Endless rain endless rain

The rain has stopped.

A gap in the clouds.

The first for weeks.

Underneath a welcoming bright blue sky I slowly crept into the prized swim where I had seen my friend David catch Grayling a few weeks back.

The swim had been transformed.

The water was now darkly coloured with mysterious eddies and swirling vortexes. Pieces of tree debris, torn from their owners by the gusting wind, moved quickly in and out of view. The endless rain had kidnapped the chalky stream and replaced it with an angry, anti social torrent.

A few weeks back when the sun was still in the sky, David had skillfully coaxed out of the then shallow river a pair of beautiful Hampshire Grayling. My attempts were distinctly more amateur in nature with my only prize the rather unwelcome trophy for the day's most smallest Minnow. Not that there is anything wrong with Minnows when you are about to go home empty handed.

The fast moving river was unlike anything I had fished on. It stared at me in a way that kind of said, 'clear off you sod'. Ignoring the watery hooligan I attached my transparent loafer float to the line and pinned a pair of wriggly red maggots onto the tiny hook. More of the helpless maggots were launched in the river for a swim or as an appetiser for a hungry fishy resident.

I gently flicked out the bait and float up steam and watched it move quickly across the swim towards the bridge.

Nothing.

More maggots were sent to their watery grave and I cast again. As my float and bait sailed through the air I became quickly aware that it was off course and about to hit an over hanging tree. I swiftly placed my hand over the line and the float plopped into the water a yard away from the tree.

Casting practice was clearly still needed.

I let the float run down the new path some metres in front of the intended target. The float passed in front of me and in a blink of an eye the bright red tip shot straight under the water.

I struck and the rod tip bent round, clearly not a Minnow for once.

I played the fish as it made diving runs from left to right. Part of me panicked and the other half of me telling myself to be calm and hurry up and land the fish. I eased the fish towards me and my heart skipped in excitement. I had achieved my goal.

There glistening in the damp net was the graceful lady of the stream.