Southampton based philanthropist David Meek had been having a run of bad luck recently, but it was all forgotten after slipping the net under one of the Kingdom of Ringwoodshire’s most prized subjects at the weekend. Here David tells a lovely, inspriring tale of how it all came right:
After a three night trip on the lake and using up some time off, it turned out to be a nightmare. With only a tench to show for my efforts. I then went to some lakes abroad for 5 nights, and only managed a bream, a broken rod and a broken bivvy.
However the urge to get back out onto the pit was strong, and for a deep reason I felt like I needed to be there. Maybe I was just being stubborn.
I came down on the Friday at about midday, I had a gentle stroll around and opted for a swim that I had a couple from two years ago. A friend of mine was in the swim to my left and had said that the fish were showing consistently on the shallow plateau. With that in mind I wanted to drop in after him.
Early Saturday I had a lovely tench, and as his little red eye winked at me I knew I needed to move.
By midday on the saturday three freshly tied 18lb Soft Ghost hook links with size 4 stiff riggers were fanned out on the plateau. A banquet of CC Moore chops, crumb and hemp was spread all over the shallow feature.
Wind, rain and weed were my negatives in my mind of positives and my little roller buzzers were chirping like robins with tourettes. Sleep wasn’t going to come easy, so I clipped my little bobbins round the back of the alarms to try and get some sleep. At around five in the morning my right hand buzzer let out a little dawn chorus of bleeps, which encouraged me to go out and check. On doing so in the darkness, my heart was warmed upon feeling the line and noticing it was out of the clip.
My carbon companion was drawn over my shoulder in a slow and thoughtful lift, and somewhere out there in the watery chaos was a faint pull.
My brain engaged and my mind drifted thinking of red eyed beauties with paintbrush tails. As the unseen creature was guided over the deeper water I felt a lunge, which made me hopeful of something scaly and wonderful. A few moments later she rolled to my left closer than it had been, but further than I would have liked. For sat nestling in the margins was a weed bed that had accumulated from the big winds, and could make a hook lose a grip like buttery hands on a rope. In the torch light she looked big and yellow, and I think I swallowed my tongue. And as she gave in to the idea that she was going to get a cuddle from me, I shuffled her into the net.
‘Small tear drop scales, scattered like glitter on a page covered in glue’.
I had first seen this fish in a print from a friend who managed to catch her off the surface some 12 years earlier at 28lbs, I then saw her when my friend Ross held her up for the cameras at 40+ a few years ago. And that capture was the beginning of our fantastic friendship. She has always had a special place in my thoughts and is a truly lovely being.
Small tear drop scales, scattered like glitter on a page covered in glue. Barbs like big old worms hanging from her posh looking mouth. I thanked her for my moment as I released her back into her special home.
I never think that you deserve a result. However I do feel that when you mind and soul is in the right state, anything is possible. And sometimes that anything can be a special moment with a special part of nature.
Thank you Barbs.
‘I thanked her for my moment as I released her back into her special home’.