Been ooop North.

We actually went to Skeggy but you get the drift.

Hours of fun

Not been to the Skyline? You've not lived.

Makes a change from the maggot dispenser.

Male order bride

Rain free widow Saturday afternoon and off to the Very Green Lagoon. Caster or corn over hemp, frustrating missing many bites but the roach and skimmers did keep coming. One solid thump on the strike and tench on. It kited to the left hand pads and I had to get up to get control and bring it back to the  safety zone. 3 lb line and #12 spade end on a balanced Drennan Waggler rod is usually just right provided it's not hit and hold. It dived into the false safety of the outstretched net and he was mine. A lovely conditioned high backed feller.  Well, it told me it identified as  cis male gender. Some debate on FB. The doubter was advised by a wag to be very careful about his  choice of dance partner in Thailand. Its normally the mail order bride who lands in a cold wet UK to be met by a middle aged , balding Gammon who still lives with his mum. Definitely a skaterboi this one.

Had a little snapper on a joey as well. Missed another as the baitrunner was set for the river and the soft joey pulled off  the trace.

Dreadful forecast for tomorrow but I really ought to risk it as no real chance then of getting out till pre-Halloween weekend.

Up sticks

Had a couple of hard won hours off , no rain forecast and a couple of choices. Pint of Wherry and a bar snack amongst the well heeled next to my first choice duck pond stop off. Three big white stains of guano on the big willow and three big ghastly pterodactyls drying their wings on the geese shorn grass. A few hopeful handfuls of pellets in the margins. Mobbed by ducks but no hungry runt mudpigs smashing into them. Not worth risking a fiver to find out the place had been decimated by the croaking horde. No time now to pull down the bumpy chalk and flint track to the method madness venue. Time though for the bypass pit.

No tins allowed and I hadn't decanted any corn or meat and didn't fancy the method approach now with time short so the trusty mini Source over Spicy Sausage, float nestling by the pads. Several dips and nudges but nothing to strike at. Over gunned? Off with the boilie and on with two strawberry glugged fake maggots. Bingo, float is away and the strike hits home, no tear off so no tinca or mud pig but not  a bream surely? Long silver flash, have they put chub in? No, it's a roach. A bloody big roach.

As I picked it up it felt rough and light. Mis-shapen with signs of a battering.  Keepnet(s)? Old? Congenital abnormalities? A touch of chub round the big head? It's a much bigger net and  a bigger reel (2500 size) too than the biggest river fish from the other day for scale. Don't think it's an ide.

Definitely less choachy here but the mouth is funny. bit upturned. Either way an old warrior past its prime and maybe pushing mid teens in age. Didn't think removing any more scales to find out would be cricket. 1lb 10oz though. And home in time for tea. Mum's the word...

Make hay...

Sunday's forecast was dire and Saturday dawned dryish, mild and still. A walk before getting bait saw a river up, with a bit of colour left but steady and plenty fish topping. Pint of reds, bag of casters and I had some hemp already.

By the time I had my pass out the sun was out and the wind increasing but an upstreamer. The bridge pool is a go to for roach but not that easy a swing out and today the flow was a bit further again even with the 15 footer.  I'd bought a shorter waggler rod (13 feet) along so that was the second line of attack but it wasn't easy with the amount of debris catching the shots on the way down but the float dipped from the off. Not a bad fish to kick off with.

You can tell when the thump thump is a bit more serious, and when they start to cut up against the flow you hope the small hook holds, especially when they get level with you and the angle changes.
It's a 1000 size real and smallish net so I didn't get the sling and scales out but a nice, thick set roach 

 A session when they are mostly this size is very pleasant and most were.

At times I had quite an audience, one watcher in particular spent a long time deep throating the landing net handle. Cows cough a lot and drink as noisily as they piss.

I did eventually switch back to the pin, more for aesthetic reasons but I just seem to get more control of the line when the swing out goes right and I love that direct feel of the fight. To busy to have any ginger beer today so must have had a few.

I did have a couple of dace and a tiny gudgeon and one small signal cray as well.

I think that I'd get more out of the swim with waders to get a bit closer to the sweet spot, and I'd be more inclined then to go with flake as well. And certainly into dusk and beyond on the tip.