I met up with James for the first time in a good while and together we surveyed the light trickle of water where a river used to be, and pointed out one small fish after another, not one of them more than seven or eight inches.
‘Where are all the bigger ones?’ I wondered aloud. I knew they had been there before, for more than one had escaped from the end of my line over the past few weeks.
James beckoned eagerly. ‘I’ll show you where they are – but you won’t catch them, not until it rains a good bit.’
I followed him down the river, past shallow stickles and shrunken pools where algae coated the stones, to a long, slow bend where the water lay still. It was obviously deep.
‘Ever since I was a boy the trout have gathered here when the water’s low. This is the deepest bit that I know of. It goes on for ages. Some say the fish don’t feed at all in this heavy weather but I reckon I could get a few. What we need is a wasp’s nest.’….
Mayo News 06/08/2013 Read the article ‘John Shelly contemplates the pros and cons of using the many wasp grubs in a nest in his attic as trout bait‘
