After a hectic first week back at work following my week long break I was over the moon when 5pm Friday afternoon came around, I did my greatest Superman impression in the disabled toilet (It’s nearest to the door) I went from Civilian all suited and booted to Hard-core Carper in a matter of seconds, the look on the IT guys face was a picture when I walked through the office, not that I cared…I was free and off dangling!
I made the usual 15 minute journey to the lake in less than 5 minutes and arrived at the fishery gate in a cloud of dust, but once at the pit stuck to the strict speed limit until I got to the car park as much as it hurt!
Once I was all parked up and the barrow had been loaded I scanned the lake to see what swims were left. My choice wasn’t a great one, after a tip off from Mark I knew that the swim I fared so well in last session was free although it was on the end of a cold northerly which had been blowing all week, but with little choice available I dropped in there for the night.
The normal tedious barrow journey round the boggy track was made slightly easier after a few days of cold northerly winds had dried it out and for the first time in a while I arrived in the swim not out of breath or ready to collapse in a heap which made a nice change.
The first thing that I did notice was the Floating Green Sh%t as it had become known following my previous session, it had dramatically built up in front of the swim so I spent a good 10 minutes clearing it to make my line lay slightly better presented.
After I had finished my weed clearing routine I set about getting the rods sorted, I couldn’t put my left hand rod where I wanted to due to a huge drifting weed bed which was positioned between me and the spot so I opted to fish that one close in for night, I carefully tied on a XXX pop up onto a chod and placed it about 20 yards out then scattered about 50 18mm XXX over the top with the catty.
The middle and right hand rod were once again fished running chod style and baited with a XXX pop up and fished 10 yards apart at 60 yards range, I then scattered ½ kilo of 18mm XXX over the two rods.
By the time I was sorted it was getting on for 6:30pm and I knew that Pete would be down shortly to pay me a visit and fill me in on the new lake he is fishing, true to his word he was soon walking into my swim with a Pie and Chips in hand, top man!
So I put the Oval up to shelter from the cold wind before tucking into some grub which I demolished in about 30 seconds flat!
The kettle was soon on the boil and as Pete was telling me all the carpy delights of his new home my right hand rod let out a couple of bleeps before pulling up tight, I didn’t waste any time lifting into it but once I had it was quite obvious that a pesky Tench was the culprit, I just said to Pete “oh well, least my rigs are working!”.
Once the Tench had been returned no worse off for its’ mistake I quickly tied on a new bait and put the rod back on the spot followed by 50 baits over the top, before getting back under the Oval to finish my now luke warm coffee.
The time flew by and before I knew it darkness descended around the lake, at about 10pm Pete bid me farewell and wished me luck for the night.
Once on my own I fired up the coleman once again and replied to a few messages and tweets that I had become aware of as my phone was bleeping in the background followed by an unexpected phone called from my old mate “Dumpy” who was fishing a rock hard pit about 45 minutes away and had incidentally enjoyed some success so it was great to catch up.
Once my phone had begun to quieten down at about 11pm I was just about to call it a night when I received a message asking me to go round the other side of the lake and do some pictures for another member so I reeled in the rods and made my way round the lake and was met by one very happy angler indeed, once the pictures of the stunning common were done I wished him well and returned to my swim to get the rods sorted for the night once again.
I tied on all 3 baits and then placed them back on the spots although I was very concerned about the line lay as I couldn’t see the weed beds that had floated in during the hours of darkness, but there was little I could do about it now so just had to hope that my baits wouldn’t be pulled off the spots and ruining my presentation – anybody that knows me will tell you I can be quite anal about line lay, but with limited time on the bank I want to make sure everything is perfect and as it should be.
I got back under the Oval, put the radio on to catch the mid night news but soon turned it off as it was depressing me then fired up the coleman for a quick brew before bed.
Once I was hydrated, I climbed into the bag and soon drifted off into a deep sleep, I must have been tired to because I slept right through the night and didn’t wake until gone 7am which is very late for me normally choosing to be up at Dawn.
As per the normal routine, the first thing I did was fire the coleman and rolled a smoke – once I had woken up a bit I noticed that the wind had swung right round to a bitterly cold easterly and was hammering into my swim bringing a load of the floating green sh%t with it.
Normally I like to leave the baits on the spots until lunch time but as I was worried about the presentation I reeled in at about 9:30am, rebaited then put them back out on the spots however the left hand rod was baited with a single yellow Northern Special and put slightly further out in the hope to nick a quick bite before “bite time” had passed.
I was a bit more relaxed after doing the rods, so got a coffee on the go and retreated from the cold wind under the Oval and got a book out, I must off been reading for a few hours because I received a text and couldn’t believe the time, gone 1pm already!
I went and stood by the rods to survey the area, my swim again was a mass off green sh%t that had come in on the wind, I just shook my head then got back under the Oval to ring my wife, I told her that the conditions were pants, I had itchy feet but nowhere to move to and felt like I was camping, she told me that if I went home instead of doing another night she wouldn’t mind if I did 2 nights next weekend. I told her I’d check the forecast on my phone and let her know and hung up, upon checking the forecast I was delighted to see a big pressure drop due at the end of the week along with some long overdue south westerly’s, I sent her a text saying I would be home at about 8pm.
I chain drank coffee and stared across the lake all afternoon in the hope of one of the big girls making a mistake but it wasn’t to be, and at 6pm I decided to call it day.
I slowly packed everything away leaving the rods right until the last minute then had to clear the weed off the rod tips before I could retrieve them.
Once sorted I barrowed back to the van with my tail firmly between my legs, it was my first blank for a month and it had brought me back to down to earth with a bump.
As I drove out the gate I vowed to return the following weekend and settle the score, I’m just hoping the big girl can evade capture until then, she’s due out any day now and my heart jumps out of my chest whenever I get a text message!
I have to attend a wedding in Durham on Thursday and shall be staying overnight then travelling back Friday morning which means I can get back down the lake slightly earlier than normal but you can rest assured my heart will be in my mouth the whole time I’m there in case the news I am dreading comes through!
Until then,
Smithy