Mekong Monsters


The line rolled backward, unfurling and straightening from a tight, easy arc. As the last curl straightened, a gentle movement of the uniformed man holding the rod sent the line gliding forward again. A pause, then the rod tip dropped and the line straightened before dropping on to the coarse thick alien grass outside the officers mess. No grass like this ever grew in America.
Wop-wop-wop-wop-wop… As the Lieutenant completed his cast, his attention was drawn upwards. In the reflection of his mirrored sunglasses, the source of the noise became apparent. Three Hueys powered past low overhead, the sound of the rotors fading as they passed over the jungle tree-line, half a mile away. The Lieutenant watched them disappear, then puffed at the cigar clenched between his teeth. He sighed and spat out a tiny piece of loose tobacco, then continued practising his casting, still dreaming of a river half a world away.

I’d heard he rumours of course I had, but I’d looked onto the crystal clear gravels for five years and never caught sight of a decent fish other than the ubiquitous chub. Were they there? Did we have the B-word fish in our stream..

Review: Go Fishing 2008 N.E.C Birmingham

EMAP have been running the Go Fishing show at the N.E.C in Birmingham since around 2002. By around 2004 the show was really quite good. Ticket prices were reasonable and there was a very good mix of retail areas to demonstration stands. The show sported a number of film shows together with live tuition from a good number of well known angling 'faces'. Sadly, since that year there has been a steady decline. I last went in 2005 having been for three years in a row. The gloss had gotten slightly tarnished in that year with a noticeable imbalance of retail areas to purely educational. There were still some very memorable displays such as the cringe worthy rod tester. To put a rod costing nearly £200 into a machine to bend and ultimately destroy it has to be seen to be believed. That demonstration was repeated a few times each day, but not too often. It was interesting though as it showed just how much punishment a modern rod could take.

Giant River Rays:

Thailand.

Rick Humphreys continues to catch massive Giant Freshwater Stingrays in Thailand's rivers. Rick sent us this report:

Oh, how I panic in the last week of the traditional season. The clock ticking down to midnight on March 14, me wondering where to fish and fitting brief snatched sessions in among the commitments of everyday life..

Today the pressure is off, it’s Saturday March 15 2008 and the season is over. How lovely not to look out of the window and think……perfect conditions, I should be on the Stream, the Ouse, the Colne, Gade or perhaps the Lee, or perhaps the Lea for those oldies among us.

I always leave the last week of the season reasonably free of work-related meetings, but it never ends up thus. This past week has been fraught - a business trip away Monday and Tuesday when my mind was elsewhere, lost in watery ringlets on some tranquil stream.

I wanted to get to the Upper Ouse for that end of season perch, to the Nene for a larger than average redfin, to the Lea for a really chubby chevin - for I had set
my sights on a fish to eclipse my pb of six two. And to the Colne, or my Gade or Bulbourne for a last cast, just one last cast, well a hundred last casts. For one is never enough.