For once my working week passed quite quickly and before I knew it I was hurtling down the country lanes “Big Pit” bound in the driving rain.
As I pulled up to the gates the rain stepped up a gear and I endured a soaking whilst unlocking the big Iron Gate, not that it bothered me in the slightest, I was angling!
As I drove up the track I noticed a car parked up on the verge, my heart sank…I knew exactly where he would be, I parked the van up and strolled through the undergrowth just in time to see the owner of the car cast out from the far bank and confirm my suspicions.
I knew I resembled a drowned rat so didn’t waste any more time, I jumped back in the van and drove to the top of the Pit to another area that I fancied, the barrow was loaded without haste and I quickly pushed it to my chosen area.
Once in the swim I went against the rule books and quickly set up the Titan and threw the bedchair under it in an attempt to keep it dry and then quickly set about setting up the 3 rods on naked chod’s with Live System cork ball hook baits.
Having fished the swim several times before I knew the spots well so it didn’t take me long to get the baits where I wanted them.
The left hand rod was fished about 3 rods out into a deep channel, the middle and right hand rod were fished tight to an overhanging bush on the Island margin, I then scattered 50 baits over each rod.
Just as I was setting the last hanger the rain stopped, I couldn’t help but laugh and just looked up at the sky and said “thanks for that old fella!”
With the rods sorted I tided up the swim and made myself comfortable for the night, several cups of coffee later I noticed some strange noises coming from somewhere but after a few minutes of searching where it was coming from I realised it was my stomach, so with that I rummaged in the rucksack to see what culinary delights I could put together and a few minutes later I was enjoying a chicken & mushroom risotto.
As I sat on the bedchair filling the hole in my stomach I couldn’t help but notice an eerie silence all around the lake, even the resident owl was quiet!
The evening past with nothing to note and by 11pm I was ready to rest my eyes, it didn’t take long either as the next thing I can recall is the noise of the geese landing with an explosion, it took me a few minutes to realise that I wasn’t actually set up at Heathrow Airport, once I had reached that conclusion I fired up the coleman for the first brew of the day confident that I wasn’t going to be hit by a Boeing 747.
With a complete lack of fish sightings my confidence began to wane, bite time came and went and by 11am I had pretty much called it a day and began a slow pack up before heading home to spend some time with the kids.
I had half planned a social with my brother in law the following Friday and few text messages later on Sunday it was confirmed.
Once again after a hectic week at work Friday afternoon soon rolled around along with my freedom, I pointed the van in the direction of Martin’s little syndicate water, turned up the cd player and battled the traffic before eventually pulling up in the car park at the same time as Martin.
We decided to go and have a walk and see what was occurring, being only a small lake of 6-7 acres it was actually quite busy with 3 people on so we decided the best thing to do would be to fish as far away from everyone else as we could, keep quiet and see what happens.
Once the barrows were loaded we made our way around the small lake and stopped where the no fishing bank began.
I decided to only fish the two rods so it didn’t take me long to get them sorted, two chod’s were cast out into the silt with a healthy scattering of 15mm Live System over the top.
The Titan was soon erected and I sat down on the bedchair with a coffee to take in the atmosphere, it’s a very attractive small water with a good stock of fish for its size, nothing of monster proportions in there with the biggest touching 30lb at the right time of the year.
After rustling a Risotto up on the coleman I went next door to see how Martin was getting on, we stood and chatted for a while before I left him to eat his pot noodle, bankside dining at its finest!
My kettle had just reached the boil when I heard the sound of Martin’s Neville singing its merry tune, so I ran over to give assistance but unfortunately the hook pulled several minutes into the fight when the culprit on the end made its way into some lily pads.
I left Martin to get his rod back out in the failing light and naturally finished the coffee which I was rudely interrupted whilst making, Martin appeared an hour or so later with a couple of cold Fosters which I more than happy to help drink.
The evening past quickly and by 10pm we decided it was time to get some shut eye, being a “night water” I was expecting to be awoken sometime in the early hours so the thought of seeing the back of my eye lids was too good an opportunity to miss!
I had just entered a strange but enjoyable dream that I couldn’t possibly mention when I was brought back to the land of the living by my left hand Neville screaming for attention, I was on it in a flash, the rod instantly took on its full battle curve as I applied the brakes to stop it getting its head in the lily pads, but slowly she came into my near margin and a few hairy moments later I was just pulling her head over the net cord when I became aware of my lead flying past my ear, I dived forward with the net and luckily managed to engulf the rest of the culprit into the folds of the net, that was lucky!!
I gave Martin a shout to do some photos, we weighed her in at 17lb and ounces and then safely returned her to the watery home of which she came.
On inspecting the rig, the hook point was turned right over so I threw it in the fox box and rigged up a fresh chod before getting it back out on the spot.
I had a quick smoke with Martin and told him my tale of luck which he found most amusing then bid him good night and climbed back into bed sleeping uninterrupted until 5 am when a fish crashing 30 yards out woke me from my slumber.
I rolled a smoke and fired up the coleman watching the water for about half an hour before deciding to get another hours kip which tuned into 3 hours as I didn’t wake up until Martin walked into my swim demanding that his china mug was filled instantly.
We had a few cups of the good stuff then decided to call it a day, I was more than happy with my slice of luck but felt bad for Martin, he had only managed to get on the bank a few times this year due to one thing and another.
I mentioned that I was heading to the tackle shop to replenish stocks for the following week and Martin decided to tag along, after being greeted by Pete as we walked through the door and having a coffee we both left having spent about 3 times as much as we had planned, Martin panicking as to what he was going to tell my sister – I just laughed and said “Well I better spend it before the wife does!” and with that said our good byes and left for home both laughing.
I have been fortunate in being able to book a few days off work next week which will see me heading back down the “Big Pit” straight from work Wednesday evening and I plan on staying until Friday afternoon, it will make a nice change being able to fish a couple of nights opposed to my very quick overnighters and hopefully I shall manage to meet one if its magical residents.
So until then, be lucky
Smithy
NB. October’s video blog shall be online Saturday 6th October