The Tiny River Alne - AWOL and Autothaumaturgists

Back in the COVID days an Italian man stepped outside to cool off after arguing with his wife and ended up walking 280 miles. 💪😀

Italians had nicknamed him "Forrest Gump" on social media, after the autistic hero of the 1994 movie, played by Tom Hanks, who runs thousands of miles across the United States.

Police stopped the Italian's epic walk at 2am in Fano on the Adriatic coast, a week after he left Como in the north. 

The man, 48, got a police fine for breaching the curfew. Some comments on social media presented the man as heroic and criticised the fine. One said he should have been rewarded not fined and given a new pair of shoes. Another praised him for walking off to cool his anger, rather than resorting to confrontation. 

The man told police "I came here on foot, I didn't use any transport". He said "along the way I met people who offered me food and drink". "I'm OK, just a bit tired," he said, having averaged 40 miles daily.

 

Apparently police found him wandering aimlessly and cold at night on a coastal highway. After checking his ID in their database they found that his wife had reported him missing, so they contacted her and she travelled to Fano to collect him. 

Now the mental health toll at the time was massive, much like in the UK as the Italians struggled to cope with Europe's strictest and longest-running enforced lockdown and freedom of moment, so fair play to him I say, heck I feel like doing similar at the moment with my fishing time seemingly curtailed. 😞

I've got all the gear as well so I could easily manage something like that, "see you later !!" shut door then vanish for a week or three and then return with a smile on my face and hopefully a wet net, some tight lines and stinky pits. 

The Wife would be soon on to the Police I'm sure when the fridge starts to empty of wine but I'd get some decent fishing time in before the authorities were notified, and it would be interesting to see how long I could manage without having my collar felt. I'm sure there was a TV series about evading capture, Hunted I think it was called, we could revive it !!

Anway to the fishing I had a small window of opportunity to go fishing down the Alne which is the closest river to me. The diary-makers and penny payers had reduced my bank time to less than two hours sadly however I was hoping that float fished maggots would at least bring a bite or two. I missed loads of bites recently fishing a worm and maggot cocktail here and the float would have been the better option I'm sure. 

I went for a nose at the lower swims but they were almost static as expected because the river had dropped considerably, so I walked up the stretch where the river narrows and there are some trottable swims.

After bumping a fish off which felt like a trout after only a handful of trots down what I didn't expect was that 15/ 20 minutes later I'm playing a nice chub that is giving the light tackle some gyp. The size 16 hook was gripping well though and after a spirited battle it was in the net.

A lovely fish for the Alne going 2lb and 14 ounces and well worth coming out despite the time constraints. I carried on trotting and feeding maggots and another chub succumbed with only 10 minutes of the session left. I was quite surprised too because I couldn't really retain the first chub because I only had my small net and the swim was quite elevated.

Probably a scraper 2'lber this one but another nice fish on the float. I was just getting in to a rhythm but that curfew came round far too fast and I had to head off back home sadly to look after the kids and make the dinner.

Some daal and homemade onion bhaji's, very nice indeed !!!

Now 12 days off the booze I'm certainly sleeping better but with a friends 50th tomorrow I'm off the wagon for an evening, we've a rare babysitter too so the Wife will be in tow and she cannot be having all the fun now can she.

Anyway hopefully I'll get out in the morning, I'm weirdly tempted to try for a canal roach after our fishing syndicate WhatsApp group rekindled some fond memories.