even from a drifting boat. At home they not only stand

He asked me if I would take a good friend of his out fishing on Chew during his brief visit to the U.K. I agreed that I could see no problem and went ahead booking boats, communicating with the said friend – Phil Thompson, and keeping up to date with what was happening on the lake.As it happened, Chew has fished remarkably well and I was pretty optimistic about our chances…until it rained for the whole week leading up to our trip. I became rather apprehensive. Surely there was little chance of a dry day. Saturday dawned and Glory be! I must have been behaving myself recently, for we had the most wonderful conditions. Overcast, little or no wind, a few fish up and moving, and most amazingly warm weather in which we were able to fish all day in shirtsleeves. There have been precious few of those days even in the middle of the summer, so imagine how I felt taking out an Australian and his son in such glorious conditions! September really can throw in some surprises.I explained about our ways of fishing dry flies and our leader set-ups. I warned Phil and his son Chris that although the conditions were great, it was late in the season and the rain all week may well have put the fish off for a while yet. But I needn’t have worried for on our first drift of the day, within about five minutes of starting fishing, Phil had a rainbow rise slowly over his dropper – a claret “bits” and take it with such confidence that even though I had to tell Phil to strike, he was still in time to hook and play a lovely near four-pound fish. After such a good start I knew that the Gods were smiling on me. By lunchtime Phil had three fine rainbows – all of which fought as hard as any wild trout back in his home state of Tasmania – according to Phil! Chris was not doing so well. It was hard to see quite why, as Chris was casting further, presenting his flies well enough, but he just wasn’t getting the same response. He had only two half-hearted swirls to his flies. Then he hooked a “fluky” fish, which grabbed his flies as he lifted off to recast. This trout was even larger than his father’s first fish – it was certainly over four pounds and again it fought so hard that it gave him several anxious moments, before I was able to slide the net under it and boat it for him.Shortly after Chris landed his trout I commented that I had meant to ask my son to record the live rugby game being broadcast from the Rec at Bath. Phil offered me the use of his mobile telephone – only to discover that he left it on the table outside the fishing lodge. We immediately headed back but were not too optimistic about its whereabouts. As I have said already though – it sure was my day, for there it was sitting just where he had left it three hours earlier. I can assure you that many many people had passed that table on that Saturday morning, yet it was not stolen, removed or damaged! There are still some honest people left in this world of ours!We returned to our fishing after a brief chat with Bob Handford and soon in flat calm conditions saw the biggest rise of trout that I have seen for a few years on Chew! The fish were not easy for Phil and Chris to catch – but they stuck to their fishing and ended up with four and five respectively. They kindly let me fish for a short while – I believe to let me demonstrate that it was indeed possible to catch the trout in the flat calm! I caught four trout including the best of the day at 4 pound 5 ounces.So where does the cultural difference come in? There were so many ways that I cannot possibly mention them all! Firstly, Phil, his wife and son Chris had spent a few days in Wales and England and they did not think that their trip had been spoilt in any way by the rain that greeted them everywhere! Most British people moan on and on about rain, yet rarely experience rain the likes of which much of the world sees!Secondly, both Phil and Chris were ecstatically happy with a catch of nine trout between them. Most anglers that I meet throughout the country moan and groan if they only catch nine trout in a day! We are certainly expecting to catch more trout on each visit than we used to. You will see the look of delight on Chris’ face in particular with the catch at the end of the day.Finally, both anglers stood to fish all day – even from a drifting boat. At home they not only stand – they stand on chairs in order to get a really clear view into the water. I felt quite small sitting on the thwart in between the pair of them!

We had a memorable day and I must say what excellent company the two of them were. I declined the invitation to join them for supper though, as I had told my children that I would be back home in time to read to them both. However, we enjoyed a chat about the day, the Olympics, the fishing in Tasmania and various other interests as we watched the sun go down over the Mendips and had a pint of English bitter!