IAN WELCH’S

A last minute stop to pick up a Neil
Young CD to listen to in the car on
the way to the airport meant I had
a few floats with me.
I started off feeding lightly but as the
fish kept coming back for more I just
kept piling it in by the handful.
the weed to look at my prize which was not the
expected rudd but a carassin or crucian hybrid.
It was a very big fish but I was bitterly
disappointed it had got to the bait before the rudd,
worse still was the fact I had trashed the swim in my
effort to net it. Plus the fact that having caught it I
now knew just how big the rudd really were!
On the plus side Stef had some split shot so I
could alter my crude float rig and back on dry land
I put out some more bait and set up the float with
a bulk around the base and a couple of droppers
down the line.
Thankfully by the time I was ready to fish again
the rudd were back and first cast saw the float sail
away and my strike met with solid resistance as the
fish bolted along the margins.
It took me several minutes to stop laughing at his 1 oz catch - by which time Allan Parbery had got it right and landed this spanking rudd!
“I watched as it dipped,
picked up my corn, then
bolted powerfully as I set
the hook.”
I bullied the fish to prevent it going over the
weed, held it out of the reeds and netted it in after a
very nervous couple of minutes.
This time it was indeed a rudd, a very big fish too,
and the digital scales recorded a new PB at 2 lb
10 oz.
During the next couple of hours I worked the
swim hard, baiting heavily as the fish were clearly
in the mood to feed and lowering my hook bait
over the spot whenever they drifted away. I caught
almost every cast, wonderful bars of gold tinged
with red and none of them under 2 lb 4 oz.
I was interrupted just twice, once as Mistral Baits’
boss, Allan Parbery, stopped off to say goodbye as
he was heading home before me. Despite a tight
flight schedule he couldn’t resist having a go and
after hooking a fish of around an ounce on his first
cast which left me rolling with laughter, he finally
managed a proper one!
The second time was to nail a greedy common
which was making a nuisance of itself by
continually moving in on the bait and edging out
the rudd.
For the next hour I all but forgot the intense pain
from my chronic toothache and enjoyed some of
the finest fishing I have ever experienced.
And when I packed up early to enjoy Matthew’s
marvellous skate wing supper that evening, I had
netted 31 rudd over 2 lb, averaging around 2 lb 8 oz
with the best four weighing 3 lb 1 oz, 3 lb 4 oz, 3 lb
6 oz and 3 lb 9 oz.
It was rudd angling of the very highest calibre
and I would even suggest very probably the finest
rudd fishing anywhere in the world.
The only downside of an incredible trip was that
good friend Stef had, as is his way, concentrated
so hard on ensuring the rest of us had a great
session that he had neglected his own fishing. But
when I checked my e-mails at home the following
morning I saw to my delight he’d netted a brilliantly
deserved upper 30 lb common from the bay on the
final night.
As for me, the next couple of days would mean
root canal surgery and a return to fishing in a wet
and miserable UK.
Deep joy.
ON SALE TUESDAY anglers mail.com 25