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So it looks like I am a friend to the sheep.

5 April, 2024 by Alistair

Yesterday I went to the estuary for Sea Trout. I got there just as the tide had turned and it was a bit chilly to say the least. The wind was blowing onto my shore which was making casting difficult however I managed to get a few followers with only one staying on. It took savagely and ripped about 20 meters of line from my spool before jumping clear out the water and then splashing down – I think it was at this point I lost contact with it. It was a bar of silver and must have been over 5lbs. Maybe next time. 

Today I decided to head to my other river and pick up my permit – the conditions were far from ideal as it had rained all night and going by my river level app the river had probably another couple of feet on it. I decided to go anyway  as this is the last day of my week off work. I woke in the morning and looked out the window – far from ideal as the temp was around 2 degrees, however if you are not in it you will not win it so I got my stuff together and headed out. 

Not exactly ideal

On the drive up the motorway the temp went from 2 degrees up until it got to 10 and with that I remembered I had forgotten my net. 

I picked up my permit and headed down to the river – it was big and I half heartedly threw a streamer around for a bit before I decided to head to a whole other different part of the river.

All it needs is some white water rafters

I got there and wandered upstream only to find a sheep on its back. It struggled for a bit and eyed me bleakly – I walked past it and knew  that this was far from ideal. It also looked like it had given birth recently. A quick google and yes I was going to have to do something as there was no other bugger around. 

Ok – here we go I thought as I grabbed a handful of wool, the sheeps eyes gazed at my mornfully and pushed it on to its side – thankfully it got itself upright quickly and trotted off looking quite happy. 

Looks happy enough

I wandered back upstream declaring myself as a friend to all sheep on the way and then promptly slipped and ended up on my back – no sheep came to help me up. 

After this I noticed some trout rising in the margins- I quickly got my dry fly one however the downstream wind made it almost impossible to cast and I think I managed to spook around 5 rising trout. Thankfully I managed one cast in between gusts and this little fella bent my rod.  

Not big by any means however it certainly put a bend in the rod.

I headed home not long after.

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1 thought on “So it looks like I am a friend to the sheep.”

  1. Alex Laurie says:
    6 April, 2024 at 11:40 am

    You did well to get out fishing at all in this weather and to get a trout in those conditions. I’m well impressed.
    I liked your quip about the sheep not coming to your aid. Very droll

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