Shooting Times & Country

Excitement, pursuit and a feast to follow

Between Colchester, Britain’s oldest recorded town, and Sutton Hoo, the site of Anglo-Saxon treasure, lie three of East Anglia’s principal estuaries: the Deben, the Orwell and the Stour. It was on this last that I took my daughter Liz for an evening paddle in our double kayak and we took our rods.

Neither of us held out any great hope for a catch; it’s not been a good season for bass so far. Despite a few attempts last year and this, Liz hasn’t been lucky on the river. She’s always loved crabbing — the wonder and excitement of plucking creatures from the deep never fails to amaze children — but she had never caught a fish on her own line.

“An egret fished, languid and lazy,

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