ANOTHER FIRST.

I admit I have not done as much seas trout fishing as the other aspects of our sport but did quite a bit a many years ago n at Abercothi and on the Rheidol.

This incident happen on the Rhiedol which I fished from time to time with the late Malcolm Edwards who I am sure some of you know or have heard of.   We were friends for a good few years and I tied the Waddinton flies he used to use and also mounted a couple of his large sea trout for which he was famous.   If I recall one  was 16lbs and the other 14lbs.  Someone contacted me recently to say he had one of these fish.

Anyway I was fishing with him one night at one of his favorite spots, can't recall  what the pool was called but in was below the bottom dam in the gorge in the tail of the pool below where his lovely stone memorial is now situated.  It was around midnight when he showed me a spot to cast to.  I did and received a take.  There followed a real battle with a fish that took me all over the river and even he was starting to wonder how big it was.  Anyway to cut a long story short he netted the fish and despatched it.    It didn't look that big to me and as we lay it on the grass and properly illuminated it with out torches he suddenly said, Hell it a bloody salmon.   Indeed it was and a fish of about 8lbs.
Must admit I was a bit disapointed but I think he said he had never caught one at dead of night in all the years he had fished there.

Many people have asked what his secret was but I don't think he really had one . There was nothing special about his tackle or his flies.  The real answer to his success was that he was a thinking angler who knew the river literally like the back of his hand and through long years of experience learnt the lies , taking places and habits of the sewin.   He fished these places and if nothing was present he moved on to the next not wasting his time fishing unproductive water and that's the prime essential of a successful angler wherever you fish.  You need to put the time in and learn the water you fish to get the best results.
I miss him as do many others.