January 2013

Monday January 21st 

River Bain 

You could probably tell by the last the instalment that my interest in getting out there was waning. I needed some inspiration and it came the strangest of places- facebook. A precession of pictures of anglers holding Chub in the snow were posted. It seemed to be de- rigueur and I needed to be part of it. One venue sprang to mind. I had walked a short section of the river Bain with the dogs in the summer and seen a few small shoals of Chub. Nothing big but I just wanted a catch picture in the snow. 

I peered out of the window to see snow eight inches deep in the garden. That'll do I thought. "What you doing today?" asked Mrs P. "I'm going fishing," I replied. "Be careful.......have you got full charge on your phone in case something happens?". She soon changed her tune when I raided some cheese from the fridge along with the last few slices of bread. I shot out of the door and headed to the river.

Turning of the main road I parked up and headed towards the bridge. It looked stunning, 

This was where I had seen most fish in the summer and I settled behind that big tree on the left and cast down into the tail end of the pool. That is my rod lent against the post. You might not be able to make it out as it is my new Mach 2 tip rod and it is super slim!

I had a few casts with bread to no avail so I tried a piece of cheese, again with no success. After around half an hour I wandered downstream but couldn't find any likely looking spots. I returned to the bridge, passing a friendly dog walker on the way and decided to go upstream. It was hard going in the snow so I dumped my tackle bag and rod tube in the car. The snow was untouched on this stretch and I walked for about half a mile until I came to a big sluice gate which had an inviting run below it with some slack areas.

I started off with the bread again with nothing to show for my first two casts. I recently downloaded some editions of desert island discs on my phone so I decided to cue one up. Sitting there surrounded by pure white landscape with the radio for company was bliss. I didn't even notice the cold.

Third cast, this time with cheese, was plonked under my feet in a slack area off the main flow. I was daydreaming when the bite came. A tentative affair I waited for as long as I dare before striking and then all hell broke loose. I was amazed that I had hooked anything at all let alone something so substantial. A few heart stopping moments were endured before I netted my prize. A Chub, big one too. How big I will never know as my scales were in my tackle bag in the car. Hey ho. I still had my new camera to try out.

A week prior to my outing I had purchased a camera adaptor that meant I could screw it into a bank stick. This coupled with the Cameras self timer meant I could now take picture of myself. As I seemingly have no friends this may be £3 well spent! Anyway here are the results including one of the many dodgy ones as my camera takes ten shots at a time (must look in the manual).

Till next time.................

Winter 2012

Winter 2012

I went into the tackle shop the other day. "What's happened to the blog?" Neil asked as I was perusing around. So I guess you could say it's back by popular demand!

We left off last time by me telling you I needed to win back a trophy I won in 2011. The annual charity was held in mid October, a little later than the previous year. Same venue though- the Woodlands complex in Spilsby. After a late Saturday shift at work I arrived at the draw having had only a couple of hours sleep. A quick coffee perked me up a bit and I was one of the first to delve into the drawbag. Peg 23. The same peg I won off the year before. Whenever pleasure fishing Hawthorne lake I invariably end up on this peg too.

The match itself was a bit of a nail biter. Fish were hard to come by and I could only see about a quarter of the field. I kept plodding on though, casting a small method feeder towards the far bank reeds. Two or three small Carp would oblige and then I had to hunt around for them again. When the match was over and the scales reached me there had been two twenty four pound weights. Nobody to my left had caught much so it was down to me. I thought it might be close until I lifted my net. I'd beaten them by nearly ten pounds. Undoubtedly one of the highlights of my fishing year and the Trophy is back again for another twelve months.

October

Back to the normal fishing for the rest of the month and it started off quite well. Woodlands was the venue again but this time I was after the Perch. I fished trusty peg 23 again and baited up with prawns in the morning before returning with my gear in afternoon. I added some predator liquid to the prawns, not so much for the flavour but it dyes the prawns dark red which I think gives a better silhouette in the murky waters of a commercial. Returning at around two o'clock I was soon into them catching nine in total up to 2lb 2oz. The biggest can be seen here.

A couple of carp also made an appearance including this 11 pounder which gave me the run around for a bit and also only just fitted in my landing net!

I had four more visits but couldn't better the first session. I was pretty determined to catch a big one from Ash lake but I just couldn't seem to crack it. I also tried Hawthorne right into darkness but the big Perch just don't seem to be there in the numbers they were last year. Maybe I'll try again in the spring. The mild weather didn't help as the carp kept robbing my prawns on a regular basis.

December

A ventured out to The Secret River a couple of times when I thought it would be fishable and while it was I didn't have a bite. Couple this with my lack of Perch success at Woodlands and my passion for angling was on the wane. Maybe I needed some company to perk me up I thought. Tony kindly agreed to take me over to Boy Grift, a drain near Sutton on Sea. As luck would have it we had arranged to go on the coldest day of the year! Minus three all day. Still we caught a few little Roach and we had a cracking time despite the cold. We even wandered over to The Great Eau later on but neither of us had a bite. Boy Grift,

The amount of rain we have had this year really has put the dampener on both the river fishing and my enthusiasm. It is more or less a fifty mile round trip to the Great Eau and every time I go they seem to have the sluice gates open to run it off at a hundred miles an hour. I'm sure the fish are still there they just aren't feeding when I am trying to catch them. I've even tried further downstream in the sea trout peg to no avail. Very demoralising.

The New Year

Mrs P bought me a new camera for xmas specifically for this blog so I can't wait to get out and try it. I've also just taken delivery of a new tip rod. Shakespeare Mach 2. It looks superb. Like a more refined Sigma Wand. I'll let you know how I get on.

Till next time..............