Well back last year I went back to fish the River Severn in Arley Worcestershire where myself and my brother stayed with Trish and Harry at Tudor Barn. www.tudor-barn.co.uk. Beautiful B&B and the surrounding area and river stunning. Trish and Harry run an auction for charity each year so I offered a trip for two all in aid of the Air Ambulance and Help the Hero’s.
A few weeks went by when I get a call to say all went well with the auction raising over £3500.00 in total and that I’ve got two lads coming over!!
Year passes and the time has come to arrange licences etc… so I dig out the booking forms to get their details to find out the two lads coming over are close and in their 70’s!!! Ohh dear my emails telling them camping out was the “the way to go” probably didn’t go down well with them wandering what they were letting themselves in for.
Collecting them at the train station we were off to mine and soon realised Brian (the one who kept putting his hand up in the auction) wasn’t a fisherman!!!!!! Roger was though great but he uses a 14 metre pole ohh dear Yes “one of them”!!!!!!!!!
Formalities done off we went down the garden to try and catch some small one’s as Brian like’s small ones! 5 mins in and an alarm is singing, Brian thought his car alarm was going off before realising he had a bite now what do I do?? pick the rod up, which one?? the one with a fish on, How?? bloody hell Brian let me do it!!!! too late fish cut us off on the far bank!! Never mind Brian Quick re rig both back out great small bit of banter when off it went again Brian was on it and after a bit of coaching soon had a lovely common in the net. Photos Brian? Yes Please ok look after the fish in the net I’ll go and get the sling and scales. Turned my back for 5 seconds and plop splish splash carp swims away!!!! Never mind Brian we’ll get another! And he did a cracking little cat of about 28lb ohh my god it’s huge how am I going to pick that up!! well he did no probs.
Good start next day Roger started well with a 17lb mirror Brian another small cat, dinner time 4 pints of Estrella, back to the house ohh no Brian has lost his key to his room. Flapping quite a bit I gave him the key to the room next to him which worked perfectly lol, back to the fishing. We fished till dark as Brian’s ” Pound Shop” head torch broke as he turned it on!!!!! I never fail hailed Brian as he fixed his torch with rope and a bandage. Next day was very windy we abandoned our trip to the Fig Tree as it was a bit blowy and went and had 4 pints of Estrella instead! and gave me time to find Brian’s key in the super market. Afternoon came rods out in the garden small carp to Brian and a new PB to Roger with a common of 20lb when a huge gust blow the top of the pine tree down missing Brian by inches, but after 4 pints he didn’t even notice!! Next day was beautiful flat calm so we fished the morning at the garden, dinner 4 pints of Estrella then back to the fishing. How that they had both caught a few I decided they were ready for CAT FISHING so sent 4kg of pellets out with the spoon to Brian’s dismay as he thought I was building a dam!! ” cat rods on the spot great. I gave Brian a walkie talkie so we could communicate!! Ive got the same ones said Brian. Great I did a trial but just got crackling as Brian who has the same one didn’t know how to work it!!!! so after walking down to the river! and showing him how it works all is good and I carry on with the BBQ. Half hour into dark the walkies screams into action!!! It’s Roger cat rod!!!!! ok Roger I roger that roger roger!! when I get to the bank Brian’s having a ball. So so funny but fair play he done so well and after 10 minutes the fish was ready, Roger passed me the landing net!! not needed Roger when I gloved out a lovely big cat all 93lb of it!!!! Brian ran up to get a rope so we could get pics in the morning. We had a lovely steak from the BBQ and some wine and beer all very pleasent when I thought I would check the cat rods. Well one had gone off without the alarm sounding so I called for the lads to help. Dingy in the river I’m off to see what had snagged us on the other side of the river! 10 mins and I’m rowing back with rod and 82lbs of cat fish in the dingy. More ropes needed but Brian had scattered them all over the place so I had to go and find one as Brian could only find a bit of string 2 foot long!!! Both cats safely roped up we called time on the fishing for the evening as Brian was having teething problems with his repaired pound shop torch!
Morning came time to take the pics, time for some revenge as I had Brian’s camera on video mode and I got him to pull the now lively cat onto the bank, as soon as I get a copy of the video I will post it as it was hilarious with him being pulled over and then slapped twice by it’s tail (you had to be there)!
Well done Brian with your 93lb cat and here is Roger with the other at 82lb.
The next two days went by with some lovely Tapas and lots more Estrella’s , the lads decided to take the later train on the last day which was great as Roger finished the trip off with 3 more carp including another Mirror of 18lb.
What a brilliant and very funny trip, Brian nearly converted to fishing, Roger nearly converted to proper fishing!!!! some lovely fish caught, great food, so many laughs a few quid to a couple of very good charities, Everyone’s a winner!!!!!!!
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