lF THE WATER GOES OUT lT WlLL RETURN.

Fishing the River Trent as we did in the early winter we always had a problem with fog. This late November match was at Winthorpe and the fog was again very thick. On arrival at the river you could not see more than ten yards across it.
 

This section of the river is very shallow for a considerable distance out and as this was usually a stick float venue, and visibility as it was, most of us set up a swim feeder rod. In this shallow water, most of us would wade out into the shallows to try to get to deeper water. We had to go about three yards out, arrange all your tackle around you as best you could, and sit on your basket or stand up to fish.
The match started and as the match progressed the fog got worse and worse. Suddenly, in the distance there was a loud horn blast and we knew that a barge must be on its way down the river. The blast of the horn got closer and closer. The next moment the water in front of me disappeared out of view and instead of standing in two foot of water I was looking at a bare river bed for as far as I could see.
Someone realized what had happened and I heard the shout “Get out! The barge is here - get your tackle to the bank quick.”
Then all hell broke loose. As the barge went by in the fog it had sucked the water out behind it and as it went passed us a three foot wave of water came surging behind it. I threw some of my tackle to the bank but in the process got both my wellies full of water and my trousers wet up to the knees.
Men were yelling abuse ( which I won‘t put in writing) at the invisible barge captain and as we scrambled to rescue our equipment all sort of tackle came floating by.

l rescued a fishing basket that came floating upside down, bait boxes and a keep net with the bank stick still fastened to it and about five pounds of fish still inside it.

All along the bank I could hear men cursing and asking if anyone had found any of their lost articles and out of the mist came a sorry looking John, one of our retired members who was always grumpy and had something to complain about on any match he fished. He was absolutely wet through, apparently he had tried to save his fish first and in trying to get to the bank had slipped on the mud and been completely submerged in the surge of water. lt was his basket and other tackle l had rescued. “I had about ten pounds of fish in that net and lost all my tackle?” he cursed. “John your fish and some of your tackle are here” I said. His face lit up in a smile and looking at his net his attitude suddenly changed. “I had at least ten pound of fish in there. Have you put some in your net?” I pointed to my keep net on the bank with no fish in it at all. He looked at it and said “Okay you haven’t got my fish but you must have taken all my maggots as there are none in the bait boxes.”

As I said before, he was a bit grumpy and after he cooled down he did apologise for his comments and thanked me for saving some of his tackle.

Lots of tackle was lost that day but the real thought was the danger we had been in with the foolish way the barge had sped down the river and caused the wave behind it.