William Sleeman

Each year Wessex Rivers Trust holds a fishing auction which is sponsored by many of our generous supporters. This year we had a lot with a difference, which William Sleeman kindly explains:

“I have supported the annual Wessex Rivers Trust auction for a number of years, but I have always bought river fishing. This year I bought a day Bass fishing in the Solent and did not really know what to expect. The lot was donated by Fiver Rivers Environmental Contacting and I contacted Tom Grayling of the company to arrange the day. The fishing is dependent on tides and weather and we had to find a date in the diary when we were all available. We were unable to find the right day in August due to the bad weather and finally settled on 16th September 2020 and we arranged to meet Tom at Christchurch at 1pm.

 

We set off in the 17’ Sea Hawk boat powered by a 65hp outboard engine, belonging to Fiver Rivers and the weather was perfect with very light wind and 25 degrees sunshine making it feel more like the Caribbean than the Solent. We were supplied with life jackets, tackle and a good picnic lunch and we were soon out in the Solent and drifting over the Christchurch Ledge.