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.