After being out for lunch I thought I would dart of for a few hours to check out a couple of rivers, if either one was running at a reasonable height and clear enough I'd have a go at catching a trout. After a forty five minute drive I was soon bush bashing my way through some heavy scrub to check out the first river which I found to be running too high and a little dirty. A bush back to the car and it was onto the next small stream which I found was a nice dark tannin colour & just the right height to hop in for a spin session.
After a kilometer walk I reached the area I wanted to start from, it did involve a climb down a steep six foot river bank though. I lowered my trout rod down to a safe area, then commenced to get myself down to the river and this is where it all went wrong. Nothing really bad, but once down at the edge of the river I had to get over a fallen tree and that's when it happened. I over stretched with my right leg and bang.. I felt the hamstring go on me. Oh! The pain, this wasn't good at all. I thought with the water being so cold (4 degs) I could keep to the deeper stretches of water and that will help it and I can slowly fish my way back to where the car was parked. Then I only had a couple of hundred meters of bush to get through to reach the car. The first thirty meters was pretty quiet and it wasn't easy going either due to quite a few small to medium size log jams across the river that didn't help the hamstring at all.
Still, I wasn't throwing in the towel yet, as long as it didn't get any worse I new I could push on. Finally I came to a nice little flat water run, this is where I picked up my first brown of the session. A nice well conditioned 500 gram fish it was too. A quick photo and it was on it's way. My lure of choice today was a Mepps #00 Aglia Mouche Noire with a gold blade. It was all quiet over the following fifty meters before I picked up a small lovely coloured brown, two casts later into a narrow fast water run that required an accurate cast I picked up a solid 540 gram brown. The pain in the hamstring seemed to have eased to what it was and I'm wasn't sure if it was from the cold water or from the concentration of the trout fishing. Perhaps it was just a bit of both.
That was the last fish I caught until I was nearing the area where I was to get out and head back to the car when I picked up my forth trout. It was caught on a plain gold #00 Aglia that I changed over too ten minutes earlier. This brown (490gms) was also in top condition as was soon back in the river for another day. That was where my fishing session ended, one that lasted close on three hours. Once back at the car I was really feeling the hamstring and it wasn't a pleasant drive home either. Once home I was into the shower, then rubbed it down with some Rapigel which is a horse liniment then placed an ice pack on it. I kept the ice going for around four hours and it certainly helped ease the pain. Now it's a matter of recovery which I hope doesn't take too long. But with the amount of bruising and the pain I'm still in I think it's going to be at least four weeks before I'll be back in a river.
Adrian Webb
First of the session
Best of the session 540 grams
Last trout of the day
Not easy going here at all
Tough going here too
Where I climbed down to the river