Dom & I went fishing to the lower middle beats of the Laver. I fished from the cow-field above the Military Bridge to Beck Pool and further, whilst Dom went downstream of the Military Bridge and worked upstream.

The river was really high but not discoloured. It was so high that my first favourite pool was nowhere to be seen under the 18 inches or so of additional current! The weather was cloudy but not rainy, and not too cold.

I didn’t get a rise until the run above the dismantled bridge pool, where I caught my first small brownie. I got a second larger fish further up at the corner of that field. This was a fish around about the pound mark, and a nice tussle too.

I moved upto the cow drinking spot, and proceeded to fish the long run underneath the trees there; some fish had been rising and caught my attention. I cast at a rising fish and struck when the fish lunged sideways at my fly (grhe variant I tied up last night). The fish was almost identical in size as the 2^nd fish, and I released it carefully back to the river. Using no net means that the fish doesn’t even need to leave water.

After I released this 3^rd fish, I spied another fish rising some 15 feet further upstream and on the other side of the current. After 2 or 3 casts I hooked up this fish and it shot off taking line from the reel in a real battle. I had to play this fish for about 5 minutes and it took line several times as it took off downstream. I realised that this was an exceptional Laver fish, really the biggest I have ever hooked. When I saw the fish go past me it looked good for a pound and a half, definitely bigger than my best of 1lb 1oz that I got in 1997.

I landed this fish and it looks like a pound and a quarter: definitely my biggest, and the biggest I have personally seen in the Laver. The fish was quite beautifully marked, and I felt quite guilty about whacking it over the head with my priest, but these days I really have to show something "worthwhile" about days out fishing, or else it might be a little difficult getting to fish as much as I want without getting ear-ache. I would have preferred to put the fish back into the river, and indeed next time I fish I might experiment with what happens if I return home without any fish for the kitchen? I might bend the truth and say that I had bad luck and that they all got off, or the weather wasn’t too good for fishing, or that the herons got all the fish….

I saw Dom near the hill slope near the farm. He reckoned that he’d got 2 trout and a grayling. When I showed him my prize fish, he said he’d got one bigger! He pointed to an imaginary mark on his rod some 16 inches from the butt and said that’s how big it was. Mmm, that has to be at least a pound and a half, and a massive fish for the Laver, but there was nothing else, as he had no camera and he decided to spare this goliath trout in a surprise amnesty. The way I look at it is that the time he’s spent away from the water has improved his telling of "Riverside Tales".

Dom announced that he’d somehow had a mishap with his waders, revealing a large tear, gash or rip in his right wader below the knee. He reckoned that the rubber had perished as he couldn’t recall any incident with barbed wire nor any other sharp snag that could have done such damage to his water-wear! Just look at the picture and decide for yourself!!!

We fished a little further and then decided to head up to Beck Pool. Since wading was out of the question for Dom, I fished the pool and subsequently caught a small brownie. I also got another large trout of about a pound in the nice pool below the Bench. That was my sixth and last fish of the day and was the fourth large fish for the day. I have never caught so many big fish in one day, so maybe it was "big water: big fish". All fish were caught on 2 grhe variants that I tied up last night: great flies indeed!