The Curse Of McGowan

I have not been sleeping too good lately with a few things on my mind and decided to try and get away from it all I would get myself out for a few hours, so just after 0800hrs I arrived on the river, it was low and clear with the day meant to be sunny once the early frost & mist rises.

I started off trotting in one of my usual places for almost an hour with my trusty worms and bugs but not even a sniff of a bite, so with the water being really cold I decided to have a move and bring back some circulation back into my feet so headed downstream past the abundance of snowdrops now prominent along the banks of the river.

I tried a few places where I have caught in the past and drew a blank, so it was a morning of moving around between runs looking for fish, and the fish I did find weren't the normal standard of Grayling I would have expected to find.

First Grayling of the day, they say small & beautiful and it certainly was that, but almost 3 hours of hard fishing to try and find them.
I hooked and lost a further 3 fish from the runs before it went quiet again so I moved on up the river in search of the elusive Grayling. The large flock of geese were in their usual feeding place and took to the wing as soon as they seen me, likewise did the single cormorant that had been feeding in the river and bobbed up from nowhere about 20 metres in front of me with a brown trout in its mouth, it was more startled than me & dropped the brown trout  in its panic to elude me, Damn things!

I continued on until lunch time without seeing any other movement on the float. I was looking forward to this lunch today as it contained the Karree meat that my good friend Klaus from Pinkafeld in Austria had recently gave me and its simply delicious, so together with some cheese it was gratefully received.

Just after lunch as I was heading back downstream towards the car, the float dipped away and gave me my second Grayling of the day, again small & beautiful.










Within a few minutes I had another Grayling on which was pulling back and was more like the normal stamp of fish in the stretch however what I seen next confirmed my suspicions from my previous couple of visits to this stretch, the Grayling are starting to spawn already.

I had a fish on that was oozing milt as soon as I put it in the net so it was unhooked and released immediately, Its tail like the other tails in the photos from the last couple of visits almost worn away at the tips.....so I think that will be it if this is what the fish are now preparing to do I will leave them in peace to get on with things.

I made my way to where I pack up without wetting my line any further, and took a final trotting picture for this stretch which has gave me some cracking fishing this year and in good numbers.

I will be back but with flees in search of Brown Trout in the new season.

I will concentrate my efforts on another river I know close to home and see if the Grayling there are preparing or not, but it will only be an occasional visit if that.

I was beginning to think the curse of Tom McGowan had struck today up until the fish preparing to spawn had come to the net, because ever since he has made his remark which I wrote about on my last trip the fishing has been dour as can be....Mr McGowan please keep your black magic in Angola......lol, a few hours on the river which although the lack of fish was still very much enjoyed and I was back home just after 1400hrs sitting back in the warmth that came through the living room window.

Last night I was told by another fisherman that if we ever met he would have my tremendous float box away from my bag....Matthew I hate to say mate but this is the extent of the floats I carry in my bag, in a plastic tube to save on weight so you wouldnt be getting away with much!

Tight lines everyone