Went fishing on the Warwickshire Avon last Thursday with my mate Reg. The lovely village of Hampton Lucy and Charlecote Mill. No boats either.
The location was fantastic but the fishing was pretty awful. I was in danger of blanking - not even a chub, when around 9:30pm, I had a little tap on the rod and it bent round very slowly as if a load of weed had wrapped round the line. I pulled it and it was solid. Really solid. I walked downstream and gave it a few sharp tugs - still it refused to give. So I tightened up the drag on the reel, pointed the rod to the water and moved backwards waiting for the line to snap.
However it freed! So I started to walk back upstream. As I was winding in I felt there was a fish on. I got back to my swim and it was really fighting hard! And there in the torchlight I saw it was an eel and it was over two foot long! I shouted out and Reg came to give me hand to unhook it - I was in a right tangle! I didn't bother to weigh it - must have gone between two and three pounds. What an amazing creature!
Last time I caught an eel was on the Norfolk Broads some years ago. I've only ever caught one from the Kennet and that was at Woolhampton when I first moved down here. Reg reckons quite a few have come out of his stretch of the Avon. I know they can be perceived as a pest, but it's encouraging to see one again especially after the reports of their numbers seriously decreasing in the last few years. After all, they are a natural species that haven't been introduced like carp have in so many lakes and pits.
Be interested to hear of anyone else who's caught eels either recently or years ago.
Roy
The location was fantastic but the fishing was pretty awful. I was in danger of blanking - not even a chub, when around 9:30pm, I had a little tap on the rod and it bent round very slowly as if a load of weed had wrapped round the line. I pulled it and it was solid. Really solid. I walked downstream and gave it a few sharp tugs - still it refused to give. So I tightened up the drag on the reel, pointed the rod to the water and moved backwards waiting for the line to snap.
However it freed! So I started to walk back upstream. As I was winding in I felt there was a fish on. I got back to my swim and it was really fighting hard! And there in the torchlight I saw it was an eel and it was over two foot long! I shouted out and Reg came to give me hand to unhook it - I was in a right tangle! I didn't bother to weigh it - must have gone between two and three pounds. What an amazing creature!
Last time I caught an eel was on the Norfolk Broads some years ago. I've only ever caught one from the Kennet and that was at Woolhampton when I first moved down here. Reg reckons quite a few have come out of his stretch of the Avon. I know they can be perceived as a pest, but it's encouraging to see one again especially after the reports of their numbers seriously decreasing in the last few years. After all, they are a natural species that haven't been introduced like carp have in so many lakes and pits.
Be interested to hear of anyone else who's caught eels either recently or years ago.
Roy
