A WYE SALMON.


It was late March  Went down to the fishing hut as usual but the river did not look very inviting.  It was cold and coloured after recent snow melt and up but still just a fishable height.  I did a few jobs but decided to have a cast or two before heading home.  The rod was made up in the fishing hut with a strange green and yellow striped devon minnow I found on the bank after a recent flood.   I didn't put my waders on as I wouldn't be wading and didn't take a net as I wasn't expecting to need one.,

The fishable bit was off the gabions above the Cafn Pool on the Nyth   I casually spun down towards the Cafn Rock when suddenly the bait was taken  A quick strike resulted in feeling the weight of a good fish.   Below me was the Cafn pool and then several hundred yards of rapids and gutters which spelt certain disaster if the fish ran downstream.   It was a strong dour fish but I managed to walk it upstream to the top of the gabions perhaps 40 yards from danger or so I thought.  It stayed strong and deep and did nothing spectacular for a while as I started to ponder how I was going to land it.
However the fish suddenly decided it had had enough of plowing around and took off downstream at a pace. I followed it down but it made it into the Cafn Pool.  If it went any further it was lost so I clamped everything tight.  The fish kited across the bottom of the pool and into a small slacker area
below the concrete walkway we fished the pool from.  I was on 15 possibly 18lb Maxima which was being strained to the limit but I had no option and the fish flashed and thrashed around for some time.
Eventually it had had enough and I scrambled down the step grassy bank and in about knee deep.
I put my rod down, put my hand in the fished gills (A stupid thing to do with a bait still in its mouth) and my other hand around its tail and struggled with it up the bank with the rod dragging behind me.

Only when I lay the fish down on the lawn did I realize how big it was.   It later turned the scales at 32lbs. 

The capture of this fish led to two other interests in my life.  After telling my boss about the fish he told me to get it smoked.  It was my best fish at that stage and I decided to try and make a cast of it for posterity.  This I later managed to do and went on to  make many others for people up and down the river. The biggest two 38 pounders    I also became interested in cold smoking fish which I later learnt to  again for a good many anglers locally.  Reservoir trout are good too.,

So it was a memorable fish in several ways. I was lucky and it was not.   As for your fancy modern braids, super thin line and flourocarbon you can bin em as far as I am concerned.  Maxima never let me down -ever.


The salmon referred to above and my first fibreglass cast