Fishing that makes you smile

Date fished 24/8/2019
9am ish until 7pm

It was  back to normal today, full of incident but as I say, " normal".

Ellis and I planned a day on the boat lure fishing. Arriving at 9 o clock, there was already a car at the gate. One I didn't recognise, it drove in as I arrived. Thinking this was not Ellis, I parked up and waited. A few mins later, Ellis came walking up to " see what's wrong?"
It was him in the car, and he was sat beyond the gate waiting while I waited on the other side. It was one of those days!!

Loading up the boat, Ellis flipped the switch to lower the outboard. It didn't sound good. The power was draining, the battery was flat. It turns out some switches were left on, so this is clearly Ellis's fault!!
With no other option, we had to wait until someone else arrived who may have jump leads. As we waited we had a few casts off the jetty but no fish were caught.

Soon we were on our way, another member quickly starting us, without giving too much of an electric shock to Ellis!

Needing to give the engine some charge, we powered down past our usual stops. We then stopped a few times but the fish were not stopping for us. Eventually getting to the Leven mouth, we stopped for a serious go. With lots of fish topping, but no perch I got Rupes whip and started fishing maggots. Quickly I was catching small Roach and soon had Ellis joining in, the pole fishing, not catching!!
We decided this was great fun, and we described it as " fishing that makes you smile".

Suddenly there was a UK Navy destroyer bearing down on us, 4 heavily armed soldiers watching our every move! No, not really. It was our friendly EA fisheries enforcement inspectors out to check rod licences. It's been along time since I had my licence checked, so was good to see. They pulled along side and checked our credentials. Ellis did not have his licence on him, but giving a few details and a quick phone call, the Inspectors were able to confirm we were licensed and they left happy. I was going to ask for a pic for the blog, but thought Ellis and I have far too pretty faces for prison!

As we continued with the poles, I got snagged and pulled to free the line, sadly the angle was wrong and I snapped the end of Rupes whip off! It seems I may be going to prison!

Moving on, we fished some amazing spots and soon were up at Worsall, an area I have fished before from the bank. It was surreal to go so far up the Tees on the boat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was time to turn around now and try some places we had motored past earlier.

We stopped at " the ramp". A strange spot. We always catch here, but it does not look like we should!! The drop shot was out and Ellis was catching perch. His rod suddenly bent a lot more than a perch and he was expertly playing a small pike. I got the net, the broken %$#@ net and tried to land it. Credit to Ellis, he played the fish well on no wire trace as I repeatedly missed with the net.
 "This net has to go"! I concluded as I finally landed his fish.
To make amends, I held his fish for him, and was rewarded with gill rakes across my knuckles that bled for hours!
A few quick pics and the pike swam down strong to torment some more little fish.
We were both soon catching perch in this hotspot and all was great.

I cast my lure and waited for it to sink. As it hit bottom, a few cranks of the handle brought the lure alive. We both then saw fish being chased further down so stopped to watch. My lure must have been laying still on the bottom. Suddenly the rod was shaking and line being pulled, a fish was attacking my static lure. I have never had this before and was so funny to experience. Sadly I lost that fish, shame as I wanted to meet who was doing that!

The wind was stronger than realised and we were now blown onto the ramp! Stuck fast, I had to jump off to push the boat away, and then follow along the bank to a bit where Ellis could land the boat and pick me up. Am sure he was secretly hoping to leave me there!?

Many boats past by that day, other anglers, speed demons and paddle boarders asking if we had any beers on board! We wish!!

It was a great day on the river, plenty of fish in the end, but none in our favourite snaggy swim. As we arrived back, we noted the quality of the river. Always amazes me how much life both fishy and human we see on the river.
No seals or otters seen today, I am not anti these as many anglers are, but I understand their consequence. It was nice to see that the Tees has Beavers on it now, they have built quite a dam. We will be sure to keep an eye out for them in future!!