It was still dark when I found Lord Lite of Thorrington's car, safely tucked into the only safe bit of parking with no inkling of which track to take to the water. Shite mobile signal was not helping, and neither was Lord Lite's insistence the main gates were open as he could see cars in the car park. The gates weren't open and remained firmly shut for an hour and a quarter.
Round to the favoured swim and Lord Lite's near bait, paternostered just past a large bed of weed was away before I'd got a rod in.
Nearing the net it shook it's head and ejected the bait. Close enough to count we thought. His second wasn't as it was barely on. By this time I had got a sardine out to the right a little further past the weed and a smelt out in much deeper water. Kettle on then...
The subsurface weed was growing in an extensive belt and harboured countless thousands of fry which would boil and scatter in impressively large groups, at times 3 or 5 yards deep and 15 yards in length. Undoubtedly some of the fish moving through causing the explosions may have been pike or perch but equally could have been bream or larger roach, and were probably the cause of a few clip outs, before a more determined tap on the rod tip and the drop off swinging loose below the reel. Something had snaffled the smelt out there in about 18-20 feet. Cue Lord Lite's sledging about having a fag before striking. Fish on, and not that big, certainly warranted only a quick flick of the pliers and away it went.
Then another little un (that had shown as quite long to me at first glimpse) really it's parts on for the camera with plenty of head shakes and leaps before gliding in to the waiting forceps. Again, to the long range smelt
Lord Lite left one that twanged the tip on his paternoster rod, on retrieving bait had gone, then it was my turn to taste disappointment when a much better fish on the long range smelt was off after a decent struggle. We do wonder why the pike take baits hard on the bottom at depth when the prey fish are mostly up in the water?
Lord Lite was getting a little restless by now and his mood wasn't improved when this chap, and shortly after his less confident and less stable companion appeared from stage right.
One last tea was ordered before breaking camp to move on down to a deeper area and barely drunk when a smelt out again further out to my right had the drop off swinging and line snaking away. Several surging runs and then this beauty was mine. Lord Lite did the honours with the scales and it was just under 14. Quite solid for an early autumn fish.
We 'd hoped for a RV with a couple of the Old Feckers, no Goozagog but Colin did come for a look, we haven't seen him for over 30 years and he was like a kid in a sweetshop looking at all the rods etc. Hopefully Lord Lite can get him on some fish in the near future.
All in all a good day, lots of tea, lots of squit and a clonker. Can't be bad.
Round to the favoured swim and Lord Lite's near bait, paternostered just past a large bed of weed was away before I'd got a rod in.
Nearing the net it shook it's head and ejected the bait. Close enough to count we thought. His second wasn't as it was barely on. By this time I had got a sardine out to the right a little further past the weed and a smelt out in much deeper water. Kettle on then...
The subsurface weed was growing in an extensive belt and harboured countless thousands of fry which would boil and scatter in impressively large groups, at times 3 or 5 yards deep and 15 yards in length. Undoubtedly some of the fish moving through causing the explosions may have been pike or perch but equally could have been bream or larger roach, and were probably the cause of a few clip outs, before a more determined tap on the rod tip and the drop off swinging loose below the reel. Something had snaffled the smelt out there in about 18-20 feet. Cue Lord Lite's sledging about having a fag before striking. Fish on, and not that big, certainly warranted only a quick flick of the pliers and away it went.
Then another little un (that had shown as quite long to me at first glimpse) really it's parts on for the camera with plenty of head shakes and leaps before gliding in to the waiting forceps. Again, to the long range smelt
Lord Lite left one that twanged the tip on his paternoster rod, on retrieving bait had gone, then it was my turn to taste disappointment when a much better fish on the long range smelt was off after a decent struggle. We do wonder why the pike take baits hard on the bottom at depth when the prey fish are mostly up in the water?
Lord Lite was getting a little restless by now and his mood wasn't improved when this chap, and shortly after his less confident and less stable companion appeared from stage right.
One last tea was ordered before breaking camp to move on down to a deeper area and barely drunk when a smelt out again further out to my right had the drop off swinging and line snaking away. Several surging runs and then this beauty was mine. Lord Lite did the honours with the scales and it was just under 14. Quite solid for an early autumn fish.
We 'd hoped for a RV with a couple of the Old Feckers, no Goozagog but Colin did come for a look, we haven't seen him for over 30 years and he was like a kid in a sweetshop looking at all the rods etc. Hopefully Lord Lite can get him on some fish in the near future.
All in all a good day, lots of tea, lots of squit and a clonker. Can't be bad.
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ReplyDeleteYes, another good session ( only the Fen Jonah can prevent a few fish hitting the net here ). Apologies for the parking fiasco. Another trip soon.
ReplyDeleteDo like a big water to go at. You'ld better get some roach before the frosts set in.Next year go for those tench as well.
ReplyDelete