So another successful clean up on the urban river Don. A beautiful day and 15 beautiful (or not) hardy souls turned up. Encouraging to see a few local residents turned up - but after the hard work Royal has put in to raise awareness around the Hillsborough community, it is a shame a few more didn't make the effort. However, we keep plugging away....
I gave a full safety briefing particularily as we had new faces unfamiliar with the riverbank, with emphasis on the surprising depth close in on this section. (Due to undercutting, it can be 4 ft deep 2 ft from the bank!) Off we all trot to begin, and one of our new local vols, perhaps a bit eager to impress and show willing, gets straight in and finds one of these deep holes close in. Only problem - he's wearing normal wellies! So 3 ft over depth and up to his residuals in cold water, and after approximately 30 seconds of graft, our new chum decides to retire from the fray. Credit to him though, after nipping home to get changed, he was back and up for it. Well done fella, and welcome to the 'Order of the Soggy Welly'
Highlight of the day for me though, was wandering down the bank to find the now expected 2 chaps course fishing out of season. That wasn't the highlight....it was 4 or 5 of our chaps dragging an old trailer frame out of the water inches from their swim. I suppose you rake a swim when tench fishing to stir up the bottom, but using a 1/2 ton rake could be considered excessive.
As always, its amazing what a difference is made in a few short hours of not too hard work, and transforming another stretch of litter strewn footpath into a cleared and useable access route, is something we can all be proud of. Another skip load of rubbish is dispatched off to where it should have gone in the first place. Did anyone take any before and after shots?
As is now traditional, we wrap up the work session with a bit of mutual back slapping and teas and bacon butties courtesy of Royal and Cath. One of our regulars, young Craig, (who is always willing to help but doesn't fish at all) was 17 on the day. Royal and Cath, soppy buggers the pair of 'em, sorted him out with a birthday cake. Very tasty it was too. I think there was a bit of strawberry jam in it, so it counts as one of our 5 a day....Did I mention, its my birthday on the next working day, then Cort Nowt's on the next, then captains on the next etc etc.
Final act of the day is always to sort out a spot of fishing. Hiyabarney and Dan set off upstream (post a match report fellas!.) Me, Cort Nowt and another of our non fishing vols who fancied learning went downstream to Livesy St bridge. Even with my mad springer spanial swimming straight through the best water, fish were topping regularily. But could we get our plucky student to hook into one - could we buggery! I was showing fella how to strike and without even looking, theres a fish on. Hand the rod to our student and nothing, zilch, nada, zero. Its as if the fish know when a beginner is around. We did finally all catch a few each, but it felt like one of those days that if you were focussed, you could have a sack full.
However, non of us should begrudge spending a bit of time with a beginner, we were all there once, and a cornerstone of the SPRITE ethos is to help and encourage anyone that wants to use the river..... Except course fishermen fishing out of season though....
Soggy
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Well done to you guys, leading the way for us all. Even given his interest in selling bikes and car accessories, Mr Halford would be proud.
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