Fished 5am until 10am and work party until 2pm
A 4am alarm woke me up, it must be nearly summer time! I tumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen.
Getting in the car, it said 4 degrees, maybe not quite summer. The mist rose off the lake as I parked up. I wanted to fish a particular swim and at 5am with two cars in the car park, I felt lucky. Of course the two anglers were in that swim, I settled for my second choice.
As usual bream were the target. It never goes to plan and the first bite was a lovely tench. Still not even 6am. I had the float rod with sweetcorn on the hook and also the feeder rod with pellets or corn, depending. I fished with both rods at first, but the constant knocks and bites meant I could only concentrate on one. I opted to float fish.
Watching the float as the mist rose was awesome. It was a bit chilly but the flask of coffee soon warmed me up. I wanted a good picture of the lake but I didn't have my filmographer with me and thought my phone would not do it justice. I fished on and soon it was a bite a chuck.
Fishing the float is such a nice way to catch, nice and calm. The float buried and the rod was pulled around. The drag spun as the fish was now heading towards Newcastle City centre! My tackle was not suited to carp, so as predicted, it "smashed me up!" Proper style, nothing came back. It is a hard balance using beefy tackle to bully the carp away from the weedy areas, but when you are catching small silvers "most" of the time, I don't need the sea rod and rope style line just yet!
It's enough to drive you crazy, if you let it!
I now just had the feeder rod, so carried on fishing with that. The sun was coming through now and I took the wellies off to warm up my feet. This distraction didn't worry the fish and several more tench on the feeder graced my mat.
Still wanting to float fish, I tackled that back up and cast in. The float was away again, another train heading to the far side of the lake. I played this carp a little longer but again its strength and ability to get to the weeds proving too strong for my 3lb hook link. You think you will land them, they let you dream, just watch 'em shatter!
I was surprised to hook carp because as far I could see and hear, they were busy in the reeds "getting it on." A heron watching over them, surely they are too big for its lunch?! Although I did see the heron at 5am having a large silver fish for breakfast, I thought they targeted smaller fish!? Says the zoologist!?
The carp left me alone and I enjoyed some fish in the float.
It was soon 10am, work party time. I swapped the rods for a spade and set about relocating some Iris to the silt trap area. The rest of the crew were in the same boat with a lot of your friends, waitin' for the day you ship'll come in and repaired some swim platforms on both sides of the lake.
These photos make it look easy, but these civil service hands are not used to manual work. Three hours of digging and about 15 plants moved, including the big one that required wheels!
Am home now, jump in the shower, and the blood starts pumpin'.
It was a great morning, fishing and some manual labour. Unlike Dolly though, I don't agree that .....
"For service and devotion, you would think that I would deserve a fat promotion!"
(Did you spot the other lyrics?)
A nice session with a decent stamp of fish. Carp can be a bloody nuisance. This is one of the reasons I don't like them being dumped in every pond and lake. As for heron. If the can swallow it they'll eat it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely learnt that today!!
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