Caught in spite of the tackle

"Nostalgia for an age yet to come". Buzzcocks, Penetration and probably someone else before.

There is a huge yearning  in the brotherhood of the angle for a melancholic past and plenty of corduroy, tank tops and flat caps to be seen over (and this is the hipster driven irony) the various social media platforms. The worst must be from Fennel's Priory, a man who noodles on about writing in fountain pen ink and has one of the most active media savvy social media marketing presences I have seen.  Why have a vintage and mortgage  money centre pin for trotting and have to pull the the line off the reel with  a heavy, expensive mortgage money  hand made float on a fast flowing, shallow grayling run? Yes. I do like my old Cardinal 155's for their aesthetic looks and wish I had had the money for the infinitely better 55 variants back in the 1980 day. Yes, I still have and use rods from then. But mostly because I have always been broke and too lazy to buy new till very recently. My point is?

Fished for a few pleasant hours yesterday evening away from the DIY on a creaking Stage 2 on the very local water. It took a while for the hemp and pellets to work and though not a cauldron of bubbles plenty to go at and 5 bream and a few bits was a pleasing result.

It really is lovely playing a fish on a centre pin. It is lovely having an old rod that does what it says it should. But here is the but. Casting or better put swinging  out  a float is haphazard and limiting on distance. You can't cast past and wind back to sink the line. So the float might go anywhere and the line catches the surface drift. The rod is great for hand sized fish on the drop. not keeping decent fish out of lillies.

Horses for courses. And don't be lazy and swap the rod and reel to suit the method.

Hot, hot heat

Saturday and  a call to rescue the inhabitants of the very local water as the padlock combo had mysteriously changed, Cue endless ribbing on the group Whats App, centred round variations on the Great Escape theme. Not a bad place to be marooned I suppose.

By Sunday it seemed the world was approaching boiling point.  The denizens of the deep had spread themselves aimlessly across the Blue Lagoon which itself was turning a deep bottle green

Interlopers were scouting the forbidden zone. Much to my impotent rage.

Only thing for it was to wait till the sun hit the yard arm, and rather than break out the grog head for the very local water, padlock fixed and hunker down in the shade along the road bank. Water is visibly shrinking. Rain needed. The mud pigs made several nervy raids around the pigeon mix but wouldn't settle in the shallow water. Think I'll up the hemp in the mix.

One old warrior bream however did lift the float and glide away with the prawn. All bent fins and brooding darkness.

Tuesday and an impromptu drop in a a local mill confluence with the tidal Bure. Gave it an hour or so with the local yoot swimming round my float. Didn't pull up any trees hence no piccies but  great fun with perch, dace and an occasional roach.  Lovely run at the tail needs further wader clad investigation.

It just so happened I had left my gear in the car. And I had to drive past a lovely village pond on the way home. And it was the Solstice. And it was 33C. Only one thing for it then. Great MassIngham Scotsmans Pond. £4 on the bank. No litter. No sleepers and wood chip two men swims. No bivvies. Heavenly

I found a shaded corner and changed the stick float for a 3bb waggler and the 4.4 Float fish straight through to a a#10. Bait was krill pellets, which turned out to be a mixed bag (or pot), some floating, some soft and some that split. No that the fish minded. It was fish soup. Almost literally, not just tails up, half the body in the shallow water. The float was never still. Sometimes a prospecting lift of the rod hit gold or occasionally the float did dart off. Mostly it was buffeted in a maelstrom of carp.

Wonderful fun on the pin and Drennan Waggler.

20 little belters, all shapes and sizes in two hours. I dropped as many, I think they were just dashing off with the bait on the edge of their mouths chublike or perhaps foul hooked. 3 did grab a bare hook down the side as I was sorting out some baits

One roach made it through, the bailiff said that usually they were so prolific the carp hardly got  a look in. Not sure about that. 

Never seen  that before.

A mirror or two for added variety would  finish it of to a tee. And some cricket on the green. I did see some bigger fish show but frankly who cares?  Felt a bit sorry for this latch key duckling with no visible parenting going on. 

It's a bugger the nights are going to start pulling in from Thursday. Make hay and all that

Watch and learn

The Bureboy Charabanc  decided to deposit a coil spring on the road the other day so Bureboy  had to do some of his rounds  by public transport.  Marsh harriers on the A149, Verbascum on the A11. And a brief interlude on the platform of the North Norfolk Railway.

A tale of two chub

Called out on a report of someone jumping the gun and fishing with their family in the glorious 15th. They had decamped before I got there. Worth  a walk though. River has a little more water within it. More bream ganging up with the chub. Proper plump across the shoulders bream at that.

No early start pass for me so it was nearly 8.30 before I had a bait in the water. I was way up in Jasper Farqhuart country so it was no suprise the float stabbed away at the end of the eddy on the first run through with double cumin and smoked paprika reds on a #16 under a 5bb Drennan Avon and a very well behaved triploid put the Drennan Waggler Rod and pin combo through it's paces. Deeply spotted with a belly like Kerrygold butter and troubling 2lb I guessed. However, as I drew it to the net the Drennan Supplex 2.5lb hooklink simply parted. Over badged, over priced tossery? Being the sporting chap that I am I tried to keep away from any of Jasper's well heeled but sexless brethren but a stream of tiny dacelets  meant a change was in order.

Stopped off at Dangling Indirect for some worms and a new pair of Polaroids and back a bit further down opting for the oxygenated water of the mill races. 4.4 Floatfish straight through now to the #16 and straight away a bright little roach and then on in pretty much a bite a chuck, mostly slightly bigger dace.

