river mayenne april 07

When I was a young man I was often shocked about how sentimental older people were about friends and family that had died. I understood grief and loss but always struggled to understand the sentimentality. When Chris died so young I understood
completely.Part of the grieving process for me is to go to the places where we went together and to remember the great times and wonderful friendship. The very last time Chris and I fished together was on the Rr Mayenne in the town of the same name in Normandy. That day we had enjoyed good fishing and of course endless banter. I always knew that I would return here and HG and I made the 3 hr drive from Brittany. We booked into the same hotel and ate at the same little Italian restaurant that Chris and I had discovered by chance. I found this comforting, coping with grief is a personal thing. It was some supprise then, that the following day having looked at the very swims we had fished and fully intending to fish here I suddenly felt I could not fish there, so opted for a spot further downstream beside a small hotel. HG was very kind even though I was messing her around a bit. The swim I chose eventually had more to do with convenience than looking " fishy " in fact as HG drove away I thought how hopeless my watercraft has become , 100 metres above a weir, 60 metres wide no nearside tree cover at all and no fish moving whatsoever. What was I thinking! Now my experience of this river is that , up to now , but on the basis of just 4 visits , the best coarse fishing river I have ever fished. It is different from the Blavet in that it is tree lined on both banks , although a towpath runs behind the trees on one bank in this area . It is also a tributary of the great Rr Loire. The colour is also very different having a slate grey hue as opposed to a sort of clear vinegar look of the Blavet. Looking upsteam I again thought how much better the swims further up looked but HG would need to find me , so I was stuck with what I had chosen. At least the weather was kind , overcast, warm and windless , also the banks were flat and the access easy so if I blanked, well so be it. Plumbing up I found a gentle slope of around 2.5 m at 8 m out to 3m at 12m where I intended to fish . The bottom was obviously silty as the plummet kicked up bubbles. A few bleak began to top now but of greater encouragement something slightly bigger in the middle of the river. I cupped in a little groudbait and on first run down was pleased to find more flow than expected. Fishing red maggot slightly overdepth and held back , the first 1/2 hr produced not a touch , then down it went and a 12oz skimmer was in the net. The next hour produced just 3 more of a similar size plus odd bleak on the drop, irritating little sods at times. Hour 2 was much more productive as a succession of quality skimmers to 1 . 1/2 lbs came to the net just on the 2 . 1/2 hr mark the Ist bream arrived , followed quickly by a couple in successive put ins. I then had a bite on the drop and hooked and pulled out of a fish of maybe a pound and a half, but what it was intrigued me. I had just seen a vivid silver flash before it jumped out of the water and pulled out. The next thing I knew a swim that seemed to heading towards a bagging session had just died a death. With not a touch for fully 20 mins I decided to re ball with groundbait. While making up the mix I had left the top set in the water in front of me and the next thing I knew elastic was streaming out, bloody hell! whats going on ? Well it turned out to be a sea trout almost certainly the same fish that I had lost earlier and a new addition to my specimen list ( at least not a turtle ) A few more balls of groundbait and it was back to bagging , the bream were not big and I had a chub of 2lbs plus a roach of 1lbs and 1 1/2lbs . Its been brilliant fishing each time I have been here, HG and I slipped the fish back carefully rather than weighing but making a guess at each fish size we estimated around 55lbs in 4 1/2 hours fishing. Excellent lovely river.