I sat there, rod in hand, bait in water, waiting for goodness knows what to drag me in (which is what I always secretly suspect will happen) I was absolutely petrified. Mick and Pete laughed at me as I was praying I wouldn’t get a bite (I used to be like this when I first started fly fishing too). Of course within half an hour, I was quite over myself and desperate to hook a fish.It took me quite a few goes to get the strike right. I kept trying to strike up, like you do in fly fishing, whereas what was needed was a short, sideways jerk to miss the trees. The moment Mick’s back was turned, my float went down, I struck and I had a fish on.

It was a very nice tench of just under 4lb, very beautiful and green. I didn’t want my picture taken with it as I just wanted to get him back into the water as soon as possible.Nothing happened for a good long time after this There was an enormous amount of wildlife Huge dragon flies, damsel flies arched in mating. A couple of times Mick and I saw mink scuttle across our path They looked like rats. I manically applied sun lotion every half an hour while Mick, browning nicely in the sun, looked on wearily.As the afternoon wore on, I caught a 10oz rudd and an 8oz roach on paste (a mixture of pellets mixed with egg) Mick was still desperate for a carp for us. A big, show-off man opposite kept giving us a running total of how many fish he had caught: an obscene amount and made me think he hadn’t been in company for a while.Mick went off to stalk a carp. He came back a little bit later, flushed with excitement, to say he had found one in a corner of the lake. We went over and, creeping down low, threw slices of bread in to make the carp confident.

Then, Mick made what’s called a tampon: a slice of bread rolled up and wound up with line, with the hook threaded through: a very rudimentary bait. Mick cast for me (it was some distance) and he said, “Don’t strike until you see him really open his mouth for it.” In this sense, this surface method of fishing is like dry fly fishing: very, very exciting.The little rudd started having a nibble and there’s always a danger here that they will eat it all before the carp. Then silence (as the rudd run away when the big carp comes along) and a very different and distinct sort of munching started. The carp, getting cocky, decided to go for the whole bit of bread He opened his mouth and I struck. He tried to get into the reeds but by applying some side pressure we netted him He was “only” 4lb but seemed enormous to me..

A defence lawyer in the trial of two top boxing officials accused of taking bribes, has claimed the men were the victims of a racially motivated government probe that gave a “free pass” to the white promoters who testified against them. A defence lawyer in the trial of two top boxing officials accused of taking bribes, has claimed the men were the victims of a racially motivated government probe that gave a “free pass” to the white promoters who testified against them.
“Race is an issue in this case,” defence attorney Gerald Krovatin told the jury during closing arguments at the federal racketeering trial of Robert Lee Snr, the president of the International Boxing Federation and his son, Robert Lee Jnr. “We’re in a situation where some people have gotten a free pass and two people, a man and his son, sit at that [defence] table,” he said. “And I submit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that’s not fair, that’s not right.