I spent yesterday afternoon and evening with Tony on the banks of the Ribble. The river was up and our favoured two swims were unfishable.
This gave us the opportunity to try out different areas of the beat, and i am very pleased to tell you that we caught fish from every swim we tried. We both caught roach, dace, small chub and sea trout.
I wish the sea trout were like the one Phil caught a few weeks back, but none of them went over a pound. However the silver purple sheen they have on their bodies make them a very attractive fish to catch. I wish i could capture the irridescent colours i can make out with my naked eye on camera but havent yet found a way to do so. I have always thought that sea trout would be larger than the ones we have been catching, but Tony thinks that these fish have never really gone to sea, but migrated for a period to the rivers tidal area.
After the recent heavy rains the river banks were treacherously slippy, and i fell on several occaisions. On one occaision after slipping, i stood up only to smack my head against a low branch which had me seeing stars for a good 15 minutes.
As the evening drew to a close, Tony and i found ourselves in a swim beneath Duck Island, where we found that the quality of the fish we were catching dramatically improved. This renewed our enthusiam, and it was dark when we slipped and stumbled our way back to the car.
As always, a trip out with Tony, lifted my spirits, his enthusiasm is infectious.
