19 OCTOBER 1951, Page 13

The Eel-Catcher

Here, between Oldbury and Aust Cliff, the beacon that signals the junction of Severn and Wye, is to be seen a hale old man busy at a basket-weir emptying the " foreweels " into a large basket. When the close season for salmon comes into force, most of the " butts " and " weels " are removed from the weirs and, together with the wooden sledges sheathed with metal to drag them out to the weirs, stacked up for the winter, leaving only the heavier " kibes." But he likes to leave a few to catch shrimps, whiting and eels by fixing bars across the butts to prevent the salmon from entering. Every five years there is a flush of sprats coming up the river to be caught in the weirs, and one falls due this year. In February he goes lave-net fishing in the shallows of the estuary, a'bd he believes that there is nothing like it for an incipient cold. Mud and ozone are the sovereign remedies, and he is a living advertisement for his doctrine. But for two years between 1914 and 1918, he has lived all his life by Severn side.