Spent Thursday night on the river on my own! There was no one to be seen anywhere from what I could see! The night was lovely. Warm and still but with the odd rumble of thunder and lightning flash. I started fishing quite early - about 9.30 ish I think. At about 10.30 I noticed evidence of fish running. The odd splash and funny unexplainable noises in the fast water. Soon after I had a savage take in a place that rarely produces a fish which tuned out to be a solid, plump sewin of about 8 lb I think. It fought like stink and took me quite some distance down stream before I managed to beach it. A quick photo and I got it back in the water as soon as I could. It was a really strong fish, wrestling with me all the time I was trying to remove the hook. I am glad now that I stopped off at Sportfish on my way down to get some new flies of this patern as the ones I had all had blunt hooks! Must get Rodders to tie some for next season?
I started walking back to the car at about 1.00am. As I got to Crewel Pool I chose to walk the small detour path through the Himalayan Balsam to avoid a small area of bank erosion. After just a few yards I saw a badger on the path before me with it's head in a wasps nest! Brock was just 3 or 4 yards in front of me and was very excited with his new find although he was shaking his head and leaping about every now trying to shake off the inhabitants from around his nose! I could see everything very clearly of course despite it being a very dark night because I had a powerful hand torch and a head torch both switched on. Fascinated by the spectacle I soon noticed that whilst Brock was tucking in I became the focus of the wasps whose nest he was destroying! In no time at all I had hundreds of wasps swarming around me. I seemed to be getting the blame for his pillaging! 'Turn off the bloody light Andrew' - I said to myself. So I turned off the hand torch. Still I was being attacked but Brock was having a feast! Then it dawned on me that I could still see what was going on! Shit - my head torch - 'turn it off you pratt' I thought! The wasps by this time were getting extremely nasty and one bit me on my hand. There were hundreds of them and I hated it! I tried to fiddle around to find the button to switch it off but there were wasps everywhere all over me. Eventually I pressed the button and held it down to turn it off. Those few seconds needed to get that bloody head torch to switch off seemed like bloody hours! 'Switch off your bast..d' I kept saying to myself! Eventually the light went out thank God! I turned around and made a hasty retreat and left the Badger to finish his tasty meal! I took the other path once I had regained my composure and soothed the bite! Some funny things can happen to you on the river in the early hours of the morning!!!