YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME.

As fisherman some fish and some,  we lose and and others we land against the odds.
However some loses especially hurt more than others.

I afternoon at the Nyth I was waiting for my boss the fish the Cafn Pool in front of the house but for quite some time he never made an apearance.  When he eventually did he had decided not to fish, he was quite elderly then,and suggested I gave it a go instead.
Only too happy to obliged I fished the pool down with a sink tip and the trusty Wye Thunder double on which, together with the Usk Grub was pretty much all I used then.   Towards the end of the pool I had a good solid take and connected with a good fish.  It stayed pretty dour and deep and though the pool was not big it stayed there for some time.  Eventually I managed to walk  it up through the neck into the safer pool above.   It remained deep and strong and couldn't do much with it for some time.
My boss saw what was going on and joined me on the high bank.  We had two home made nets in the hut, one bigger and the other huge, I had brought the big one.
Still had not seen the fish and it never showed once but eventually it showed signs of weakening. You need to get down the bank made of gabions to net the fish at this spot so I gave my boss the rod and went down with the net.
As it neared the net it showed on the surface and was much bigger than I expected.  The fish was drawn across the net and I lifted a little late, didn't get it's head in and the fish lay across the diameter of the net and would not bend to go in. It flopped out and went off again. " Get the big net" my boss said but I replied "Its ok I will get it head first the next time".  Well it never happened. Within a foot of the net the fly flew out of its mouth.  It wallowed for a while tantilisingly close while I waded further in to try and get it in.  I failed.
Gutted was not the right word and I turned to my boss on the bank above me."Sorry I said, how big do you thing that was.?"  "Sorry to say he replied, but that was a good thirty" He had caught enough to know. 
Could you claim that fish as 'caught', it was beaten and in the net after all.  Perhaps not.


The win fish was also at the Nyth when I was fishing with Ray, the bosses gamekeeper.  I hooked a fish in the Ferry pool on either worm or spinner, can't remember which.  This pool has a huge shelf of rock in front of you and a deepish gutter down the middle.  I played the fish for some time but it eventually snagged me somewhere in the gutter.   No way could I free it and thought about pulling for a break.  However there was a boat about hundred yards or so downstream and we decided to row across and get a pull from the other side-away from the rocky shelf   I payed out line, always good to have plenty on the reel, and he rowed me across.   Walked up to the pool and got opposite the fish which I was convinced was still on.  However much manouvering and repositioning failed to have much affect.  I was using either 15 or 18lb Maxima, probably the former ,and decided to break off as there was no other option. This had been going on for some considerable time.  I wound down, pointed the rod at the fish and pulled for a break.  Just as I was sure the line was going to break it suddenly came free and lo and behold the fish was still attached and we eventually landed a 16lb springer.   A very unlucky fish to say the least and once again more respect for the Maxima line.

Wonder what happened to Ray as we lost touch over the years.  I once shared a day of twelve fish with him. Happy days.

Below is the catch with Ray.  1988 of course.  Sorry I cant flip the picture