freeline-107 - Flipbook - Page 93
EXCLUSIVE
q u ick succession therea f t e r.
C h arlie was right. A few h a d
t u rned up and now I was o n
e d ge wondering whether t h e
t a ke would come?
I couldn’t sleep an d b y
f i v e in the morning, with n o
t a kes materialising and f i s h
b e ginning to show few swi m s
f u rther down to my left, I h a d
l e t i t r u n . Fo r t u n a t e l y, i t r a n
straight, there was a boil about
ten yards off the far B ank, and
I s t a r t e d t h e p u m p t o g e t so m e
line back. At this point, I knew
if the fish decided to ite left or
r i g h t, I w a s i n b i g t r o u b l e d u e
to the marginal snags down
both sides, so attempted to
retrieve as much line back
t h e hump! It felt like I h a d
m i ssed my opportunity o n c e
again, so I started to p a c k
d o wn, planning on mo v i n g
o n to the showing fish fo r a
f e w hours before I was of f. . .
The Take:It came with o u t
w arning. As the last bit o f
l u ggage was loaded o n t h e
b a rrow and with just th e
r ods left to bring in, the ri g h t
h a nd rod o n the shorter sp o t o f
t h e two, went into mel tdo w n !
I mmediately grabbed th e r o d
a n d as I lifted into the f i s h
a n d simultaneously tigh te n e d
t h e drag, it flat-rodded m e !
T h ere was no way I was g o i n g
t o stop it, so eased the cl u t c h
o f f a couple of clicks and j u s t
o n t o th e s p o o l a s q u i c k l y a s
h u m a n l y p o s s i b l e. I t c a m e i n
relatively easily after that first
s u r g e, h e a d i n g b a c k t o w a r d s
m e o n a s t r a i g h t l i n e, a n d
soon enough it was plodding
a r o u n d, o n l y a c o u p l e o f r o d
l e n g t h s o u t i n f r o n t o f m e.
A f t e r a f e w m i n u t e s o f so m e
s h o rt , y e t p o w e r f u l l u n g e s i n
either direction, it decided
to head off on another longer
r u n . A s p e r t h e i n i t i a l t ak e, i t
ran straight for the far bank,
and once again, there was
nothing I could do but let it
go. This time it ground to a halt
a s h o r t wa y f r o m t h e o p po s i t e
b a n k , s t u c k f a s t i n so m e o f
D i n t o n ’s p e r e n n i a l w e e d, b u t
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