The Great 2007 get together!

Well we all met up this year at the Swan Hotel, Bibury and we all enjoyed it. The girls got on very well together and us blokes just carried on as normal taking the p..s out of each other! It was great! Lovely Hotel and surroundings.

Rod really enjoyed the meal and absolutely stuffed himself!

Cerith tells us his story for 2007 and a bit about the past!

Here is a summary of my catch statistics for 2007.

Total sewin caught is 21 all between 1lb and 4.5lb and of course the 15.5oz sewin that was donated to the hatchery. Of these I returned 12 to fight another day. I also caught one grilse at 7.5lb. Kept. All fish were caught on either worm or spinner, none on the fly this year.

Since I began fishing I have kept records of all sewin and salmon caught, that's more than 20 years worth, which includes methods, dates and where. I also have a number of records of the fish my grandfather caught. This winter I will log them all on the computer and send you a copy. My best year on the Tywi was 1999 (the year I left university and had nothing to do but fish), that year I caught over 50, the worst year was 1991 with only one sewin. 50 fish in a year isn't bad but my grandfather once caught 24 in a day in the 60's.

Hopefully i'll see you all in the AGM in January.

Rodney Byles Reports on his 2007 Season and a bit more!

Andy

Your catch return is interesting so enclose my little contribution in response.

Would have been interesting for you to include the flies you used to catch this lot!! My best season was about 12 if my memory is correct as don’t keep a diary like you. This season not that good as only managed 5 small sewin up to 2lb and only one of those on the fly. Very disappointing, although with Cerith’s advice I did manage a couple on the worm. The running worm is a difficult technique to master properly and depending on water conditions etc I will give it a try again next year.

Although the season has only just finished I’m already suffering from withdrawal symptoms. As a substitute I thought I'd try a bit of grayling fishing yesterday (Thursday) on a 1.5 mile double bank stretch of the Itchen near Winchester. Lovely sunny day and was quite expectant of a lot of grayling as had the stretch all to myself and river was perfect - gin clear and a good depth and flow. Started at 10.30 and finished about 3.30 in the afternoon and sad to say I only had one very small grayling and none rising either. Very disappointing as this stretch has produced big catches of grayling for me in the past with fish up to 1.5lb. The river keeper reckons the cormorants are to blame and take at lot of grayling during the winter months, however, my grayling disappointment was made up for with one of the best days I have had in years for trout!

I actually lost count of the number I caught. I think it was about 10 Rainbows and a couple of Brownies all between about 3lb and 6lb and fought like hell on 4lb line with my small 8ft rod that I made over 20 years ago. Plenty of long runs with the reel screaming!! Very enjoyable. Took me ages to get them out in the fast current and lost quite a few more. All were in cracking condition and of course all returned. I also saw an Eagret and a couple of Roe deer so it was quite a good nature day all in all. Wouldn't it be great to catch that number of sewin in a night!!! Now that would be special. We live in hope!!

Rod