Lavender's (not yet) blue

Launched a pre-emptive lemon and lavender cake run on Sunday. Blickling was the requested spot so a detour so little'uns could sleep through kek-lined lanes and chromium yellow rape fields.

Posh containers and the afore mentioned kek (cow parsley).

I used to have an office in the West Wing.

What  a vista.

Littl'uns enjoyed the fountain.

I enjoyed the Orangery. That orange blossom smell.

This is a hedge. And the West Wing. Son said, but how did you do e-mails, did they have wi-fi?

Brighter , later

Woke up to the realisation that the clock was lurching on to my possibly impending doom. 4 weeks and counting till the P60 could be handed down with 12 weeks notice.....

Anyway, after a fruitful bash at the garden got the green light to go and off I lurched to the water's edge. Wasn't staying past 8 so made the short trip to Captains. Warm but swirling wind and that strange showery rain from no visible cloud. Wasn't bright, or clear but the cloud was thin and very high. Earnest newbie in Stage 2 had seen a pike attack the cygnets earlier and sure enough only 2 balls of grey fluff remained. He/she has cleaned out the canada and greylag goslings already. Probably the big headed lean old croc that took over when Cyclops karked it. 21 lb but the length of a thirty. Head like a bucket

Didn't start off to well, swan had stirred up some crud and I spent a while chasing bubbling fish round the disturbance  until a tench took a high speed tour round the swim, tying my lines in knots and shedding the hook.  Got that lot sorted and the mood was lifted by this roach.

Concentrated the feed with better results.  Ended up ditching the float road to reduce the chance of another tangle. Generally it was the better conditioned bream today, favouring prawn and corn equally.The skimmers are like newly minted coins.

Most of the tench so far have been thin and battle scarred. All females too. Loking at this one does look like we did well to fence off tarka. A couple of otters have been run over on the road this year so they are nosing about outside the perimeter fence. 

This one though was a lot plumper and cleaner. It took off on a mudpig handle churner with an impressive bow wave before transforming in to a merely fiesty tinca.

By this time Mr. Swan Shady had had enough and after a touch and go round made it over the trees on the dam with a shade more afterburner to find his nightime family elsewhere in the valley chain. Wonder if he will have to experience empty nest syndrome on his return?. Finished off the afternoon with the biggest bream of the day at about 5lb ish.

2 tench, 2 skimmers, 6 bream and a roach if you were counting. I was. Slow start but brightened up.

That might be it for a while as Lady Bureboy is flying to New York for a week. Multiple carrot cakes to keep the peace with the littl'uns I imagine.

A bit of this and some of that

Catch up before the weekend.......

Rhodos are just begining to breakthrough and the pads are establishing themselves again. Water still coloured and low, pond weed not yet rampant. Everything still has that bursting out greeness. Love May

Let out for  a quick sortie apre chores.  To Crane's, and down to Pump end. More of  a sit down and watch for signs of fish really, fed only with crumb, crushed hemp and corn in the feeders. Missed two steady pulls on prawn and one on corn and snared a small, darkly coloured roach on the corn rod. Bream did roll over bait. Had a quick explore round the swim with a dropshot rig, lost a decent perch second drop and  had this little feller right under my feet in "structure". The bream quite like a dropshot in here but none today..

Rain set in within an hour and off the water to dry out by wine oclock

Last night Lord Lite was up in God's County for some smoothhounds but my curfew didn't allow for a chip run direct to the door of his new Charabanc. England had just put Sri Lanka back in to follow on when I left for an hour and 3/4 on one of the stages on Captain's. Same old I guess, but  5 mins from the back door and half a tin of corn had them fizzing like a jacuzzi. 3 tincas in the blink of an eye then finished off with 4 bream. Lost what was probably a mud pig at the death but all in all a very happy Bureboy arrived  home just in time for the first glass of Shiraz..

Same old

Ressie sewn up so Captain's instead. 1st Stage for a change. Back on the prawns, as well as the golden grain.

First dip and  golden boy/girl back again for a better photo this time.

Six "proper" bream followed before curfew called.

Spawning very soon.....

He's back

He's back. No not The Real Slim Shady but my nemesis the swan. Arse up over everything. Think he buggers off for the night and comes back the next day. Probably has  a penn  on every lake in the valley.

Despite Swan Shady had a jolly good go  round his probing neck. Sweetcorn on the waggler natch, and as my artisan sustainable shellfish supplier had let me down it was luncheon meat alternated with corn on the sleeper rod. Discovered that trucking a tin of chopped pork and ham round in the car  is an effective rendering technique and leaves a lovely wet result in the tin. Nice.

For the benefit of Lord Lite of Thorrington here is my evolved Octuplus platform.

Had a couple of extra hours to fish and I really did loose count of how many fish I caught.
A couple more slim tincas put in an appearance. It is an acid water and that probably holds them back. Fins and length of much bigger fish to be sure.. In reality tench are actually better suited to gravel pits where they can find space from the carp. Fight wise here they either dive into the silt or bomb round like kittens with a firework up their arse so it is usually obvious straight away what you have hooked.

It was breamarama as well for sure, I have pics of most of them but will resist posting every one, mostly this year I have the smaller stamp and lots of skimmers coming on like this fresh fish.

