Just one report of a fish yesterday from Weirend to Richard Woodhouse on a small mepps .  fresh   9lb fish.   I see WUF are reporting 4 fish from below Monmouth so presumably the three reported from Wyesham are in fact true or are we into creative counting already this season./

River desperately low on the upper river still, What happened to the six inches of Elan water I wonder  Going to need rather more than that to make any difference whatsoever. 
Saw a female Goosander on the river yesterday with six chicks, mercifully rather less than they usually have.  Hopefully an otter might have an opportunity for a meal.

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                                                    More worms.

Mentioned worm fishing the other day and several people have contacted me to say how much they enjoyed the method too. .  Not so much because it was so effective but just because they enjoyed it as a tactic in itself -not so much the thought of a fish or two at the end of the day.

Fishing worms is OK but how do you get a supply that's the question.Several methods have been mooted with varying degrees of success.  One was to stick a garden fork well into your lawn and vibrate the handle vigorously -limited success  and time consuming.  Another was to water a patch or lawn with water containing washing up liquid said to irritate the worms and bring them onto the surface. Limited success again but needed a lot of water. Another was to stick in garden fork, attach an electric cable to it to the mains and switch on. Limited success again and pretty dangerous to be honest.  Some followed the farmer ploughing a field but you had to be preety quick before they disappeared below ground again..
Best way was to go out on a large well cut lawn on a warm damp evening during the hours of darkness.  With a dim torch you could pick out the lobworm's lying on the surface with varying degrees of their body out of the hole.  Snitching we called it.  A careful approach to cause no vibration, keep torchlight from being directly on the worm and grab it as close to its hole as you could. Steady pull would normally make the worm release its hold though the odd one broke in half.

  Best place I ever found found was the lawn outside Kidderminster police station. Well cut, dimly lit by street lighting, a meal break spent snitching often garnered a good supply which in those days I used on the river Teme..   Had a few funny looks I can tell you and many a car slowed down to see what was going on.  Well I was in uniform and not something you see every day I suppose.  Told one passerby I had lost my ring and in fact fishing did later cost me my wedding ring   I went fishing to a tench lake and was mixing up a batch of particularly sticky  ground bait. After depositing it in a distant swim I washed my hands only to discover my ring was missing. It was somewhere in the lake.  That didn't go down too well.
That particular lake at Great Whitley in Worcestershire one early morning gave me a catch of 20 plus tench all around 3lbs   I swear they all looked like peas in a pod with not an ounce between any of them.   Nice fish tench and good fighters too.

In those days the Police had a good sporting ethic with football, cricket and fishing well to the fore . Divisional teams and forces from across the midlands competed and they even had a National event.
I did OK in the divisional and regional teams but never won the national one. I did come third or forth once when it was fished on the river Trent.  It did mean we got to fish some different venues around the country and also a day off if you represented your Force.  I used to arrange a Christmas Fur and feather match for the Midlands area which we always fished at Quatford on the Severn every year.  Still meet up several times a year with friends from that era and most of us seems to have weathered pretty well though only one of them fishes now.  Good days with good friends!!