The
Last Cast
I ventured out for an hour and a half on Thursday 16th
Oct 2003, for the last time this season through the Cowshed
pool. A beautiful starry night but quite crisp with no
action whatsoever. Having performed the inevitable "last
cast" six or seven times in the Cowshed I sat on
the bank, smoked a ciggy and reflected on my memories
of fishing this pool for the last 34 years.
The Cowshed then was quite different to how it looks
today.The top end, before the construction of the concrete
access ramp in the preceeding rapids, had a much deeper
and wider inflow and a lie on the far bank that every
year was home to a big uncatchable Sewin. The lower end
was fairly silty and had much greater depth that shelved
about a third of the way across before the weir was constructed
ran out into rapids that fed the pipe pool. The pipe was
about 12" dia spanning the river a foot above the
water in 3 sections supported by concrete blocks.That
pipe was responsible for many a late night dunking attempting
to cross the river after too many pints of Courage BB
in the Pheasant.
It was here at the age of 11 that I was taught to fly
fish by the late Wyndham Davies, a dry fly man of immense
skill who fished with a stiff little 7ft cane rod which
in his hands seemed to me like a magic wand.
My mate and I spent many a summers evening in the lower
Cowshed fishing competitively for eels, I think the wager
was 5p per eel and we regularly used to land upward of
a dozen or so in a session. Wyndham's distaste for eels,
worms, and us hogging one his favourite fly pools was
probably the reason he took us under his wing and patiently
taught the rudiments and attractions of fly fishing.
I purchased my first 6 flies from Watts toy and sports
shop which used to be next to Woolworths and lost the
lot within half an hour trying to fool a cunning little
half pounder rising without a care in the world under
a tree on the far bank. Len Simmonds who was a new member
in that same year had a go after me and fared little better.
Having lost all my flies, undettered I returned home ,cut
up the bedroom carpet and plucked feathers from the pillow
and stuck them some shape them to a size 12 hook and went
back for another go. I failed miserably of course but
the fly fishing bug was well and truly rooted.
I landed my first sewin(3lb 4oz) from the Cowshed aged
14 on a worm fished on a rod with 2 sections of natural
bamboo with the top section solid fibre glass.It was about
10' long and originally bought for me by my father to
fish for roach on the Thames before I moved to Wales in
1969
Ah well, back to the present with winter Grayling fishing
and of course there is always next season to look forward
to, with that elusive double figure sewin out there.....
Ian
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