Apologies for the lack of activity in the last week, its been pretty hectic to say the least!
Firstly, I decided at the last minute to chuck the gear in the van and fly down the M5 Clovelly bound to see my Dad and also have a dabble on a very attractive venue that I spent a bit of time on whilst living in the South West.
I had a great Journey down and completed it in a little over 4 hours which isn't bad for a Friday afternoon, on arrival it was the usual ritual of meeting Dad and jumping straight into the pub then stumbling out sometime early the following morning.
I awoke Saturday morning feeling a lot worse than when I went to bed, strange that I felt great the night before must of been the pillow!
I very slowly got myself organised and made my way to the lake, it was lovely to see the place again, its been years since I've graced those banks.
It didn't take me long to get sorted and soon enough two rods were dispatched to the far bank, very accurately as well considering my condition!
An a hour or so later, I was just tying up another rig ready when my hand slipped and I embedded a Size 7 Barbed Fox SSC straight into my finger, I then spent 30 Min's trying to tease it out......but had no joy so I just bit the bullet and gave it a big pull and out she popped, flesh and all!
Following the incident I decided to move as not much was showing in front of me, so I loaded the up the barrow and went for a mooch.
It didn't take me long to find the fish, I located them doing circuits of a reed bed at the far end of the lake, two "Magic" PVA bags were put on their patrol routes, I sat back and rolled a smoke......by this point my head had got a little less hazy and I started to feel more like myself again, but for how long I didn't know....you can never tell once you are in the deepest darkest Devonshire country side!
Out of the blue my left hand rod melted off, I lifted into it and felt the solid pull of a good fish when all of a sudden the hook pulled, I was gutted! The rod was soon back on the spot and I awaited action.....I didn't have to wait long as the left hand rod was away again, this fish decided to go through every reed bed in the corner of the lake, I thought I had lost it a few times but after a bit of a struggle and having to wade out up to my waist in silt I had an immaculate upper double common in the net, photos were soon done and she was returned to her watery home.
I decided to call it a day, I had a great few hours fishing so headed back to the village to have a nice dinner and a pint or 2 before having an early night as I was driving home the following morning.
The drive home was great and I did it again in a little over 4 hours, I had a few website bits to do as well as catch up with some photographic work before an interview the following day on the Monday.
Which brings us pretty much up to date, I got the call today (Wednesday) saying that I got the job so took my wife and son out to have a joint celebration as its her birthday too!
Tomorrow will see me heading down to the Famous Yateley Complex in Hampshire with Aaron from the "Lead shed" to have a quick 24 hour session on the South Lake, to say I'm excited is a big understatement, having never set eyes on the historic complex before. I can't wait and will be sure to have the camera clicking away for the duration of my stay and will hopefully land a fish or two as well!
Before I go I must mention how saddened I was when I heard the terrible news about the death of all the fish in "The Mere" including The Black Mirror, its been an awful year for fish deaths lets just hope this is the last of it.
Right time to sign off and get the kit sorted, I will report back in a few days.
Be lucky,
Smithy