i spend a lot of time round rivers and lakes (im an angler) and my nightmare would be finding a floater!!!
Now I used to be a angler , years ago , and me and my dad used to fish the canals round London a lot .
This particular day , we went to the cut near Greenford I think it was, but maybe it was nearer Northolt , wherever . It was summer , and the weather had been hot and sultry for some days .
We set up early , just as the light was breaking through the darkness , and the mist rolled across the water like in a Hammer House of Horrors film . I could imagine Dracular gliding along the footpath with his cape flowing out and blood dripping from his mouth .
Anyway , we set up just along from our normal spot , as we saw some fish activity about 30 feet or so along the cut . We sat and fished for some hours , and had a good catch of fish in the net . Some really good roach , a load of gudgeon, a couple of rudd, some bream and a huge perch and a tench or two .
We were sitting there having a cup of tea and some sandwiches , when there was lot of activity over the other side of the canal . A few blokes speaking in lowered voices , and then a small row boat came along with another couple of blokes in it .
Dad and me just sat there fishing and chatting whilst drinking our tea and then there was a shout from one of the blokes over the other side , they all rushed over to where the man was , and the blokes in the boat started to poke at something with a long pole with a hook on the end .
Dad and me continued to sit and watch as the drama unfolded . After a minute or two something appeared in the water , at the end of the pole . It was hard to see what it was , but the men all stood back a bit from the edge of the canal . The men in the boat leaned over the side and grabbed hold of something , they threw a rope to one of the men on the bank , and he pulled on it and the boat slowly glided towards the bank .
Lots of low murmurings filled the air as the men on the bank leaned over the edge and grabbed at the object in the water . They heaved and up it came ..... it was a body .
It was the body a of a man . He had been in the water for some time and his skin was a strange translucent whitish colour . It was obvious that fish had been feeding on his face as part of it was missing . On seeing this , one of the men was very ill , the others laughed and clear voices could be heard for the first time .
I was trying to hear what they were saying but it was then that I was overcome by the most revolting smell I had ever sensed . It was the smell of the man they had just pulled from his resting place in the depths of the water . We were talking to the men later, and they said he was the 5th one that week that they had found in that stretch of water . Who he was , we never knew , but he is forever known now as Canal number 5 .
We gave that stretch of water a miss for a few weeks after that day .
To this day, I still think of canal number 5, when I smell maggots .
cheers
Russ
Topic: What a day! (Read 6664 times)
