Tuesday 19 February 2013

More Watson than Crabtree....

Following a short blank on Sunday on the Bure Syndicate stretch I had an unexpected afternoon on the Wensum on another Syndicate ticket above Lyng. This morning saw a sharp frost, soon burnt off by a rare event at present, the Sun. I'd had a quick walk along a lower stretch of the Wensum yesterday and the river looked to be dropping but still quite pacey. Wak Lite is currently bemoaning the hopeless state of the Stour and Colne, but as the Bure is rarely over it's banks and much quicker to drop back to clear I am never quite sure of river levels further afield. 

Back to this afternoon, and though not a raging torrent the Wensum was still in muscular mood and I was glad I'd ditched possible chubbing for pike given the sudden frost this morning (sharp enough to freeze Captains). Opted firstly for a who dares wins scramble to fish a mini-island not usually accessible in the summer.  
  

Looked good, with the majority of the flow pushed over to the far bank but slacks have snags, and these seemed to be attracted to my bait. Worked a couple of more conventional areas, with some quite pronounced deep spots before heading down for the last hour and a half or so at the end of the stretch.

Had two takes  in quick succession on (unusually for me) whole not halved sardine right close in the main flow and connected on the second attempt to probably the same fish, this game little scrapper. My trace selection, never the biggest had been whittled down to several un-intentional double hook  sets as they keep snagging in the car upholstery.I definitely blame that on the last two missed runs and I was quite relieved to land it. Cue need to tie up some more traces as I 've got quite a lot of the back end  to fish. 


That was it, a sudden drop-in temperature  saw the conditions going from this..


to this in quite short order, the fog fairly rolling down the valley sides .


Didn't see much notable avian activity apart from either a buzzard or harrier. Must take some bins. On Sunday watched  a hawk for a while, had quite large rounded wings and a noticeably long tail with a fluttery flight, probably a sparrow hawk but couldn't see close enough to tell. Did however have close ups of a pair of barn owls, one flew so close I felt the draught of its wings as it passed right over me.

The Watson/Crabtree reference? The far bank area is the Kingfisher Lakes much featured in the current Bailey TV series and one of my Wak-Lite patent poly-balls features the legend "get eaten quickly my son", a savage swipe by John Watson at Bailey in A Pikers Progress.

Toodle-pip.
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