11lb Wye Brace

I watched them at 1am from only 10 yards away. The Police were being lined up and I was ready to cut them off when they ran. Then all of a sudden they grabbed their fish and walked off towards some visiting fairground caravans. I stood everyone down but followed them. We had no chance from here as they disppeared into the vans. I sat there listening to the generators as Jan quietly joined me under a hedge. We were both sure they would be back.


We spent the next day building observation hides ready for their return and on the stroke of midnight two men appeared amongst the fuzzy green glow of the nite-site. I clicked the radio twice and recieved the same reply confirming a red 4x4 would be racing to the Police Station to get help.

A third man appeared from town. He ran towards the poachers who already had two large fish on the bank. 'Baliff's getting the Police. Run!'. They had put a watch on the Police Station and now things were moving fast. Fortunately a Police car pulled up to the station and my colleauge followed the plan. Coming from below, at high speed the car tried to cut them off from their vans. They saw the lights, jumped a gate and hid behind a hedge. I followed and yelled at them to stay where they were.

As the racksack was opened a large toothy jaw appeared under the torch-light. I knew this was a big fish, but a brown, with scales later reading 13 years and 7lbs in weight. A fabulous rainbow followed. We searched the camp and found most of the fish from the previous night under a caravan. Our two poachers were Polish, working on the funfair. I understand they left the country soon after, under threat of imprisonment. The fish were compensated for with a large cheque.

Later the brown trout was confirmed as a fish of a lifetime for an angler who caught it last season. I'm sure it gave thousands of people a good deal of pleasure too, as they watched it beneath the bridge.