Sea Trout
As a child I was an avid, or maybe even compulsive, angler. I used to ride miles on my bike to sit all day by a tiny stream catching inedible fish.
I haven't really done much fishing for the last 25 or so years, but nowadays I am very interested in catching fish to eat. Especially as we moved last December to a house within a few hundred meters of a river (actually between two rivers, the Frome and Piddle, one on either side) and only a couple of kilometers upstream from Poole Harbour, which of course adjoins the open sea.
I'd like to smoke eels. In July the river Frome teems with grey mullet, which can be almost as good eating as bass. The mud in the shallow waters of Poole Harbour is full of cockles and is just a short sea-kayak away. But perhaps, most impressively, there seems to be some prospect of catching sea trout in the vicinity.
A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Where To Fish 1965-66, a guide to fishing in the rivers and lakes of the UK and Ireland. Flicking through the section on notable fish, I saw that the record sea trout at that time - 22 and a half pounds - was caught at Binden on the river Frome in 1946, just a few kilometers upstream of where I live. Even more promisingly, a fish of 21 pounds had been caught in the same place in 1918. The river has a track record.
Obviously further investigation is required, but I feel a slight frisson at even the idea of catching one of these fish.
I haven't really done much fishing for the last 25 or so years, but nowadays I am very interested in catching fish to eat. Especially as we moved last December to a house within a few hundred meters of a river (actually between two rivers, the Frome and Piddle, one on either side) and only a couple of kilometers upstream from Poole Harbour, which of course adjoins the open sea.
I'd like to smoke eels. In July the river Frome teems with grey mullet, which can be almost as good eating as bass. The mud in the shallow waters of Poole Harbour is full of cockles and is just a short sea-kayak away. But perhaps, most impressively, there seems to be some prospect of catching sea trout in the vicinity.
A few weeks ago I picked up a copy of Where To Fish 1965-66, a guide to fishing in the rivers and lakes of the UK and Ireland. Flicking through the section on notable fish, I saw that the record sea trout at that time - 22 and a half pounds - was caught at Binden on the river Frome in 1946, just a few kilometers upstream of where I live. Even more promisingly, a fish of 21 pounds had been caught in the same place in 1918. The river has a track record.
Obviously further investigation is required, but I feel a slight frisson at even the idea of catching one of these fish.
posted by Jon Brooke at 9:31 am
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