River Nadder Incident

When my second daughter Joanne was about 6 years old, I took her and my older daughter Louise with me when I went for a couple of hours fishing on the River Nadder just below the Churchfield industrial estate, which was situated below Wilton Road.

At that spot we were just above and to the side of an island. The river splits in two and the old original river flows on past the far side of the island. This side of the island was what we called the new man made part of the river. It had been built to provide extra bank space and a small deep weir pool opened out into a winding stretch of river that was about 25 feet in width. The depth below the weir pool was about a uniform 3 to 4ft. As the island had been left to grow by its own resorts for the past couple of years there were plenty of bushes and a few overhanging trees.

To look at it screamed fish a plenty and invited a float to be trotted or alongside the island, or indeed a ledger to be lobbed next to an overhanging bush or tree. Looks can be deceiving though, because that stretch of man- made water never produced more than 5 or 6lb of fish in matches. This was except for the weir pool and a couple of swims where the stretch met the main river at the bottom of the island.

The old main river could provide double figure bags at times and it seemed that the fish just did not want to use the man-made part of the stretch. I suppose over many years of searching for the old spawning grounds sent the fish the same way up the original river course every year. That was the way it was and I still think that nearly 40 years later it is still the case. Anyway, I will return back to my fishing incident.

My wife, Glenys, was working that evening and a bit selfishly I decided to take the girls fishing with me. We arrived and it was about 6pm when I cast my tackle into the river. I told the girls to do a bit of drawing and to keep well back from the water’s edge. After a couple of trots down I had not yet had a bite. This did not alarm me too much as it would take up to half an hour to get the fish to feed most times.

At that moment I turned and looked round at the girls. When Joanne saw me glance round she ran over to me. Just as she approached me she tripped and went head first into the river. It seemed to me to be in slow motion but it happened in the blink of an eye. Joanne sank to the bottom like a stone. It was about five feet deep where she went in. I threw my rod down and without thinking I jumped in after her.

The flow was fairly fast and I had to get to her under the water. It was about that time I realised I couldn’t swim, but I managed to grab her outstretched arm and having gained my feet on the bottom I lifted her above my shoulders and placed her quickly onto the bank. I clambered out and was very relieved to see her coughing and spluttering. That picture of her lying on the bottom of the river with her arm stretched out towards me will stay with me for the rest of my life. If her arm had not reached out I would have been carried away by the current and she would have most likely drowned and died that day.

It just doesn’t bear thinking about. I quickly got Louise to carry my rod and the few odds and ends I had brought with me, to the car. I picked Joanne up and carried her back to the car park. Louise watched her while I put my fishing gear in the boot and I then drove us home. This incident helped me to get over the fear of deep water and drove me later to learn to swim. The lesson to be learnt from this is to respect nature and the river at all times and also to be aware of what is going on around you when you are fishing.