizontal. Cold wet and nasty said two caught out walkers.

                                        

I nearly went straight back to the charabanc but in the end pressed on down river to a likely run of nearside cover. The river was painfully low and clear as gin so any hidey hole would be worth a go. Half sardines the go to as per. Nothing either side of this used to be reliable banker (a nice deeper hole above the tree).

I checked down by the dogwood and came across this odd patch of bristly hair, origin unknown, slightly ginger at the tips.

Like the banker swim I've always done well in the dogwood swim and several decent pike and the odd chub have had the grin and bear it treatment in front of its lovely winter colours. I hooked a big pike once on quiver tipped meat that took me through it and the willow below it twice, finally I got it back above the outstretched net to drift it back in but the poxy net was too small and one final shake of its massive head and the 6lb line snapped. It hung there for an agonising age but I just couldn't get it all in the net and it sunk way. A Noddy train was passing with open windowed carriages of waving kids and their grandparents taking in the bucolic scene and reminiscing about the golden age of steam. I'm ashamed to say those children went home having learnt some new and fascinating words. The pike?  A good 25 plus. I did catch one twice in month in and out of spawn at 26 and 24 lb a couple of years later on the stretch and it was comfortably as long.  Different net obviously.

Today? I snared the sardine head in the tree to the left on a "one last cast" and got every thing back bar the sardine head but the rig was bolloxed . The sky was getting darker so away went the rod and I decided  to pack away the rod with the tail swung under that dogwood after one last twitch, got up to do just that when the float bobbed  and shot away. A pre twitch take....More like 5lb but plump and game anyway and a glimmer of hope of finding some more before the last day.

I saw this and decided that would be that, too late to avoid a soaking though.