I had forgotten that there were three types of mayfly even though I had written about them in

I had forgotten that there were three types of mayfly, even though I had written about them in this very column. I couldn’t decide what fly to put on and couldn’t put a name to most of the flies in my boxes. I kept snagging my line on the reeds, the fence behind us, every tree opposite. Even my failsafe fly: the parachute black gnat, was getting me nowhere. My confidence was not so much going as taking my sanity with it.

I had a sudden and deep crisis: I was rubbish at this and why did I persist in doing it? Fishing tests you like this sometimes Thankfully not often, but always when you least expect it. I have, after all, fished the Coln more than any other river.Then, like an over-tired child, I felt tantrums and hot tears coming on so I took myself off to nap in the back of the car Two hours or so later I awoke. How the world can change in just two hours! There wasn’t much rising so we did what you’re meant to when dry fly-fishing: sat and watched for a bit until the fish, their confidence restored, started to ‘plop, plop’ at the surface.Anyone who thinks fish are stupid can never have been fishing. They position themselves under branches, behind rocks, in places that are just beyond reach. It’s as if they think like anglers, or perhaps we think like them.Pete advised I put on an elk- haired caddis and, for the first time in ages (in fishing terms), I listened. He ghillied me while I tried for one particular fish that was just beyond a tree, its drooping branches fanned out, guarding the fish like a protective mother, waiting to catch my line and snap it.To reach the fish involved casting low and sideways, with a single haul on the back cast which for some reason I had started to do instinctively (at last).

Many times I missed but quite a few times the fly landed perfectly. But each time the fish refused, rising instead to a natural the exact second my fly had passed over its head It was like I kept missing the fish’s eating rhythm. Eventually I got quite furious and started thrashing the fly down, but did this put the fish off? No, it still kept rising to a natural, the moment my fly had passed over its head.”Leave him,” said Pete as we sat and watched for another fish. Eventually we spotted one that was in an even more difficult position, completely canopied by shady branches I cast to him and, after maybe half a dozen times, he took. I had to take him down river to net him as there was lots of weed and I couldn’t afford to get him stuck (flashback to a previous year when Bill had had to divest himself of his trousers and go in). We netted the fish, he was just over 2lbs, de-hooked him, but before we could cradle him back into the river he jumped back into the water – they do that a lot here.That was my lot for the day although we fished until nine.

I was very happy with my fish, he’d been hard to catch and quite beautiful. Pete ended the day with three fish – two brownies and one grayling. As we walked back down the river bank we saw some mayfly spinners pirouetting above the reeds like tiny ballerinas wearing angel wigs. A herd of Aberdeen Angus/Jersey hybrids in the next field, which had been watching us all evening, breathing hot hay breath into our backs, followed us silently on the other side of the fence Right up until the gate that led to the road home.. After 72 hours of confrontation at close quarters there was all still to play for as Ellen MacArthur in Kingfisher and Mike Golding in Ecover zig-zagged their way up the North Sea yesterday. After three days of confrontation at close quarters, Ellen MacArthur in Kingfisher finally managed to get the better of Mike Golding in Ecover as they zig-zagged their way up the North Sea yesterday.
The pair had been locked in a match race battle after a testing, sometimes frustrating 575-mile race from St Malo to Hamburg which formed the first leg of the EDS Atlantic Challenge.

Roland Jourdain in Sill set the pace to cross the finish line at Cuxhaven in first place, with MacArthur beating Golding to second spot.The race had seen light conditions most of the way, with the wind against the fleet of seven of the Open 6s for much of the latter stages. The tacticians were kept busy and at one stage MacArthur allowed Golding, then three miles behind, the chance to slip away and turn that into a five-mile advantage as she focused attention on attacking Jourdain in a bid to win. It took her and her four crew 12 hours to claw back the deficit and re-establish a lead of about three miles.This was the third time that Golding had tried to wriggle free and the third time he had been reeled back in relentlessly by a yacht significantly quicker up wind. “For a non-contact sport this is incredibly close contact racing. We have been in touch with our rivals every hour of the way,” MacArthu said.”Sailing with a crew has been great. It’s been a challenge searching for the next gear because, even after 50,000 miles, we are still learning and learning a lot.