A couple of wildie brownies, not quite pan sized escaped the mat photo in their haste to  avoid the butter and wild herbs (actually it is catch and release on this ticket so they were safe) and as the sun broke through the clouds, voles danced  and thick moist slabs of friut cake and Earl Grey were served for a gentleman's luncheon a chub was on. Clean, fresh and almost mint conditioned. Probably because the rigours of spwaning and otters were a few seasons away yet. Definitely not one for the DesTaylor pose. A chub none the less. (One of my targets ticked Dyl, in my passive aggressive non-competitve way).

I'd reached the bottom of my first pint of maggots., Back to the car for the second pint or break out the dendrobenas? Worms it was, 6lb straight through to a #6 Drennan wide gaped specimen hook and a 3SSG pinched on. Passing lorry driver stopped to pump me for info on the barbel stocks but my ham fisted gumby attempts to cast  soon had him retreating muttering about noddies and waste of a corking swim as he worked his way the first 8 of his gears up the narrow street. Plan worked then...

A masterful swing out into the faster water and bumping through a lovely stab, stab pull on the 1oz push in tip and something completely different put a decent bend into the Discovery RVS Lite 1.25tc Avon, thumping heavily in the flow. Took a while to see a long, brassy flank in the water, long enough not to want to loose it. Once the big white lips came to the surface I knew it was mine and into the onion bag it went. 

My ghillie and photographer quickly established it had recently spawned with a polapsed vent. Even so a long framed fish and in very reasonable condition too. We thought a biggish 5?

A long fish, a solid 6 in it's winter prime but today a very pleasing 5.13. I'll see you about March time again please..

I left my ghillie to it having returned  the favour with a piccie of a nice dace. Happy days.

Wild and wandering

Bright all right but fierce and gusting wind hacking into the Island frontage. Being stubborn I chose to fish into it's  teeth. Steady stream of skimmers,  hybrids, roach and rudd. Nothing to get het  up about but most just over swinging in size. Did snare a much bigger and determined bream amidships which was very long but destined not to squeeze into the pan net.  Not a tinca bubble to be seen. Nice view though.

Chill to the wind on Sunday evening and a faintly sozzled  Bureboy decided to walk it off through the beet, barley and potatoes, Westwick, Skeyton and Walsham in a 90 minute stumbling circuit. Bloody big dog or an even bloody  bigger  escaped big cat prints down a line of beet.

Oak predominates in the hedge and track boundaries on this wind baked plain.

Barley blowing in that chill wind,  probably glad it wasn't the Kentish wheat that the dreadful Hooded Crow ran through.

My favourite  tree marking the half way point.

Shunning the Weavers Way back along Skeyton Road and  back lit  and fill in flash verge lining oak.

Rain, rain..

Planned a coast hopping wend along the A149 but rained on from Morston. Did however get a few minutes of dry in Blakeney before that front swept in.

 Needed a slight lift from Snapseed to bring up the colours.

Not much chance of dragging out much colour once the rain and wind set in. Brancaster Staithe.

Did pull in to the Thornham Deli. Bray ville as you might imagine.  I asked for an Americano. "Just an Americano?" The disapproval  burnt. Nice coffee though.

Through a glass

More wandering about with my camera before the weather broke.  And not quite so far this time.

Not very far at all for these from the extensive frontage of Bureboy Villas. Can't beat a bit of Valerian. All self seeded. Will have to start off some Ox-eyes and Californian poppies elsewhere and let them run riot.

I have taken a while to appreciate French lavender but it is a handy filler and liked by the busy bees.

Off a little further afield and  not quite as much light as I would l have liked to put the CPL through its 90o to the sun paces. Shame no noticeable smoke and steam from the noddy train. River is mostly packed with  this long streamer weed through to the first proper floods except under denser cover.Someone has begun to make some sneaky prep in likely spots and waiting till just before the 16th  to clear some spots in the bank side vegetation.

Crabtree would be creaming his corduroys over this spot. I say Peter, time to rub in some liniment on that troublesome ache. Watch the pipe would you?
 

Cyanide straight. Should have been a cuckoo slap bang in the middle of the frame but seems to have flown through.

The 18-55mm lens is not really up to this sort of thing, cropped to hell. Looking at a 16-200mm for some versatility.

The CPL and some heavy desaturated b&w came up trumps here though. A lot of poPlar and willow fluff coming down

Less fish on the point this year but still enough to make people stop and stare. Give them the Polaroids and they nearly fall in.

And one from the Pond.

Worth a wander.

Grabbing a few minutes here and there with the Nikon is not quite as good as with a rod but needs must.

Bintree Mill on the Wensum must be a picture on a crisp winter morning. Not too bad on an early June morning either. Cabbages and splashes of lilly yellow. Blue sky criss crossed with cirrus and con trails. Poplars as ever. Verges full and spilling over.

Tumbling through the sluice and spreading over the gravels. Kind offer of a walk around the wildflower meadow stored away.

They say smell the roses along the way. These drag you by the scuff of the neck and demand a great big lung full.

A few miles and a few hours later and another two rivers crossed and bridges leant on. What you might have to pay for this River Stiffkey crib..

And a few twists of the A149 and another valley,  this time the Glaven spilling over the sluice at Cley.

Happy days.

Head shot.

Tinca plans  shelved as Island sewn up so onto the rickety staging and down the side with corn over pigeon conditioner. Lovely Freshona corn from LIDL Seems the small tins are better quality. Juicy and robust at once. No jacuzzi but ticking over nicely. The young gun skimmers are certainly having it and adding a new dimension wanting it on the drop. If it gets down then the  next tier get a look in and put a better bend in the Drennan Waggler Rod.

Just once a better fish got there first but as ever after the first broadsided resistance
 up and gliding over the surface into the net.

One interloper then midged off the water and home by  9.