What I will revel in this time are the gorgeous bream rudd hybrids, two of which I had tonight. They usually look like bream but its the fins,  some  pinky coral or darker than usual but mostly  the red or orange eyes that give them away. And the golden colouration of course.

This variation is the the most stunning of them though, with the pinky fins and are perhaps more rudd influenced as in the body shape.

First mug shot for a while, and light going so not too sharp..

Several bigger bream are coming out of the ressie so I will probably bait up a couple of evenings before the weed gets away, they are something else as this one from last year shows..9's biggest  out last year.

Friday night's alright

Late late show once chores done, Bait not in the water untill way gone seven but it was a warm evening and a joy to be on the pond. The usual float  fished single grain of corn. Judging by the groundbait scatterings on the staging, and the fizzing someone had baited up for me already and I only used half  a tin of LIDL's finest cheapo corn in the hour I was there.

Pesky ruddlets banging away at the bulk shot  were a distraction but a couple of small bream showed up along with a scamp of a tinca, long and lean.

Humble pie, Skues and all that

Following my black balling by Lords Thorrington and Upwell for my blackguard behaviour with a winding engine and an unspeakable moulded rubber monstrosity have been considering, but not buying a new floating line. The debate on our syndicate Whats App about it has been fun. Trout are stupid hence the arcane rules. In essence.

Whilst waiting for some one in Norfolk to stock said clothes line I have been looking at the trout anyway. This River Bure is a belter.

Tarka and snaggletooth are watching too.

Sundaze

Proper  sun day this Sunday. Glorious in fact and Wells -next-the-Sea was an inspired choice. Big, big skies and enough space for everyone.

i

Quick sortie in Captains late doors was called for. Maggots were a mistake  but did tempt a slightly better skimmer as dusk fell.

And prawn accounted for this bar of gold, one of the majestic bream rudd hybrids, this one went 3.07.

Blue waters and pond scum

Saturday again, and I fancy some mag and wag. What no reds? Shocking. Some nice plum bronzies that have had a run in with some turmeric I think instead. Have mixed in some additive to the brown crumb, puzzled for ages about the smell, Think it is anised and ground hemp.  This litle pult is very accurate.

Afternoon starts off mich brighter than yesterday. with rain promised about  5 o'clock which is curfew time.

Quite a draw and this is complicated by the warming of the water and lifting of the algal mat which in the increasing wind is pulling the float all over the place. Hope it doen't get as bad as this again.

Candy from a baby

Barrowed a few loads of wood chippings inside the gate then scout round the pond. Greylag has hatched a clutch of pike food. It seems the duck on the dam has abandoned her eggs and my nemesis the cob swan seems to have left his penn to go it alone.

Stage 2 for the first time this year. Not sure about the weed situation out there. No one has raked it and the hemp addicted swan hasn't been arse up over it. Wind is swirling and cloud alternates with sun then lashes of rain and hail. Carping chap opposite has had a tench and is freezing his nads off in trainers, joggy botttoms and hoodie but at least he is dry.  Though it looks nice here it is still bitter. We are both perched on the noddy green picnic chairs that  can be found at the back of each swim. Fishing platform my arse Lord Lite. I have however screwed in some more eyed hooks at the front of the staging to drop the rests into. I am kidding myself that by being active and seeking bites I am keeping warmer than carper boi but in reality I am  about 15 yards out over the water on a rickety stage with no cover at all..

Following last trip's stand-off with the now absent swan I'd salvaged the tip ring from the splintered ancient Ashurst and the Drennan Waggler was back on the road. Hot glue is good stuff. Ring came off good as gold.

Second dip and out comes a coconut. Single corn on a 14 barbless again.

As the swan is not about get a good cast feed routine going and if I keep the float still it is a bite a chuck. Now this rod is 13 foot and describes it's action as progressive. Not sure what that means but it doesn't have the grunt of the Ashurst which was a foot shorter. Does feel lovely and crisp but I do think that hit and hold is not on the cards once the lillies are properly up. Not designed for the carp puddles that's for sure.

Some of the bream are testing the rod and some are giving up but every one has that yellow kernel at the corner of the mouth. Bites are a steady sinking and slide away, tip glowing red in the still turbid water.. By the third Lord Lite has dismissed them  as snotty things in a text and you can see why...

By now carper boi has had enough and is away.  This chap has his spawning tubercles and rough scales already, the first I have seen like it this spring.

The Drennan peacock is getting as battered as some of the older bream. Disappointing  and shoddy. The float that is. Some of the fish today though are in better condition generally.

And this skimmer is a brighter bet for the future.

Getting darker now the sun has dipped into the pines behind me. As ever today it's the single grain of corn that has deceived it. Only dropped one fish so far so that's six bream, and the skimmer plus some bits. A cold, windy, wet  but busy hour and 3 quarters so far.

The prawn rod has been largely silent on it's bite alarm to the right of the swim and it is this one that is picking up the emerging pondweed that will be at the surface in a week or so if we get to the promised 20 degrees. Alarm bursts into life as two new members survey the scene and it the dashing about fight that signals it's a tench. They do love an audience it seems. No red or primrose yellow on this muscular chapess resplendent with her red eyes.

One more bream and I am making a break for it in the rain, knowing I have to fight that poxy bolt and padlock and spread the wet tackle all over the house to get it dry.