Charlotte catches her first fish

Posted by Glynis.

This picture of Charlotte, our five years old granddaughter, was taken during an hilarious day on the Dorset Stour last summer.

Charlotte had us in stitches all day long. When we visited the tackle shop to get our tickets for the Troop fishery Charlotte asked the guy why he had heavy fishing weights on top of the numerous piles of leaflets on the counter. He told her that it was because otherwise the wind would blow them all over the place. Charlotte said: "Why don't you just shut the door."

We have a weekend in the Christchurch area every year because Chris & I love to fish the Troop on the Stour and the Royalty on the Avon and also Hordle Lakes.

This year we had a day on the Troop and day on the Royalty.

We fixed Charlotte up quite happily on the Troop with a landing net pole that had a bit of line, float and hook attached, the bait as she calls them were magnets! This was okay while she was catching little minnows, swinging them over to Chris to unhook and then happily placing them in the white bucket, seen in the pic. She was seated next to Chris, when he heard her say Grandad, it`s pulling me in!" She had hooked a nice perch. After helping her to land the catch, she was horrified by the "holes in it`s head" - the gills! What a performance to get a picture, Chris had to hold it for her.

Next day, at the Royalty, we saw the most enormous salmon lying under the footbridge, opposite Baliffs office. It was all of one metre long and at least 20cms across the back. We did not catch anything impressive. I caught loads of dace and roach and Chris caught the only barbel of the day, our target species, but it was less than one pound.

We stayed at the Marlin Hotel in Bournemouth and highly recommend it. Charlotte, though was not satisfied with the ground floor room we were given. This year she insists we "live" upstairs.