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I CAN GO FISHING AGAIN

I hope that I never experience a year like 2001 again! As you all probably know (and will know if you live in the British Isles), foot-and-mouth disease hit northern England in February and even now there are one or two cases most days. The result is that my own lovely rivers have been out-of-bounds! One day in June I stood on a bridge over my Hodder and looked down. There was a shoal of sea trout and I could not try to catch them! It has been horrible. What makes matters worse is that our so-called government led by President Blair, has proved its utter incompetence in the handling of the epidemic.

Buy joy at last! Today, 13th August 2001, we opened the Hodder and our reservoir ... and I went fishing. Hodder. Sea trout. Evening. From nine to midnight. I took one rod with a floating line and fished my black Sea Trout Stoat's Tail size 6 twice down the pool I had chosen, and then turned to the Night Muddler. Altogether I hooked six fish and landed four, three on the Stoat's Tail and one on the wake lure. But it wasn't so much the fish than the fishing. Being there, by myself, on England's most beautiful sea trout river.

I can now understand what it must be like to be a follower of the hounds, whose lifestyle is going to be destroyed by Blair and his bunch of spiteful, moronic followers. Can you imagine if these animal 'rights' people get their way on the issue of fishing, and you can no longer take a rod to the river or lake? It will be like foot-and-mouth for eternity.

Malcolm Greenhalgh