The three musketeers
I'd arranged to meet Bruce on the beat I'd been doing well on however after pulling into the car park I met a very despondent Bruce who'd walked most of the stretch. It had been raining and he came back to load his barrow sporting two very soggy feet, topped off by a flat tyre the thought of pushing it any further didn't appeal.
I always carry spare socks and fortunately for Bruce also had my Muckmaster wellies with me so he was soon admiring the new found comfort for his feet and we discussed the options of where we had to fish.
We decided on the upstream beat that involved a short drive to the next farm, this was a first as I led the way across the field but to my relief the cut grass was easy enough to drive across and it meant we could park right behind our swims.
After a quick walk around we setup and I made the first cast, my usual Spicy Fish Pro and a feeder full of micro pellet in which I have every confidence. The sunset across the field creating a couple of photo opportunities as we chatted over a brew.
Bruce was first to get a take with a hard fighting chub of 4lb 7oz followed by one for me at 1am slightly bigger at 4lb 10oz and a great relief to avoid a blank.
The rest of the night passed without any further action so when I woke at dawn it was time to wake young Bruce with a little run on his Delkims.......
Although Bruce took the wake up call in good spirits you just knew that revenge would be his before the weekend was out!! Next came a text from Bill with the news that he was on his way so we decided to decamp from our night time pitches and moves slightly upstream to a more secluded area that would accommodate the 3 of us much better whilst still allowing for a little social interaction and the BBQ.
The afternoon was spent with much laughter and pi55 taking as you'd imagine, we knew that night time would be the time to start fishing in earnest. The BBQ was a neat little design called a bucket BBQ and Bill soon had it ready for the afternoon feast. We had burgers and sausages a plenty swilled down with a few non-alcoholic beers to comply with club rules.
We settled in to our swims for the evening and it wasn't too long before the chub made an appearance, I had another decent chub just before midnight at 4lb 6oz and Bruce had a further 2 chub but Bill managed no less than 5 chub and his first river Dove barbel of around 6lb.
Then just as you thought it was safe to have 40 winks my earlier alarm call for Bruce was swiftly paid back in a pincer movement by the other 2 musketeers........
I did eventually get a few hours in and with no more fish we declared the weekend to be a great success spent in great company and without a care in the world for the lack of barbel.
It's not always about the fishing and good friends will always turn an average session into a brilliant weekend and one we'll remember for a long time to come, here's to many more!!
