Another night time fright

[Catfish.017]

In the middle of my Seatrout infatuation I was a member of a small club with about half a mile left bank of the Towy just above Llandeilo. It was never what you would call busy after dark, most people were travelling a long way to fish it, some even coming from Bristol. With a long drive facing them they would leave soon after midnight and by 1.00am I would often have the whole stretch (two long pools with a steep fast run between) to myself. The water below belonged to Carmarthen and District. On nights when sport was a bit slow I would sometimes 'stray' downstream to try the undisturbed water below. There was some tricky bank to negotiate along the way and the simplest way was to climb the flood bank (six to eight foot) and the single strand wire fence running along it and bypass the awkward bit. One very dark night I carried out this manoeuvre but got a little disorientated. Switching on my torch I found myself quite close to a group of young Bullocks which took fright at the sudden light and came stampeding toward me! I cleared the fence in one leap and landed in a dishevelled heap at the bottom of the flood bank listening to the beasts snorting and pawing the ground above me. Luckily nothing was broken, bones or rod and I was able to carry on fishing albeit unsuccessful fully. Actually the little visits downstream were never productive as it seemed if our stretch was quiet invariably everywhere else was too.

[Dave Burr]

Ha, the pounding heart. Mind you, I doubt they'd have harmed you, they are just really curious and in their boredom of eating until they are slaughtered, a bright light at night is better than the circus coming to town.

When I was in the police, if you had the blue light on when parked next to an incident in the countryside, the entire population of sheep or cows would be up at the hedge or fence having a nosey at what's going on.

[Catfish.017]

You're probably right Dave but at that time of night and a long way from the car or help of any sort I reckoned discretion to be the better part of valour! Now I'm reminded of another occasion in the early hours when I got two points of a size 8 Treble stuck in my Right forefinger. I was quite sure some fresh fish had arrived in the pool so was reluctant to leave. In desperation I managed to work the hook out but not without reaching the point of nausea. This time I did go on to catch two nice Sewin, sore finger forgotten until I got to bed at daybreak.

[John_Moore]

I would have put "nothing broken - rods before bones" for a correct pronunciation....?
Nice story though Catfish.

[Catfish.017]

I would have put "nothing broken - rods before bones" for a correct pronunciation....?
Nice story though Catfish.

It was a c....n rod John, before my traditional phase had kicked in!

[John_Moore]

Probably would have been better broken then Catfish.
All the best John.